Genesis 18:16

Abraham Pleads for Sodom

18:16 When the men got up to leave, ¹  they looked out over ²  Sodom. (Now ³  Abraham was walking with them to see them on their way.) ⁴ 

Genesis 18:22

18:22 The two men turned ⁵  and headed ⁶  toward Sodom, but Abraham was still standing before the Lord. ⁷ 

Genesis 32:26

32:26 Then the man ⁸  said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” ⁹  “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, ¹⁰  “unless you bless me.” ¹¹ 

[18:16]  ¹ tn Heb “And the men arose from there.”

[18:16]  ² tn Heb “toward the face of.”

[18:16]  ³ tn The disjunctive parenthetical clause sets the stage for the following speech.

[18:16]  ⁴ tn The Piel of שָׁלַח (shalakh) means “to lead out, to send out, to expel”; here it is used in the friendly sense of seeing the visitors on their way.

[18:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “And the men turned from there.” The word “two” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied here for clarity. Gen 19:1 mentions only two individuals (described as “angels”), while Abraham had entertained three visitors (18:2). The implication is that the Lord was the third visitor, who remained behind with Abraham here. The words “from there” are not included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[18:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “went.”

[18:22]  ⁷ tc An ancient Hebrew scribal tradition reads “but the Lord remained standing before Abraham.” This reading is problematic because the phrase “standing before” typically indicates intercession, but the Lord would certainly not be interceding before Abraham.

[32:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “dawn has arisen.”

[32:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he said, ‘I will not let you go.’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:26]  ¹¹ sn Jacob wrestled with a man thinking him to be a mere man, and on that basis was equal to the task. But when it had gone on long enough, the night visitor touched Jacob and crippled him. Jacob’s request for a blessing can only mean that he now knew that his opponent was supernatural. Contrary to many allegorical interpretations of the passage that make fighting equivalent to prayer, this passage shows that Jacob stopped fighting, and then asked for a blessing.