Genesis 32:7-11

32:7 Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels. 32:8 “If Esau attacks one camp,” ¹  he thought, ²  “then the other camp will be able to escape.” ³ 

32:9 Then Jacob prayed, ⁴  “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said ⁵  to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ ⁶  32:10 I am not worthy of all the faithful love ⁷  you have shown ⁸  your servant. With only my walking stick ⁹  I crossed the Jordan, ¹⁰  but now I have become two camps. 32:11 Rescue me, ¹¹  I pray, from the hand ¹²  of my brother Esau, ¹³  for I am afraid he will come ¹⁴  and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 32:24-28

32:24 So Jacob was left alone. Then a man ¹⁶  wrestled ¹⁷  with him until daybreak. ¹⁸  32:25 When the man ¹⁹  saw that he could not defeat Jacob, ²⁰  he struck ²¹  the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

32:26 Then the man ²²  said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” ²³  “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, ²⁴  “unless you bless me.” ²⁵  32:27 The man asked him, ²⁶  “What is your name?” ²⁷  He answered, “Jacob.” 32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ²⁸  “but Israel, ²⁹  because you have fought ³⁰  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

[32:8]  ¹ tn Heb “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.”

[32:8]  ² tn Heb “and he said, ‘If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.” The Hebrew verb אָמַר (’amar) here represents Jacob’s thought or reasoning, and is therefore translated “he thought.” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:8]  ³ tn Heb “the surviving camp will be for escape.” The word “escape” is a feminine noun. The term most often refers to refugees from war.

[32:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “said.”

[32:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “the one who said.”

[32:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will cause good” or “I will treat well [or “favorably”].” The idea includes more than prosperity, though that is its essential meaning. Here the form is subordinated to the preceding imperative and indicates purpose or result. Jacob is reminding God of his promise in the hope that God will honor his word.

[32:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).

[32:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “you have done with.”

[32:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.

[32:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “this Jordan.”

[32:11]  ¹¹ tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.

[32:11]  ¹² tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”

[32:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”

[32:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”

[32:11]  ¹⁵ sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.

[32:24]  ¹⁶ sn Reflecting Jacob’s perspective at the beginning of the encounter, the narrator calls the opponent simply “a man.” Not until later in the struggle does Jacob realize his true identity.

[32:24]  ¹⁷ sn The verb translated “wrestled” (וַיֵּאָבֵק, vayye’aveq) sounds in Hebrew like the names “Jacob” (יַעֲקֹב, ya’aqov) and “Jabbok” (יַבֹּק, yabboq). In this way the narrator links the setting, the main action, and the main participant together in the mind of the reader or hearer.

[32:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “until the rising of the dawn.”

[32:25]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:25]  ²⁰ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:25]  ²¹ tn Or “injured”; traditionally “touched.” The Hebrew verb translated “struck” has the primary meanings “to touch; to reach; to strike.” It can, however, carry the connotation “to harm; to molest; to injure.” God’s “touch” cripples Jacob – it would be comparable to a devastating blow.

[32:26]  ²² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:26]  ²³ tn Heb “dawn has arisen.”

[32:26]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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.

[32:27]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and he said to him.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:27]  ²⁷ sn What is your name? The question is rhetorical, since the Lord obviously knew Jacob’s identity. But since the Lord is going to change Jacob’s name, this question is designed to bring focus Jacob’s attention on all that his name had come to signify.

[32:28]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with 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.

[32:28]  ²⁹ sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ³⁰ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).