Matthew 14:23

14:23 And after he sent the crowds away, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

Matthew 26:36-39

Gethsemane

26:36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 26:37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and became anguished and distressed. 26:38 Then he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.” 26:39 Going a little farther, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed, ¹  “My Father, if possible, ²  let this cup ³  pass from me! Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Genesis 32:24-29

32:24 So Jacob was left alone. Then a man ⁴  wrestled ⁵  with him until daybreak. ⁶  32:25 When the man ⁷  saw that he could not defeat Jacob, ⁸  he struck ⁹  the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

32:26 Then the man ¹⁰  said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” ¹¹  “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, ¹²  “unless you bless me.” ¹³  32:27 The man asked him, ¹⁴  “What is your name?” ¹⁵  He answered, “Jacob.” 32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹⁶  “but Israel, ¹⁷  because you have fought ¹⁸  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

32:29 Then Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” ¹⁹  “Why ²⁰  do you ask my name?” the man replied. ²¹  Then he blessed ²²  Jacob ²³  there.

Genesis 32:2

32:2 When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, ²⁴  “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim. ²⁵ 

Genesis 4:1

The Story of Cain and Abel

4:1 Now ²⁶  the man had marital relations with ²⁷  his wife Eve, and she became pregnant ²⁸  and gave birth to Cain. Then she said, “I have created ²⁹  a man just as the Lord did!” ³⁰ 

Isaiah 26:20

26:20 Go, my people! Enter your inner rooms!

Close your doors behind you!

Hide for a little while,

until his angry judgment is over! ³¹ 

John 1:48

1:48 Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied, ³²  “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, ³³  I saw you.”

Acts 9:40

9:40 But Peter sent them all outside, ³⁴  knelt down, ³⁵  and prayed. Turning ³⁶  to the body, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. ³⁷ 

Acts 10:9

10:9 About noon ³⁸  the next day, while they were on their way and approaching ³⁹  the city, Peter went up on the roof ⁴⁰  to pray.

Acts 10:30

10:30 Cornelius ⁴¹  replied, ⁴²  “Four days ago at this very hour, at three o’clock in the afternoon, ⁴³  I was praying in my house, and suddenly ⁴⁴  a man in shining clothing stood before me

[26:39]  ¹ tn Grk “ground, praying and saying.” Here the participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[26:39]  ² tn Grk “if it is possible.”

[26:39]  ³ sn This cup alludes to the wrath of God that Jesus would experience (in the form of suffering and death) for us. See Ps 11:6; 75:8-9; Isa 51:17, 19, 22 for this figure.

[32:24]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “until the rising of the dawn.”

[32:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:25]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “dawn has arisen.”

[32:26]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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).

[32:29]  ¹⁹ sn Tell me your name. In primitive thought to know the name of a deity or supernatural being would enable one to use it for magical manipulation or power (A. S. Herbert, Genesis 12-50 [TBC], 108). For a thorough structural analysis of the passage discussing the plays on the names and the request of Jacob, see R. Barthes, “The Struggle with the Angel: Textual Analysis of Genesis 32:23-33,” Structural Analysis and Biblical Exegesis (PTMS), 21-33.

[32:29]  ²⁰ tn The question uses the enclitic pronoun “this” to emphasize the import of the question.

[32:29]  ²¹ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’” 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.

[32:29]  ²² tn The verb here means that the Lord endowed Jacob with success; he would be successful in everything he did, including meeting Esau.

[32:29]  ²³ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and Jacob said when he saw them.”

[32:2]  ²⁵ sn The name Mahanaim apparently means “two camps.” Perhaps the two camps were those of God and of Jacob.

[4:1]  ²⁶ tn The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) introduces a new episode in the ongoing narrative.

[4:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the man knew,” a frequent euphemism for sexual relations.

[4:1]  ²⁸ tn Or “she conceived.”

[4:1]  ²⁹ tn Here is another sound play (paronomasia) on a name. The sound of the verb קָנִיתִי (qaniti, “I have created”) reflects the sound of the name Cain in Hebrew (קַיִן, qayin) and gives meaning to it. The saying uses the Qal perfect of קָנָה (qanah). There are two homonymic verbs with this spelling, one meaning “obtain, acquire” and the other meaning “create” (see Gen 14:19, 22; Deut 32:6; Ps 139:13; Prov 8:22). The latter fits this context very well. Eve has created a man.

[4:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “with the Lord.” The particle אֶת־ (’et) is not the accusative/object sign, but the preposition “with” as the ancient versions attest. Some take the preposition in the sense of “with the help of” (see BDB 85 s.v. אֵת; cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV), while others prefer “along with” in the sense of “like, equally with, in common with” (see Lev 26:39; Isa 45:9; Jer 23:28). Either works well in this context; the latter is reflected in the present translation. Some understand אֶת־ as the accusative/object sign and translate, “I have acquired a man – the Lord.” They suggest that the woman thought (mistakenly) that she had given birth to the incarnate Lord, the Messiah who would bruise the Serpent’s head. This fanciful suggestion is based on a questionable allegorical interpretation of Gen 3:15 (see the note there on the word “heel”).

[26:20]  ³¹ tn Heb “until anger passes by.”

[1:48]  ³² tn Grk “answered and said to him.” This is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation to “replied.”

[1:48]  ³³ sn Many have speculated about what Nathanael was doing under the fig tree. Meditating on the Messiah who was to come? A good possibility, since the fig tree was used as shade for teaching or studying by the later rabbis (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 5:11). Also, the fig tree was symbolic for messianic peace and plenty (Mic 4:4, Zech 3:10.)

[9:40]  ³⁴ tn Grk “Peter, sending them all outside, knelt down.” The participle ἐκβαλών (ekbalwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[9:40]  ³⁵ tn Grk “and kneeling down,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. Instead the “and” is placed before the verb προσηύξατο (proshuxato, “and prayed”). The participle θείς (qeis) is taken as a participle of attendant circumstance.

[9:40]  ³⁶ tn Grk “and turning.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

[9:40]  ³⁷ sn She sat up. This event is told much like Luke 8:49-56 and Mark 5:35-43. Peter’s ministry mirrored that of Jesus.

[10:9]  ³⁸ tn Grk “about the sixth hour.”

[10:9]  ³⁹ tn The participles ὁδοιπορούντων (Jodoiporountwn, “while they were on their way”) and ἐγγιζόντων (engizontwn, “approaching”) have been translated as temporal participles.

[10:9]  ⁴⁰ sn Went up on the roof. Most of the roofs in the NT were flat roofs made of pounded dirt, sometimes mixed with lime or stones, supported by heavy wooden beams. They generally had an easy means of access, either a sturdy wooden ladder or stone stairway, sometimes on the outside of the house.

[10:30]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “And Cornelius.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[10:30]  ⁴² tn Grk “said.”

[10:30]  ⁴³ tn Grk “at the ninth hour.” Again, this is the hour of afternoon prayer.

[10:30]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “and behold.” The interjection ἰδού (idou) is difficult at times to translate into English. Here it has been translated as “suddenly” to convey the force of Cornelius’ account of the angel’s appearance.