Chapter Thirty-Two
In fear of the impending meeting with Esau, Jacob receives encouragement from above—a vision of Angels and Jacob’s prayer
Genesis 32:1–2. And Jacob went on his way. [And he saw the camp of God encamped.] And the Angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said: this is the camp of God. And he called the name of that place Mahanaim. “Because Jacob’s fear before Laban had ceased and passed, and in its place came fear of his brother, the merciful Lord, wishing to encourage the righteous man and disperse all his anxiety, granted him to see the host of Angels” (Saint John Chrysostom, Discourse 58, p. 625). Based on the testimony of the Book of Yashar that, in contrast to Esau’s 400 men, sent by him at Laban’s instigation, Rebekah sent seventy-two men to defend Jacob, some Hebrew interpreters saw in the “Angels of God” or “camp of God” simply travelers, whose caravan encouraged Jacob in his fear. Josephus (Antiqu. 1:20, 81) speaks of certain “visions” (φαντάσματα) that came to Jacob as he approached Canaan and foretold to him “good hopes” for the future. But both interpretations plainly distort the direct sense of the biblical text: the “Angels of God” are the same heavenly guardians of God’s chosen one, whom he saw in a dream on the way to Mesopotamia (ch. 28). The name “camp of God” (machoneh Elohim) exactly corresponds to the title commonly used in the Old Testament for the angelic world “heavenly host” (Josh 5:14, Ps 102:21). That the host of Angels was often called “camp of God” is evident from (1 Chr 12:22). The dual form of the name “Mahanaim” is explained thus: Jacob at once sees two camps: the earthly (his own) and the heavenly (the Angels), or else—two hosts of Angels; the latter explanation was proposed, among others, by Rabbi Yarchi: according to him, one host was the guardian Angels of the land of Chaldea, who accompanied Jacob unharmed to the borders of Canaan, and the other host—the guardian Angels of the land of Canaan—were now receiving Jacob from the first for safekeeping (cf. commentary on Gen 28:12-13). The belief in guardianship by Angels of individual persons (Ps 33:8 and others) and of whole peoples and kingdoms (Dan 10:13)—is biblical teaching. Mahanaim—later a city of refuge (Josh 21:36)—is mentioned more than once in the history of David and Solomon (2 Sam 2:8).
Genesis 32:3. And Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, in the region of Edom, Having received encouragement from the heavenly messengers—Angels (maleachim)—Jacob sends earthly messengers (also maleachim, which is why the rabbis expressed the absurd notion of an embassy of Angels sent by Jacob) to Esau, in Seir. The latter name, which was Esau’s nickname (based on his external appearance, Gen 25:25), his other name being Edom (Gen 36:1), probably because of the incident with the lentils (Gen 25:30), is here used proleptically (as in Gen 14:6) of the mountainous and cave-rich territory of the troglodyte Horites, east of the Jordan, later occupied by the tribes of Esau (Deut 2:12). Esau with his family settled there later (Gen 36:6), but he may have already been roaming his future possessions, which offered advantages for his beloved occupation—hunting.
Genesis 32:4. and commanded them, saying: Thus shall you say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob: I have sojourned with Laban and have remained there until now; The terms “lord” for Esau and “servant” for himself, spoken by Jacob, who had received the higher blessing and dominion over Esau, are an act of Eastern courtesy (cf. Gen 23:6; 1 Sam 24:9), and at the same time, with the suggestion of the possibility of gifts to Esau, an obvious captatio benevolentiae.
Genesis 32:6. And the messengers returned to Jacob and said: We came to your brother Esau; and behold, he is coming to meet you, and with him four hundred men. To this greeting no answer was received; instead, disturbing news came that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men—probably from the tribe of Ishmael, with whom Esau had already earlier allied (Gen 28:9).
Genesis 32:7–8. Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps. And he said: If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the other camp may escape. Jacob’s fear, despite the divine promises of protection (Gen 28:13-15)—which not without reason the Jewish interpreters of old drew attention to—reveals, of course, the imperfection of Jacob’s faith in God’s Providence (his faith was extraordinarily inferior in strength and firmness to Abraham’s faith Gen 15:6). Accordingly, he first employs purely human means of defense against the expected hostile actions from Esau. It may be supposed, however, that, besides natural attachment to life and fear for himself and his family, Jacob’s inner uneasiness was also caused by the reproaches of his conscience for the deception he had practiced toward Esau. This higher motive naturally turns Jacob’s thoughts toward God.
Genesis 32:9–11. And Jacob said: O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord [God], who said to me: Return to your land, to your kindred, and I will do you good! I am unworthy of all the mercies and all the benefits that You have shown Your servant, for I crossed this Jordan with my staff, and now I have two camps. Deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and strike me and the mothers with the children. In the awareness of the insufficiency of human strength and means as instruments of protection from the impending danger, Jacob turns with prayer to the God of the fathers. This, the first prayer in the Bible, if we do not count Abraham’s intercession for the Sodomites (Gen 18:23-32), has all the marks of true prayer, distinguished by sincerity, childlike simplicity, gratitude to God, humility before Him, and hope in Him alone. At the beginning of the prayer—a confession of God as the God of salvation and reference to the direct commandment (Gen 31:13) of God to Jacob to return to his homeland, with the promise—to be with him (v. 9). In comparison with the great benefits that the Lord has promised and already given to Jacob, he feels his nothingness, unworthiness, all the more so because he has tangible proof of God’s providence over him in the form of his enrichment in Mesopotamia, whereas he had set out there with only one staff (Hebrew interpreters, paying attention to the construction bemaqeli, with a staff, or more precisely, by means of a staff, believed that Jacob divided the Jordan with his staff). Urgently praying for deliverance, Jacob expresses fear for the safety of his family—“lest Esau strike him and the mothers with the children” (v. 11). The latter expression is an idiom (Hos 10:14; Deut 22:6), signifying completeness and at the same time the cruelty, bloodthirstiness of total destruction.
Genesis 32:12. You said: I will surely do you good and make your offspring like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted for multitude. The foundation of Jacob’s hope is the promises of God to him and his fathers (Gen 28:13).
To appease his brother, Jacob sends gifts ahead and crosses the Jabbok stream with his family
Genesis 32:13. And Jacob lodged there that night. And he took from what he had, and sent a gift to his brother Esau: Jacob remains to lodge at the place of prayer, according to Abarbanel, awaiting an answer to it. Under the impression of the prayer, Jacob revokes his original intention—to save at least half his camp by fleeing from Esau (v. 7)—and decides to go directly to meet Esau, sending gifts ahead of him.
Genesis 32:16–20. And he put in the hand of his servants each herd separately and said to his servants: Go on ahead of me and put a space between the herds. And he instructed the first, saying: When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying: Whose are you? And where are you going? And whose are these herds you are driving ahead of you? then you shall say: They belong to your servant Jacob; it is a gift sent to my lord Esau; and behold, he is behind us. And he gave the same instruction to the second and to the third and to all who followed the herds, saying: In this way you shall speak to Esau when you meet him; and you shall say: Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he said to himself: I will appease him with the gifts that go before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will receive me. In the choice of the best of the flocks and in the order of sending them—in separate herds—and finally, in instructing the servants to prepare Esau for a gracious reception by Jacob, is evident great knowledge by Jacob of the human heart and the means to effect reconciliation on even the most wrathful of hearts.
Genesis 32:22–23. And he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two female servants and his eleven sons, and crossed over the Jabbok ford; and taking them, he sent them across the stream, and sent across all that he had. After sending his flocks and family across the Jabbok—to the southern side of it, Jacob remains on the northern side. The Jabbok stream, now the Zerka, rises in the hills of Bashan and flows into the Jordan from the left, almost at the midpoint between the Sea of Tiberias and the Dead Sea. Jacob remains alone, presumably for prayer.
Jacob wrestles with an Angel at Peniel and receives from the Angel the name Israel
Genesis 32:24–29. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day; and when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; and the socket of Jacob’s thigh was wrenched, as he wrestled with him. Then he said: Let me go, for the day is breaking. But Jacob said: I will not let you go, unless you bless me. And he said: What is your name? And he said: Jacob. And he said: Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God, and with men you have prevailed. Then Jacob also asked, saying: Tell me your name. And he said: Why do you ask my name? [It is wonderful.] And he blessed him there. The mysterious wrestler, who wrestled with Jacob by night, wounded his thigh, and renamed him Israel, according to the words of the prophet Hosea (Hos 12:3-4), was God. Jacob himself (v. 30) acknowledges that he saw God, the face of God. Therefore both Jewish and Christian interpretation of this passage equally recognize the wrestler as a manifestation from the heavenly world—an Angel. In this connection, the church Fathers and many later Christian commentators saw in this Angel the uncreated Angel—the Angel of the Lord, who had appeared to Jacob earlier at Bethel (ch. 28) and in Mesopotamia (ch. 31), and whom Jacob, according to his belief, protected throughout his life (Gen 48:16), the Son of God. “From the entire account Gen 32:24-34 we learn,” says blessed Theodoret, “here the only-begotten Son of God and God appeared to Jacob” (answer to question 93). The opinion of some rabbis, that the Angel guardian of Esau wrestled with Jacob, or even a demon avenging Esau against Jacob, is of course strange, but contains a certain element of truth, inasmuch as it connects Jacob’s mysterious wrestling with his hostile relations with his brother. Jacob had up to this point wrestled with his brother, and not always by blameless means. Now the Angel of the Lord “instills courage into Jacob, who feared his brother” (blessed Theodoret, ibid.). But Jacob achieves this gracious encouragement through struggle with the Angel-God, a struggle that was not only a straining of Jacob’s physical force (Hos 12:3), (beono, “in strength, in might”), but an even greater straining of spiritual forces, through the prayer of faith: according to the prophet Hosea, Jacob in his struggle with the Angel-God “also prevailed,” and “wept and made supplication to Him” (Hos 12:4). Reference to the spiritual aspect of the struggle is found also in Moses’ narrative—in Jacob’s request to be blessed (v. 26). In this inner aspect, Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel of the Lord is a type of spiritual struggle of faith, not yielding to any trials and difficulties of life; and at the same time, it is a foreshadowing of the entire future of Jacob’s descendants, who henceforward receive (v. 28) the name Israel—of the entire Old Testament theocratic history. In general, in character and significance, Jacob’s wrestling with God reminds one of Abraham’s night vision (Gen 15), in which also (but more concretely) was prefigured the future history of the chosen people, a history consisting also of the people’s opposition to their divine calling, the possession by them of imperishable spiritual blessings, and temporary trials and losses of material goods. That Jacob’s struggle was not a dream or simply a visionary phenomenon is evident from the very verb used in the Hebrew text, abaq (v. 24–25; Heb. 25–26)—to struggle like an athlete (covered with dust)—and even more from the wounding of the socket of his thigh (nervus ischiadicus) and his lameness afterward (v. 25, 31). Thus, “and when Jacob awoke, his thigh remained wounded, and he continued to limp, so that he should not regard the vision as a dream, but might know precisely the truth of it” (blessed Theodoret). At the same time, this should have taught Jacob that the victory was granted to him only through the forbearance of the mysterious Wrestler. And Jacob, as if understanding the significance of the struggle, does not wish to part from the struggle and the Wrestler without a blessing from Him (v. 26). But the Angel of the Lord—in accordance with the ancient belief that theophany visited man only at night—says to Jacob that there is a necessity for His departure with the breaking of dawn (according to rabbinic explanation, the Angel hastens to join the angelic hosts in bringing morning praise to God, Beresch. r. Par. 78, p. 378). The blessing sought by Jacob is granted him in the change of his name, appropriate to the circumstances and to Jacob’s inner disposition. Henceforward his wrestling by cunning ends—his “supplanting” in relation to men and circumstances (in obtaining the blessing, in relations with Laban, etc.), and there begins his sacred struggle of spirit for the higher divinely-given calling; therefore, instead of his former natural name “Jacob,” he and his descendants are given the sacred, theocratic name “Israel”—according to the explanation of the text itself “one who strives with God” (Saint John Chrysostom interprets it: “one who sees God”—this meaning would suit it well, but etymologically it is scarcely possible)—one who through perseverance in the effort of prayer (cf. Heb 5:7) receives spiritual blessings from God, which will at the same time be the pledge of Jacob-Israel’s victory over enemies. Having received a new name from the Angel of the Lord, Jacob asks Him also for His name, but He does not call Himself, indicating that from the very deed Jacob could know this. Compared with the Masoretic text, the LXX, Slavonic, and Russian versions contain an addition to the Hebrew text in v. 29: “It is wonderful,”—similar to (Judg 13:18), confirming that he wrestled with God’s Angel, and apparently was present in the original manuscript.
Genesis 32:30. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for, said he, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. The geographical position of Peniel is not precisely known; it is mentioned later in the history of Gideon (Judg 8:8) and Jeroboam (1 Sam 12:25).
Genesis 32:32. Therefore the children of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip that is on the socket of the thigh, because the Wrestler touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh on the sinew of the hip. The custom of not eating “the sinew of the hip” of an animal, still observed by the Jews, dates back to before Moses, who, while not including it in his legislation, nevertheless notes its existence and makes clear its importance, which is rooted in the significance of the historical event that is its foundation.