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Exegetical Essay Jacob wrestles with God (Genesis 32:22-32)

Maria Grace, Ph.D.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: The story of Jacob (Genesis 25-36) 3

Selected passage: Jacob wrestles with a Man (Genesis 32:22-32) 4

Setting, genre, geography, and main characters 5

Main themes revealed in the passage 7

a. The Manʼs Identity 7

b. Encounter with God 9

c. Jacob becomes Israel 10

d. Blessing and name-giving 12

e. Memory of the event in the following generations 13

Conclusion 14

Bibliography 15

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Introduction: The story of Jacob (Genesis 25-36) The story of Jacob, presented in chapters 25-36 of the book of Genesis, is a

narrative of different episodes, tied together by itineraries or genealogical references.

Written as family narratives, the individual stories betray diverse origins that leave

scholars uncertain about their specificity.

For the purposes of this essay, the Jacob story (Genesis 25:19-36:43) is read as

a unity, and a literary entity with a life of its own. In this light, it is seen it as a story of a

personʼs journey, in which the main character, Jacob, flees from Canaan to Haran and

finally returns to Canaan. Within this journey, there is also a journey through the land of

promise in 33:18-35:27, after the return. This itinerary presents Jacob as a person and a

family in constant movement, a theme anticipating the portrayal of Israel in the book of

Exodus, as a peoples journeying out of Egypt through the wilderness to the promised

land.1

Israel as a nation begins with Jacob. In the story, Jacobʼs character and

personality develop throughout a series of events, until he becomes Israel. Jacobʼs

becoming Israel is the overriding theme in his story as it unfolds through the narratives

of four main themes, namely: a) the Divine Promise for land and descendants (28:3-4,

13-14; 35:11-12), and for Godʼs presence and care for Jacob (28:15; 31:3); b) the Divine

Blessing from God to Jacob (32:29; 35:9); c) Godʼs speaking to Jacob to promise

(28:13-15; 31:3; 35:11-12), to command (31:3, 13; 35:1), to advise (31:12), to bless

(32;29), and to name (32:28; 35:10), and; d) Conflict, which starts at the onset of the

1 (The New Interpreterʼs Bible, 516)

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story (25:19-34) and finds its full expression in the Jacob-Esau relationship, as a result

of Godʼs decision to elect one person (i.e., Jacob) over another (i.e., his brother Esau)

for carrying the promise given to Abraham.

Selected passage: Jacob wrestles with a Man (Genesis 32:22-32)

At first glance, the passage seems to be an interruption of the story of Jacobʼs

encounter with Esau, after a 20-year separation. It describes a brief episode that

happens while Jacob and his family are on their way to the land of Seir, the country of

Edom, where his brother Esau lives. Jacob is seeking reconciliation with Esau, but he

fears Esauʼs wrath. Jacob invokes God, claiming of the divine promises God made to

him.

The passage begins with restless Jacob waking up in the middle of the night and

passes his entire family, servants and animals onto the other side of the river Jabbok,

then crosses the river again and returns to his campsite. Left alone in the dark, he is

attacked by a mysterious man, with whom he wrestles till dawn. In an effort to escape

Jacob, the man hurts Jacobʼs hip. But Jacob will not let him go, unless he receives the

manʼs blessing, whereupon the stranger changes Jacobʼs name to Israel, while refusing

to reveal his own name. As the stranger disappears in the morning light, a limping

Jacob renames the site of the encounter Paniel (i.e., “Face of God”), and a dietary

restriction is instituted for the generations of Israel, in memory of Jacobʼs divine

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encounter. 2

Setting, genre, geography, and main characters

The encounter happens at night, next to the river Jabbok, while a crossing is

taking place. The ambience is mysterious, dark, ominous. The story is told briefly, yet

with a dramatic tone. The events unfold quickly, climaxing with the rising of the sun,

where the blessing and name change take place: injured Jacob becomes Israel and the

stranger disappears.

The river at the scene of Jacobʼs struggle with the mysterious being reminds of

many folk tales of river-spirits that fight with humans seeking to cross their abodes.

Travelers would have to appease the spirits through libations, sacrifices, or other rituals,

in order to be granted passage. Another popular motif in folk tales is that of the demonic

being who attacks humans during the night but who becomes impotent with the break of

dawn. A way to prevail over those demons is to hold onto them long enough, until they

lose all their power in the full light of the day.

But this episode, narrated within the monotheistic Israelite context, cannot be

categorized as a folk tale. The mysterious stranger does not ask for a sacrifice nor does

he impede Jacobʼs passage. He meets Jacob only after everyone else has crossed the

river and he wrestles with him. In contrast to folk tales, in which the demon becomes a

shape-shifter during the struggle, changing guises from bird to serpent to animal, this 2 The New Interpreterʼs Bible, 564

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stranger is presented as a non-described man. In folk tales it is the human that ends up

injuring the demon. In the biblical story it is the human Jacob who is being injured by his

assailant. Finally, Jacobʼs asking for his adversaryʼs blessing proves that he cannot be a

demon, because the notion of eliciting blessing from a demon has no place in the

biblical narrative.

The similarities of the motifs seen in this passage and in popular, pre-existing folk

tales lead us to assume that the latter have provided the literary model for this biblical

narrative. But this narrative is free from elements found in folk tales. It has been

carefully constructed to reflect the values and beliefs of monotheistic Israel, and to

illuminate the larger story of Israelʼs creation into a nation as the fulfillment of Godʼs

promise to Godʼs chosen ones.

The geographical locale of the episode is crucial, for it takes place at the crossing

of the river Jabbok. This river is mentioned in the Bible as the frontier of Israel.3 It

delineates Israelʼs first victory against the kingdoms east of Jordan after it emerged from

its wanderings in the desert. Even though the motive for the attack is unknown, the fact

that it happens at the river Jabbok suggests that the mysterious being challenges and

momentarily frustrates Jacobʼs return to his homeland. To this Jacob responds with an

all-night struggle and a plea for the blessing he receives by dawn.

The main human characters in the story are two, Jacob and the Man. The two

secondary characters are the river Jabbok as a place of crossing, and the place of the

numinous encounter, which Jacob names Paniel, meaning “the Face of God”. Jacobʼs

3 Num. 21:24; Deut. 2:37; 3:16; Josh. 12:2; Judg. 11:13-22.

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family, his wives, children, servants and the animals leave the scene early in the

episode. Jacob is left alone next to Jabbok.

The name of the river Jabbok, pronounced in Hebrew Yab-boq, is phonetically

close to “Jacob”, which in Hebrew is pronounced Yaʼakov. Yab-boq is also phonetically

close to the Hebrew verb ye-abeq, which means “he wrestled”.4 There seems to be a

close relationship between the river, Jacob, and the act of wrestling that takes place

throughout the night. These words, so close in sound, evoke the imagery of the

numinous encounter. Yab-boq the river, flowing through a deep ravine on a meandering

course, was a dangerous passage forYaʼakov and his family to make in the middle of

the night. He must have been in great hurry to advance his course and meet Esau,

sooner than later. We know from the previous passage that he has sent gifts and

messengers and that he has prayed to be saved from his brotherʼs anger. It appears as

though he does not want to give Esau the impression that he is delaying their meeting

face-to-face.

Two of the four characters, (i.e., Jacob and the place of the encounter), acquire a

new identity during this episode: Jacob becomes Israel. The name is given to him by the

strange assailant and it is the name that Godʼs chosen nation will carry through the

generations to come. Jacob as Israel becomes the father of a nation.

Jacob then names the place of the encounter Peniel, “Face of God”. The locale

then becomes a sacred site, where Jacob the man “saw the face of God” and his life

was saved.

4 Hamilton, Victor: The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18-50, 329

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Main themes revealed in the passage

a. The Manʼs Identity

Many interpreters have attributed to the strange man the identity of an angel. But

is he an angel? In Hebrew, malʼakh is an angel of the Lord, the bearer of the divine

word. The word derves from a stem l-ʼ-k, “to send”. Mal-ʼakh, like the Greek angelos,

from which the English angel is derived, means “messenger” and is used for ordinary

humans (Genesis 32:4, Judges 9:31, and 1 Kings 19:2), as well as of spiritual beings.

In this narrative, the stranger is not an angel. In pre-exilic literature there is little

importance given to angels. They are nameless, enjoy neither individuality or free will,

and there is no hierarchy among them. Their function is to be emissaries of God.5

The mysterious man who attacks Jacob as he is about to cross the future border of

Israel who refuses to say his name, is referred to by Jacob as ʻelohim. The narrative

does not want us to know too much about the mysterious figure. It is part of the power of

the wrestling scene that we do not know the name and cannot see the face of Jacobʼs

antagonist. Being too certain about the identity of the stranger would diminish the awe in

the telling of the story and weaken its numinous character.

We know that Jacob is going to meet his brother Esau and that he will have to

contend with Esauʼs anger. But first, he must contend with God. In the dark of the night,

Yahweh , identified only as “a man”, attacks Jacob and the two forms merge in a

struggle that lasts till dawn. Only Jacob can see his adversaryʼs face, in the dark.

Showing extraordinary strength, Jacob nonetheless is no weaker than his adversary in

this combat. By dawn, he lets the man know that he wants his blessing, otherwise he 5 The JPS Torah Commentary, 383

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wonʼt let him go. The stranger has struck him in the hollow of his hip, and caused it to

dislocate. Jacob is hurt, but does not surrender. In a threatening tone that betrays his

desperate craving for Godʼs blessing, Jacob warns the stranger that he wonʼt let him go

unless he grants his request. It seems that only then will Jacob be delivered from his

fear of Esauʼs anger and ready to meet with him.

b. Encounter with God

Jobʼs encounter with the mysterious man stands between Godʼs two

appearances at Bethel (28:10-22; 35; 9-13). God encountered Jacob when he fled the

promised land because of his brotherʼs anger. This time, God is encountering him at

the point of re-entering the land, with his brotherʼs anger as the focusing point of Jacobʼs

energies. In both cases, Jacob appears alone, vulnerable, and needing Godʼs care.

In this encounter, God approaches Jacob in a very ambiguous way, while Jacob

is alone and anxious about his upcoming encounter with Esau. Godʼs meeting with

Jacob comes as an attack that lasts throughout the night. This is not an inner, mystical

revelation of God. It is external, physical, it comes in the form of an unknown man, and it

involves the use of a forceful attack and struggle of power, in which neither Jacob or

God are willing to let go of each other through the entire night. But, intertwined with the

forcefulness of the struggling activity there is also great intimacy in the physical

proximity shared by the two men for all those hours. God wrestles Jacob. Jacob

wrestles God. Neither one seems to win and neither one will let go of the other.

At the break of dawn, the unknown man wants to leave. From the verses that

follow (32:29-30) it becomes obvious that he wants to preserve his hiddenness. But the

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struggle has not winner yet. Jacob has proven to be an extraordinary fighter and God

cannot lose a struggle with a human being. So, he “touches”6 or “strikes”7 Jacob in the

hollow of his thigh and dislocates it from the hip socket. He does not destroy Jacob. He

just leaves him with a permanent limp, a memory of their extraordinary encounter and

the subsequent transformation of Jacob into Israel.

In verses 32:26-29 we are offered a remarkable dialogue between Jacob and

God, unfolding in three exchanges. In the first exchange (v. 26), the man asks Jacob to

let him go but Jacob refuses to release his grip, unless the man blesses him. In the

second exchange (v. 28-29), the man replies by asking Jacobʼs name. Jacob responds

and the man gives him the name Israel, for he has “striven with God and with men and

ha[s] prevailed.” (v. 29) This is the only point in which the man may be alluding to his

divine identity. In the third exchange, Jacob boldly asks of the stranger to say his name.

Instead of giving away his name, the man gives Jacob his blessing, granting Jacob his

initial request. This is his gift and this is when he departs. Or, perhaps, this is when

Jacob loosens his grip and lets him go. The text is ambiguous here. 8

The sun has risen. The combat is complete. The stranger has departed, his

identity having remained intact and hidden. God has remained God. But Jacob is no

Jacob any longer. He has become Israel. He is blessed and given a new name by God,

the moment he asked God to say His name.

c. Jacob becomes Israel 6 The New Interpreterʼs Bible 7 The New Revised Standard Version 8 Bruegemann, Interpretation, Genesis, 268

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Israel is a name without an exact analogue among biblical names, so its precise

understanding presents some difficulty. Its use in this narrative requires a stem s-r-h,

the same stem found in Hosea 12:4, and it is associated with the meaning “to strive”9.

But, here, it is a name formed by a verb combined with ʻel, which means God and acts

as the subject of the action indicated by the verb. Therefore, Yisraʼel should properly

mean “God strives”.

Hosea 12:5, in reference to this narrative, says of Jacob va-yasar, which derives

from s-w-r, which further derives from s-r-r, which means “to have dominion”. This

suggests that Hosea interpreted the name “Israel” to mean “He had dominion over a

divine being.”

Another explanation regards yisraʼel as a contraction of ish-raʼah-el, translated as

“the man who saw a divine being.”10 This interpretation has been influenced by Genesis

32:31.

A synonym for Israel is the poetic use of yeshurun (Jeshurun) in Deuternomy

32:15; 33:15, 26, and Isaiah 44:2. In Isaiah 40:4, yeshurun parallel “Jacob”. Since the

stem y-sh-r means “to be upright, straight”, it forms the antonym of yaʼakov, which is

connected with “craftiness, deceit” (Genesis 27:36; Jeremiah 9:3; Hosea 12:4.) If yisraʼel

is associated with yeshurun, the change of the name would express the transformation

of a character from deviousness to moral rectitude. This particular interpretation, found

in the Yalkut Reubeni (Genesis 323:29), the name would mean “He who is upright with

God.”

9 The JPS Torah Commentary, 404 10 The JPS Torah Commentary, 405

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As Israel, Jacob has been called forth as a new being. Israel is someone who

has faced God, been touched by God, prevailed, gained a blessing and been renamed.

In the giving of the blessing, some of the power of God has been entrusted with Jacob.

He is now ready to face his brother, changed and with new power.

d. Blessing and place name-giving

In this encounter, Jacob has undergone permanent change. God met him face-

to-face, and he transformed him into Israel, giving him also a permanent wound. Jacobʼs

new name cannot be separated from his limping. The permanent damage to his hip is a

reminder of Godʼs sovereignty and ultimate power over Jacob, which God bestowed on

him as a blessing and a new name.

The paradoxical nature of this encounter reveals a “Crippling Victory”11, in which

Jacob has shown extraordinary boldness, yet has realized that facing God comes with a

cost. Jacob, now Israel, reflects upon his encounter with God and extends the blessing

he received by naming the place of the encounter Peniʼel, “Face of God”. The Hebrew

expression panim-al-panim, used by Jacob in verse 31 to describe his experience with

God is used only of divine-human encounters, that may be of an adversary

confrontation or an experience of extraordinary intimacy. The expression, ambiguous

about the true nature of Jacobʼs struggle, simultaneously alludes to its providential and

perilous characteristics.

In the Bible, the act of looking at Godʼs face meant subsequent death. At the

burning bush, Moses hides his face “for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exodus, 3-6). 11 Bruegemann, Interpretation, Genesis, p. 270.

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God explicitly tells Moses “Man may not see Me and live!” (Exodus, 33-20). This

expresses the intensity of the individual experience with the Divine, the utterly

overwhelming nature of the mysterious contact with the awesome majesty of the

transcendent and immanent God.

But Jacobʼs life is spared and he acknowledges this by naming the place where

he saw Godʼs face, after his experience. The place now has taken on a permanent new

meaning, both holy and ominous. It is permanently associated with Jacobʼs struggle with

God, and his transformation into Israel. Geographically, Peniel is identified with Tulul

Adh-Dhaab, a rock that stands on the Jabbok a few miles from where it flows into the

Jordan. 12

e. Memory of the event in the following generations

As well as Passover is remembered through certain rituals and customs involving

food, Jacobʼs crossing of Jabbok after becoming Israel is also remembered by the

Israelites through a custom that involves food. The last verse of this passage is written

from a different chronological perspective, reflecting a present moment, eons away from

Jacobʼs meeting with God. The narrator says that “the children of Israel to this day do

not eat the thigh muscle that is of the socket of the hip, since Jacobʼs hip socket was

wrenched at the thigh muscle.” 13

Through this dietary restriction, the memory of a holy “crossing” is preserved in

the generations of the Israelites that followed Jacob. By not eating the thigh muscle,

12 The JPS Torah Commentary, 226 13 The New Interpreterʼs Bible, 564

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they acknowledge as holy the place where God touched Jacob before he gave him the

name Israel. The moment signified Jacobʼs transformation into the father of the nation

Israel, a nation chosen and loved by God unlike any other.

Conclusion

This narrative urges us to reflect on Israelʼs theology through the interaction of

Jacob with God. We see how Jacob/Israel penetrates the mystery of God, through a

wrestling match in which his strength parallels that of Godʼs. Jacob soars in strength,

but God gives him a wound that cripples them permanently. With this act God affirms

that only God is God. But along with the wound, God gives Jacob a blessing.

Jacob/Israel is a limping man with a blessing. He carries both a wound and special

power bestowed on him by God. The same theology of weakness in power and power in

weakness is found in the New Testament and in the gospel of the Cross.

In verse 30, Jacob/Israel asks boldly of God to tell him his name. Israel, as the

father of an entire nation, is having an intimate access to God and, through him, the

generations that will follow will be blessed by this moment. Israel sees the face of God

and survives this sight. He receives a permanent wound, but this is a wound that

conceals new power and Godʼs blessing. Jacob has restored his moral rectitude with

God, through a wound and a blessing. His wound is his permanent limp. His blessing is

that he will father an entire nation. Thanks to him, Godʼs promise for the creation of

Israel will be fulfilled.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES USED

Bibleworks 7.0: Bible Software with Greek and Hebrew Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis. Atlanta : John Knox Press, c1982. Childs, Brevard S. Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979. Hamilton, Victor P. The book of Genesis : Chapters 18-50, Grand Rapids, Mich. : W.B. Eerdmans, c1994. The Harper Collins study Bible : New Revised Standard Version, with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books. San Francisco, Calif. : HarperSanFrancisco, c2006. The Holy Bible: The Old Testament. Revised standard version. New York, T. Nelson,1952 The JPS Torah Commentary : The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation, V. I. Philadelphia : Jewish Publication Society, 1989, The New Interpreterʼs Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes, V. I, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1994. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1990.