EVENTS IN JACOB'S LIFE UP TO THE DEATH OF ISAAC (GENESIS 32:3 TO GENESIS 35:1) Jacob Meets With His Brother Esau (Genesis 32:3 to Genesis 33:17). This section is built around two covenants. The covenant made with God at Peniel and the covenant of peace made between Esau and Jacob. It is probable... [ Continue Reading ]
EVENTS IN JACOB'S LIFE UP TO THE DEATH OF ISAAC (GENESIS 32:3 TO GENESIS 35:1) Jacob Meets With His Brother Esau (Genesis 32:3 to Genesis 33:17). This section is built around two covenants. The covenant made with God at Peniel and the covenant of peace made between Esau and Jacob. It is probable... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And the messengers returned to Jacob saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and moreover he comes to meet you and four hundred men with him.” ' The fact that the messengers were allowed to return without a threatening reply should have assured him that Esau's intentions were not evil. And indeed h... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. And he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two companies. And he said, “If Esau comes to the one company and smites it then the other company which is left will escape.” ' Jacob is seized with te... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And Jacob said, “Oh God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Oh Yahweh who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred and I will do you good,' I am not worthy of the least of all your mercies and of all the truth which you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And he stayed there that night and took from what he had with him a present for Esau his brother. Two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred yews and twenty rams, thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she-asses (or donkeys) and ten foals.' The giving of... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And he delivered them into the hands of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me and put a space between drove and drove.” And he commanded the foremost, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong? And where are you going?... [ Continue Reading ]
“FOR HE SAID, “I WILL MAKE RECONCILIATION WITH HIM (‘COVER HIS FACE”) with the present that goes before me (‘goes before my face'), and afterwards I will see his face. It may be that he will accept me (‘his face will be towards me').” So the present passed over before him and he himself stayed that... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two handmaids and his eleven sons and passed over the Ford of Jabbok. And he took them and sent them over the stream and sent over what he had.' The verse hides a more complicated manoeuvre. Jacob wants to see everyone and everything safely... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he did not prevail against him he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained as he wrestled with him.' Jacob was left alone with his thoughts. The appro... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And he said, “Let me go for the day is breaking.” And he said, “I will not let you go except you bless me.” “THE DAY IS BREAKING.” The exertions that are possible at night become unbearable during the day. God is not thinking of Himself but of Jacob. But Jacob continues to hold on even though crip... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And he said, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” And he said, “Your name will no more be called Jacob, but Israel (isra-el), for you have striven (from the verb sarah) with God and with men and have prevailed.” ' The asking of the name in such circumstances is to seek the character of the p... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And Jacob called the name of the place Peni-el (‘the face of God'), for he said, “I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved.” This was a play on words. The site was called Penuel (Genesis 32:31) and was probably an important pass for fortresses were built there (Judges 8:8 on) and even... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And the sun rose on him as he passed over Penuel and he limped because of his thigh.' “THE SUN ROSE ON HIM.” This may well be intended to reflect more than the weather. He had come from night into sunrise (compare Genesis 19:23). “AND HE LIMPED BECAUSE OF HIS THIGH.” Jacob bears a reminder of thi... [ Continue Reading ]
‘That is why the children of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the hollow of the thigh to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.' This explanatory information was a later comment probably added when the whole was brought together, either i... [ Continue Reading ]