Genesis 32

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Angels of God met him' (vayyifge'u-vo mal'akhei Elohim) — the verb paga ('met, encountered') suggests an unexpected collision rather than a planned rendezvous. Jacob, having just separated from Laban, immediately encounters the divine. The phrase mal'akhei Elohim ('angels/messengers of God') recalls the ladder vision at Bethel (28:12), where angels ascended and descended. There, Jacob was leaving the land; here, he is returning. The angelic bookends frame his twenty-year exile: angels at departure, angels at return.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'This is God's camp!' (machaneh Elohim zeh) — Jacob recognizes the angelic company as a military encampment. The word machaneh means 'camp' in the military sense — a positioned force, an army bivouacked. Jacob sees the angels as God's army, deployed on his behalf.
2. 'Mahanaim' (machanayim) — the dual ending -ayim means 'two camps.' The name anticipates v. 8, where Jacob will divide his own company into 'two camps' (shenei machanot). The wordplay links divine provision with human strategy: God has two camps; Jacob will create two camps. The name Mahanaim also foreshadows the entire chapter's theme of doubling — two camps, two names (Jacob/Israel), two encounters (angels, then the mysterious wrestler).

Translator Notes

1. 'Messengers' (mal'akhim) — the same Hebrew word used for 'angels' in vv. 1-2. Jacob has just encountered God's messengers (mal'akhei Elohim); now he sends his own messengers (mal'akhim) to Esau. The verbal echo is deliberate: Jacob's diplomacy mirrors the divine arrangement. He operates in the space between heaven's envoys and earth's negotiations.
2. 'The land of Seir, the territory of Edom' (artsah Se'ir sedeh Edom) — Esau has established himself in the region south and east of the Dead Sea. Seir ('hairy') puns on Esau's hairy appearance (25:25); Edom ('red') recalls his red stew (25:30). Geography embodies identity: Esau is rooted in a land named for his body and his appetite.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'My lord Esau... your servant Jacob' (ladoni le'Esav... avdekha Ya'aqov) — the reversal is stunning. Jacob, who stole the blessing of the firstborn, now addresses Esau as 'my lord' (adoni) and calls himself 'your servant' (avdekha). The man who seized the position of superior now voluntarily assumes the language of inferior. Whether this is genuine humility or shrewd diplomacy (or both) is left for the reader to discern. Isaac's blessing pronounced that Jacob's brother would serve him (27:29); Jacob's message suggests the opposite.
2. 'I have sojourned' (garti) — the verb gur means 'to dwell as a resident alien,' not as a citizen or owner. Jacob's choice of words signals: 'I have not been building a rival kingdom; I have been a stranger in a foreign land.' Some rabbinic commentators note that garti has the same consonants as taryag (613), suggesting Jacob kept all the commandments even in Laban's house — a creative but ahistorical reading.

Translator Notes

1. 'So that I may find favor in your eyes' (limtso-chen be'einekha) — the phrase chen ('favor, grace') combined with 'in your eyes' is the language of supplication throughout the Hebrew Bible. Jacob is asking for something he cannot demand — Esau's goodwill. The catalogue of possessions — oxen, donkeys, flocks, servants — is not boasting but a diplomatic signal: 'I am self-sufficient; I am not coming to take what is yours.' Jacob's wealth reassures Esau that the returning brother is not a competitor for Isaac's estate.

Translator Notes

1. 'Four hundred men with him' (ve'arba-me'ot ish immo) — the messengers' report is terrifyingly brief. Four hundred men is a military force, not a welcoming committee. David later assembles four hundred men as a fighting band (1 Samuel 22:2). The messengers report no words from Esau — no message of peace, no message of hostility. The silence is more frightening than any threat. Esau is approaching with an army and has said nothing about his intentions.

Translator Notes

1. 'Greatly afraid and distressed' (vayyira... vayyetser lo) — two verbs pile up to express Jacob's terror. The first, yare ('fear'), is visceral; the second, tsarar ('be distressed, pressed, in anguish'), adds psychological compression. The man who wrestled blessings from his father and outwitted Laban is now paralyzed with dread. Twenty years of cunning cannot solve this problem: Esau is coming with an army, and Jacob has women and children.
2. 'Two camps' (shenei machanot) — Jacob's division echoes the place-name Mahanaim ('two camps') from v. 2. His military strategy mirrors the angelic formation he just witnessed. The reasoning is pragmatic: if Esau destroys one camp, the other can escape. But the division also symbolizes Jacob's divided life — torn between two identities, two brothers, two futures.

Translator Notes

1. 'The remaining camp will escape' (vehayah hammachaneh hannish'ar lifletah) — the word peletah ('escape, remnant, deliverance') is significant in later prophetic and theological usage. The concept of a surviving 'remnant' — a portion preserved through catastrophe — will become central to Israel's self-understanding (cf. Isaiah 10:20-22). Here at the personal level, Jacob calculates survival: even in the worst case, half his family lives. The strategy of division preserves a remnant.

Translator Notes

1. Jacob's prayer is one of the most theologically sophisticated in Genesis. He begins by identifying God through covenant lineage — 'God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac' — grounding his appeal in established relationship. Then he invokes God's own word: 'Return... and I will do you good.' Jacob is not begging blindly but reminding God of a specific promise. This rhetorical strategy — quoting God back to God — becomes a model for Israelite prayer (cf. Moses in Exodus 32:13; Numbers 14:13-19).
2. The address shifts from 'God of my father' (Elohei avi) to the personal name YHWH ('the LORD'). Jacob moves from ancestral theology to direct encounter — this is not merely his grandfather's God but the LORD who spoke to him personally.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'I am too small' (qatonti) — the verb qatan means 'to be small, insignificant, unworthy.' Jacob does not say 'I am not worthy' (a moral statement) but 'I am too small' (a statement of scale). He is overwhelmed by the disproportion between what he deserves and what he has received. This is one of the purest expressions of humility in the Hebrew Bible.
2. 'Steadfast love and faithfulness' (chesed ve'emet) — this word pair is foundational to biblical theology. Chesed is covenant loyalty, lovingkindness beyond obligation — the love that persists when all other reasons to love have failed. Emet is reliability, truth, trustworthiness — what can be depended upon absolutely. Together they describe God's character as both gracious and dependable.
3. 'With my staff I crossed this Jordan' (bemaqli avarti et-haYarden) — the image is unforgettable. Twenty years ago, Jacob fled with nothing but a walking stick. Now he returns with two camps of family, servants, and livestock. The staff is a symbol of radical poverty — one man, one stick, crossing a river. The contrast between departure and return measures the fullness of divine blessing.

Translator Notes

1. 'From the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau' (miyyad achi miyyad Esav) — the doubled phrase emphasizes both the relationship (brother) and the threat (Esau). Jacob cannot separate the two: the one who would destroy him is his own twin. The word yad ('hand') is not just 'power' but 'violence' — the hand that strikes.
2. 'Mother with children' (em al-banim) — the phrase describes the worst form of slaughter: killing mothers together with their young, total extermination with no survivors. The expression appears in Hosea 10:14 as an image of war's ultimate horror. Jacob fears not merely his own death but the annihilation of his entire family. Later Torah law will prohibit taking a mother bird with her young (Deuteronomy 22:6-7), reflecting the same ethical instinct against total destruction.

Translator Notes

1. 'I will surely do you good' (hetev etiv immakh) — the infinitive absolute construction (hetev + etiv) creates an emphatic divine promise: 'I will good-you with goodness,' 'I will absolutely do you good.' Jacob is holding God to his word. The logic of the prayer is: 'You promised abundance; destruction would contradict your promise.'
2. 'Like the sand of the sea' (kechol hayyam) — this echoes the Abrahamic promise (22:17) and the Bethel promise (28:14, where the image is 'dust of the earth'). Jacob reminds God that he is not merely one man facing death but the carrier of a multigenerational promise. If Esau destroys Jacob, God's own word fails. The prayer's power lies in its theological audacity: Jacob makes God's faithfulness the argument for his own survival.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'A gift' (minchah) — the word minchah means 'gift, offering, tribute.' It is the same word used for the grain offering in Levitical worship (Leviticus 2:1). Jacob's gift to Esau functions at multiple levels: tribute from a vassal to a lord, a peace offering to avert wrath, and an attempt to 'cover' his past offense. The word will recur throughout this passage as Jacob strategizes about how to present his offering to maximum effect.

Translator Notes

1. The catalogue of animals begins. The ratios — ten females to one male — reflect standard ancient Near Eastern breeding proportions for maximum flock productivity. Jacob is not merely sending animals but sending reproductive capacity — a breeding herd, not just meat. The gift is designed to generate ongoing wealth for Esau, not merely immediate consumption. The sheer scale — 580 animals total across five species (vv. 14-15) — demonstrates both Jacob's prosperity and his desperation.

Translator Notes

1. The gift totals 580 animals: 220 goats, 220 sheep, 30 camels with young, 50 cattle, and 30 donkeys. This is an enormous transfer of wealth. Milking camels with their young (gemalim meiniqot uveneihem) are especially valuable — they provide milk for the journey and represent breeding stock. The specificity of the list functions like a legal inventory: every animal is accounted for. Jacob's generosity is calculated, not spontaneous — each number serves the strategy of overwhelming Esau with abundance.

Translator Notes

1. 'Put a space between drove and drove' (revach tasimu bein eder uvein eder) — Jacob's strategy is psychological: rather than one overwhelming gift, he creates a sequence of gifts, each arriving separately with intervals between them. The word revach ('space, interval, relief') suggests breathing room — each drove gives Esau time to absorb its impact before the next arrives. The effect is cumulative: by the time Esau meets Jacob, he has received wave after wave of tribute, each one softening his anger further.

Translator Notes

1. Jacob scripts the encounter in advance, anticipating Esau's questions and preparing the servants' answers. The three questions — 'Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these?' — cover identity, destination, and ownership. Jacob leaves nothing to chance. The level of preparation reveals both his shrewdness and his terror: a man confident in Esau's goodwill would not rehearse his servants' lines.

Translator Notes

1. Each servant repeats the same formula: 'your servant Jacob... my lord Esau.' The repetition is strategic — every encounter reinforces Jacob's submission. The phrase 'he himself is also behind us' (gam-hu acharenu) creates anticipation: Esau learns Jacob is coming but must wait through multiple gift-droves before the actual meeting. Jacob is engineering emotional momentum.

Translator Notes

1. The repetition of instructions to each successive drove amplifies the strategy: every servant delivers the identical message. Esau will hear 'your servant Jacob, my lord Esau' five times over. The military-like briefing — each unit receiving the same orders — shows Jacob treating this encounter as a campaign. The verb matsa ('find, encounter') is the same word used for Jacob's encounters with God; here Jacob hopes his servants will 'find' Esau in a posture of receptivity.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'I will cover his face... see his face... lift up my face' (akhapperah fanav... er'eh fanav... yissa fanai) — this verse is the most concentrated use of panim ('face') language in the entire Bible. Three different 'face' idioms appear in a single sentence: (1) kaphar panim — 'cover/atone the face,' meaning to appease; (2) ra'ah panim — 'see the face,' meaning to enter the presence; (3) nasa panim — 'lift the face,' meaning to show favor/acceptance. The triple wordplay on 'face' anticipates the chapter's climax at Peniel ('face of God') and Jacob's later declaration that seeing Esau's face is 'like seeing the face of God' (33:10).
2. The verb kaphar ('cover, atone') is the root of kippur, as in Yom Kippur ('Day of Atonement'). Jacob is attempting to 'atone' for his offense against Esau with a gift. The theology of atonement — covering guilt with an offering to restore relationship — is present here in embryonic form, applied to human relationships before it is codified in Levitical worship.

Translator Notes

1. 'The gift passed on ahead of him' (vatta'avor hamminchah al-panav) — even here, the word panim ('before his face') appears. The gift goes 'upon his face' — literally, the tribute precedes Jacob's presence. Jacob waits. The night is long. He has done everything humanly possible — divided, prayed, prepared, sent — and now he waits alone in the camp. The narrative is about to strip away every support and leave Jacob utterly alone.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'The ford of the Jabbok' (ma'avar Yabboq) — the Jabbok (modern Zarqa) is a tributary of the Jordan, flowing from east to west. The name Yabboq is a wordplay hub: it echoes Ya'aqov (Jacob) and ye'avek (he wrestled, v. 25). The three words share the consonants '-b-q, creating a dense sound-web: at the Yabboq, Ya'aqov will ye'avek. Geography, identity, and action merge in a single phonetic cluster.
2. 'Eleven children' (achad asar yeladav) — the number eleven confirms the chronological setting: Benjamin has not yet been born (that will happen in 35:16-18). Dinah may be included in the count or may be implied as present but uncounted, as the text says yeladav ('his children/sons').

Translator Notes

1. Jacob sends everyone and everything across the Jabbok. The verb avar ('cross, pass over') appears three times in vv. 22-23, emphasizing the act of crossing. By sending everything ahead, Jacob strips himself of all possessions, all companions, all support. He stands alone on the north bank. The narrative has systematically removed every human resource: the gift has gone ahead, the family has crossed over, the servants are with the droves. What remains is one man in the dark.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Jacob was left alone' (vayyivvater Ya'aqov levaddo) — one of the most charged sentences in Scripture. The verb yatar ('be left, remain') in the nifal suggests not choice but circumstance: Jacob was left behind, left over, the remainder after everything else has crossed. The word levaddo ('alone, by himself') echoes God's own solitude before creation and anticipates Elijah's lonely stand (1 Kings 19:10). In this aloneness, the decisive encounter comes.
2. 'A man wrestled with him' (vayyeavek ish immo) — the identity of the 'man' (ish) is the great question of the passage. He is called ish ('man'), yet he renames Jacob with a name involving Elohim ('God'), and Jacob names the place Peniel ('face of God'). Hosea 12:4-5 identifies the opponent as an angel. The verb ye'avek ('wrestled') appears only here and in the next verse — it is coined for this moment, echoing both Ya'aqov and Yabboq. The wrestling is physical, violent, and lasts all night. No words are exchanged until dawn.

Translator Notes

1. 'He touched the socket of his hip' (vayyigga bekaf-yerekho) — the verb naga ('touched') is deliberately understated. This is not a blow but a touch — yet the touch dislocates Jacob's hip. The supernatural nature of the opponent is revealed through this contrast: one who can dislocate a joint with a touch has been restraining his power throughout the night. The 'man' could have ended the fight at any moment but chose to wrestle at Jacob's level until dawn.
2. 'The socket of his hip was wrenched' (vatteqa kaf-yerekh Ya'aqov) — the verb yaqa means 'to be dislocated, alienated, wrenched out of place.' The yerekh ('thigh, hip') is associated in Hebrew with procreative power (servants swear oaths with a hand under the patriarch's thigh, 24:2, 9). The wounding of Jacob's hip may symbolize the vulnerability of his generative capacity — his descendants will carry the mark of this encounter.

Translator Notes

1. 'Let me go, for the dawn has risen' (shallcheni ki alah hashachar) — the mysterious wrestler urgently demands release at daybreak. The urgency of dawn suggests a being whose nature cannot be exposed to full light — or whose encounter with humanity is bounded by night. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, theophanies are liminal events, occurring at boundaries between states: night and day, sleeping and waking, earth and heaven.
2. 'I will not let you go unless you bless me' (lo ashallechakha ki im berakhttani) — Jacob's demand is breathtaking. Wounded, exhausted, with a dislocated hip, he refuses to release his opponent without a blessing. This is the same Jacob who stole Esau's blessing through deception (chapter 27); now he demands a blessing through tenacity. The irony is transformative: the blessing-thief becomes the blessing-wrestler. Jacob will not let go of God — this is the defining act of his life and the paradigm for Israel's relationship with the divine.

Translator Notes

1. 'What is your name?' (mah-shemekha) — the question echoes Isaac's question before the stolen blessing: 'Who are you, my son?' (27:18). There, Jacob lied: 'I am Esau.' Here, for perhaps the first time, Jacob speaks his own name truthfully. To say 'Jacob' is to confess: 'I am the supplanter, the heel-grabber, the one who deceives.' The name is not just identification but confession. Before Jacob can receive a new name, he must own the old one.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Israel' (Yisra'el) — the name is explained as 'you have striven (sarita) with God (El).' The verb sarah means 'to struggle, contend, strive, persist.' Israel thus means 'he strives with God' or 'God strives' or 'one who persists with God.' The name defines not a place or a possession but a relationship — and a combative one. To be Israel is to wrestle with God, not merely to worship him. The entire nation that will bear this name is characterized at its origin by struggle rather than submission.
2. 'With God and with men, and you have prevailed' (im-Elohim ve'im-anashim vatukhal) — the scope of Jacob's striving is comprehensive: divine and human. He strove with Esau, with Laban, with the angel — and prevailed in each case. The verb yakhal ('prevail, be able, endure') does not mean 'defeated' but 'endured, held on, persisted.' Jacob prevails not by overpowering God but by refusing to let go. Victory through tenacity, not domination.

Translator Notes

1. 'Why is it that you ask my name?' (lammah zeh tish'al lishmi) — the refusal to disclose his name is itself a revelation. In the ancient world, knowing someone's name conferred power over them. The mysterious wrestler will not be named, contained, or controlled. The same evasion occurs when Manoah asks the angel's name: 'Why do you ask my name? It is wonderful' (Judges 13:18). The unnamed one blesses Jacob, completing the encounter without surrendering his identity. The blessing is given but the giver remains beyond human grasp.
2. The verse's structure is chiastic: Jacob asks → refusal → blessing. Jacob sought two things: a name and a blessing. He receives the blessing but not the name. Partial revelation is characteristic of divine encounters in Genesis — enough to transform, not enough to domesticate.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'Peniel' (Penuel in some manuscripts) — peni ('face of') + El ('God'): 'Face of God.' The name crystallizes the chapter's dominant motif. Jacob has spent the entire passage dealing with faces — covering Esau's face with gifts (v. 20), facing the unknown in the dark, and now confronting the face of God. The place-name transforms geography into theology: this bend in the Jabbok is where a man saw God's face.
2. 'I have seen God face to face and my life has been preserved' (ra'iti Elohim panim el-panim vattinatsel nafshi) — the statement is a paradox. According to later theology, no one can see God's face and live (Exodus 33:20). Yet Jacob has seen and survived. The verb natsal ('be delivered, preserved, rescued') suggests that survival was not a given — it was a rescue. Jacob knows he brushed against something that should have destroyed him. He emerged alive but not unscathed: he carries a wound (the hip) and a new name. The encounter with God changes everything — identity, body, and the landscape itself.

Translator Notes

1. 'The sun rose upon him' (vayyizrach-lo hashemesh) — the dawn that the wrestler fled now arrives as Jacob crosses into the new day. The rising sun marks both a new day and a new identity. The detail is beautiful and painful simultaneously: sunrise, the universal image of hope and beginning, falls on a man who is limping.
2. 'He was limping on his hip' (vehu tsole'a al-yerekho) — Jacob-now-Israel enters the promised land not striding triumphantly but limping. The wound is permanent, a bodily reminder that the blessing came through struggle, not ease. The limp is the mark of encounter — like a scar, it tells a story. Israel's relationship with God begins not in perfection but in brokenness. The patriarch of the nation walks wounded into his future.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'The sinew of the hip' (gid hannasheh) — the sciatic nerve, running through the hip joint. This dietary prohibition is unique in that it originates not in Sinai legislation but in a patriarchal narrative. The practice connects every Israelite meal to Jacob's wrestling match: each time an animal is butchered and the sinew removed, the story of Peniel is remembered. Dietary practice becomes embodied narrative — you eat your theology.
2. 'To this day' (ad hayyom hazzeh) — the etiological formula connects past event to present practice. The narrator addresses an audience that observes this custom and explains its origin. Jacob's wound becomes Israel's diet. The personal becomes communal, the historical becomes perpetual. One night at the Jabbok shapes the eating habits of an entire people across millennia.

Translator Notes

1. Note: In the Hebrew Bible (BHS/WLC), this verse is Genesis 33:1. The Hebrew text of Genesis 32 contains 33 verses (32:1-33), while English Bibles typically number this chapter with 32 verses, placing what is Hebrew 32:1 as English 31:55 and this verse as English 33:1. This rendering follows the Hebrew verse numbering throughout.
2. 'Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and there was Esau coming' (vayyissa Ya'aqov einav vayyar vehinneh Esav ba) — the moment of confrontation arrives. Jacob, limping from the night's encounter, now sees the brother he has feared for twenty years. The 'four hundred men' (arba-me'ot ish) are still present — the military threat has not diminished. But Jacob is no longer the same man who sent the messengers. He has wrestled with God and survived; he faces Esau with a new name and a wounded hip. The division of children — placing each group with its mother — is both practical (organizing the procession) and protective (distributing risk). The narrative bridges directly into the reunion of chapter 33.