32:28
“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
The chapter at a glance
The chapter in brief
As Jacob goes on his way, the angels of God meet him, and he names the place Mahanaim, “two camps.” He sends messengers to his brother Esau and learns that Esau is coming with four hundred men. Greatly afraid, Jacob divides his people and flocks into two camps, then prays, pleading God’s own promises. He sends a lavish present ahead in separate droves, hoping to appease his brother. That night, after sending his family across the Jabbok, Jacob is left alone, and a man wrestles with him until daybreak. The man cannot overpower him, puts his hip out of joint with a touch, and asks to be let go; Jacob will not let him go without a blessing. The man renames him Israel and blesses him. Jacob calls the place Peniel, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered,” and limps away into the sunrise.
Jacob spends the chapter trying to manage his brother’s face: “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face” (v. 20). Before he sees Esau’s face, he sees God’s. The opponent Jacob most needed to meet was not his brother but God, and the blessing he once took by deceit (27:35-36) he now receives by clinging, crippled, to the One who could have destroyed him. The name changes and the man limps. That is the shape of grace: God overcomes us in order to bless us. This commentary holds that the man who wrestled was the Son before His incarnation; others read a created angel sent in God’s name (Hosea 12:4). The chapter points to Christ, because a sinner can see God’s face and live only where God makes Himself known, and “God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18). The light of God’s glory now shines “in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Points for discussion
vv. 1–8
Two camps
“The angels of God” met Jacob in the Bethel dream as he left the land (28:12), and they meet him again as he returns (v. 1). Jacob says, “This is God’s camp!” and names the place Mahanaim, a dual form, “two camps.” A few verses later, terrified, he divides his own people “into two camps” (v. 7). Many readers take the name to mean that God’s camp travels alongside Jacob’s, so that he is not as alone as he fears. Jacob sees the angels and is still afraid. Seeing God’s care once does not end the struggle to trust it.
vv. 9–12
A prayer that pleads promises
Jacob’s prayer is a model in its parts. He names God as the God of his fathers and as the LORD who commanded him to return (v. 9). He confesses, “I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant” (v. 10). He names his fear plainly. And he quotes God’s own promise back to Him twice (vv. 9, 12). Prayer that rests on God’s promises rather than on our merit is prayer on solid ground. Jacob also keeps planning, and readers differ on whether the present that follows shows a lack of faith or the right use of means. Probably it shows both, as our own mixed obedience usually does.
vv. 13–21
Covering Esau’s face
The Hebrew of verse 20 turns on the word “face” (panim), which the ESV smooths into English: Jacob thinks, roughly: I will cover his face with the present that goes before my face, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will lift up my face. The verb the ESV renders “appease” is kipper, the word later used for making atonement. Jacob is trying to make his own atonement with goats and camels. He will see God’s face before Esau’s (v. 30), and the next day he will tell Esau that seeing his face “is like seeing the face of God” (33:10). Reconciliation with God comes first, and it cannot be bought with a present. It is given.
vv. 22–26
The man who wrestled
Who is he? Readers give several answers. Many Reformed readers see here an appearance of the Son before His incarnation: the man speaks and blesses with God’s authority, renames Jacob as God renamed Abraham, and Jacob says he has seen God face to face, though no one has seen God except as the Son makes Him known (John 1:18). His refusal to give his name echoes the angel of the LORD in Judges 13:18. Others read a created angel sent as God’s representative, since Hosea says Jacob “strove with the angel and prevailed” (Hosea 12:4), and to meet God’s envoy is to meet God. This commentary holds that it was the Son: Hosea calls the one Jacob wrestled both “God” and “the angel” in the same breath (Hosea 12:3-5), and Jacob says, “I have seen God face to face” (v. 30). That is the Angel who is Himself God, the Son sent by the Father, while brothers who read it otherwise are honored. Others say only that God appeared in human form, without deciding which person of the Godhead. Critical scholars often see behind the story an older tale of a spirit guarding a river crossing; this commentary reads it as the text presents it, a real meeting with the living God. The chapter does not require us to settle the question. On any of these readings the Son did not become anything He was not; He took our flesh only at the incarnation (John 1:14). Notice the shape of the fight. The man “did not prevail against Jacob” (v. 25), yet one touch puts Jacob’s hip out of joint. He could have ended the match at any time. Jacob’s prevailing is not overpowering God but holding on: “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (v. 26). Hosea adds, “he wept and sought his favor” (Hosea 12:4).
vv. 27–32
Israel
Before the new name comes a confession. “What is your name?” “Jacob” (v. 27), the name Esau said fit him because he cheated (27:36). Only then: “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed” (v. 28). The name is usually understood as “he strives with God” or “God strives”; an older reading, “prince with God,” rests on a different root and is less often followed now. “With men” looks back to Laban and ahead to Esau. Jacob names the place Peniel, “face of God,” amazed to be alive (v. 30; compare Exodus 33:20). Then the sun rises on a man who limps (v. 31). The blessing and the wound come together, and the limp is part of the blessing: Jacob will never again walk as a man who relies on his own strength. Paul learned the same lesson: “my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
For discussion
Is Jacob’s wrestling chiefly a model for persistent prayer (Luke 18:1), or chiefly a picture of God breaking a self-reliant man in order to bless him? Test both answers against Hosea 12:3-6.
Threads across the chapter
Face. Jacob hopes to cover Esau’s face and see it (vv. 20-21), sees God face to face instead (v. 30), and will see Esau’s face as like God’s (33:10).
Alone and accompanied. God’s camp meets him (vv. 1-2), fear splits his camp in two (vv. 7-8), and in the end he is “left alone” with God (v. 24).
Blessing. Jacob once took a blessing by deceit (27:35-36); here he asks for one (v. 26) and receives it (v. 29).
Strength and weakness. The schemer plans with his wealth (vv. 13-21), wrestles with his strength (vv. 24-25), and leaves limping and blessed (v. 31).
Key words
- 32:2
- מַחֲנַיִם machanayim“Two camps”; God’s camp meeting Jacob’s frightened household
- 32:20
- כָּפַר kaphar“Appease,” literally “cover”; the verb later used for atonement, here Jacob’s attempt to cover Esau’s face with gifts
- 32:28
- יִשְׂרָאֵל yisra'el“Israel”; usually understood as “he strives with God” or “God strives,” the new name given after the confession of the old
- 32:30
- פְּנִיאֵל peni'el“Face of God”; the place where Jacob saw God and lived
Cross-references
- Genesis 27:35-36The blessing Jacob took by deceit and the name Esau said fit him
- Genesis 28:12-15The angels of God and the promise at Bethel, now bracketing the exile
- Hosea 12:3-6The prophet’s reading of the wrestling: he wept and sought His favor
- John 1:18No one has seen God; the only Son has made Him known
- Judges 13:18The angel of the LORD who also declines to give his name
- Exodus 33:20No one can see God’s face and live
- 2 Corinthians 12:9Power made perfect in weakness
- Luke 18:1Always to pray and not lose heart
- 1
Why does the chapter put Jacob’s meeting with God between the news about Esau and the meeting with Esau himself?
- 2
What do Jacob’s prayer (vv. 9-12) and Jacob’s present (vv. 13-21) each show about the way we try to deal with fear?
- 3
Jacob must say his old name, “Jacob,” before he receives the new one. What does that suggest about confession and the grace that follows it?
- 4
Jacob limped for the rest of his life. Where has God blessed you through a weakness rather than in spite of it?
- 5
Readers disagree about who the man was. What is at stake in the different answers, and what holds true on every one of them?
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