Bereshis 32
32
1And Ya'akov went on his derech, and the malachim of Elohim met him.
2 And when Ya'akov saw them, he said, This is Mahaneh Elohim; and he called the shem of that makom (place) Machanayim.
[VAYISHLAH]
3 And Ya'akov sent malachim before him to Esav achiv unto Eretz Se'ir, the country of Edom.
4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto adoni Esav; Thy eved Ya'akov saith thus, I have sojourned with Lavan, and stayed there until now;
5 And I have shor (oxen), and chamor, tzon, and eved, and shifchah; and I have sent to tell adoni, that I may find chen (grace) in thy sight.
6 And the malachim returned to Ya'akov, saying, We came to Esav achicha, and also he cometh to meet thee, and arba me'ot ish with him.
7 Then Ya'akov was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided HaAm that was with him, and the tzon, and bakar, and the gemalim, into two machanot;
8 And said, If Esav come to the one machaneh, and attack it, then the other machaneh which is left shall escape.
9 And Ya'akov said, O Elohei Avi Avraham, and Elohei Avi Yitzchak, Hashem which saidst unto me, Shuv l'aretzecha and to thy moledet (kindred), and I will deal well with thee;
10 I am not worthy of the least of all the chasadim, and of all the emes, which Thou hast showed unto Thy eved; for with my makal (rod, staff) I passed over this Yarden; and now I am become two machanot.
11 Save me, now, from the yad achi, from the yad Esav; for I fear him, lest he will come and attack me, em with banim.
12 But Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy zera as the chol of the yam, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13 And he spent there that same night; and took of that which came to his yad a minchah for Esav achiv;
14 Two hundred female goats, and twenty male goats, two hundred rechelim (ewes), and twenty eilim (rams),
15 Thirty nursing gemalim with their colts, forty parot (cows), and ten parim (bulls), twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys.
16 And he delivered them into the yad of his avadim, every herd by itself; and said unto his avadim, Pass over before me, and keep a space between herd and herd.
17 And he commanded the rishon, saying, When Esav achi meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? And to where goest thou? And whose are these [animals] before thee?
18 Then thou shalt say, They are of thy eved Ya'akov; it is a minchah sent unto adoni Esav; and, hinei, also he is behind us.
19 And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the adarim (herds), saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esav, when ye find him.
20 And say ye moreover, Hinei, thy eved Ya'akov is behind us. For he said, Akhapperah (I will appease, cover) his face with the minchah that goeth ahead of me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.
21 So went the minchah (present) over ahead of him; but he himself stayed balailah in the machaneh.
22 And he rose up that night, and took his two nashim and his two shifchot, and his eleven yeladim, and passed over the ma'avar (ford) Yabbok.
23 And he took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over [all] that he had.
24 And Ya'akov was left by himself; and there wrestled an ish with him until the shachar (dawn, sunup).
25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he struck his hip socket; so Ya'akovʼs hip socket dislocated while he wrestled with him.
26 And he said, Let me go, for shachar breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, unless thou make a berakhah upon me.
27 And he said unto him, What is shemecha? And he said, Ya'akov.
28 And he said, Shimcha shall be called no more Ya'akov, but Yisroel: for sarita im Elohim ([yisrah=to prevail + El=G-d = Yisroel] ye have striven with Elohim) and with anashim, and hast overcome.
29 And Ya'akov asked him, and said, Tell me, now, shemecha. And he said, Why is it that thou dost ask after shmi? And he made a brocha upon him there.
30 And Ya'akov called the shem of the makom (place) Peniel (Face of G-d): for I have seen Elohim panim el panim, and my nefesh is saved.
31 And as he passed over Penuel the shemesh rose upon him, and he limped upon his hip.
32 Therefore the Bnei Yisroel eat not of the sinew of the thigh vein (sciatic nerve) which is upon the hip socket, unto this day; because he touched the hip socket of Ya'akov in the sinew of the thigh vein.
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Bereshis 32: TOJB2011
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.
Genesis 32
32
1#Jacob’s negotiations with Esau. Laban kisses his daughters and grandchildren good-bye but not Jacob. On leaving Mesopotamia, Jacob has an encounter with angels of God (vv. 2–3), which provokes him to exclaim, “This is God’s encampment,” just as he exclaimed upon leaving Canaan, “This is the house of God, the gateway to heaven” (28:11–17). Early the next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them; then he set out on his journey back home. 2Meanwhile Jacob continued on his own way, and God’s angels encountered him. 3When Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s encampment.” So he named that place Mahanaim.#Mahanaim: a town in Gilead (Jos 13:26, 30; 21:38; 2 Sm 2:8; etc.). The Hebrew name means “two camps.” There are other allusions to the name in vv. 8, 11.
Envoys to Esau. 4Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,#Gn 36:6. 5ordering them: “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob: I have been residing with Laban and have been delayed until now. 6I own oxen, donkeys and sheep, as well as male and female servants. I have sent my lord this message in the hope of gaining your favor.’” 7When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We found your brother Esau. He is now coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
8Jacob was very much frightened. In his anxiety, he divided the people who were with him, as well as his flocks, herds and camels, into two camps. 9“If Esau should come and attack one camp,” he reasoned, “the remaining camp may still escape.” 10Then Jacob prayed: “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac! You, Lord, who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and your relatives, and I will be good to you.’#Gn 31:3. 11I am unworthy of all the acts of kindness and faithfulness that you have performed for your servant: although I crossed the Jordan here with nothing but my staff, I have now grown into two camps. 12Save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau! Otherwise I fear that he will come and strike me down and the mothers with the children. 13You yourself said, ‘I will be very good to you, and I will make your descendants like the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’”#Gn 28:14; 48:16; Ex 32:13; Heb 11:12.
14After passing the night there, Jacob selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: 15two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes and twenty rams; 16thirty female camels and their young; forty cows and ten bulls; twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 17He put these animals in the care of his servants, in separate herds, and he told the servants, “Go on ahead of me, but keep some space between the herds.” 18He ordered the servant in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? To whom do these animals ahead of you belong?’ 19tell him, ‘To your servant Jacob, but they have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. Jacob himself is right behind us.’” 20He also ordered the second servant and the third and all the others who followed behind the herds: “Thus and so you shall say to Esau, when you reach him; 21and also tell him, ‘Your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For Jacob reasoned, “If I first appease him with a gift that precedes me, then later, when I face him, perhaps he will forgive me.” 22So the gifts went on ahead of him, while he stayed that night in the camp.
Jacob’s New Name.#As Jacob crosses over to the land promised him, worried about the impending meeting with Esau, he encounters a mysterious adversary in the night with whom he wrestles until morning. The cunning Jacob manages to wrest a blessing from the night stranger before he departs. There are folkloric elements in the tale—e.g., the trial of the hero before he can return home, the nocturnal demon’s loss of strength at sunrise, the demon protecting its river, the power gained by knowledge of an opponent’s name—but these have been worked into a coherent though elliptical narrative. The point of the tale seems to be that the ever-striving, ever-grasping Jacob must eventually strive with God to attain full possession of the blessing. 23That night, however, Jacob arose, took his two wives, with the two maidservants and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 24After he got them and brought them across the wadi and brought over what belonged to him, 25Jacob was left there alone. Then a man#A man: as with Abraham’s three visitors in chap. 18, who appear sometimes as three, two, and one (the latter being God), this figure is fluid; he loses the match but changes Jacob’s name (v. 29), an act elsewhere done only by God (17:5, 15). A few deft narrative touches manage to express intimate contact with Jacob while preserving the transcendence proper to divinity. wrestled with him until the break of dawn. 26When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that Jacob’s socket was dislocated as he wrestled with him.#Hos 12:5. 27The man then said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” 28“What is your name?” the man asked. He answered, “Jacob.”#Gn 35:10; 1 Kgs 18:31; 2 Kgs 17:34. 29Then the man said, “You shall no longer be named Jacob, but Israel,#Israel: the first part of the Hebrew name Yisrael is given a popular explanation in the word saritha, “you contended”; the second part is the first syllable of ’elohim, “divine beings.” The present incident, with a similar allusion to the name Israel, is referred to in Hos 12:5, where the mysterious wrestler is explicitly called an angel. because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed.” 30Jacob then asked him, “Please tell me your name.” He answered, “Why do you ask for my name?” With that, he blessed him. 31Jacob named the place Peniel,#Peniel: a variant of the word Penuel (v. 32), the name of a town on the north bank of the Jabbok in Gilead (Jgs 8:8–9, 17; 1 Kgs 12:25). The name is explained as meaning “the face of God,” peni-’el. Yet my life has been spared: see note on 16:13. “because I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.”#Jgs 13:22.
32At sunrise, as he left Penuel, Jacob limped along because of his hip. 33That is why, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the sciatic muscle that is on the hip socket, because he had struck Jacob’s hip socket at the sciatic muscle.
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