Jacob wrestling with the angel: He did not gave in, and rather Blessed! : ISRAEL and Peniel

Gustave Doré, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1855)

The account of Jacob wrestling with the angel is a story found in the Book of Genesis, and referenced elsewhere such asGenesis 32:22-32 and Hosea chapter 12. The account includes the renaming of Jacob as "Israel", literally "He who struggles with God."

"It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." (Gen. 32:30 NIV)

In the Hebrew Bible, Penuel (or Pniel, Pnuel; Hebrew פְּנוּאֵל) is a place not far from Succoth, on the east of the Jordan River and north of the river Jabbok. It is also called Peniel "Face of God" by Jacob:

"It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." (Gen. 32:30 NIV)

Here Jacob wrestled (Gen. 32:24-32) "with a man" ("the angel", Hos. 12:4) "till the break of day." This episode resulted in God (or the angel) changing Jacob's name to "Israel" (Gen. 32:28) which literally means, "He who struggles [Fight with but did not lose] with God."

A town was afterward built there (Judg. 8:8; 1 Kings 12:25). The men of this place refused to give bread to Gideon and his 300 men when they were in pursuit of the Midianites (Judg. 8:1-21). On his return, Gideon tore down the tower there and killed all the men of the city.

When the Northern Kingdom of Israel broke away from the United Monarchy c. 930 BCE, Jeroboam, its first king, established his capital in Shechem. A short time later, he left Shechem and fortified Penuel, declaring it as his new capital (I Kings 12:25). He and his son, Nadab, ruled there, until Baasha seized the throne in 909 BCE and moved the capital to Tirzah (I Kings 15:25-34).

Pnuel is a common name given to males in the Assyrian culture.

Penuel vs. Pniel[edit]

Two categories of spellings exists, the i-type Pniel and Peniel and the u-type Pnuel, Penuel and Pnuël. The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia^[1] prints the i-type פְּנִיאֵל for Pniel. The u-type is only a minor textual variant written as פנואל for Pnuel in the critical apparatus. It appears only in  (the Samaritan Pentateuch), σ´ (Symmachus),  (the Peshitta) and  (the Latin Vulgate).

Therefore translations like the Luther Bible write Pnuël as being directly translated from the Vulgate. So does the KJV, the ESV and the Elberfelder Bibel. But translations like the NIV, the NIrV and the Schlachter 2000 write Peniel or Pniel.

The being with which Jacob wrestles is variously described as an angel, a man, or God. Jacob asks the being his name, and while he doesn't receive an answer, Jacob names the place where they wrestled Peniel or Penuel or Phanuel.^{[Genesis 32:29-30]} The event occurs during Jacob's journey back to Canaan.

Biblical text[edit]

The Masoretic text reads as follows:

The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.

—Genesis 32:22-32

The account contains several plays on the meaning of Hebrew names — Peniel, Israel — as well as similarity to the root of Jacob's name (which sounds like the Hebrew for "heel") and its compound.^[1] The limping of Jacob (Ya'aqob), may mirror the name of the river, Jabbok (Yabbok sounds like "crooked" river), andNahmanides (Deut. 2:10 of Jeshurun) gives the etymology "one who walks crookedly" for the name Jacob.^[2]

Talmud and Targums and Christian versions[edit]

Initially in 32:24 Jacob wrestles with "a man," but after the man's reply Jacob calls the name of the place Peniel (Hebrew for Face of God), saying "For I have seen God face to face." Talmud, Targum, Syriac Peshitta and Vulgate render "God" here "Angel."^[3]

Interpretations[edit]

Among Christian interpreters, this incident is sometimes thought to be a Christophany. J. Douglas MacMillan suggests that angel with whom Jacob wrestles is a "pre-incarnation appearance of Christ in the form of a man."^[4]