Genesis 32 Study Notes

32:1-2 For the second time while on a journey, Jacob saw God’s angels (cp. 28:12). As before, he named the place where he encountered them. In this case he called it Mahanaim, “Two Camps,” probably in recognition of the fact that both people and angels were at the same location.

32:3-12 Remembering Esau’s death threats from twenty years earlier (27:41-42), Jacob now made a special effort to gain Esau’s favor with the assistance of messengers. The first prong of his strategy was verbal: Jacob had the messengers call Esau lord and himself your servant, thus honoring Esau’s position as firstborn—even though he had previously taken Esau’s birthright and blessing. Jacob also made sure he was the first to initiate contact between the brothers, in order to seek Esau’s favor.

To prepare for the coming confrontation with his brother, Jacob did two things: first, he divided his group in two so at least some of his people could escape if necessary; second, he offered a prayer with three elements: an admission that he was unworthy of the many blessings God had given him, a prayer for rescue, and a reminder of God’s promises to prosper and multiply Jacob.

32:13-21 Jacob, who had been so adept at taking from others in the past, now arranged to give a generous gift to his brother Esau. Only after Esau had received all the gifts would Jacob meet him.

32:22-23 As a final measure of self-protection that night, Jacob put one more barrier between himself and Esau, moving his family and possessions across the Jabbok, a westward-flowing tributary emptying into the Jordan River fifteen miles north of the Dead Sea. Perhaps Jacob believed that Esau would have compassion on his wives and children, and so end his pursuit.

32:24-30 Now Jacob experienced his third and final encounter with God while on a journey (cp. v. 1; 27:12-15). A man, understood by later Israelites to be God or an angel possessing the authority of God (Hs 12:3-4), wrestled with the elderly patriarch until daybreak. The fight ended when the divine being dislocated Jacob’s hip. Jacob, injured but still unwilling to release his grip on the being, demanded that he bless him. Asserting his authority over Jacob (see note at Gn 1:5), the man changed Jacob’s name to Israel (Hb yisra’el), linking the name with the fact that the patriarch had struggled (Hb sarah) with God (Hb ’el), as well as with men, and had prevailed.

Jacob was the third person to be renamed by God, joining Abraham and Sarah (17:5,15). The patriarch’s inferior status is reflected in the fact that, unlike the divine being, who asked for Jacob’s name and got it, Jacob was unable to learn the being’s name. The renamed man now renamed the place Peniel—or “Penuel”—literally “the face of God,” because he had seen God face to face and yet was spared from death.

32:31-32 As J. P. Fokkelman explains, “The old Adam has been shaken off, ‘Jacob’ stays behind on one bank of the river. A new man, steeled and marked, Israel, has developed and he continues the journey on the other bank.”