Commentary
Skeptic's Annotated Bible
32:1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
32:2 And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
"Two camps."
32:3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
32:4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now:
32:5 And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.
32:6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.
32:7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands;
Why is he afraid of his brother? Oh right, Esau is still sore because Jacob tricked Isaac and stole his birthright. But if he was afraid of Esau, then why send messengers to Esau to let him know where he was?
32:8 And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.
32:9 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham,
Abraham is your grandfather, not your father.
and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee:
32:10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.
32:11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.
32:12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
32:13 And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;
32:14 Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams,
32:15 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.
32:16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove.
32:17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?
32:18 Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us.
32:19 And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him.
32:20 And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.
32:21 So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.
32:22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.
I'm guessing he took his daughter Dinah too, but she wasn't important enough to mention.
32:23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
32:24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
Jacob is left alone, but then suddenly he's wrestling with someone. Apparently this is supposed to be either an angel or God himself.
32:25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
This is just weird. The hollow of his thigh? So apparently God is unable to defeat Jacob, so God cheats (dislocates his thigh?).
32:26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
Confusing pronoun usage. God says "Let me go." Jacob replies "only if you bless me."
32:27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
God says "what is your name." And Jacob replies "Jacob."
32:28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
So God renames Jacob to Israel. It's not clear what this is supposed to mean.
32:29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel:
"The face of God"
for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
32:31 And as he passed over Penuel
Peniel or Penuel?
the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
32:32 Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.
Yeah, that makes sense. I'm sure, while they were wrestling, that God touched more than Jacob's thigh, but whatever.
So not only does God show himself to Jacob (er, Israel) in person, but they wrestle, and it's a stalemate until God cheats. (Way to play fair, God.) So, here's my question. Is this kind of thing to be taken literally, or metaphorically? If it's literal, then you have to believe that the omnipotent God could not defeat Jacob. If you believe that God was letting Jacob win, then why did God cheat? (And Jacob wouldn't let God go until God blessed him.) If it's metaphorical, then how do you decide what is generally metaphorical and what is supposed to be factual? There are no signposts that say <metaphor>some crazy story</metaphor> to make it clear, so you have to use your own judgement. But then the entire thing could be metaphor and not intended as history (which is, of course, what it is).
No comments:
Post a Comment