31.19–20 Rachel stole, Jacob deceived. Jacob and Rachel are portrayed as parallel tricksters, but Jacob does not know about Rachel’s theft (see v. 32). Household gods, statues of gods or deified ancestors whose possession is a ritual symbol of the family blessing; they should be inherited by Laban’s firstborn son. Rachel’s theft of the symbols of Laban’s patriarchal blessing thus creates a thematic parallel with Jacob’s theft of Isaac’s patriarchal blessing (ch. 27). Deceived Laban, lit. “stole the heart of Laban” there is a wordplay on “heart” (Hebrew leb) and Laban. Laban the Aramean suggests that Laban’s ethnic identity as a foreign people will become relevant (see v. 24).
31.22–42 Laban and his kin menacingly pursue and confront Jacob at Gilead, where their covenant and separation will be marked (v. 47). But God warns Laban not to harm Jacob (v. 29). Laban rebukes Jacob, claiming disingenuously that he would have had a festive farewell, then turns to the matter of the stolen household gods. When Laban fails to find them, Jacob rebukes him and in an eloquent speech sums up his grievances at Laban’s hands.
31.23–24 Kinsfolk…pursued…seven days, a picture of a quasi-military campaign. This image, in combination with the setting of the hill country of Gilead and God’s warning to Laban the Aramean, create a connection with the historical conflict between Israel and Aram. The region of Gilead (in Transjordan) was contested by Israel and Aram in the ninth century BCE (see 2 Kings 6–13), and the encounter of Laban and Jacob resonates with this historical conflict.
31.32 Jacob’s oath to Laban (v. 32) is based on his not knowing that Rachel had stolen the gods. Laban does not find the gods, but Rachel dies shortly after the return to Canaan (35.19), perhaps in tragic fulfillment of Jacob’s oath.
31.34–35 The scene of Laban’s search of the tents is suspenseful and comical. In Rachel’s tent—domestic space, a woman’s space—Laban is completely outwitted. Laban feels all about (cf. Isaac feeling Jacob in 27.21–22), but he cannot feel the saddlebag because of Rachel’s ruse. The father loses the symbols of the family blessing because of his daughter’s ruse, confirming Rachel as a trickster and Jacob’s true counterpart. There is further irony, since Rachel, Leah, and Jacob have indeed inherited Laban’s wealth, but due to the agency of God, not Laban’s household gods (see vv. 5, 16).
31.43–55 The covenant of peace between Laban and Jacob is woven together from E and J passages that have been carefully harmonized. Note that two symbols of the covenant are erected: a pillar (v. 45) and a heap of stones (v. 46). There are two meals (vv. 46, 54). There are two names of the place: Galeed (a variation on Gilead) and Mizpah (vv. 47–49). Laban makes two speeches announcing the stipulations of the covenant: in one Jacob is to treat Laban’s daughters well and take no other wives, and God is witness (vv. 48–50, mostly E); and in the other neither party will pass beyond the covenant marker, and God is invoked to judge between them (vv. 51–54, mostly J). Both of Laban’s speeches to Jacob are eloquent and noble, and his last gestures, kissing and blessing his grandchildren and daughters, rehabilitate his character and provide a proper reconciliation.
31.45–49 The stone pillar recalls the pillar that Jacob set up at Bethel (28.18). Stone pillars mark sacred space, boundaries, and other places of memory (such as tombs; see 35.20). Here the stone pillar and the heap of stones memorialize the covenant with Laban and mark the boundary between Israel and Aram. The stone pillar (Hebrew mazzevah) motivates the name of the place as Mizpah, “watchpost,” and the pile of stones motivates the name of the place as Galeed (Gilead), taken to mean “the heap of witness.” The bilingual naming of Galeed in v. 47, in Aramaic by Laban and in Hebrew by Jacob, highlights the resonance of this treaty as one between Aram and Israel.
31.53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor. It is not clear whether Laban’s invocation refers to one god or two. Normally in such treaties one invokes the gods of both parties as judges or witnesses. The God of their father, probably an explanatory gloss to indicate one god. The Fear of his father Isaac, an expansion of the divine epithet the Fear of Isaac (see v. 42), equivalent to the God of Abraham (as in v. 42). This unusual epithet seems to refer to the religious awe or fear of being in God’s presence. Note the expression fear of God (with a different Hebrew word for “fear”) to denote religious devotion and virtue (20.11; 22.12).
GENESIS 32
1Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him;2and when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called that place Mahanaim.a
Jacob Sends Presents to Appease Esau
3Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, 4instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now; 5and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’”
6The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies, 8thinking, “If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape.”
9And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,’ 10I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. 11Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. 12Yet you have said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.’”
13So he spent that night there, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, 14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16These he delivered into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between drove and drove.” 17He instructed the foremost, “When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ 18then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.’” 19He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him, 20and you shall say, ‘Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me.” 21So the present passed on ahead of him; and he himself spent that night in the camp.
Jacob Wrestles at Peniel
22The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28Then the manb said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,c for you have striven with God and with humans,d and have prevailed.” 29Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30So Jacob called the place Peniel,e saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 31The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, li
mping because of his hip. 32Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.
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a Here taken to mean Two camps
b Heb he
c That is The one who strives with God or God strives
d Or with divine and human beings
e That is The face of God
32.1–2 In this brief report from E, Jacob’s angelic encounter has resonances that point backward and forward. He encounters the angels of God during both journeys (see 28.12). His naming speech, This is God’s camp (Hebrew machaneh), motivating the place-name Mahanaim, also recalls his naming speech at Bethel (bet ’el, 28.17). Jacob’s angelic encounter also points forward to his sending of messengers (mal’akim, the same word for “angels”) in v. 3 and to his encounter with a divine being (vv. 22–32). Mahanaim (lit. “two camps”) anticipates Jacob’s division of his retinue into two companies (“two camps”) in vv. 7–8, 10.
32.3–21 Jacob prepares to meet Esau, fearing that Esau will attack him. In the J version (vv. 3–13a) he prepares by dividing his retinue into two camps, hoping that in case of attack one will escape (v. 8) and prays to God to deliver him. In the E text (vv. 13b–21) he prepares a gift of livestock, hoping to appease Esau (v. 20). The two versions complement each other and provide an ironic backdrop to the dangerous encounter that occurs next—not with Esau (who turns out not to be menacing at all), but with God.
32.3–4 Esau now lives in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, as the earlier story foretold by the indicative words, hairy (25.25; 27.11) and red (25.25, 30; see note on 25.24–27). Although Esau is his brother, Jacob delicately addresses him as my lord Esau and refers to himself as your servant Jacob. He continues to use these terms when they meet in 33.4–16 (my lord, five times; your servant, twice). This locution reverses the relationship foretold in Isaac’s blessing: Jacob will be lord over his brother (27.29) and Esau shall serve his brother (27.40). Jacob is attempting to mollify Esau by his deliberate use of language.
32.6 That Esau is coming to meet Jacob is a natural response to Jacob’s message. That four hundred men are with him raises the likelihood that Esau is coming to exact revenge, echoing the pursuit of Jacob by Laban and his kin (31.23) and recalling Esau’s intention to kill Jacob (27.41).
32.9–13 Jacob’s eloquent prayer recalls, at the beginning and end, God’s promises in 31.3 and 28.13–15. Jacob’s humility (v. 10) sounds a new note in his character, though self-abasement is a normal part of such discourse; cf. 47.9. His emotional appeal to the death of mothers and children (v. 11) is capped by his reference to God’s promise of many descendants (v. 12), which yields a compelling case for deliverance. His spending the night (v.13a, J) is resumed in v. 22. Note the doublet in the E version (v. 21).
32.13–21 Jacob will offer his present (minchah, v. 13) to Esau in 33.10. The spacing of the groups of livestock will allow ample time for Esau’s anger to abate before he sees Jacob. Afterwards I shall see his face (panav, v. 20), ironic anticipation of Jacob seeing God’s face at Penuel (lit. “face of God”). While the present (minchah) passes ahead, Jacob sleeps at the camp (machaneh, v. 21).
32.22–32 Jacob’s encounter with a mysterious divine being at Penuel is a counterpart to his encounter with God or angels of God at Bethel (28.10–22). Through this symbolic and dangerous rite of passage, the patriarch becomes the eponymous ancestor of Israel, a name that commemorates his successful strivings with God and humans. In this story Jacob-Israel also becomes a symbol—he epitomizes the people Israel, who perennially strive with God and others, survive, and prevail. The tone of the story is deliberately ambiguous and mysterious. It is primarily an E story, with a J text in v. 22.
32.22–24 The strangeness of the story begins with the disconcerting doublet of vv. 22 (J) and 23 (E). In one Jacob crosses the river with his family, but in the other Jacob remains behind. It is the middle of the night (as in Jacob’s divine encounter at Bethel), and Jacob was left alone. The strangeness continues with the abrupt assault. The identity of the man is not given; even the type of being is unknown (Hebrew ’ish, man, can refer to a human or a deity). Wrestled (ye’abeq) completes a three-way wordplay with Jacob’s name (ya‘aqov) and the name of the river Jabbok (yabboq), as if the mysterious encounter emerges from Jacob’s being in this place. Until daybreak anticipates the mysterious request in v. 26.
32.25–30 Jacob is injured, but he refuses to relent unless he receives a blessing (v. 26). By this request Jacob reveals his recognition that his mysterious assailant is a deity. The request echoes his earlier successful attempts to gain the firstborn’s blessing. Let me go…day is breaking. Perhaps angels have a duty to be present in heaven at dawn, or perhaps the nighttime is generally a dangerous time when divine spirits may attack. Jacob gives his name and receives a new one, but the deity will not disclose his own name (cf. Judg 13.17–18). The meaning of Jacob’s new name, Israel, is explained as you have striven (sarita) with God (’elohim) and with humans, and have prevailed, referring to Jacob’s victory over Esau, Isaac, Laban, and now God (or alternately, “gods”). It is unclear whether the divine being is an angel of God or God himself, since angels can speak in God’s name. Jacob’s response of naming the place Peniel/Penuel (vv. 30–31; both mean “face of God”), since he saw God face to face (v. 30), points to God himself, but the story and its language are ambiguous (note that the divine adversary is explicitly an “angel” in Hos 12.4). On the idea that no one can see God’s face and live, see Ex 33.20, Isa 6.5; this idea applies also to angels in Judg 6.22–23; 13.22.
32.31–32 The sun rose upon him, signaling a new beginning and new life after Jacob’s potentially deadly encounter. Limping (see v. 25). Jacob is both blessed and damaged by his divine encounter. An aside derives the dietary prohibition of the thigh muscle (the Hebrew phrase is obscure) as a commemoration of Jacob’s injury. Therefore to this day the Israelites. The shift to the present joins the sacred past to the present as a charter and justification and discloses the Israelites (lit. “the sons of Israel”) as the promised descendants of the patriarch Israel.
GENESIS 33
Jacob and Esau Meet
1Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. 2He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. 3He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother.
4But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; 7Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. 8Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor with my lord.” 9But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” 10Jacob said, “No, please; if I find favor with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God—since you have received me with such favor. 11Please accept my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have everything I want.” So he urged him, and he took it.
12Then Esau said, “Let us journey on our way, and I will go alongside you.” 13But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me; and if they are over-driven for one day, all the flocks will die. 14Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”
15So Esau said, “Let me l
eave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “Why should my lord be so kind to me?” 16So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17But Jacob journeyed to Succoth,a and built himself a house, and made booths for his cattle; therefore the place is called Succoth.
Jacob Reaches Shechem
18Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram; and he camped before the city. 19And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, he bought for one hundred pieces of moneyb the plot of land on which he had pitched his tent. 20There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.c
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a That is Booths
b Heb one hundred qesitah
c That is God, the God of Israel
33.1–17 In the final encounter of his journey home, Jacob meets Esau and the two are reconciled. Jacob is consistently suspicious of Esau’s intentions, but Esau shows himself to be gracious and noble, harboring no hostility. My lord, your servant. See note on 32.3–4. At the end, ever the trickster, Jacob parts from Esau with deceptive excuses, rather than journeying on with him. This text is primarily J, with some interpolations from E (e.g., in vv. 10–11).
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