A.1. Jacob sends presents to appease Esau, 32:1-21 (MT LXX 32:2-22)
#1 Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him; 2 and when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called that place Mahanaim.
32:1 MT 32:2
32:1 The mission of the angels was to guard Jacob (2Ki 6:16-17; 1Ch 21:15; Ps 34:7; Psa 35:5; 91:9-11; Dan 6:22). Angels “encamp” (חָנָה) and are seen in “camps” (מַחֲנַיִם), because they are God’s “hosts” (צְבָאוֹת), i.e., troops. Ps 34:7 (MT 34:8) tells us: "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them." Angels can appear to humans, as here, or be visible selectively to those with prophetic vision. Elisha could see angels surrounding Israel to protect them from the attacking Syrian army, but his servant had to have his eyes opened by God (2 Kgs 6:10-18). God protects us by various methods; sometimes by unseen angels.
The angels 'meet' (פָּגַע בְּ) Jacob at the boundary of the Promised Land, as a kind of welcoming committee and escort. The mention of God's angels here also anticipates two other things in the chapter: (1) first, that in the very next verse Jacob himself sends "messengers" (same word as "angels") ahead to Esau as a protective measure; and (2) Jacob will later wrestle with either an angel or with God himself.
LXX at 32:2 (=Eng. 32:1) has an extra clause before the clause reporting the meeting: καὶ ἀναβλέψας εἶδεν παρεμβολὴν θεοῦ παρεμβεβληκυῖαν 'And looking up, he saw the camp of God encamped'.
32:2
Since the Hebrew word אֱלֹהִים ʾĕlōhîm (usually translated 'God' or 'gods') can refer to angels, Jacob may have called this place 'the camp of angels', instead of 'the camp of God'. The meaning of Mahanaim (weblnk) is probably not 'two camps', but simply 'camp (of angels/of God)', with enclitic mem.
32:3–5 [H 32:4–6]
3 Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, 4 instructing 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; 5 and 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.’”
32:3
While Jacob welcomed the sight of the encamped angels, he did not rely on their presence to protect him from the assumed lingering anger of his brother Esau. So he arranged an embassy to be sent before him to Esau, to prepare for a friendly meeting of the two estranged brothers. Note that geographically Esau's location in Seir of Edom is not on the route Jacob would normally take from Mahanaim to Bethel, Shechem or even Beersheba. It is farther to the east, on the east side of the Jordan River. But Jacob knows that Esau will learn of his entry into the area, and could consider his doing so unannounced as secrecy with hostile intent. It was better to announce his coming now and in the friendliest way possible.
32:4-5
Notice how he addresses Esau: not as 'my brother', but as 'my lord', and refers to himself as 'your servant'. This is not just polite language, but the language of subservience and submission: it is a verbal indication that he wishes to make amends for the past. This impression is reinforced by the final words of v. 5 'that I may find favor in your sight', which begs Esau for permission to lavish gifts upon him. He repeats the words again to Esau three times in 33:8, 10 and 15. The language is that of diplomacy and an offer of submission. It is clearly a mission of peace (see p. ? ). He explains that his absence was always intended to be only temporary: he lived with Laban 'as an alien'. Now he is returning home to stay and wishes to do so on peaceful terms. He has much livestock, so he will not be a burden to his brother, and in fact wishes to share his wealth.
32:6–21
6 The 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.” 7 Then 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, 8 thinking, “If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape.”
When Jacob's messengers return they give no indication that Esau received the overture in a friendly manner. Instead, they report his approach with a large company of men (400). This frightens Jacob into making preparations to protect himself and his family. He avoids taking the initiative in a hostile action, hoping that Esau is coming in friendship. But by dividing his personnel into two groups, he hopes that, if one group is attacked, the other might escape. The Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II used a similar strategy against the Hittites in the Battle of Kadesh, but it backfired. His second group, which was designed not to escape but to offer reinforcement, was too far from the first group to come to its aid in time. Jacob does not hope for an armed victory, merely survival of some. "Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition" was a popular song during World War II, and expresses the truth that God expects us to take practical measures in addition to trusting Him to protect us.
32:9-12
9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,’ 10 I am unworthy 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. 11 Deliver 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. 12 Yet 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.’”
Jacob seems not to have forgotten the lesson of the encampment of angels, for he then prays to God for protection (vv. 9-12). The prayer is a model. In the opening he addresses God in terms designed to both express and reinforce his faith. God is the God of Abraham and Isaac, which recalls all that God has promised to and done for these two immediate ancestors. Secondly, God is reminded that he instructed Jacob to undertake this potentially dangerous return trip home and promised to 'do you good' (וְאֵיטִ֥יבָה עִמָּֽךְ v. 9, cf. v. 12). The NIV HCSB NET NABRE JPS etc render this verb 'I will make you prosper', referring to growing wealth in the homeland. But 'I will do you good' used by NRSV, ESV, etc., is more accurate, and is certainly more relevant to Jacob's immediate need for protection (see Gen 12:13, where this verb is used of Abraham's being kept safe in Egypt).
In v. 10 Jacob admits his unworthiness of all the good that God has done for him from the moment he left Canaan to stay with Laban. This is a good pattern also for us when we pray. We remind God of his promises to us, but we confess that in the final analysis we depend upon his own grace and love, not upon our own entitlement.
In v. 11 he confesses his fear for his life. Letting God know how we feel, when we are in need, is also a good pattern. He knows these things, but he wants to hear them from our own lips as well.
In v. 12 Jacob returns to the promise of God given to him in Paddan-Aram, to which he now clings: 'I will certainly do you good, and I will make your descendants as numerous as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted." If Esau kills not only Jacob, but also his wives and children, how could this promise possibly be fulfilled? Jacob presses this argument upon God in prayer. Like Moses, he reverently argues with God.
32:13-21
13 So he spent that night there, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 These 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.” 17 He 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?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.’” 19 He 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, 20 and 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.” 21 So the present passed on ahead of him; and he himself spent that night in the camp.
Here we see how all the livestock wealth that Jacob had gained in Paddan-Aram is used by him just to save the lives of himself and his family. He sends them ahead of him to Esau, hoping to pacify his angry brother.
A.2. Jacob and the Angel at Peniel, 32:22–32
#2 32:22-32 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When 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. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” 29 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. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore 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.
One might have expected Moses to proceed now immediately to 33:1-17 (p. ? ), which tells of the surprisingly friendly reception of Jacob by his brother Esau. But instead he inserts a story about a remarkable encounter in Jacob's encampment the night before he meets Esau. This is because this event is part of God's answer to his prayer and part of his preparation to meet Esau.
32:22-23 [MT 32:23-24]
That night Jacob took another step to protect his wives and children. He didn't keep them with himself, but sent them across the Jabbok River to the side away from Esau's approach, placing himself in between the danger and his family (vv. 22-23). This was a brave move on his part. It shows also that his concern was not just for his own life, but for the preservation of the line of Abraham that was to be God's instrument for blessing the nations of the world. His own life at this point was dispensable, but their lives were not. If Jacob had male servants accompanying him, he either has does not have them with him to help protect his wives and children across the brook. Instead, he is alone.
32:24-25a [MT 32:25-26a]
When we read in v. 24 [MT 25] that "Jacob was left there alone," we cannot but be reminded of our Lord's lonely night in the garden of Gethsemane, where he struggled in prayer and surrendered his own life, so that the world of sinners might be saved. The incident, as described here, is truly mysterious. First of all, the opponent who wrestles with Jacob is called "a man" in v. 24 (אִישׁ֙, [MT LXX 25]), because he had the outward appearance of one, but in vv. 28 and 30 (MT 29 and 31) he is called 'God' (אֱלֹהִים ʾĕlōhîm), whom no one is supposed to see face-to-face and remain alive (see Hagar's amazement in Gen 16:7-16 [p. ? ]). That is the first enigma: Was this God or an angel in the form of a man? Hosea 12:3-4 [MT 12:4-5] tells us: "In the womb [Jacob] tried to supplant his brother, and in his manhood he strove with God. 4 He strove with the angel and prevailed, he wept and sought his favor; he met him at Bethel, and there he spoke with him." Here the opponent is called both "God" (אֱלֹהִֽים) and "the angel" (מַלְאָךְ֙). Perhaps this means that God allowed himself to be represented by an angel. It is clear in this passage that Jacob thought he had wrestled with God himself. But when the "man" says "You have striven with God and man," he may be referred to Jacob's life-long resistance to doing things god's way, not just to this nocturnal wrestling match.
The second question is: Why did the angel (or God) wrestle with Jacob? What was his purpose? And if he was God or an angel, why wasn't it easy for him to defeat Jacob? In v. 25 [MT 26] the mysterious opponent "saw that he could not defeat (Jacob)"! Obviously, if this is God, his power is unlimited. But the text says he realized that he could not defeat Jacob. What does this mean? What would have constituted a defeat? The answer here seems to be that defeat on Jacob's part would be his giving up struggling, giving up the fight for the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and himself. Victory for Jacob was not in overpowering this opponent, but refusing to give up the struggle against seemingly impossible odds. The one area where God limits himself is in permitting humans the free will to accept or reject his promises and his grace. He will not force anyone to believe in him or force anyone to give up believing. The error of super-Calvinism is teaching that God predetermines belief and unbelief. This is a misuse of the doctrine of Divine Election. The Bible teaches that whoever wishes may believe and whoever wishes may not. God's very nature does not allow him to coerce his human creations in this way. It is a limitation on God, but it is a self-limitation.
32:25b-26
Jacob may not have realized with whom he was wrestling in the dark, but he knew what he had prayed, and he knew the promise of God, and he knew he had to fight on until death, if need be, to protect the family God had given him. After wrestling for long hours in the night, the opponent partially disabled Jacob (dislocating his hip, v. 25 [H 26]), leaving him with no recourse but to cling to his opponent in desperation and not to allow him to leave, lest he cross the brook and attack Jacob's wives and children. Jacob's seemingly strange condition for letting the wrestler go ("I will not release you until you bless me", v. 26 [H 27]) was not a selfish plea for some magical gift—like the three wishes given in a Grimm's fairy tale—but was intended to assure himself that this unknown person meant no harm to his family. If the unknown opponent refused to bless Jacob, Jacob would know his intentions were hostile, and he would cling to him until death.
32:27-28
The unknown wrestler then asks Jacob's name (v. 27 [H 28]), a logical reply, because he would need that name in order to pronounce the blessing on him and his family. Jacob used his birth name, associated with wrestling with Esau in the womb and following him out of the womb. But the Divine Wrestler changes his name and blesses him as Israel (v. 28 [H 29]), the meaning of which he explains: You have struggled with humans (Esau, Laban) and with God (tonight, both in your earlier prayer, and now in risking your life in physical conflict in order to preserve God's promise to Abraham)". Jacob will later wrestle mightily through a night again in order to make a decision that will save his entire family (p. ? ). But God's blessing on Jacob as "Israel" was not just on him, but through him on the nation that he would become. Israel was blessed for this tenacity in engaging God in order to protect its family. And in the ultimate fulfillment, Jesus—the true Israel—struggled on the Cross and dealt sin and death mortal blows in order to save humans who have become his family by faith.
32:29-30
Jacob in turn now wants to know who this anonymous figure is who has blessed him and his family; so he asks (v. 29 [H 30]). But the stranger simply asks him why he needs to ask, implying that it should be obvious that only the God who renamed Abraham and Sarah would now rename him Israel and bless him and his descendants. An angel of God gave the same reply to Samson's father Manoah in Judges 13:18. There the angel replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.” And after he had left, Manoah and his wife believe they have seen God and lived to talk about it (Judges 13:21-22, p. ? ). Jacob's response is the same: he calls the place Peniel, which means "the face of God" (v. 30 [H 31]), since he believes that he has seen God face-to face and was allowed to live.
32:32
"Therefore 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." This is a remarkable statement. An entire dietary law is based upon one event in the life of Jacob, but which is related to the future character and fate of the nation. Similarly, Israel's eating unleavened bread on the eve of the exodus led to the custom of eating only unleavened bread at Passover. All other Israelite dietary laws are derived from the purity-impurity category of animals (Lev 11; Roget's Thes Bible, p. 209 sec. ap). For further examples of such "temporal/cultural bridging" in OT narratives, see Sternberg, Poetics (1985), 122 [locllnk].
Hepner claims that there are many links between the story of Jacob's struggle with the angel and the Passover narrative, but he fails to mention more than one connecting two Hebrew verbs for "limp".
A.1. Jacob finds Esau friendly, 33:1-17
#3 33:1-17 Now 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. 2 He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. 3 He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother. 4 But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 When 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.” 6 Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; 7 Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. 8 Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor with my lord.” 9 But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” 10 Jacob 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. 11 Please 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. 12 Then Esau said, “Let us journey on our way, and I will go alongside you.” 13 But 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 overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. 14 Let 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.” 15 So Esau said, “Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “Why should my lord be so kind to me?” 16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17 But Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house, and made booths for his cattle; therefore the place is called Succoth.
33:1-3
As on the previous night, when he sent his wives and children behind him across the brook in safety, Jacob goes to meet the large company of Esau putting his most cherished people in the rear: he himself goes first, followed by the two maids/concubines and their children, then by Leah and her children, and finally Rachel and Joseph in the rear. Rachel is still his favorite wife (see 29:14-19 [p. ? ] and 29:30b-35 [p. ? ]), and her only son Joseph his favorite son. Favoritism toward Joseph will eventually manifest itself in Jacob giving Joseph the famous "coat of many colors (actually, a "long robe with sleeves"; 37:3, 23, 32) to lord it over his brothers and the angry deed of the brothers of selling Joseph into slavery in Egypt (Gen 37, p. ? ). Favoritism lavished on favorite sons or favorite wives was the acid that ate at the fabric of the patriarchal families, but which God made use of anyway to accomplish his purposes.
Jacob approaches Esau with exaggerated gestures of submission: he bows seven times to the ground, a practice attested in extra-biblical documents from that age as used toward kings. The irony here is that this is the very opposite of what was promised Jacob by Isaac in the stolen blessing: "Be master over your brothers; and may your mother's sons bow to you" (27:29 [p. ? ]). But Jacob is learning that sometimes survival is more important that the pretense of power.
33:4-11
But Jacob's elaborate strategies were not the reason for his favorable reception by Esau. God had been working on Esau's heart during the years of Jacob's absence. And—truth be told—it is very probable that Jacob's absence allowed Esau not to be constantly reminded of his brother's scheming competitiveness and overweening sense of entitlement.
Nahum Sarna points out that: "Esau's kiss [v. 4], undoubtedly sincere, appropriately signals the final resolution of the chain of tragic events precipitated by that other kiss, Jacob's deceitful kiss, that played a crucial role in the original blessing scene (27:26-27 [27:18-29])."
After a tearful and affectionate greeting, in vv. 5-7 Jacob introduces his wives and children in the order in which they are following him, with Rachel and Joseph last. Each group bows respectfully to Esau. The presence of women, especially ones who so respectfully bow to Esau, was intended by Jacob as a strategy to encourage Esau to be friendly. It is recorded that a Hittite king approaching an enemy city with intent to attack and conquer it, was met by a peace embassy containing the enemy king's own mother, old women and old men, whereupon he had mercy on the city.
Esau then questions Jacob about the groups of livestock that preceded him, and Jacob says that they are his gift to his brother. Esau at first refuses, since he maintains that he himself is a wealthy man with large herds and flocks. Esau's words of polite initial refusal of Jacob's offered gifts in v. 9 "Let what you have remain yours" may have a deeper significance than what appears here. The two famous medieval Jewish biblical scholars Rashi and Radak suggested it might represent Esau's final concession of the birthright.
When in v. 11 Jacob for a second time begs his brother to accept his gift, he changes the word for "gift" from the normal Hebrew word minḥāh to bĕrāḵāh, usually translated 'blessing", the very word used for what Jacob stole from Esau (27:35-36 [27:30-40]). Some scholars think that the shift in terms here signals a hint by Jacob to his brother that this gift is his reparation for that act.
Jacob eventually prevails on his brother to accept the gift, claiming that it is so good to see his brother that it is like seeing the "face of God" (v. 10), whereupon he uses a slight variant (פְּנֵ֥י אֱלֹהִ֖ים) of the very name he has given to the place where he wrestled with God, Peniel (32:29-30). There is a subtle and humorous allusion here, since in 32:30 (MT 32:31) Jacob expressed amazement that at Peniel he saw the face of God and remained alive. Here again he is amazed that he has seen Esau face-to-face and remained alive!
Esau does not reciprocate, thus intimating that Jacob's "gift" is the settlement of a debt, not a magnanimous civility which might require a return gift.
33:12-17
Jacob is relieved that Esau has forgotten his anger, but he is not anxious to give him further occasion to remember. So when Esau offers to escort him to his own home or to Jacob's planned destination safely—remember the Esau's group is entirely male warriors probably armed—Jacob uses the excuse that Esau's male-only group is able to travel rapidly, and should not be held back by the necessary slow travel of Jacob's women, children and livestock (v. 14; compare what we said in 31:22-25 about Laban's ability to overtake Jacob's party on the road from Paddan-Aram). But he promises to join his brother in Seir, which he then conveniently forgets to do and heads for Succoth.
Jacob, fearful and devious as always, tricks Esau into thinking he is headed south toward Seir, but turns around and heads back north across the Jabbok stream to Succoth, where he settles down and does not leave there for Canaan for another eighteen months (according to Jewish tradition). That he intended to stay for quite a while is indicated by his building a house to live in (not tents) and stalls for his remaining livestock. It is possible that he wished to build his herds again, after parting with a large portion of them to buy off Esau.
Application
God has given Jacob experiences in this chapter that were more than enough to permanently overcome his constant fears and his temptations to scheme. And yet Jacob stubbornly persists in both of these tendencies, and will continue to do so until the very end of his life. We don't like to think that believers in Jesus can experience all that goes with the salvation experience—the opening of our eyes to understand the scriptures, the new birth, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit—and not go on to lead singularly changed and godly lives for the rest of their lives. Jacob reminds us that this is a sad possibility. I am not saying that in the coming chapters we will not see glimpses of genuine goodness and faith in Jacob, for we will. But we will also see the sad persistence of his tendencies to inordinate fear and to solving his problems by schemes instead of by prayer. Each of us needs to resolve to listen to God every day and let him correct the tendencies that we have, so that they will not hold us back from being the strong testimonies to his grace that we all wish to be.
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