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Still called by his supplanter’s name when Yaakov and his uncle Lavan part ways, this is the chapter when Yaakov undergoes a name change. . . finally.
It happens in connection with his much-feared encounter with the twin to whom he had done much wrong two decades before. Yaakov comes to terms with all the wrong he had done and thinks of ways to pacify the angry Esau who swore revenge as his mother had warned him when she sent him away for his safety. That image in Yaakov’s mind when he left is the same image in his mind as he prepares for the confrontation.
The God of the Patriarchs —YHWH— is well aware of Yaakov’s apprehensions and allows him to see the divine messengers usually called “angels.” We had a discussion of what “angels” or God’s “messengers” look like. We’ve gotten used to artists’ imaginary representations of these beings. Cherubims — babies with wings, or baby-heads with wings; long-haired blond men in white robes with wings, female-fairy-like with wings. Dark angels with black hair and evil features — without wings. What’s with the wings, do they really need wings to fly up and down from heaven?
In Jacob’s dream about the ladder, angels were going up and down through the ladder, not flying up and down. Where do the wings come from? Most likely if not surely, it’s from the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant which YHWH Himself designs and orders the craftsmen to make. We are told that the cherubim appear only in two places in the Hebrew scriptures: first in the garden of Eden where they guard the Tree of Life with flaming swords to make sure the first couple do not partake of its fruit; strange, the prohibition was not there before their failing the test. The second mention of cherubim is exactly as the figures with wings guarding the Ark where the 10 words etched on the second tablets of stone are kept. Commentators have connected the Tree of Life with the Torah because of the cherubim. . . but back to ‘angels.’
If angels are disembodied spirits like God, Scripture describes them appearing to humans in human form, such as the three men who visited Abraham before they executed the Divine order to get Lot and his family out of Sodom. If you remember the narrative, it is not the angels who caused the destruction of Sodom, it was YHWH the Consuming Fire who threw brimstone from heaven.
Why are we taking pains to explain the appearance of angel-messengers as humans? Because for one, we have stated earlier that as far as we have investigated, YHWH never has appeared as a “man” in the TNK; and for another, in this chapter Jacob wrestles with a “man.”
The “man” asks Jacob what is his name and renames him Israel; then Jacob asks the “man” his name and the “man” does not give it and simply blesses Jacob as he had requested before he lets the “man” go. In Exodus, Moses would ask the God on Sinai His Name and Moses gets an answer.
If this “being” were the same God of Sinai, why would he not identify himself? Isn’t God eager to make Himself known to the key figures in His plan for Israel? Here is the third patriarch from whom will spring 12 sons, 12 tribes, a nation . . .is it not the proper occasion to reveal His Name?
Jacob, now Israel, realizes he had a strange encounter with an “other” being. Jews interpret “the Divine” here as “the angel” (Artscroll note). We concur.
Chapter 32
1 Lavan started-early in the morning, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them, and Lavan went to return to his place. 2 As Yaakov went on his way, messengers of God encountered him. 3 Yaakov said when he saw them: This is a camp of God! And he called the name of that place: Mahanayim/Double-camp. 4 Now Yaakov sent messengers on ahead of him to Esav his brother in the land of Se’ir, in the territory of Edom, 5 and commanded them, saying: Thus say to my lord, to Esav: Thus says your servant Yaakov: I have sojourned with Lavan and have tarried until now. 6 Ox and donkey, sheep and servant and maid have become mine. I have sent to tell my lord, to find favor in your eyes. 7 The messengers returned to Yaakov, saying: We came to your brother, to Esav— but he is already coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him! 8 Yaakov became exceedingly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people that were with him and the sheep and the oxen and the camels into two camps, 9 saying to himself: Should Esav come against the one camp and strike it, the camp that is left will escape. 10 Then Yaakov said: God of my father Avraham, God of my father Yitzhak, O YHVH, who said to me: Return to your land, to your kindred, and I will deal well with you!— 11 Too small am I for all the faithfulness and trust that you have shown your servant. For with only my rod did I cross this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 12 Pray save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav! For I am in fear of him, lest he come and strike me down, mothers and children alike! 13 But you, you have said: I will deal well, well with you, I will make your seed like the sand of the sea, which is too much to count! 14 Spending the night there that night, he took a gift from what was at hand, for Esav his brother: 15 she-goats, two hundred, and kids, twenty, ewes, two hundred, and rams, twenty, 16 nursing camels and their young, thirty, cows, forty, and bulls, ten, she-asses, twenty, and colts, ten; 17 he handed them over to his servants, herd by herd separately, and said to his servants: Cross on ahead of me, and leave room between herd and herd. 18 He charged the first group, saying: When Esav my brother meets you and asks you, saying: To whom do you belong, where are you going, and to whom do these ahead of you belong? 19 Then say: —to your servant, to Yaakov, it is a gift sent to my lord, to Esav, and here, he himself is also behind us. 20 Thus he charged the second, and thus the third, and thus all that were walking behind the herds, saying: According to this word shall you speak to Esav when you come upon him: 21 You shall say: Also-here, your servant Yaakov is behind us. For he said to himself: I will wipe (the anger from) his face with the gift that goes ahead of my face; afterward, when I see his face, perhaps he will lift up my face! 22 The gift crossed over ahead of his face, but he spent the night on that night in the camp. 23 He arose during that night, took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children to cross the Yabbok crossing. 24 He took them and brought them across the river; he brought across what belonged to him. 25 And Yaakov was left alone— And a man wrestled with him until the coming up of dawn. 26 When he saw that he could not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his thigh;<addre
ss>the socket of Yaakov’s thigh had been dislocated as he wrestled with him.
27 Then he said: Let me go, for dawn has come up! But he said: I will not let you go unless you bless me. 28 He said to him: What is your name? And he said: Yaakov. 29 Then he said: Not as Yaakov/Heel-sneak shall your name be henceforth uttered, but rather as Yisrael/God-fighter, for you have fought with God and men and have prevailed. 30 Then Yaakov asked and said: Pray tell me your name! But he said: Now why do you ask after my name? And he gave him farewell-blessing there. 31 Yaakov called the name of the place: Peniel/Face of God, for: I have seen God, face to face, and my life has been saved. 32 The sun rose on him as he crossed by Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. 33 —Therefore the Children of Israel do not eat the sinew that is on the socket of the thigh until this day, for he had touched the socket of Yaakov’s thigh at the sinew
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