Kejadian 32:28

32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹  “but Israel, ²  because you have fought ³  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Kejadian 32:1

Jacob Wrestles at Peniel

32:1 So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God ⁴  met him.

1 Samuel 2:9

2:9 He watches over ⁵  his holy ones, ⁶ 

but the wicked are made speechless in the darkness,

for it is not by one’s own strength that one prevails.

1 Samuel 2:2

2:2 No one is holy ⁷  like the Lord!

There is no one other than you!

There is no rock ⁸  like our God!

1 Samuel 14:11

14:11 When they ⁹  made themselves known to the Philistine garrison, the Philistines said, “Look! The Hebrews are coming out of the holes in which they hid themselves.”

Yesaya 42:13

42:13 The Lord emerges like a hero,

like a warrior he inspires himself for battle; ¹⁰ 

he shouts, yes, he yells,

he shows his enemies his power. ¹¹ 

[32:28]  ¹ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ² sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ³ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[32:1]  ⁴ sn The phrase angels of God occurs only here and in Gen 28:12 in the OT. Jacob saw a vision of angels just before he left the promised land. Now he encounters angels as he prepares to return to it. The text does not give the details of the encounter, but Jacob’s response suggests it was amicable. This location was a spot where heaven made contact with earth, and where God made his presence known to the patriarch. See C. Houtman, “Jacob at Mahanaim: Some Remarks on Genesis XXXII 2-3,” VT 28 (1978): 37-44.

[2:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “guards the feet of.” The expression means that God watches over and protects the godly in all of their activities and movements. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.

[2:9]  ⁶ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading the plural (“his holy ones”) rather than the singular (“his holy one”) of the Kethib.

[2:2]  ⁷ sn In this context God’s holiness refers primarily to his sovereignty and incomparability. He is unique and distinct from all other so-called gods.

[2:2]  ⁸ tn The LXX has “and there is none righteous like our God.” The Hebrew term translated “rock” refers to a rocky cliff where one can seek refuge from enemies. Here the metaphor depicts God as a protector of his people. Cf. TEV “no protector like our God”; CEV “We’re safer with you than on a high mountain.”

[14:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “the two of them.”

[42:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “like a man of war he stirs up zeal” (NIV similar).

[42:13]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps, “he triumphs over his enemies” (cf. NIV); NLT “will crush all his enemies.”