. He told his servants that were taking them to Esau to put some space between them, and when his brother questions him about who these are from, what your destination is, and who is ahead of you, to say they belong to your servant Jacob, and are presented to you as a gift, and he is coming up after us. He told this to each one. That night he took his family and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He sent them ahead and he was alone. He met a man on the shore, and he began to grapple with him. They wrestled until dawn, and when the man saw he couldnt win, he struck Jacob on the hip, disjointing his socket. The man wanted to leave, but Jacob refused to let him go until he blessed him. The man asked his name, and Jacob told him, and the man said, You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with god and humans, and have prevailed. (Gen 32:27)(523) Jacob asked his name, but he asked why, and then he blessed Jacob, so Jacob called the place Peniel, saying For I have seen god face to face, and yet my life is preserved. (Gen 32:30)(524) Jacob limped after this day. Gods blessing as an expression of divine power exclusively affirms and nurtures like, bringing it somehow from the underworld of the fear of death to light, as Jacob was brought through the darkness of the night to daylight, and awarded a blessing after having gone through the experience of a fight. (225) Some think, that the fight was actually a dream of Jacobs, and that his opponent was really Esau himself. Who else would Jacob dream of than his brother that he would meet the next day and probably come to blows with. (326) It is thought by some that the injury may have been closer to the genital area. Castration, back then, was the ultimate humiliation. Could his injury have been the result of the man trying to castrate Jacob? (327) Jacob came close to meeting Esau and his 400 men. Jacob wishes to shun death, which is lurking in his brothers four hundred men,...
