And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
And he saith unto him, `What is thy name?' and he saith, `Jacob.'
And he said to him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
Genesis — The book of beginnings. Creation, fall, flood, covenant, election, providence — eleven generational seams stitch one unbroken story from heaven-and-earth to a coffin in Egypt.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
Voices5
(Verse 27 and 28.) And he said to him: What is your name? He said, Jacob. And he said to him: Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but your name shall be called Israel: for you have wrestled with God, and have prevailed with men. Josephus, in the first book of Antiquities, thinks that Israel was called so because he wrestled with an angel. I carefully examined this, but I could not find it at all in Hebrew. And why should I seek the opinions of individuals, when the one who gave the name explains the etymology himself?
Jerome· Hebrew Questions on Genesis, 420patristic
And he said unto him, what is thy name?.... Which question is put, not as being ignorant of it, but in order to take occasion from it, and the change of it, to show that he had granted his request, and had blessed him, and would yet more and more: and he said, Jacob; the name given him at his birth, and by which he had always been called, and therefore tells it him at once, not staying to ask the reason of the question.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
What is thy name? - Jacob (saith he) a supplanter, so Jacob signifies. Well, (faith the angel) be thou never so called any more: thou shalt be called Israel, a prince with God. He is a prince indeed, that is a prince with God; and those are truly honourable that are mighty, in prayer.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765evangelical
Lord, what will become of that promise, if they be all cut off? Jacob having piously made God his friend by a prayer, is here prudently endeavouring to make Esau his friend by a present. He had prayed to God to deliver him from the hand of Esau - His prayer did not make him presume upon God's mercy, without the use of means.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765evangelical
Yet this was not all; having power with God, he shall have power with men too. Having prevailed for a blessing from heaven, he shall, no doubt, prevail for Esau's favour. Note, Whatever enemies we have, if we can but make God our friend, we are well off; those that by faith have power in heaven have thereby as much on earth as they have occasion for.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
The verses this one reaches3
And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.” So God named him Israel.
May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
Jacob fled to the land of Aram and Israel worked for a wife— for a wife he tended sheep.
