Genesis 32:27-28
New International Version
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,”(A) he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name(B) will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,[a](C) because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”(D)
Footnotes
- Genesis 32:28 Israel probably means he struggles with God.
Genesis 32:27-28
New King James Version
27 So He said to him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Jacob.”
28 And He said, (A)“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but [a]Israel; for you have (B)struggled with God and (C)with men, and have prevailed.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Genesis 32:28 Lit. Prince with God
Genesis 32:27-28
New English Translation
27 The man asked him,[a] “What is your name?”[b] He answered, “Jacob.” 28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him,[c] “but Israel,[d] because you have fought[e] with God and with men and have prevailed.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Genesis 32:27 tn Heb “and he said to him.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Genesis 32:27 sn What is your name? The question is rhetorical, since the Lord obviously knew Jacob’s identity. But since the Lord is going to change Jacob’s name, this question is designed to focus Jacob’s attention on all that his name had come to signify.
- Genesis 32:28 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.
- Genesis 32:28 sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ʾel) 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.
- Genesis 32:28 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, yisraʾel), 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).
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.