Genesis 32:22

Jacob Wrestles with God

22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children,[a] and crossed the ford of the 1Jabbok.

Genesis 32:22 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 32:22

And he rose up that night
In the middle of it, for it was long before break of day, as appears from ( Genesis 32:24 ) ; and took his two wives,
Rachel and Leah, and his two womenservants,
Bilhah and Zilpah, or, "his two concubines", as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; which distinguishes them from other womenservants or maidservants, of which, no doubt, he had many: and his eleven sons;
together with Dinah his daughter, though not mentioned, being the only female child, and a little one: and passed over the ford Jabbok;
over that river, at a place of it where it was fordable, or where there was a ford or passage: this was a river that took its rise from the mountains of Arabia, was the border of the Ammonites, washed the city Rabba, and ran between Philadelphia and Gerasa, and came into the river Jordan, at some little distance from the sea of Gennesaret or Galilee F4, about three or four miles from it.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 Hieron, de loc. Heb. fol. 92. f. Adrichom, Theatrum Terrae, S. p. 32.

Genesis 32:22 In-Context

20 and you shall say, 'Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.'" For he thought, "I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."
21 So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.
24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.

Cross References 1

  • 1. Deuteronomy 2:37; Deuteronomy 3:16; Joshua 12:2

Footnotes 1

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.