Genesis (American Standard Version, 1901) · 45 of 73 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)
32:17-33:6
[32:17] And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?
[32:18] then thou shalt say, They are thy servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, he also is behind us.
[32:19] And he commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him;
[32:20] and ye shall say, Moreover, behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept me.
[32:21] So the present passed over before him: and he himself lodged that night in the company.
[32:22] And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven children, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok.
[32:23] And he took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had.
[32:24] And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
[32:25] And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained, as he wrestled with him.
[32:26] And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
[32:27] And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
[32:28] And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
[32:29] And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
[32:30] And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for, said he, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
[32:31] And the sun rose upon him as he passed over Penuel, and he limped upon his thigh.
[32:32] Therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.
[33:1] And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids.
[33:2] And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost.
[33:3] And he himself passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
[33:4] And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.
[33:5] And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are these with thee? And he said, The children whom God hath graciously given thy servant.
[33:6] Then the handmaids came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The divine being wrestles physically with Jacob, has a touchable body, and Jacob's thigh is strained by the encounter, presenting God in fully embodied, human terms.
The doctrine that the divine or a spiritual principle takes on a specific, bounded material or bodily form — descending from an unconditioned state into individual, corporeal existence — as a discrete act rather than a diffuse pervading presence. The Christian Word made flesh, the Hindu avatara, the Egyptian pharaoh as living Horus, the Vajrayana tulku. Distinct from divine_immanence (the general claim that the divine pervades all of creation diffusely, not a specific embodiment-event) and separation_from_source (the felt exile FROM origin, the opposite motion) in describing a specific, individuated descent INTO a particular body or form.
The divine being takes on a specific, bounded physical form to wrestle with Jacob at the Jabbok, a discrete act of divine descent into corporeal engagement rather than diffuse presence.
Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.
Jacob's plea 'I will not let thee go, except thou bless me' is direct petitionary address to the divine, and the entire wrestling scene functions as embodied prayer.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The divine utterance 'Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel' directly alters reality through spoken word, and the blessing is a performative act of divine speech.