Genesis 32
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Summary
Jacob fears Esau’s wrath and asks God to protect him from his brother. He prepares gifts for Esau and wrestles with a man who is a divine messenger, until the messenger agrees to bless him. He gives Jacob the new name Israel. Jacob calls the place where they wrested Peniel, meaning the face of God. Jacob sees God face to face.
Commentary
Bible Central Commentary
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Historical Commentaries
Many of the commentaries below are in the public domain and were authored over 100 years ago. In many cases, they do not reflect the findings of modern scholarship, but they may be helpful for understanding the history of biblical scholarship.
Videos
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Historical Settings
Time
*All Dates Are Approximate, according to the narrative of the Bible. These dates may reflect literary significance as opposed to the precise dates of history.
See Biblical Chronology- 1906 BC*
Further Reading
Book of Mormon Central, “How Did Enos Liken the Scriptures to His Own Life? (Enos 1:27),” KnoWhy 265 (January 23, 2017).
Matthew L. Bowen, “’And There Wrestled a Man with Him’ (Genesis 32:24): Enos’s Adaptations of the Onomastic Wordplay of Genesis,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 10 (2014): 151–160.
Matthew L Bowen, “’I Kneeled Down Before My Maker’: Allusions to Esau in the Book of Enos,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 27 (2017): 29–56.
Matthew L. Bowen, “Jacob’s Protector,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 27 (2017): 229–256.
Jamie J. Huston, “The Integration of Temples and Families: A Latter-day Saint Structure for the Jacob Cycle,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 13 (2015): 131–167.
Andrew C. Skinner, “Jacob in the Presence of God,” in Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo and Salt Lake City, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book 2005), 117–132.
Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible
Matthew Henry (1706)
Commentary on the Bible
Adam Clarke (1831)
Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable
Thomas Constable
Rashi’s Commentary
Rashi (Shlomo Yitzchaki)
Notes on the Bible
Albert Barnes (1834)
Exposition of the Entire Bible
John Gill (1746–63)
Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch (1857–78)
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible
John Wesley (1754–65)