Commentaria in Genesim
Note: For “wrestled” the Hebrew is yeabek, which the Septuagint render “wrestled,” that is, he wrestled like a wrestler in the wrestling-school.
Second, Aquila and Symmachus render “he rolled,” that is, he turned and tossed himself with him, as wrestlers are wont to toss and twist one another, while one holds the other and the other strives to free himself and escape; whence it is plain that this wrestling was true, and properly so called. In like manner they think the word for wrestling derived from the dust with which wrestlers, in twisting, sprinkle themselves; although Plutarch would derive it from one word, meaning again; others from one meaning to throw down by guile and ambush; others from one meaning to approach; others from a word meaning four fingers joined together.
Third, properly the Hebrew yeabek signifies he was turned to dust, that is, descended into dust and sand, as Vatablus renders. For the root abak signifies dust; because wrestlers by the frequent stamping of their feet and swift and vehement movement raise dust, as in Virgil that bull, “who scatters the sand with his feet.”
Martin Roa adds, book vi, Singulars, last chapter; that in the word “to be dusted” allusion is made to the custom of the wrestling-grounds of the Greeks and Romans, in which wrestlers sprinkled one another with dust, that they might hold each other the more easily and firmly when grasped.
Fourth, others render it differently: he wrestled, twisting himself about and striving to throw down and overturn his adversary by force; so that it is a metaphor taken from the wind. For as a strong wind whirls and overturns dust, and even men, so wrestlers strive to do; for the root abac signifies dust, which, stirred up by the wind, is violently whirled about, tossed and scattered. But this metaphor is rather remote and far-fetched; for abac signifies any dust at all, absolutely and simply. The Wise Man alludes to this, Wisdom chapter 10, verse 10, where, speaking of Jacob, he says: “She gave him a strong conflict, that he might overcome”; in the Greek it is a word meaning “to be victorious,” as if to say that God set before Jacob a hard struggle, and at the same time the rewards of the struggle, while He exposed him to the avarice of Laban, the anger of Esau and other enemies; and above all when He set an angel against him, by wrestling with whom and conquering he was called Israel, that is, ruling with God.
Note the words until morning. For Jacob teaches here by his own example that the night is not to be given wholly to sleep, but partly to prayer; and rightly does Clement complain of Alexandria, book 2 of the Pedagogue, chapter 9, that sleep, like a tax-gatherer, takes half of our life from us. Wherefore Jeremias, Lamentations 2:19, says: “Arise, give praise in the night, pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord.” For by night, says St. Chrysostom, “the soul, purer and lighter, sees sublime things, the dances of the stars, the deep silence,” and so on. And silence and “solitude,” says Nazianzen, oration 2, “is the mother of divine ascent,” that is, of prayer, making God out of man; and a little later he calls it his citadel, to which he was accustomed to retire when harassed by persecutions or temptations.
St. Ambrose says mystically, book 2 On Jacob, chapter 6: “What is it, he says, to wrestle with God, but to undertake the contest of virtue and to join battle with one who is higher, and to become a better imitator of God than the rest? And because his faith and devotion were unconquerable, the Lord revealed secret mysteries to him.”
25. And when he (the man, that is, the angel) saw that he could not overcome him (Jacob). From this it appears that, since Jacob persisted in the struggle, God withdrew his co-operation, and consequently the strength to resist, from the angel, so that he might be held and conquered by Jacob.
He touched. In Hebrew iigga, that is, he struck, hurt, dislocated.
The sinew of his thigh. In Hebrew it is caph, which signifies the vertebra, or the cotyle, that is, the cavity of the bone in which the upper part of the thigh is hidden, which in Greek is called the hip. Again, caph signifies that round and curved head of the thigh which is fitted into the hip; and so it is taken here. For the bone of the thigh itself, which is fitted into the cotyle or hip, was here moved from its place, not the cotyle or hip itself; as if to say, the thigh itself, the hip-joint of Jacob, was dislocated, because the angel loosened and dislocated the sinew, that is, the tendon, which joins the thigh or hip to its socket, or to the vertebra, that is, the upper bone, as our Interpreter translates it very well as to the sense.
Note: the angel injured and dislocated this tendon, as the one first to hand, by a violent blow and collision within, in the way wrestlers are accustomed, in order to get away, to touch, strike and wound the adversary wherever and however they can; and this so that Jacob might know that this wrestling of his with the angel was real, and that he had overcome the angel not by his own strength but by God’s. For the angel, who could dislocate Jacob’s thigh, could surely have dislocated the rest of his limbs and crushed Jacob entirely, had God not hindered it. So Theodoret.
It withered. In Hebrew teka, that is, it was loosened, dislocated and stretched beyond measure, so that Jacob limped. The Septuagint and our version render it “withered,” because the sinew, moved from its place and dislocated, became as it were slack, numb and useless; whence in the last verse he is said to have been struck with numbness.
26. Let me go, for the dawn is now rising. In verse 25 the angel asks to be released, because, as day was breaking, he did not wish to show himself in the assumed body to Jacob, says Oleaster, and much less to Jacob’s servants, who were about to come to him, says St. Thomas; for divine and spiritual beings, such as an angel, are hidden things and above the grasp of men, and therefore escape men’s eyes.
I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Jacob said this with great feeling and longing; whence Osee, chapter 12, verse 3, says that Jacob sought this blessing with tears, and therefore obtained it, together with the new name Israel, which the angel gave him.
I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Josephus says that Jacob begged the angel that he might learn his fate from him, and that he was granted his prayer and petition; which is to be understood thus: not as though Jacob simply wished to know what was to befall him hereafter, but that the angel might pray for good fortune for him, and drive away the present evils which he feared from the approach of Esau.
Thy name shall not be called Jacob, but Israel. As if to say: Thou shalt be called not only Jacob but also Israel; for afterwards he was also called Jacob. See Canon 17.
Israel. Thou wilt ask what Israel signifies. First, St. Jerome explains Israel as if you were to say, upright of God; but this is opposed by the fact that the first letter of that word is written with the harsh sin, whereas Israel is written with the soft sin.
Second, St. Augustine, book 16 On the City of God, chapter 39, Philo, Nazianzen, Hilary, Eusebius and Prosper think that Israel is so called as if it were “a man seeing God”; but in the same way that word is written with schin, whereas Israel is written with sin.
Third, therefore, and genuinely, Israel is derived from sara el, that is, he has ruled with God; hence sar is called a lord and prince, and sara is the same as lady. Israel therefore is the same as ruling, or one who shall rule with God. For tisra, in Israel, can be taken as a future; although elsewhere in proper names the letter is usually added not as a future but as a formative. That this is the etymology of Israel is clear from the words of the angel; for he says:
“Thou shalt be called Israel,” because sarita, that is, thou hast prevailed and hast ruled with God. So the Septuagint, Theodotion, Symmachus, St. Jerome and Aquila, who translates, thou hast reigned with God, that is, against God, because thou hast prevailed over God Himself. He calls the angel God, as representing God and being God’s ambassador. “Israel is the same as prince with God; as if to say: As I am a prince, so thou also, who wert able to wrestle with me, shalt be called a prince. But if thou wert able to fight with me, who am God, how much more with men, that is, with Esau? Wherefore thou oughtest not to fear him,” says St. Jerome in the Hebrew Traditions.
This, therefore, is the blessing which the angel gives to Jacob who asked it, namely, that henceforth he should be called, and in fact be, Israel, so that he might know that, having so generously overcome God, that is, the angel who was God’s vicar and messenger, in the struggle, he would much more overcome Esau and all his enemies; as if to say: Fear not thy brother Esau, O Jacob; for by thy violent prayers with God, although as it were He resisted and wrestled with thee, thou hast obtained that against Esau and all thy enemies thou shouldst be of undaunted spirit, unconquerable and victorious. For this is the blessing here given to Jacob, says St. Thomas and Cajetan.