Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/512

in this successful struggle with deity.—3O. Jacob vainly endeavours to extort a disclosure of the name of his antagonist. This is possibly an older variant of ^28f., belonging to a primitive phase of thought, where he who possesses the true name of a god can dispose of the power of its bearer (Che. TBI, 401¹; DB, v. 640). For the concealment of the name, cf. Ju. 13¹⁸ (the same words).—Gu. thinks that in the original narrative the name of the wrestler was actually revealed.—31. Pĕnî'ēl] 'Face of God' (v.i.). The name is derived from an incidental feature of the experience: that Jacob had seen "God face to face" (Ex. 33¹¹, Dt. 34¹⁰), and yet lived (see on 16¹³).—The site of Peniel is unknown: see Dri. ET, xiii. 457 ff., and Gen. 300 ff.—32. limping on his thigh] in consequence of the injury he had received (^26b). That he bore the hurt to his death, as a memorial of the conflict, is a gratuitous addition to the narrative.—33. The food-taboo here mentioned is nowhere else referred to in OT; and the Mishnic prohibition (Ḥullîn, 7) is probably dependent on this passage. Rob. Sm. explains it from the sacredness of the thigh as a seat of life (RS², 380¹);^[1] and

Ass. Sir-'-lai (= (Hebrew characters)) (see Kittel, SBOT Chronicles, p. 58). Comp. also Che. TBI, 404.—[Hebrew]] G (Greek characters), Aq. (Greek characters), Σ. (Greek characters), V fortis fuisti, S (Syriac characters), T^O (Hebrew characters).—31. (Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters), [E]ΣVS read (Hebrew characters) as v.³². The formal difference arises from the old case-endings of gen. and nom. (G-K. § 90 o). Strabo (XVI. ii. 16, 18) mentions a Phœnician promontory near Tripolis called (Greek characters): it is not improbable that in both cases the name is derived from a fancied resemblance to a face.—33. (Hebrew characters)] (Hebrew characters) is to be explained by Ar. nas^an (for nasay^un), which means the nervus ischiadicus, or the thigh in which it is found (Ges. Th. 921 f.). The question remains whether (Hebrew characters) denotes here a nerve, an artery, a sinew, or a muscle; the first seems by far the most probable. So it seems to have been understood by S ((Syriac characters) = tetanus-nerve), and by G and V, which appear to have connected (Hebrew characters) with the vb. for 'forget' (Gr.-Venet, (Greek characters)!). The modern Jewish restriction applies, according to De., to the "Spannader, d. h. die innere Ader des sogen. Hinterviertels mit Einschluss der äusseren und der Verästelungen beider."

1. "The nature of the lameness produced by injury to the sinew of the thigh socket is explained by the Arabic lexx., s.v. ḥārifat; the man can only walk on the tips of his toes. This seems to have been a common affection, for poetical metaphors are taken from it."