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, 401$1$; DB, v. 640). For the concealment of the name, cf. Ju. 13$18$ (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. 33$11$, Dt. 34$10$), and yet lived (see on 16$13$).—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 (RS$2$, 380$1$); and

Ass. Sir-'-lai (= ) (see Kittel, SBOT Chronicles, p. 58). Comp. also Che. TBI, 404.—[Hebrew]] G, Aq. , Σ. , V fortis fuisti, S , T$O$ .—31. ] G, [E]ΣVS read as v.$32$. The formal difference arises from the old case-endings of gen. and nom. (G-K. § 90 o). Strabo (. ii. 16, 18) mentions a Phœnician promontory near Tripolis called : it is not improbable that in both cases the name is derived from a fancied resemblance to a face.—33. ] 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 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 ( = tetanus-nerve), and by G and V, which appear to have connected with the vb. for 'forget' (Gr.-Venet, !). 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."