grew stiff while he wrestled with Him. And He said, Let Me go, for the day breaketh. But
he said, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me. And He said to him, What is thy name?
And he said, Jacob. And He said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel shall
be thy name; for thou hast prevailed with God, and with men shalt be powerful. And Jacob
asked Him, and said, Tell me Thy name. But he said, Why dost thou ask after My name?
And He blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of that place Peniel,390 for I saw God
face to face, and my soul rejoiced.’391 And again, in other terms, referring to the same Jacob,
it says the following: ‘And Jacob came to Luz, in the land of Canaan, which is Bethel, he and
all the people that were with him. And there he built an altar, and called the name of that
place Bethel; for there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother Esau.
And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and
Jacob called the name of it The Oak of Sorrow. And God appeared again to Jacob in Luz,
when he came out from Mesopotamia in Syria, and He blessed him. And God said to him,
Thy name shall be no more called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name.’392 He is called God,
and He is and shall be God.” And when all had agreed on these grounds, I continued:
“Moreover, I consider it necessary to repeat to you the words which narrate how He who
is both Angel and God and Lord, and who appeared as a man to Abraham, and who wrestled
in human form with Jacob, was seen by him when he fled from his brother Esau. They are
as follows: ‘And Jacob went out from the well of the oath,393 and went toward Charran.394
And he lighted on a spot, and slept there, for the sun was set; and he gathered of the stones
of the place, and put them under his head. And he slept in that place; and he dreamed, and,
behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, whose top reached to heaven; and the angels of
God ascended and descended upon it. And the Lord stood395 above it, and He said, I am
the Lord, the God of Abraham thy father, and of Isaac; be not afraid: the land whereon thou
liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and
shall be extended to the west, and south, and north, and east: and in thee, and in thy seed,
shall all families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, keeping thee in every
way wherein thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee,
until I have done all that I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and
said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How
dreadful is this place! this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
390 Literally, “the face of God.”
391 Gen. xxxii. 22–30.
392 Gen. xxxv. 6–10.
393 Or, “Beersheba.”
394 So, LXX. and N.T.; Heb. “Haran.”
395 Literally, “was set up.”
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Chapter LVIII.—The same is proved from the visions which appeared to Ja…