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Genesis 32

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1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

2 And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother, to the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak to my lord Esau: Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there till now:

5 And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and men-servants, and women-servants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.

6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he is coming to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.

7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid, and distressed: and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks, and herds, and camels, into two bands;

8 And said, If Esau shall come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left, will escape.

9 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who saidst to me, Return to thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee;

10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shown to thy servant: for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.

11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he shall come and smite me, and the mother with the children.

12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

13 And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau, his brother;

14 Two hundred she-goats, and twenty he-goats, Two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

15 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten foals.

16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said to his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove.

17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau, my brother, meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?

18 Then thou shalt say, They are thy servant Jacob's: it is a present sent to my lord Esau: and behold also he is behind us.

19 And so he commanded the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, In this manner shall ye speak to Esau, when ye find him.

20 And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.

21 So the present went over before him; and he himself lodged that night in the company.

22 And he arose that night, and took his two wives, and his two women-servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.

23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that which he had.

24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him, until the breaking of the day.

25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh: and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.

26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh; And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

27 And he said to him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.

28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed.

29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name: And he said, why is it that thou dost ask after my name? and he blessed him there.

30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

31 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.

32 Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrunk, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, to this day; because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrunk.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4301

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4301. 'As he passed over Penuel' means a state of truth within good. This is clear from the meaning of 'Penuel' as a state of truth within good. It was the Jabbok that Jacob passed over first when he entered the land of Canaan, by which the first instillation of the affections for truth is meant, see 4270, 4271, whereas it is Penuel which he passes over now. Hence 'Penuel' means a state of truth that has been instilled into good. The subject is also the joining of the one kind of good to the other; but good is not good unless it has truth within it, for good derives its specific nature as well as its form from truth' so much so that good cannot with anyone be called good unless truth is present within it. But truth acquires its essence and consequently its life from good. This being so and the joining of the one kind of good to the other being the subject, the state of truth within good is dealt with too.

[2] As for the state of truth within good, this can indeed be described but no one can grasp what it is except those who have celestial perception. People who do not have this perception cannot even have any concept of the joining of truth to good, since for them truth lies in obscurity. Indeed they call the truth that which they have learned from matters of doctrine, and they call good that which is done in accordance with that truth. But those who do have perception have an understanding or mental sight that dwells in heavenly light, and they take delight in truths which are joined to good, just as the eye or physical sight takes delight in flowers growing in gardens and meadows in springtime. And people who have interior perception take delight so to speak in the lovely scent coming from them. Such is the angelic state, and therefore those angels perceive all the differences and all the variations that go with the instillation of truth into good and the joining together of them one within the other. So they perceive immeasurably more than man does, for man does not even know of any such instillation and joining together and that it is in this way that man becomes spiritual.

[3] But so that people may have some concept of this matter a brief statement must be made about it. There are two things which constitute the internal man - understanding and will. To the understanding truths belong and to the will goods, for that which a person knows and understands to be true he calls the truth, and that which he does from the will, and so that which he wills, he calls good. These two abilities must constitute a single unit. This may be illustrated by comparison with the sight of the eye and with the pleasure and delight which is experienced through the use of this sight. When the eye beholds objects it takes pleasure and delight in their form and colour and the resulting beauty which these bring to the objects as a whole and to the individual parts; in short it takes delight in the order or patterns in these. That pleasure and delight does not belong to the eye but to the mind (animus) and its affection. And insofar as a person has any affection for them he beholds them and retains them in his memory. But things which the eye beholds without any affection for them slip away and are not sown in the memory and so made part of it.

[4] From this it is evident that the objects of external sight are implanted insofar as there exists the pleasure and delight that go with affections for them, and that those objects are present in that pleasure and delight. For whenever much the same pleasure or delight occurs such objects return with them; and likewise whenever much the same objects are seen again such pleasure and delight returns with them, though with variations that depend on the states involved. A similar situation exists with the understanding, which is internal sight. The objects of that sight am spiritual and are called truths, for the field in which those objects are active is the memory, and the pleasure and delight associated with that sight is good. So it is good in which truths are sown and implanted. From this one may gain some idea of what the instillation of truth into good is and the joining together of them one within the other, also some idea of what that good is which is the subject here, a kind of good about which angels perceive countless things, whereas man perceives scarcely anything.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.