Discovery BoxGenesis 14:9 
Context14:9 Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of nations, 1 Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar. Four kings fought against 2 five.
Genesis 30:8
Context30:8 Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.” 3 So she named him Naphtali. 4
Genesis 32:28
Context32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, 5 “but Israel, 6 because you have fought 7 with God and with men and have prevailed.”
1 tn Or “Goyim.” See the note on the word “nations” in 14:1.
2 tn The Hebrew text has simply “against.” The word “fought” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 tn Heb “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister, also I have prevailed.” The phrase “mighty struggle” reads literally “struggles of God.” The plural participle “struggles” reflects the ongoing nature of the struggle, while the divine name is used here idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the struggle. See J. Skinner, Genesis (ICC), 387.
4 sn The name Naphtali (נַפְתָּלִי, naftali) must mean something like “my struggle” in view of the statement Rachel made in the preceding clause. The name plays on this earlier statement, “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister.”
5 tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
6 sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the
7 sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).
