Discovery BoxGenesis 32:28 
Context32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, 1 “but Israel, 2 because you have fought 3 with God and with men and have prevailed.”
Genesis 32:30
Context32:30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, 4 explaining, 5 “Certainly 6 I have seen God face to face 7 and have survived.” 8
1 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.
2 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
3 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).
4 sn The name Peniel means “face of God.” Since Jacob saw God face to face here, the name is appropriate.
5 tn The word “explaining” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
6 tn Or “because.”
7 sn I have seen God face to face. See the note on the name “Peniel” earlier in the verse.
8 tn Heb “and my soul [= life] has been preserved.”
sn I have survived. It was commonly understood that no one could see God and live (Gen 48:16; Exod 19:21, 24:10; and Judg 6:11, 22). On the surface Jacob seems to be saying that he saw God and survived. But the statement may have a double meaning, in light of his prayer for deliverance in v. 11. Jacob recognizes that he has survived his encounter with God and that his safety has now been guaranteed.
