² sn The name is spelled Penuel here, apparently a variant spelling of Peniel (see v. 30).

¹ sn The name Peniel means “face of God.” Since Jacob saw God face-to-face here, the name is appropriate.

⁴ sn I have seen God face-to-face. See the note on the name “Peniel” earlier in the verse.

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, yisraʾel), 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).