Expositor's Bible Commentary - Genesis 32:1-32
JACOB AT PENIELGenesis 32:1-32"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." James 4:10JACOB had a double reason for wishing to leave Padan-aram. He believed in the promise of God to give him Canaan: and he saw that Laban was a man with whom he could never be on a thoroughly good understanding. He saw plainly that Laban was resolved to make what he could out of his skill at as cheap a rate as possible-the characteristic of a selfish, greedy, ungrateful, and therefore,... read more
Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Genesis 32:1-32
Jacob the Aspiring Genesis 32:1 We are accustomed to think of Jacob as a character of lights and shadows mingling without reason. I. As commonly understood, the portrait of this man does present an inconsistency. This apparently bad man has a beautiful dream, so beautiful that it has become immortal. What the best men of the past had not seen this fraudulent youth beholds. II. Why did the artist give such a vision to such a man? The previous life of Jacob had not been that prosaic thing which... read more