Genesis 32:32 - Exposition

Therefore the children of Israel cat not of the sinew which shrank,— the gid hannasheh , rendered by the LXX . τὸ νεῦρον ὅ ἐνάρκησεν, the nerve which became numb, and by the Vulgate nervus qui emarcuit , the nerve which withered, is the long tendon or sinew nervus ischiaticus (the tends Achillis of the Greeks) reaching from the spinal marrow to the ankle. The derivation of hannasheh is unknown (Gesenius), though the LXX . appear to have connected it with nashah , to dislocate, become feeble; Ainsworth with nashah , to forget ( i . e . the sinew that forgot its place), and Furst with nashah , to be prolonged— which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day :— i . e . the day of Moses; though the custom continues to the present time among the Hebrews of cutting out this sinew from the beasts they kill and eat ( vide Ainsworth in loco ) ; but, according to Michaelis, eo nemo omnino mortalium, si vel nullo cognationis gradu Jacobum attingat, nemo Graecus, nemo barbarus vesci velit— because he ( i . e . the angel) touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.