Wrestling

How Nave’s arranged it

• FIGURATIVEGenesis 30:8Genesis 32:24Genesis 32:25Ephesians 6:12

The passages, in Bible order (4)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 4 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 30:8

   Then Rachel said, “In my great struggles, I have wrestled with my sister and won.” So she named him Naphtali.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 30:82 voices

   “And Rachel said, with great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister,....

   “She called his name Naphtali - נפתלי naphtali, my wrestling, according to the common mode of interpretation; but it is more likely that the root פתל pathal signifies to twist or entwine. Hence Mr. Parkhurst translates the verse, “By the twistings - agency or operation, of God, I am entwisted with my sister; that is, my family is now entwined or interwoven with my sister’s family, and has a chance of producing the promised Seed.” The Septuagint, Aquila, and the Vulgate, have nearly the same meaning. It is, however, difficult to fix the true meaning of the original.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 30:8→

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2. Genesis 32:24

   So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 32:242 voices

   “We are told by the prophet ( Hos. xii. 4 ) how Jacob wrestled: he wept, and made supplication; prayers and tears were his weapons. It was not only a corporal, but a spiritual, wrestling, by the vigorous actings of faith and holy desire; and thus all the spiritual seed of Jacob, that pray in praying, still wrestle with God.

   “Lord, what will become of that promise, if they be all cut off? Jacob having piously made God his friend by a prayer, is here prudently endeavouring to make Esau his friend by a present. He had prayed to God to deliver him from the hand of Esau - His prayer did not make him presume upon God's mercy, without the use of means.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 32:24→

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3. Genesis 32:25

   When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 32:252 voices

   “Lord, what will become of that promise, if they be all cut off? Jacob having piously made God his friend by a prayer, is here prudently endeavouring to make Esau his friend by a present. He had prayed to God to deliver him from the hand of Esau - His prayer did not make him presume upon God's mercy, without the use of means.

   “And when he saw that he prevailed not against him,....

   Everything gathered on Genesis 32:25→

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4. Ephesians 6:12

   For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

   ›Commentary on Ephesians 6:122 voices

   “Greek, "For our wrestling ('the wrestling' in which we are engaged) is not against flesh," &c. Flesh and blood foes are Satan's mere tools, the real foe lurking behind them is Satan himself, with whom our conflict is.

   “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood - Ουκ εστιν ἡμιν ἡ παλη προς αἱμα και σαρκα· Our wrestling or contention is not with men like ourselves: flesh and blood is a Hebraism for men, or human beings. See the note on Gal 1:16. The word παλη implies the athletic exercises in the Olympic and other national games; and παλαιστρα was the place in which the contenders exercised. Here it signifies warfare in general. Against principalities - Αρχας· Chief rulers; beings of the first rank and order in their own kingdom.

   Everything gathered on Ephesians 6:12→

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