“You have struggled with God”
Genesis 32:28
Foreign wordSettledGod
Then the man said, 'Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.' (Genesis 32:28 BSB)
* Hebrew: Yisra'el, heard as 'he struggles with God' (from sarah, 'to strive,' plus El, 'God'); the nation's name records a night of wrestling.
What it sounds like today
A new name handed out as a reward for a good fight.
The cultural key
Names in Genesis are destiny. 'Jacob' (ya'aqob) meant 'heel-grabber,' the supplanter who came out gripping his brother's heel and spent his life grasping and deceiving. After a night wrestling a mysterious stranger by the Jabbok, he is renamed Israel (Yisra'el), 'he strives with God.' The name is not earned by winning a prize but pressed onto him by the very One he wrestled, and it will become the name of a whole nation defined by this limping, God-gripping struggle.
Recovered meaning
The supplanter who spent his life grabbing is renamed for the one fight he would not quit: holding onto God until dawn. Israel is a people named after a wrestling match, marked by a limp and a blessing they refused to let go.
Parallels: Genesis 35:10; Hosea 12:3–4