Genesis 32:28

Summary

The speaker announces a change of name for Jacob, declaring that he will no longer be called Ya'aqov ("Jacob", H3290) but Yisra'El ("Israel", H3478). The reason given is that Jacob has struggled — grammatically, "wrestled" or "contended" — both with 'Elohim ("God", H0430G) and with 'anashim ("people/men", H0582), and has prevailed.

Key words

• yo'mer ("he said", H0559) — qal narrative imperfect form of the verb "to say," advancing the story sequence with the va- narrative prefix.
• ye'amer ("it will be called", H0559) — same root as above but in niphal (passive) imperfect: the passive voice shifts focus from an agent naming Jacob to the name itself being declared/used.
• Yisra'El ("Israel", H3478) — proper name introduced with the double conditional particle ki 'im ("except/but rather"), marking a strong contrastive exception to the preceding negation.
• sarita ("you have struggled", H8280) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular, denoting a completed action: the struggling is presented as already accomplished at the moment of speech.
• tukhal ("you have prevailed", H3201) — qal form joined by the narrative va-, continuing the sequence begun by sarita; it closes the clause with the outcome of the struggle.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative verb yo'mer ("he said", H0559), introducing direct speech. The core statement is built as a negation followed by an exception: lo' Ya'aqov ye'amer ("not Jacob will it be called") is countered by ki 'im Yisra'El ("except/but Israel"). The particle sequence ki... 'im (H3588B, H0518B) functions here as a fixed contrastive expression, meaning "but rather," which sets up the replacement name as the sole valid alternative, not merely one option among others.

The passive verb ye'amer ("it will be called", H0559) in niphal avoids naming an explicit agent who assigns the name — the text states that the name will be called/used differently, without grammatically specifying by whom. This contrasts with active naming formulas elsewhere in the text where a subject explicitly names something.

The causal clause beginning with ki ("for", H3588A) explains the name change: sarita 'im-'Elohim ve-'im-'anashim ("you have struggled with 'Elohim, H0430G, and with 'anashim, H0582"). The verb sarita ("you have struggled", H8280) is qal perfect, presenting the struggle as a completed fact prior to the speech act. The clause closes with va-tukhal ("and you have prevailed", H3201), using the narrative vav to link the outcome directly to the preceding struggle, structurally presenting "struggling" and "prevailing" as two sequential, completed actions.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the causal clause with enischysas meta theou ("you were strong with God") and adds dynatos ("powerful") regarding anthropon ("men"), diverging slightly from the Hebrew verb sarita ("you have struggled", H8280), which denotes contention rather than simple strength. The Vulgate phrases the clause as a rhetorical comparison — "if you were strong against God, how much more will you prevail against men" — introducing a conditional/comparative structure absent from the Hebrew's two parallel completed-action clauses joined by "and" (ve-, H9002).