Therefore the children of Israel eat not [of] the sinew which shrank, which [is] upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.
32. Therefore the children of Israel ] The Compiler adds this note, which explains the Israelite custom of abstaining from eating the muscle in an animal, corresponding to the muscle, or sinew, in the thigh of Jacob that was touched by God: it was regarded as sacred.
This tendon is commonly supposed to be the sciatic muscle, nervus ischiaticus, running from the thigh to the ankle. No mention of this practice of ritual abstinence occurs in the Levitical law; but it is referred to in the Talmud Tract Chullin, cap. vii.
he touched ] The subject to the verb is not expressed, out of motives of reverence.
“The nature of the lameness produced by injury to the sinew of the thigh socket is explained by the Arabic lexx., s.v. rifat; the man can only walk on the tips of his toes” (!). Robertson Smith, Rel. Sem (380, n. 1).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 32. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew] What this sinew was neither Jew nor Christian can tell; and it can add nothing either to science, or to a true understanding of the text, to multiply conjectures. I have already supposed that the part which the angel touched or struck was the groin; and if this be right, the sinew, nerve, or muscle that shrank, must be sought for in that place.
THE serious reader must meet with much instruction in this chapter.
1. After his reconciliation with Laban, Jacob proceeds on his way to Canaan; and as God, who was continually watching for his welfare, saw the trials to which he would shortly be exposed, therefore he provided for him the instructive vision of angels, that he might see that those who were for him were more than those who could be against him. A proper consideration of God’s omniscience is of the utmost advantage to every genuine Christian. He knows whereof we are made, he remembers that we are but dust, he sees our trials and difficulties, and his eye affects his heart. Hence he is ever devising means that his banished-be not expelled from him.
2. Jacob’s recollection of his unkindness and injustice to his brother, when he hears that he is coming to meet him, fills his soul with fear, and obliges him to betake himself to God by prayer and supplication. How important is the office of conscience! And how necessary are times of trial and difficulty when its voice is loudest, and the heart is best prepared to receive its reproofs! In how many cases has conscience slumbered till it pleased God to send some trial by which it has been powerfully awakened, and the salvation of the sinner was the result! Before I was afflicted I went astray.
3. Though salvation be the free gift of God, yet he gives it not to any who do not earnestly seek it. The deeper the conviction of guilt and helplessness is, the more earnest the application to God for mercy is likely to be. They whose salvation costs them strong crying and tears, are not likely (humanly speaking) to part with it lightly; they remember the vinegar and the gall, and they watch and pray that they enter not into temptation.
4. In the strife and agony requisite to enter in at the strait gate, it is highly necessary that we should know that the grace and salvation of God are not purchased by our tears, c. for those things which are only proofs and arguments that we have sinned, can never remove the iniquity of our transgressions. A sensible and pious man observes on this subject, “That prayer and wrestling with God should be made as though no other means were to be practised, and then the best means be adopted as though no prayer or wrestling had been used.” God marks even this strife, though highly pleasing in his sight, with such proofs of its own utter insufficiency, that we may carry about with us the memorial of our own weakness, worthlessness, and slowness of heart to believe. God smote the thigh of Jacob,
1. That he might know he had not prevailed by his own strength, but by the power and mercy of his God.
2. That he might, have the most sensible evidence of the reality of the Divine interposition in his behalf.
3. That he might see God’s displeasure against his unbelief. And
4. That men in general might be taught that those who will be the disciples of Christ must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and mortify their members which are upon the earth.
Those who have not cut off a right hand or foot, or plucked out a right eye, for the kingdom of heaven’s sake, are never likely to see God. The religion that costs us nothing, is to us worth nothing.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Not from any superstitious conceit about it, but only for a memorial of this admirable conflict, the blessed effects whereof even the future generations received.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
32. the sinew which shrankthenerve that fastens the thigh bone in its socket. The practice of theJews in abstaining from eating this in the flesh of animals, is notfounded on the law of Moses, but is merely a traditional usage. Thesinew is carefully extracted; and where there are no persons skilledenough for that operation, they do not make use of the hind legs atall.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore the children of Israel eat not [of] the sinew which shrank,…. Which was contracted by the touch of the angel, and by which it was weakened and benumbed; or the sinew of the part that was out of joint, the sinew or tendon that keeps the thigh bone in the socket, together with the flesh that covered it, or the muscle in which it is; or that sinew, others, that contracts itself and gives motion to the thigh bone to work itself: of this the Israelites eat not:
which [is] upon the hollow of the thigh; or the cap of it:
unto this day; when Moses wrote this history:
because he [the angel] touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, in the sinew that shrank; and very superstitiously do they abstain from it unto this day: they have a whole chapter in one of their treatises in the Misnah l, giving rules concerning it; where it is forbidden to eat of it, whether in the land of Israel or out of it; whether in common food or sacrifices, even in burnt offerings it was to be taken out; and whether in cattle of the house or of the field; and both in the right and left thigh, but not in fowls, because they have no hollow, and butchers are not to be trusted; and whoever eats of it to the quantity of an olive is to be beaten with forty stripes; and because the Jews are more ignorant of this nerve, as Mercer observes, therefore they abstain from all nerves in the posteriors of animals. Leo of Modena says m, of what beast soever they eat, they are very careful to take away all the fat and the sinew which shrunk: and hence it is, that in many places in Italy, and especially in Germany, they eat not at all of the hinder quarters of ox, lamb, or goat; because there is in those parts of the beast both very much fat, and also the forbidden sinew; and it asketh so much care to cleanse the parts of these, that there are few that are able to do it, or dare to undertake it.
l Cholin. c. 7. sect. 1. 3. m History of the Rites, Customs, &c. of the Jews, part 2. c. 7. sect. 3. p. 91. 92.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
With the rising of the sun after the night of his conflict, the night of anguish and fear also passed away from Jacob’s mind, so that he was able to leave Pnuel in comfort, and go forward on his journey. The dislocation of the thigh alone remained. For this reason the children of Israel are accustomed to avoid eating the nervus ischiadicus , the principal nerve in the neighbourhood of the hip, which is easily injured by any violent strain in wrestling. “ Unto this day: ” the remark is applicable still.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(32) The sinew which shrank.This translation has much authority in its favour, as the LXX. render the sinew that became numb, and the Vulgate the sinew that withered. More probably, however, it is the proper name for the large tendon which takes its origin from the spinal cord, and extends down the thigh unto the ankle. Technically it is called nervus ischiaticus, and by the Greeks was named tendo Achillis, because it reaches to the heel. Jewish commentators notice that this was the second special ordinance imposed upon the race of Abraham, circumcision having been enjoined upon them by God, while this grew out of an historical event in the life of their progenitor, to the reality of which it bears remarkable testimony.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
32. Eat not the sinew which shrank This is understood of the ischiadic, or sciatic nerve, extending from the thigh bone downwards .
Even to the present day the Jews religiously abstain from eating this sinew in animals.
The narrative of Jacob’s experiences in this chapter is wonderfully suggestive. We trace the struggles of a man of great natural endowments from the period of a mighty awakening to a mighty triumph. Released from Laban, he turns his face towards the Land of Promise, but before he enters it, he must be made to know more of himself and more of God. His acquaintance with God, thus far, has been only general, formal, and not sufficient to work any deep spiritual change in his inner life. He has stood altogether in his own strength. He obtained Esau’s birthright by taking advantage of him at an hour of want. He obtained Isaac’s blessing by guile. He had practiced many an artifice against Laban, and in their recent interview he had said much more about his own works than about the blessing of God. It is time for him to be humbled. First, then, comes the vision of angels at Mahanaim. But immediately after that he sends messengers to Esau with words that show great leaning to his own devices. Then follows the report of Esau’s coming with four hundred men, and fear and trembling take hold of Jacob’s soul. In his excitement and distress he plans for possible escape; but having little hope in that way, he turns to God in prayer. See notes on Gen 32:9-12. Then he sets apart a princely present for his brother. He would fain make restitution for the wrongs of other days. He sends the present on by night. Still he cannot rest, and gets up in the night, and sends his family forward over the Jabbok. He is all excitement and emotion; and now, having done all he can, he lingers behind alone. Then comes the wonderful struggle with the angel, which was, in its first hours, like all the course of his life thus far, a struggle against God. God lets him wrestle, to know all his strength, and to find in the end that it is altogether weakness. At last a touch of the divine power breaks all Jacob’s energy, and opens his eyes to see that he struggles not with man, but with God. It is a wondrous revelation that thus bursts upon his soul. It brings to him at once a conviction of the divine mercy as well as of divine power. Thus he is made “confident in self-despair,” and learns, what every child of saving faith may know, that victory with God is had, not by a wrestling against him, but a confident clinging to him. Then and thus he obtained the new and princely name, and the blessing of God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘That is why the children of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the hollow of the thigh to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.’
This explanatory information was a later comment probably added when the whole was brought together, either in the time of Moses or earlier.
Gen 33:1 a
‘And Jacob lifted up his eyes and behold Esau came and with him four hundred men.’
The opening phrase is general. There is no necessary direct connection with a previous statement. Thus we not know how long he had to wait for the arrival of Esau. But eventually he came and with him his band of warriors. Esau has come a long way to meet his brother, seemingly out of the great love he has for his brother after twenty years of separation. But this is something Jacob cannot conceive of. He only fears his brother Esau.
Such a band of warriors would live off the land to the detriment of the inhabitants. Only the stronger groups would be safe from their depredations (compare 1Sa 25:15-16 which portrays what could have been the situation without David’s protection). Esau’s kindness to Jacob was probably not reflected in his behaviour towards others. He may well have seen this foray as a means of increasing his wealth as well as being as a welcome to Jacob.
Gen 33:1-2 (1b-2)
‘And he divided the children to Leah, and to Rachel and to the two handmaids. And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the back.’
Jacob now prepares his family ready for the brotherly meeting. There can be no doubting the purpose of the arrangement. If there was trouble those at the back would have a better chance of escaping. But no one would have expected Jacob to do any other apart from his preference for Rachel.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Perhaps this custom was piously observed by the Israelites, in order to keep alive the remembrance how prevailing fervent prayer is, as manifested in this instance of their Great Ancestor.
REFLECTIONS
Reader! I charge you not to close your review of this lovely chapter, which under God’s teachings hath refreshed the minds of thousands, and will continue so to do until time shall be no more, without first gathering to yourself some of the many sweet things it speaks of to the people of God. You see, in the Patriarch’s instance, how those unto whom angels minister, and even unto whom Jesus himself is revealed, may, and will, be exercised with many sharp and trying dispensations. Are you thus exercised in the spiritual warfare? Do you know what it is to have the ministry of angels meeting you in the way to Canaan? Do the seed of Esau come forth, to obstruct your path? And are you thereby constrained to seek aid from God? What nights of wrestlings in prayer have you counted? What days of sunshine have broken in upon your soul, to manifest divine communions? Can you call to mind the brook, the place, the time, when you have sent away the best and tenderest of all earthly endearments, that you might be left alone to enjoy the visits of God your Saviour.
Let these and the like questions arise in your minds, from the perusal of this chapter. And may the same gracious Covenant God and Saviour, (for he is the same yesterday, today, and forever,) grant both to you and to me, that in our going home to our Father’s house, like the Patriarch, Jesus’s host may meet us, and give us comfort: nay, may Jesus himself be there, in every step of the way; that Jordan’s waves, and the valley of the shadow of death, that lie between, may not affright: for when he is near, his rod and staff shall comfort. So will goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our life, till we come to dwell in the house of our God forever.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 32:32 Therefore the children of Israel eat not [of] the sinew which shrank, which [is] upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.
Ver. 32. Therefore the children, &c. ] This custom, Josephus saith, continued till his time. A ceremony indifferent in itself, and good by institution (in remembrance of that famous conquest), might become evil by abuse, if it turned into superstition.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
sinew = the ligament of the hip joint.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
eat not: 1Sa 5:5
Reciprocal: Gen 32:25 – touched 1Ch 13:11 – to this day