Texts in Conversation
In Genesis, a mysterious figure wrestles with Jacob alone through the night until morning. Exodus begins Moses’ return to Egypt with a similar violent encounter at night, where God confronts him at the place they stopped and tries to kill him.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 32:24
Hebrew Bible
23 He took them and sent them across the stream along with all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he struck the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.
Exodus 4:24
Hebrew Bible
23 and I said to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me,’ but since you have refused to let him go, I will surely kill your son, your firstborn!”’” 24 Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”
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Notes and References
“... M. Greenberg states that the attack in Exodus 4:24 is a deathly illness (following Ibn Ezra). 4:24-26 celebrates the apotropaic value of circumcision. The Palestinian Targumim ascribe atoning and saving power to the blood of circumcision; Ibn Ezra compares it with the Paschal blood that wards off the destroyer; Rashbam gives it the value of sacrifice. Yahweh’s nocturnal attack in 4:24 calls to mind Jacob’s nocturnal encounter with the man at the Jabbok in Genesis 32:22-32 [Hebrew 32:23-33] (following Rashbam). Moses angered God by his reluctance to accept his charge; taking along his family showed his half-heartedness. Jacob’s nocturnal struggle with the man was a premonition of Jacob’s meeting with Esau; and Moses’ nocturnal struggle with Yahweh was a premonition of the Passover night when the destroyer passed over the houses where the blood of the Paschal lamb was on the lintel (so Ibn Ezra and Rabbi Hizqia ben Manoah). ...”
Willis, John T.
Yahweh and Moses in Conflict: The Role of Exodus 4:24-26 in the Book of Exodus
(p. 162) Peter Lang, 2010
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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