Bible Strands
Genesis 32:31
The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jacob stands alone at Peniel immediately after a night of wrestling, as dawn breaks following his direct encounter with God.
The words — הַ/שֶּׁ֔מֶשׁ (ha./She.mesh) denotes the sun rising, while צֹלֵ֖עַ (tzo.Le.a') describes his physical state as limping.
The thread — The sunrise motif mirrors Genesis 19:15 and 19:23, where dawn marks divine intervention and deliverance, while the lasting physical mark parallels the enduring "thorn" in 2 Corinthians 12:7.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine encounter leaves a permanent physical mark, requiring the recipient to live under its ongoing reality without erasure.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
Cross-references
- 2 Corinthians 12:7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
- Genesis 19:15 At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”
- Genesis 19:23 And by the time the sun had risen over the land, Lot had reached Zoar.
- 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.
- Judges 8:8 From there he went up to Penuel and asked the same from them, but the men of Penuel gave the same response as the men of Succoth.
- Psalms 38:17 For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me.
- Malachi 4:2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.
- 2 Corinthians 12:9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.