More. That's why even today the people of Israel don't eat the hip muscle of any animal. The tendons and sinews of the body are uniformly (7 times) thus called. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on; . then shall the Lord be my God: and I will surely give the tenth [of what He bestows] back to Him. Nature, which always fears the circumstances it is in, shows itself to be at work under this form of piety, in order to find relief in God; but it does not get beyond their reach by such means. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacobs hip was touched near the tendon. Genesis 47:29. The Spirit says of us, "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts." Does the Bible Condemn Using Tarot Cards? 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. Therefore the children of Israel, unto this day, eat not the sinew, that shrank in Jacob's thigh: because he touched the sinew of his thigh and it shrank. The beginning is significant - "And Jacob went on his way" - which introduces us to his methods and plans for appeasing the wrath of his brother Esau, whom he feared. Do we bear about in the body "the dying of the Lord Jesus," that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body? to an ancestral thigh an angel punningly made paralytic. He is a prince indeed that is a prince with God; those are truly honourable that are mighty in prayer. Even today the descendants of Israel do not eat the muscle which is on the hip joint, because it was on this muscle that Jacob was hit. The fervent prayer is the effectual prayer. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, OT Law: Genesis 32:32 Therefore the children of Israel don't eat (Gen. Ge Gn). ), The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip. "It came to pass that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim," whom Jacob claimed as his own, saying, "as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine." "The birthright" and "the blessing" are ordained of God to us in the Son of His love. Therefore the children of Israel cat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day, si vel nullo cogna-tionis gradu Jacobum attingat. "They journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed" in birth with her son. Thigh | Biblical Training General Editor. Jacob can no longer say, "The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not;" for God had come down to him, and changed him into a prevailer "with God and with men." Finally, why should we not eat the gid ha-nashe simply because this part of Jacob was wounded during the fight? On the contrary, unbelief and carnal policy, carefully wrapped up in their own fears, betray themselves by the very expedients to which they have recourse, as well as by their style of action. In the bright record of those "who obtained a good report through faith," this last act of the order of the birthright, and of the blessing upon Ephraim and Manasseh, stands out as sufficiently remarkable to memorialize Israel. And even then, and only then, will his method of teaching and dealing with people be clearly and fully understood. The angels of God henceforth, Jesus said, ascend and descend upon the Son of Man., God will not, however, allow anything in the man at the foot of the ladder to interfere with His purposes and objects; on the contrary, the promises are repeated and confirmed to Jacob, without condition or reserve on the part of God; for who or what can withstand Him when He is risen up out of His place? Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Incorrect password. From Jacobs describing this individual as godly (Bereshit 32:31), it would appear that this foe was not just a senseless human being bent on hurting a fellow human being, but a heavenly angel sent by G-d to impress a lesson upon Jacob and those to whom this event is reported. Without these elements our worship will be impoverished, and the worshipper be feeble. the sinew which shrankthe nerve that fastens the thigh bone in its socket. (l) Cholin. This entire change from the garments they wore, to the altar of their worship, and the stripping themselves of their ornaments, as well as the denial of the strange gods that were in their hands, and their burial "under the oak, which was by Shechem," stamp another pattern upon Jacob. 29 Apr 2023 20:49:11 Therefore the Bnei Yisroel eat not of the sinew of the thigh vein (sciatic nerve) which is upon the hip socket, unto this day; because he touched the hip socket of Yaakov in the sinew of the thigh vein. It is an emblem of the true spirit of faith and prayer. The prophet Ezekiel saw in his vision (37:6,8) that the dry bones were gathered together, that they were covered with sinews, flesh and skin, and that they were revived by the spirit of the Lord. Translations for Genesis 32:32. The practice of the Jews in abstaining from eating this in the flesh of animals, is not founded on the law of Moses, but is merely a traditional usage. render the sinew that became numb, and the Vulgate the sinew that withered.