Genesis 32:26

And he said, let me go, for the day breaketh,.... This was said that he might seem to be a man that was desirous of going about his business, as men do early in the morning; though the true reason

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. There wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day - an unknown person appeared suddenly to oppose his entrance into Canaan.

And he said, Let me go: he saith this, partly to show the prevailing power of his prayer with God, and partly to quicken and encourage Jacob to persist in his conflict. Compare . The day breaketh, and I am not willing that there should be any spectators or witnesses of these things. Except thou bless me with the blessings which thou hast promised to Abraham and to me, among which one is protection in this hour of my danger. For Jacob now began to think that it was no man, nor ordinary angel, that was with him, but God himself, as he saith, .

Genesis 32:26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.Ver. 26. Let me go, &c.] Pugna suum finem, cum rogat hostis, habet. Jacob, though lamed, and hard laid at, will not let Christ go without a blessing: to teach us, as our Saviour did, by the parable of the importunate widow, to persevere in prayer, and to devour all discouragements. Jacob holds with his hands, when his joints were out of joint. The woman of Canaan will not be put off, either with silence or sad answers. The importunate widow teacheth us to press God so far, till we put him to the blush, yea, leave a blot in his face (as the word there used signifies, υπωπιαζη, Luke 18:5), unless we be masters of our request. Latimer so plied the throne of grace with his, Once again, once again, restore the gospel to England, that he would have no nay at God’ s hands. He many times continued kneeling and knocking so long together, that he was not able to rise without help. His knees were grown hard like camels’ knees, as Eusebius reports of James, the Lord’ s brother. Paul "prayed thrice," that is, often, till he had his desire. Nay, Paulus Aemelius, the Roman general, began to fight against Perses, king of Macedonia, when, as he had sacrificed to his god Hercules and it proved not to his mind, he slew twenty various sacrifices one after another; and would not stop till in the one and twentieth he had descried certain arguments of victory. Surely his superstition shames our indevotion, his importunity our faint heartedness and shortness of spirit. Surely, as painfulness of speaking shows a sick body, so doth irksomeness of praying a sick soul. Act. and Mon. Sabellicus.

(26) Let me go . . . —Heb., send me away, for the gleam of morning has gone up. The asking of permission to depart was the acknowledgment of defeat. The struggle must end at daybreak, because Jacob must now go to do his duty; and the wrestling had been for the purpose of giving him courage, and enabling him to meet danger and difficulty in the power of faith. A curious Jewish idea is that the angel was that one whose duty it was to defend and protect Esau. By the aid of his own protecting angel Jacob, they say, had overpowered him, and had won the birthright and the precedence as “Israel, a prince with God and man.” Except thou bless me.—The vanquished must yield the spoil to the victor; and Jacob, who had gradually become aware that the being who was wrestling with him was something more than man, asks of him, as his ransom, a blessing.

Verse 26. Let me go, for the day breaketh] Probably meaning, that as it was now morning, Jacob must rejoin his wives and children, and proceed on their journey. Though phantoms are supposed to disappear when the sun rises, that could be no reason in this case. Most of the angelic appearances mentioned in the Old and New Testaments took place in open day, which put their reality out of question.

26. the day breaketh] A survival of the old belief that unearthly visitants of the night must be gone before daybreak. In Plautus, Amphitr. 532f., Jupiter says, “Cur me tenes? Tempus est: exire ex urbe, priusquam lucescat, volo.” Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act i. Scene i.: “Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing.” See note on Genesis 19:15; Genesis 19:23. except thou bless me] Jacob had suddenly realized, through the touch of physical suffering, that he was in the grasp of more than mortal power. He neither shrinks, nor desists, but maintains his hold and asks for a blessing.

26. Let me go — He had power to free himself from Jacob’s grasp as easily as he touched his thigh. But still he accommodates himself to Jacob’s condition and needs, that he may teach a lesson for all ages.