What had Jacob been doing all night just before God changed his name to Israel?

Answer 1

A:In Genesis chapter 32, Jacob wrestled all night with a stranger, until it was time for the sun to come up and it was time for the stranger to leave. Jacob refused to let the stranger leave unless he blessed Jacob. The stranger, who was clearly a god, told Jacob that henceforth his name would no longer be Jacob, but instead be Israel, for he had wrestled with God. And if the opponent was a god, he was also a sun god - daybreak signalled the end of the contest, he had to leave Jacob before the sun could rise, then the sun rose upon Jacob. And Jacob, now Israel, named the place Peniel because he had seen God face to face.

A little later, after meeting his brother Esau, whom he had feared, Jacob went to Shalem, where he bought land and built an altar, calling the place El-elohe-Israel.

There is substantial evidence in The Bible itself that Jacob was originally a moon god before the story evolved into one of a human Patriarch, so when he wrestled all night with the god who blessed him and changed his name to Israel, this could have originated as the daily struggle in which the sun god defeats the moon god at dawn, after the moon god had prevailed all night. And not only was Jacob likely to have once been a moon god, but his twin brother and constant rival (even before birth), Esau, was likely to have been the sun god in the earliest version of their story. If so, the 'man' who wrestled with Jacob was another incarnation of his own brother, Esau.

The name Israel (Yisra'el) is commonly translated as "Wrestled with God", but it can also mean "Champion (or Prince) of God", "Striver with (or against) God", "Ruler (or Prince) over God", "God Prevails", "God Rules", "God will Rule", or possibly "God Who will Rule".

Later, Jacob went to Bethel, where he had previously fled from his brother Esau. In an apparently independent account Genesis 35:10-12), because God did not seem to know that Jacob had already been renamed Israel, God appeared to Jacob and told him that his name would no longer be Jacob, but instead be Israel, and that he would father a great nation in fulfilment of the covenant with Abraham and Isaac.

Answer 2

Jacob had been Wrestling with a man the entire night before God changed his name to Israel. This man was later revealed to be an angel of God.