Midrash sur La Genèse 35:11

[(Gen. 35:9, 11:) NOW GOD APPEARED UNTO JACOB AGAIN]… < AND GOD SAID TO HIM: I AM GOD ALMIGHTY >. This text is related (to … Ps. 61:6 [5]): FOR YOU, O GOD, HAVE HEARKENED TO MY VOWS; < YOU HAVE GRANTED THE HERITAGE OF THOSE WHO FEAR YOUR NAME >. Isaac had a face with a visage like < that of > his father.⁸²Gk.: prosopon. On Isaac’s face being like that of Abraham, see Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Gen. 25:19; BM 87a. (Gen. 25:19:) THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM: ABRAHAM SIRED ISAAC. What is the meaning of ABRAHAM SIRED ISAAC? That he had a face with a visage like that of his father. Ergo (in Ps. 61:6 [5]): YOU HAVE GRANTED THE HERITAGE OF THOSE WHO FEAR YOUR NAME.⁸³According to BM 87a, Isaac’s visage miraculously became like that of Abraham and thereby demonstrated his paternity, i.e., that Isaac had a heritage. Just as Abraham had the Holy One speak with him at the age of ninety-nine years (in Gen. 17:1), so did Jacob have the Holy One speak with him at the age of ninety-nine years. Just as Abraham had the Holy One say to him (in Gen. 17:1): I AM GOD ALMIGHTY; BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY;⁸⁴These last four words are not found in the Masoretic Text. so did JACOB have him speak with him as God Almighty. It is so stated (in Gen. 35:9, 11:) NOW GOD APPEARED UNTO JACOB AGAIN … < AND GOD SAID TO HIM >: [I AM GOD ALMIGHTY); BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY.

(Gen. 35:11:) AND GOD SAID < TO HIM >: I AM GOD ALMIGHTY; BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY … [AND KINGS SHALL COME OUT OF YOUR LOINS]. The sages have said: On the basis of this text Abner drew an interpretation, as a result of which he enthroned Saul's son Ishbosheth,⁸⁸Gen. R. 82:4. namely, that Benjamin was going to produce two kings, since < God > had said to him: AND KINGS (in the plural) SHALL COME OUT OF YOUR LOINS.⁸⁹Abner’s argument was that, as a promise, the passage refers to the future and that the next event mentioned (in vss. 16-18) is the birth of Jacob’s last son, Benjamin. Now until then only Saul had arisen (as a king out of Benjamin). He therefore enthroned Saul's son Ishbosheth. And not only that, but also in < the incident of > the concubine at Gibeah (Jud. 19-21), {< the Israelites > had readmitted him (i.e., Benjamin)}. R. Samuel bar Nahman said: < They did so > on the basis of this text. When they had opposed him, they had said (in Jud. 21:1): NONE OF US SHALL GIVE HIS DAUGHTER IN MARRIAGE TO BENJAMIN. Thus they had banished him, but they later repented and accepted him. They said: If he were not more exalted than the heavens, the Holy One would not have said to our father Jacob (in Gen. 35:11), when he came < back > to the land from abroad: AND KINGS SHALL COME OUT OF YOUR LOINS. Thus on the basis of this text they readmitted him.

Another interpretation (of Gen. 35:11): I AM GOD ALMIGHTY. Aquila translated (in his Greek version): I AM TRUSTWORTHY TO REPAY TO EVERYONE ACCORDING TO HIS WORKS.⁹⁰Apart from this reference in the Buber Tanhuma, all other evidence indicates that Aquila regularly translated GOD ALMIGHTY (El Shadday) with the Greek words ischyros and hikanos, which mean “mighty” and “sufficient.” So Joseph Reider and Nigel Turner, An Index to Aquila (“Supplements to Vetus Testamentum,” 12; Leiden: Brill, 1966), s.v., hikanos, ischyros, El, and Shadday; so also Gen. R. 46:3, as interpreted by Reider, Prolegomena to a Greek-Hebrew and Hebrew-Greek Index to Aquila, 1913 Dropsie College Ph.D. thesis (Philadelphia: Dropsie, 1916), p. 152.