Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk Kejadian 32:6

with a stone We might think that this is a collective noun, as in “I have ox and donkey” [Genesis 32:6]; however, the words of the tradition [Sanhedrin 45a] are true.

Bahya writes here. Why did the verse here write oxen and asses first, and then sheep? The Torah would first write the sheep, since they are the most important of all the animals, as we find with Abraham, “I acquired sheep and cattle” [Genesis, 12:16], and concerning Jacob, “he had many sheep, goats and cattle” [30:43]. The explanation is that Jacob did not want to mention sheep and goats, since he thought: I took the blessing from Esau through sheep and goats. I took a young goat from the pen and I slaughtered it and made food for my father. I put the fur on my hands and my throat, so that Isaac should not recognize me. That is why Jacob did not want to mention “I have sheep,” but he first mentioned, “I have oxen and asses.” This is also why later in the Torah portion, when Esau appeared to Jacob and Jacob saw that Esau was at peace with him, Jacob first mentioned sheep, and afterwards oxen and asses. The Midrash writes that he first mentioned oxen and asses. This shows us that Joseph was called ox and he was the adversary of Esau. That is to say, Jacob showed Esau that he was not afraid, since he had the help of Joseph.⁸Bahya, Genesis, 32:6.

And the proof of this is that with my staff alone I crossed this Jordan. I was completely empty-handed, having nothing but my staff. And now I have become two camps. By saying and now, it indicates that it was as if he accumulated all this wealth just now, in the blink of an eye. For he worked 14 years for [Laban’s] two daughters and six years for his flocks, and when Laban said to him Name your wages and I will give them, in a short time he amassed great wealth and possessions, which naturally would have been impossible to acquire such enormous wealth in such a brief period, if not for the hand of God doing this. Even though Jacob sent the exact opposite message to Esau, as explained above in the verse I have acquired ox and donkey, he denied [the truth] out of fear, uttering falsehood by telling him that he had labored with his flocks for the full 20 years, but the truth is not so. For heaven forbid to say that Jacob would claim that his own strength and might made him this wealth. This is what is meant by and now I have become two camps — in the blink of an eye. For if he had already possessed flocks and cattle when he crossed the Jordan, I would say that his wealth increased through natural means. But now that he admitted that he crossed the Jordan with only his staff, when then did all this glory come into being from nothing? Surely this was from God. Therefore, he requested: Just as You fulfilled this second promise, so too fulfill the first promise that You made to me regarding protection. Save me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him. The word him [oto] is superfluous, but it alludes to that sin he committed by flattering the wicked and treating the sacred as mundane, and him refers to the sin. Some say that he was not afraid for himself since he was already promised protection, rather he feared lest [Esau] come and strike mothers with children, for they were not promised protection.