penuel
Penuel or Peniel, a place East of Jordan
The word
H6439
Where it stands
penuel is tagged 9 times, across 4 books: judges 4 · 1chronicles 2 · genesis 2 · 1kings 1.
Versions differ here
- {"n":"Genesis 32:30","s":"Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=genesis-32-30","r":"Genesis 32:30","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Every version reads Peniel or Penuel as a bare place name, with the explanation translated separately, correctly conveying both halves without showing that the name is built directly from the words explaining it."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"Imagine naming the exact spot of a life-changing encounter **Eye-to-Eye**, using the literal words for what just happened as the place's permanent name. That is exactly what Peniel, face of God, does, and English transliteration keeps the name while dropping the sentence it was built from."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Peniel, panim, face, plus el, God, is coined on the spot from Jacob's own statement, ra'iti elohim panim el panim, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved, the same construction, name built from the explaining sentence's own words, already used repeatedly for people's names across Genesis and now applied to a place."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English Peniel is a bare transliterated place name; the explanatory sentence beside it reads as ordinary narration rather than as the source material the name was extracted from, so the tight, immediate link between event and place name is not visible without the Hebrew."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"Genesis names both people and places by exactly this method, extracting the place or person's name directly from the sentence used to explain them. Once you notice the pattern for people's names, watch for the identical device applied to geography."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Peniel and its explanation are both translated accurately by every version. What none of them can show is that the place name itself is built from the explaining sentence, a structural feature of the Hebrew that transliteration and separate translation both obscure."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05e4\u05b0\u05bc\u05e0\u05b4\u05d9\u05d0\u05b5\u05dc Peniel (\u05e4\u05b8\u05bc\u05e0\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd panim, face + \u05d0\u05b5\u05dc el, God) \u00b7 H6439"}],"src":["The same naming-from-explanation device used for people: Genesis 4:1, 5:29, 25:26, 29:32-30:24","Peniel\/Penuel used interchangeably in the same short passage: Genesis 32:30-31"]}
Where it appears
- 1chronicles 4:4
- 1chronicles 8:25
- 1kings 12:25
- genesis 32:30
- genesis 32:31
- judges 8:8
- judges 8:9
- judges 8:17
