Yea, he had {e} power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: {f} he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;

(e) Read Ge 32:24-32.

(f) God found Jacob as he lay sleeping in Bethel Ge 28:12, and spoke with him there in such a way that the fruit of that speech appertained to the whole body of the people, of which we are.

Wesley's Notes

12:4 The angel - Called ver.3, God; and ver.5, Jehovah, Lord of hosts. He was no created angel, but the Messiah; eternal God by nature and essence, angel by office, and voluntary undertaking. He wept - He prayed with tears from a sense of his own unworthiness, and with earnestness for the mercy he desired. He - God. Him - Jacob full of weariness, fears, and solicitude on his journey to Laban. He - God. With us - Being then in Jacob's loins.

Scofield Reference Notes

Margin angel

See Scofield Note: "Heb 1:4".

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. the angel-the uncreated Angel of the Covenant, as God the Son appears in the Old Testament (Mal 3:1).

made supplication-Ge 32:26: "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."

he found him-The angel found Jacob, when he was fleeing from Esau into Syria: the Lord appearing to him "in Beth-el" (Ge 28:11-19; 35:1). What a sad contrast, that in this same Beth-el now Israel worships the golden calves!

there he spake with us-"with us," as being in the loins of our progenitor Jacob (compare Ps 66:6, "They . we;" Heb 7:9, 10). What God there spoke to Jacob appertains to us. God's promises to him belong to all his posterity who follow in the steps of his prayerful faith.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:1-6 Ephraim feeds himself with vain hopes of help from man, when he is at enmity with God. The Jews vainly thought to secure the Egyptians by a present of the produce of their country. Judah is contended with also. God sees the sin of his own people, and will reckon with them for it. They are put in mind of what Jacob did, and what God did for him. When his faith upon the Divine promise prevailed above his fears, then by his strength he had power with God. He is Jehovah, the same that was, and is, and is to come. What was a revelation of God to one, is his memorial to many, to all generations. Then let those who have gone from God, be turned to him. Turn thou to the Lord, by repentance and faith, as thy God. Let those that are converted to him, walk with him in all holy conversation and godliness. Let us wrestle with Him for promised blessings, determined not to give over till we prevail; and let us seek Him in his ordinances.