And God said unto him, thy name [is] Jacob
Which his parents gave him at his birth, and by, which he had been always called: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy
name;
not Jacob only, as Aben Ezra and Ben Melech interpret it, but Israel also, and that more commonly and frequently, and not only he himself personally, but his posterity also: and he called his name Israel;
confirmed the name he had before given him, ( Genesis 32:28 ) ; and by this confirmation of it signifying, that as he had prevailed over his brother Esau, and escaped his hands, so he should prevail over all that rose up against him, and opposed him, even as he had power with God, and prevailed: though some think this name was only promised him before, but now actually given him; but then they take the angel that appeared wrestling with him in the likeness of a man to be a created angel, and that what he promised in the name of God was now made, good by God himself; there is great reason to believe that that angel was the increased one, the Son of God, as here also.