Skip to main content

The Shortest Comments on Genesis, Chap. XXXII-XXXIII


The chosen fragment records ancient views on the symptoms, mechanism, and differential diagnosis of ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) injury. The author describes the emotional status, work capacity of the patient, circumstances, time, and place of the injury, as a physician in the modern medical record (Genesis 32:8-33:20). Further in the text, apparently, a pathoanatomical investigation is mentioned, confirming the antemortem diagnosis, place of dissection (Genesis 50:2-3), as well as the location of the burial of embalmed remains (Genesis 50:13). Our comments on chapters 32-33 are presented in the table. The quotes are based on the translation of the Book of Bereshit (Genesis) from Hebrew by Isaac Leeser (1922).

The shortest comments

Quotes from the original source

Emotional status and the name of injured person.

32:8  Then  Jacob  was  greatly  afraid,  and  he  felt  distressed  ;  and  he  divided  the  people  that  were  with  him,  and  the  flocks,  and  the  herds,  and  the  camels,  into  two  bands. … 32:21  And  say  ye  moreover.  Behold,  also  thy  servant  Jacob  is  behind  us.  For  he  said,  I  will  appease  him  with  the  present  that  goeth  before  me,  and  afterward  I  will  see  his  face ;  peradventure  he  will  receive  me  kindly.

Time and circumstances of injury.

32:22  The  present  went  thus  on  before  him  and  he  lodged  himself  that  night  in  the  camp  32:23  And  he  rose  up  that  night,  and  he  took  his  two  wives,  and  his  two  women-servants,  and  his  eleven  sons,  and  passed  over  the  ford  of  the  Yabbok.  32:24  And  he  took  them,  and  sent  them  over  the  stream,  and  sent  over  what  he  had.

Symptom of damage: «pain while half asleep».

32:25  And  Jacob  was  left  alone;  and  there  wrestled  a  man  with  him  until  the  breaking  of  the  day.

Mechanism of injury.

32:26  And  when  he  saw  that  he  could  not  pre  vail  against  him,  he  struck  against  the  hollow of  his  thigh ;  and  the  hollow  of  Jacob's  thigh  was  put  out  of  joint,  as  he  was  wrestling  with  him.

Dream of the injured.

32:27  And  he  said,  Let  me  go,  for  the  day  hath  dawned.  And  he  said,  I  will  not  let  thee  go  until  thou  hast  blessed  me. … 32:30  And  Jacob  asked  him,  and  said.  Tell  me,  I  pray  thee,  thy  name.  And  he  said,  Wherefore  is  it  that  thou  dost  ask  after  my  name  ?   And  he  blessed  him  there.

Place of injury.

32:31  And  Jacob  called  the  name  of  the  place  Peniёl :  for  I  have  seen  an  angel  of  God  face  to  face,  and  my  life  hath  been  preserved.

Symptom of injury: «lameness».

32:32  And  the  sun  rose  unto  him  as  he  passed  by  Penuёl,  and  he  halted  upon  his  thigh.

Pathomorphology of injury.

32:33  Therefore  do  the  children  of  Israel  not  eat  the  sinew  which  shrank,  which  is  upon  the  hollow  of  the  thigh,  unto  this  day;  because  he  struck  against  the  hollow  of  Jacob's  thigh  on  the  sinew  that  shrank.

Meeting of Jacob and Esau.

33:1  And  Jacob  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  looked,  and  behold,  Esau  came,  and  with  him  four  hundred  men.  And  he  divided  the  children  unto  Leäh,  and  unto  Rachel,  and  unto  the  two handmaids.  33:2  And  he  put  the  handmaids  and  their  children  foremost,  and  Leäh  and  her  children  after,  and  Rachel  and  Joseph  hindermost.

Differential diagnostic test.

33:3  And  he  himself  passed  on  before  them,  and  bowed  himself  to  the  ground  seven  times,  until  he  came  near  to  his  brother.

Dialogue between Jacob and Esau.

33:4  And  Esau  ran  to  meet  him,  and  embraced  him,  and  fell  on  his  neck,  and  kissed  him;  and  they  wept. … 33:11  Take,  I  pray  thee,  my  present  that  is  brought  to  thee;  because  God  hath  dealt  graciously  with  me,  and  because  I  have  a  plenty  of  all.  And  he  urged  him,  and  he  took  it.

Symptom: «prefers to sit».

33:12  And  he  said.  Let  us  depart,  and  move  farther,  and  I  will  travel  near  thee.

Symptom: «slow walking».

33:13  And  he  said  unto  him.  My  lord  knoweth  that  the  children  are  tender,  and  the  flocks  and  herds  with  young  are  a  charge  on  me : and  if  they  should  overdrive  them  one  day,  all  the  flock  would  die.  33:14  Let  my  lord,  I  pray  thee,  pass  on  before  his  servant :  and  I  will  lead  on  slowly,  according as  the  cattle  that  goeth  before  me  and  the  children  may  be  able  to  travel,  until  I come  unto  my  lord  unto  Seïr.

Parting of Jacob and Esau.

33:15  And  Esau  said.  Let  me,  I  pray  thee,  leave  with  thee  some  of  the  people  that  are  with  me.  And  he  said,  What  needeth  it?  let  me  only  find  grace  in  the  eyes  of  my  lord.  33:16  So  Esau  returned  that  day  on  his  way  unto  Seïr.

Work capacity in the first day after injury.

33:17  And  Jacob  journeyed  to  Succoth  and  built  himself  a  house,  and  for  his  cattle  he  made  booths;  therefore  he  called  the  name  of  the  place  Succoth.

Work capacity six months after injury.

33:18  And  Jacob  came  in  good  health  to  the  city  of  Shechem,  which  is  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  when  he  came  from  Padan-aram;  and  he  encamped  before  the  city. 33:19  And  he  bought  the  parcel  of  the  field,  where  he  had  spread  his  tent,  at  the  hand  of  the  children  of  Chamor,  the  father  of  Shechem,  for  a  hundred  kessitah.  33:20  And  he  erected  there  an  altar,  and  called  it,  El-Elohé-Yisrael.

Morphological verification of damage.

50:2  And  Joseph  commanded  his  servants  the physicians  to  embalm  his  father:  and  the  physicians  embalmed  Israel.

Place of the pathoanatomical examination.

50:3  And  they  fulfilled  for  him  forty  days;  for  so  they  fulfil  the  days  of  those  that  are  embalmed;  and  the  Egyptians  wept  for  him  seventy  days.

Location of the burial of embalmed remains.

50:13  And  his  sons  carried  him  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  buried  him  in  the  cave  of  the  field  of  Machpelah,  which  field  Abraham  bought  for  a  possession,  as  a  burying-place,  of  Ephron  the  Hittite,  before  Mamré.

For a more detailed discussion of the medical aspects of biblical trauma, refer to our book «Children of Human: The Origins of Biblical Legends in the View of a Physician» (2023АрхиповСВ [in Russian]).


References

Leeser I. The twenty-four books of the Holy Scriptures. Carefully translated according to the Massoretic text, on the basis of the English version after the best Jewish authorities and supplied with short explanatory notes by Isaac Leeser. New York: Bloch Pub. Co., 1922. [archive.org]

Архипов С.В. Дети человеческие: истоки библейских преданий в обозрении врача. Обновляемое электронное эссе, снабженное ссылками на интерактивный материал. Йоэнсуу: Издание Автора, 2023; версия 1.0.0. (Arkhipov S.V. Children of Human: The Origins of Biblical Legends in the View of a Physician. Updatable e-Essay with Links to Interactive Material. Joensuu: Author's Edition, 2023; Version 1.0.0. [In Russian]) [books.google]  

Keywords

synonyms, ligamentum capitis femoris, ligamentum teres, ligament of head of femur, Bible, anatomy, Torah, trauma, injury 

.                                                                     .

In translating to English, the author is assisted by ChatGPT (version 3.5) and the Google Translate service.

If you notice an error, please let us know!

NB! Fair practice / use: copied for the purposes of criticism, review, comment, research and private study in accordance with Copyright Laws of the US: 17 U.S.C. §107; Copyright Law of the EU: Dir. 2001/29/EC, art.5/3a,d; Copyright Law of the RU: ГК РФ ст.1274/1.1-2,7

BLOG CONTENT 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LCF in 2025 (September)

  LCF in 2025 ( September )   (Quotes from articles and books published in  September  2025 mentioning the ligamentum capitis femoris)   Zhang, Z., Dong, Q., Wang, T., You, H., & Wang, X. (2025). Redescription of the osteology and systematic of Panguraptor lufengensis (Neo-theropoda: Coelophysoidea).   01 September 2025. PREPRINT (Version 1)  [i]   researchsquare.com   Tripathy, S. K., Khan, S., & Bhagat, A. (2025). Surgical Anatomy of the Femoral Head. In A Practical Guide to Management of Femoral Head Fracture-Dislocation (pp. 1-13). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.   [ii]   link.springer.com   Yoon, B. H., Kim, H. S., Lim, Y. W., & Lim, S. J. (2025). Adhesive Capsulitis of the Hip: Clinical Features, Diagnosis, and Management. Hip & pelvis , 37 (3), 171-177.    [iii]    pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov      Bharath, C. M., Aswath, C. A., Ayyadurai, P., Srinivasan, P....

0cent.4Q158.1-2

  Content [i]   Annotation [ii]   Original text [iii]   Translation [iv]   Source  &  links [v]   Notes [vi]   Authors & Affiliations [vii]   Keywords [i]   Annotation Fragments 1-2 of Dead Sea Scroll 4Q158.1-2, which previously contained part of Genesis 32 with a mention of ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF). We have translated the reconstructed text of M.M. Zahn (2009). The English translation is available at: 0 cent .4 Q 158.1-2 . [ii]   Original text Photocopy   Dead Sea Scroll 4Q158, fragments 1-2 (Plate 138, Frag. 4 B-358482), material – parchment, text – Hebrew, period – Herodian. A screenshot of the original from The Leon Levy dead sea scrolls Digital Library collection, © 2025 Israel Antiquities Authority  deadseascrolls.org.il   (Fair use for criticism, study and comparison; sharpening, color correction, and captions done by us.).   Transcription Dead Sea Scroll 4Q158, fragments 1-2, lines 11...

EXTERNAL LIGAMENTS & LCF

  external ligaments & LCF First experiments to study the interaction of the external ligaments and the ligamentum capitis femoris in a model: https://kruglayasvyazka.blogspot.com/2024/06/blog-post_6.html Pathological consequences of lengthening of the ligamentum capitis femoris: https://kruglayasvyazka.blogspot.com/2024/06/blog-post_63.html   norm: https://kruglayasvyazka.blogspot.com/2024/06/blog-post_50.html   #ligamentum_teres   #ligamentum_capitis_femoris   #hip   #biomechanics    Publication in the facebook group 03/27/2025.                                                                                                                     BLOG CONTE...

1802PalmeraniÁ

   Palmerani Á , drawing Jacob wrestling with the angel (1802 ).  Depicting the circumstances and mechanism of the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) injury based on the description in the Book of Genesis: 25 And Ja cob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 26 And when he saw that he could not prevail against him, he struck against the hollow of his thigh ; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was put out of joint, as he was wrestling with him. … 33 Therefore do the children of Israel not eat the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day; because he struck against the hollow of Jacob's thigh on the sinew that shrank.  ( 1922LeeserI , Genesis (Bereshit) 32:25-26,33) More about the plot in our work:  Ninth month, eleventh day   ( 2024 АрхиповСВ. Девятый месяц, одиннадцатый день ).     Ángel  Palmerani  – Jacob Wrestling with the Angel  ( 1802); original in the  a...

1971CracraftJ

   Content [i]   Annotaction [ii]   Original in  English [iii]   Illustrations [iv]   Source  &  links [v]   Notes [vi]   Authors & Affiliations [vii]   Keywords [i]   Annotaction F ragment s of the article: Cracraft J. The functional morphology of the hind limb of the domestic pigeon, Columba livia. (1971). The author studied the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) in the pigeon. Its strength is noted and its attachment areas and biomechanics are described. The LCF functions in conjunction with the posterior acetabular ligament. Translation into Russian is available at the link: 1971CracraftJ .  [ii]   Original in  English Quote, p. 182 TERES LIGAMENT The teres ligament (ter lig; fig. 2) arises from the dorsal portion of the head of the femur (fovea capitis; see Stolpe, 1932, p.165 ). A short and broad ligament, it curves ventromedially to the anteroventral edge of the inner opening of the acetabu...

1980WalkerJM

   Content [i]   Annotation [ii]   Original text [iii]   Illustrations [iv]   Source  &  links [v]   Notes [vi]   Authors & Affiliations [vii]   Keywords [i]   Annotation Article : Walker JM. Growth characteristics of the fetal ligament of the head of femur: significance in congenital hip disease (1980). The author discusses the embryonic development and size of the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) in normal and dysplastic hips. The text in Russian is available at the following link: 1980WalkerJM . [ii]   Original text Growth Characteristics of the Fetal Ligament of the Head of Femur: Significance in congenital hip disease   J.M. WALKER, Ph.D.   Abstract   Measurement of the length and width of the ligament of the head of femur (ligamentum teres) in 140 normal human fetuses between 12 weeks and term provides limits for growth changes in this structure. These observations provide no morphological evid...

1910SuttonHA_DrinkerCK

  Fragments from the book Sutton HA, Drinker CK. Osteology and syndesmology (1910). The selected fragments discuss the anatomy and topography of the ligament of the femoral head (LCF). According to the authors, this structure has low strength, but Galen of Pergamon (2-3rd cent.) described it as «the strongest» ( 1829KühnCG ). [Eng] Quote 1. p. 76 . The Cotyloid Lig't., or Cartilage, surmounts the edge of the Acetabulum except where it is broken by the Notch. This ligament simply deepens the cavity. The centre of the Acetabulum, by a rough area, the Cotyloid Fossa, attaches the Ligamentum Teres. Quote 2. p. 79. Head. Slightly more than a half sphere in shape. An articular surface for the Acetabulum occupies it, except at a fossa which attaches the Ligamentum Teres. Quote 3. p. 86. Two connect the bones. They are: 1. Ligamentum Teres: — Weak. Passes between the centre of the Acetabulum and the oval fossa upon the Head of the Femur. It lies outside the synovial membrane. External link...

1541MondinoL_DryanderJ

  Fragment from the book Mondino de Luzzi, Dryander J. Anatomia Mundini (1541). An early description of the anatomy and role of the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) is presented. The pathogenesis of lameness and soft tissue atrophy in LCF pathology is discussed. For more details, see the commentary in  1541MondinoL_DryanderJ [Rus] .  Quote p. 62. [Lat] De anatomia cruris [&] pedis. Postea eleua musculos & chordas &, uide ossa. Et primura est os foemoris supra quod fabricatae sunt spondiles dorsi: & per consequens totum corpus in parte inferiori habet pixidem quondam, in cuius concauitate locata est extremitas rotunda canna coxae, que uocatur uertebrum. Et in medio amborum in parte anteriori est quod dam ligamentum, quod aliomodo porestuocari uertebrum: & quando hoc uel primum resilit foras: tunc niecesse ed hominem claudicare, quia crus hic elongatur & firmari non potest; & totum non bene potest supportari: & necesse eit etiam ut crus tab...

18c.Augsburg

  Painting on glass from Augsburg – Jacob wrestling with the angel (18 cent.).  Depicting the circumstances and mechanism of the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) injury based on the description in the Book of Genesis: 25 And Ja cob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 26 And when he saw that he could not prevail against him, he struck against the hollow of his thigh ; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was put out of joint, as he was wrestling with him. … 33 Therefore do the children of Israel not eat the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day; because he struck against the hollow of Jacob's thigh on the sinew that shrank.  ( 1922LeeserI , Genesis (Bereshit) 32:25-26,33) More about the plot in our work:  Ninth month, eleventh day   ( 2024 АрхиповСВ. Девятый месяц, одиннадцатый день ).     Author unknown, painting on the reverse of glass from Augsburg – Jacob wrestling with the a...

1873MeyerGH

  Professor  Georg Hermann von Mayer discovered a pressure mark from the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) on the head of the femur. In the fragment presented to your attention, the author points out that the named depression indicates the tension of the LCF in the position of flexion and external rotation of the hip. This idea of Mayer was later repeatedly cited, see, for example, the work of Hermann Welcker  " Ueber das Hüftgelenk, nebst einigen Bemerkungenüber Gelenke überhaupt, insbesondere über das Schultergelenk " (1876). von Meyer GH. Die Statik und Mechanik des menschlichen Knochengerüstes. Edited, Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann; 1873. [fragment] Quote pp. 342-344   Neben der Gelenkkapsel befindet sich in dem Hüftgelenke noch ein eigenthümlicher Bandapparat, das ligamentum teres, über dessen Bedeutung sehr verschiedene Auffassung gefunden wird. Von der einen Seite wird ihm nämlich entschieden ...