(2) Jacob went on his way, and messengers of God encountered him. (3) When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Machanaim.

(11) He [Jacob] came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. (JPS translation)

And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night,because the sun was set; and he took of the stonesof that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in thatplace to sleep. (King James Version)

(11) He reached the place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took some of the stones of that place, and arranged them around his head, and lay down [to sleep] in that place.

(2) Jacob went on his way, and messengers of God encountered him. (3) When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

(3) They answered, “The God of the Hebrews has become manifest to us. Let us go, we pray, a distance of three days into the wilderness to sacrifice to our God יהוה, lest [God] strike us with pestilence or sword.”

(4) When you encounter your enemy’s ox or ass wandering, you must take it back.

(16) She [Rahab] said to them [the two Israelite scouts she has sheltered], “Make for the hills, so that the pursuers may not come upon you [with violent intent]. Stay there in hiding three days, until the pursuers return; then go your way.”

(12) “We have come down,” they told him, “to take you prisoner and to hand you over to the Philistines.” “But swear to me,” said Samson to them, “that you yourselves will not attack me.”

(16) But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

(16) As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry of prayer on their behalf, do not plead with Me; for I will not listen to you.

Jacob instituted the evening prayer, as it is stated: “And he encountered [vayifga] the place and he slept there for the sun had set” (Genesis 28:11). The word encounter means nothing other than prayer, as it is stated when God spoke to Jeremiah: “And you, do not pray on behalf of this nation and do not raise on their behalf song and prayer, and do not encounter [tifga] Me for I do not hear you” (Jeremiah 7:16). Jacob prayed during the evening, after the sun had set.

(2) Jacob went on his way, and messengers of God encountered him. (3) When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

(1) מחנים means two camps — the one consisting of the angels ministering outside the Holy Land who had come with him thus far, the other, of those ministering in the Land of Israel who had come to meet him (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayishlach 3).

(1) מחנה אלוהים זה. Now that the angels have seen fit to join me there can be no doubt that mine is a godly camp. Just as Yaakov had called the place where he had had the dream of the ladder Bet El, so he now referred to his camp as machaneh elokim. In either instance the reason was that he had been found worthy of a divine revelation. (2) מחנים, two camps; the camp of G’d (angels) and his own. The grammatical formulation with the plural ending following the vowel patach, the stress is on the penultimate syllable as this indicated the number 2. Parallel examples are paamayim, shevuayim, shenatayim, etc. .[the kametz here substitutes for the patach as it is the end of the sentence. Ed.]

(13) Who is the person who is eager for life, who desires years of good fortune?

(14) Guard your tongue from evil, your lips from deceitful speech. (15) Shun evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.