Jacob Prays

Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw

This is a night plate, cut by H. Pisan in dense dark lines with only a few flickers of light in the clouds and on the water. Doré loved such moonlit scenes and used them again and again in the Bible of 1866.

Jacob kneels at the edge of a stream, both arms raised high. Behind him on the bank tall camels loaded with baggage stand black against the bright clouds, and his people sit wrapped in their cloaks. A long row of animals fades into the dark at the left.

From the text

“O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac” (Genesis 32:9)

“with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps” (Genesis 32:10)

“Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau” (Genesis 32:11)

The artist’s own

The prayer set at night beside the water — the ford of the Jabbok comes a few verses later (Genesis 32:22)

Jacob praying with arms raised, a gesture the text does not describe

Details

Jacob

He kneels at the water’s edge with both arms raised.

The camels

Loaded camels stand black against the moonlit clouds.

His people

Men and women sit wrapped in cloaks on the bank.

The stream

Dark water reflecting a little light.

Gustave Doré, French, 1832–1883. National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa), Warsaw — «Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu», vol. 1, Warsaw: M. Glücksberg, 1873 (acc. 75.267 A), tabl. 23 · Wood engraving after Gustave Doré’s design · National Library of Poland (Polona): the record of the volume gives the licence «Domena Publiczna» (Public Domain), «copyrightProtected»: false; the scan was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by the library itself («Polona Upload», GLAM-Wiki partnership: “This file was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as part of a GLAM-Wiki partnership between the National Library of Poland and Wikimedia Polska”), linking its Polona record.

The verses

Gen 32:9–12Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me. But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”