But, according to certain Rabbinic authorities, it was not Michael who wrestled with Jacob, but it was Sammael the Evil One, or Satan. For Sammael is the angel of Edom, as Michael is the angel of Israel; and Sammael went before Esau, hoping to destroy Jacob in the night. Sammael, says the Jalkut Rubeni, met Jacob, who had the stature of the first man, and strove with him; but he could not do him an injury, for Abraham stood on his right hand, and Isaac on his left. And when Sammael would part from him, Jacob would not suffer it, till the Evil One had given him the blessing which Jacob had purchased from Esau. And from that day Sammael took from Jacob his great strength, and made him to halt upon his thigh.[386] But when Michael appeared before God—we must now suppose the man who strove with Jacob to have been the angel—God said to him in anger, “Thou hast injured My priest!” Michael answered, “I am Thy priest.” “Yea,” said the Most High, “thou art My priest in heaven, but Jacob is My priest on earth. Why hast thou lamed him?” Then Michael answered, “I wrestled with him, and let him overcome me, to Thy honour, O Lord; that, seeing he had overcome an angel of God, he might have courage to go boldly to meet Esau.” But this was no excuse for having lamed him. Therefore Michael said to Raphael, “Oh, angel of healing! come to my aid.” So Raphael descended to earth, and touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, and it was restored as before. But God said to Michael, “For this that thou hast done, thou shalt be the guardian of Israel as long as the world lasteth.”[387] Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, “I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face, and my soul is saved.” And the sun rose upon him before its time, as, when he went out from Beer-sheba, it had set before its time.[388] And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men of war. And he divided the children unto Leah, and to Rachel, and to the two concubines, and placed the concubines and their sons foremost; for he said, “If Esau come to destroy the children, and ill-treat the women, he will do it with them, and meanwhile we can prepare to fight; and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph after them.”[389] And he himself went over before them, praying and asking mercy before the Lord, and he bowed upon the earth seven times, until he met with his brother; but it was not to Esau that he bowed, though Esau supposed he did, but to the Lord God Most High.[390]