Indeed, he had power over the angel, and prevailed; He wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us,
"He found him at Bethel, and there he spake with us ..." Jacob's experience at Bethel was God's renewal of the Abrahamic covenant with Jacob; and it corresponds in all of its essential details exactly with the promise to Abraham.  Here again the prior existence of Genesis, and the absolute familiarity with it on the part of both Hosea and his hearers is undeniable.  It included the promise that God would give the land of Canaan to the Jews, and that in Jacob and his seed "all the families of the earth should be blessed."  The Israelites of the northern kingdom, however, had construed this promise as unconditional, whereas, in truth, it was contingent upon their fidelity to the holy Covenant God made with the people when they were brought up out of the land of Egypt.  "There at Bethel, Jehovah had spoken to Jacob, and through him to his descendants."[10]  "Hosea here regarded the promises of God to Jacob as made to the people of Israel, which in fact they chiefly concerned."[11]  Hindley is doubtless correct in seeing the purpose of Hosea's mention of the event at Bethel as that of reminding Israel that the true God of Israel was inseparably linked to that place, instead of the vulgar bull-gods which they were worshipping there instead of Jehovah.  "It was to link Jacob's vision at Bethel with Jehovah's name and title,"[12] next mentioned in  Hosea 12:5, below.