During his travels, Jacob named a place Penuel on the way to reconcile with Esau after he wrestled with an angel or God in human form before Jesus appeared. NIV calls it Peniel.
Interestingly enough, there are also 2 Semitic men named Penuel that probably aren't related to the naming of the place named by Jacob.
Jacob > Benjamin ... Saul ... Shashak > Ishpan, Eber, Eliel, Abdon, Zicri, Hanan, Hananiah, Elam, Anthothijah, Iphdeiah and Penuel - 1 Chronicles 8:22-25
Genesis 32:
1. Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
2. When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is the camp of God!" So he named that place Mahanaim.
3. Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
...
22. That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
24. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
25. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
26. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
27. The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered.
28. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."
29. Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.
30. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."
31. The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
In Judges 8, Gideon dealt with the raids of the Midianites, Amalekites and others that kept raiding the lands Joshua and the Israelites had secured. Gideon had chased the armies of 2 Midianite kings through Succoth and Penuel. He asked the towns for food for the soldiers; but, they denied them help. Gideon responded by tearing down the watchtower at Penuel.
Penuel wasn't mentioned again until 1 Kings 12:25 when Jeroboam (the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel) reinforced Penuel's defenses.
Penuel was just south of the Jabbok River
in the former kingdom of Sihon
