A Roman legend told how the daughter of a certain emperor had so admired the beauty of Rabbi Ishmael's face that after his martyrdom his skin was removed, embalmed, and kept among the relics of Rome. The midrash preserves this dark memory and turns it into a prophetic image.
In the vision, two figures stand together in a ceremonial drama. One is strong and able-bodied — this is Esau, the father of Rome. The other limps — this is Jacob, who wrestled with the angel until daybreak and came away wounded (Genesis 32:32). In the present age Rome is uppermost; the strong man takes the stage and the limping man watches from the shadows.
But the midrash insists the pageant is not over. The time is coming, the sages taught, when Jacob will rise to his full height and clothe himself at last in the blessings he obtained through cunning — the blessings that rightly belonged to the son of promise. The limp will become a crown, and the strong man's empire will bow.
As preserved in Hebraic Literature (1901), this teaching frames the whole drama of exile in one image: the pain in Jacob's hip is not weakness but a wound that history itself will one day redeem.