36 S Genesis 32:5
lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have
remained t here till now. 5 I have cattle and donkeys, s heep and g
oats, male
and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may
find favor in your eyes.’ ”
6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your
brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are
with him.”
7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him
into two g
roups, a and the f locks and h
erds and camels as well. 8 He thought,
“If Esau comes and attacks one g
roup, b the group b that is left may escape.”
9 Then Jacob p
rayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac,
Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I
will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness
you have shown your servant. I had only my s taff when I crossed this Jordan,
but now I have become two c amps. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my
brother Esau, for I am a
fraid he will come and attack me, and also the moth
ers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper
and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be
counted.’ ”
13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a
gift for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats,
two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their young,
forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
16 He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his
servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”
17 He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and
asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all t hese
animals in front of you?’ 18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant
Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’ ”
19 He also instructed the second, the t hird and all the others who followed
the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20 And
be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’ ” For he thought, “I
will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him,
perhaps he will receive me.” 21 So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he
himself spent the night in the camp.
Jacob Wrestles With God
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants
and his eleven sons and c rossed 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 t ouched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his
hip was w
renched 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 b
less 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, c be
cause you have struggled with God and with humans 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, d 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, e and he was limping because
of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached
to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was t ouched near
the tendon.
a 7 Or
d 30
camps b 8 Or camp c 28 Israel probably means he struggles with God.
Peniel means face of God. e 31 Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel