Genesis 32

Preparing to Meet Esau

¹Jacob went on his way, and God’s angels met him.²³When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he called that place Mahanaim.⁴

⁵Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the territory of Edom.⁶⁷He commanded them, “You are to say to my lord Esau, ‘This is what your servant Jacob says. I have been staying with Laban and have been delayed until now.⁸⁹I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female slaves. I have sent this message to inform my lord, in order to seek your favor.’”¹⁰

¹¹When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau; he is coming to meet you — and he has four hundred men with him.”¹²¹³Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; he divided the people with him into two camps, along with the flocks, herds, and camels.¹⁴¹⁵He thought, “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, the remaining one can escape.”¹⁶

¹⁷Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and to your family, and I will cause you to prosper,’¹⁸¹⁹I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. Indeed, I crossed over the Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two camps.²⁰²¹Please rescue me from my brother Esau, for I am afraid of him; otherwise, he may come and attack me, the mothers, and their children.²²²³You have said, ‘I will cause you to prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to be counted.’”²⁴

²⁵He spent the night there and took part of what he had brought with him as a gift for his brother Esau:²⁶²⁷two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams,²⁸²⁹thirty milk camels with their young, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys.³⁰³¹He entrusted them to his slaves as separate herds and said to them, “Go on ahead of me, and leave some distance between the herds.”³²

³³And he told the first one, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to? Where are you going? And whose animals are these ahead of you?’³⁴³⁵then tell him, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau. And look, he is behind us.’”³⁶

³⁷He also told the second one, the third, and everyone who was walking behind the animals, “Say the same thing to Esau when you find him.³⁸³⁹You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I want to appease Esau with the gift that is going ahead of me. After that, I can face him, and perhaps he will forgive me.”⁴⁰

⁴¹So the gift was sent on ahead of him while he remained in the camp that night.⁴²⁴³During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two slave women, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of Jabbok.⁴⁴⁴⁵He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.⁴⁶

Jacob Wrestles with God

⁴⁷Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.⁴⁸⁴⁹When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip.⁵⁰⁵¹Then he said to Jacob, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”⁵²

⁵³“What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.⁵⁴

⁵⁵“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” he said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”⁵⁶

⁵⁷Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he answered, “Why do you ask my name?” And he blessed him there.⁵⁸

⁵⁹Jacob then named the place Peniel, “For I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.”⁶⁰⁶¹The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel — limping because of his hip.⁶²⁶³That is why, still today, the Israelites don’t eat the thigh muscle that is at the hip socket: because he struck Jacob’s hip socket at the thigh muscle.⁶⁴