Genesis 32
32
1 # 32:1 Verses 32:1-32 are numbered 32:2-33 in Hebrew text. As Jacob started on his way again, angels of God came to meet him. 2When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, “This is God’s camp!” So he named the place Mahanaim.#32:2 Mahanaim means “two camps.”
Jacob Sends Gifts to Esau
3Then Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother, Esau, who was living in the region of Seir in the land of Edom. 4He told them, “Give this message to my master Esau: ‘Humble greetings from your servant Jacob. Until now I have been living with Uncle Laban, 5and now I own cattle, donkeys, flocks of sheep and goats, and many servants, both men and women. I have sent these messengers to inform my lord of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to me.’”
6After delivering the message, the messengers returned to Jacob and reported, “We met your brother, Esau, and he is already on his way to meet you—with an army of 400 men!” 7Jacob was terrified at the news. He divided his household, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups. 8He thought, “If Esau meets one group and attacks it, perhaps the other group can escape.”
9Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my grandfather Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac—O Lord, you told me, ‘Return to your own land and to your relatives.’ And you promised me, ‘I will treat you kindly.’ 10I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps! 11O Lord, please rescue me from the hand of my brother, Esau. I am afraid that he is coming to attack me, along with my wives and children. 12But you promised me, ‘I will surely treat you kindly, and I will multiply your descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore—too many to count.’”
13Jacob stayed where he was for the night. Then he selected these gifts from his possessions to present to his brother, Esau: 14200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 1530 female camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys. 16He divided these animals into herds and assigned each to different servants. Then he told his servants, “Go ahead of me with the animals, but keep some distance between the herds.”
17He gave these instructions to the men leading the first group: “When my brother, Esau, meets you, he will ask, ‘Whose servants are you? Where are you going? Who owns these animals?’ 18You must reply, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob, but they are a gift for his master Esau. Look, he is coming right behind us.’”
19Jacob gave the same instructions to the second and third herdsmen and to all who followed behind the herds: “You must say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20And be sure to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’”
Jacob thought, “I will try to appease him by sending gifts ahead of me. When I see him in person, perhaps he will be friendly to me.” 21So the gifts were sent on ahead, while Jacob himself spent that night in the camp.
Jacob Wrestles with God
22During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two servant wives, and his eleven sons and crossed the Jabbok River with them. 23After taking them to the other side, he sent over all his possessions.
24This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. 25When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. 26Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!”
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27“What is your name?” the man asked.
He replied, “Jacob.”
28“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel,#32:28 Jacob sounds like the Hebrew words for “heel” and “deceiver.” Israel means “God fights.” because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”
29“Please tell me your name,” Jacob said.
“Why do you want to know my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.
30Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.” 31The sun was rising as Jacob left Peniel,#32:31 Hebrew Penuel, a variant spelling of Peniel. and he was limping because of the injury to his hip. 32(Even today the people of Israel don’t eat the tendon near the hip socket because of what happened that night when the man strained the tendon of Jacob’s hip.)
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Genesis 32: NLT
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Genesis 32
32
CHAPTER 32
1Forsooth Jacob went forth in the way in which he began, and the angels of the Lord met him.
2And when he had seen them, he said, These be the castles of God; and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
3Soothly Jacob sent before him also messengers to Esau, his brother, into the land of Seir, in the country of Edom;
4and he commanded to them, and said, Thus speak ye to my lord Esau, Thy brother Jacob saith these things, I have been a pilgrim at Laban, and I was till into this present day;
5I have oxen, and asses, and sheep, and menservants, and handmaids, and I send now a message to my lord, that I find grace in thy sight.
6And the messengers turned again to Jacob, and said, We came to Esau, thy brother, and lo! he hasteth him into thy coming, with four hundred men.
7Jacob dreaded greatly, and he was afeared, and he parted the people that was with him, and he parted the flocks, and sheep, and oxen, and camels, into two companies;
8and he said, If Esau shall come to one company, and shall smite it, the other company which is left unsmitten, shall be saved.
9And Jacob said, O! God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O! Lord, that saidest to me, Turn thou again into thy land, and to the place of thy birth, and I shall do well to thee,
10I am less than all thy merciful doings, and than thy truth which thou hast [ful] filled to thy servant; with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I go again with two companies;
11deliver thou me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I dread him greatly, lest he come and smite or slay the mothers with the sons [or with the children].
12Thou spakest that thou shouldest do well to me, and wouldest alarge my seed as [the] gravel of the sea, that may not be numbered for muchliness.
13And when Jacob had slept there in that night, he separated of those things which he had as gifts to Esau, his brother,
14two hundred she goats, and twenty bucks of goats, two hundred sheep, and twenty rams,
15camels full with their foals thirty, forty kine, and twenty bulls, twenty she-asses, and [the] ten foals of them.
16And he sent by the hands of his servants all the flocks by themselves; and he said to his servants, Go ye before me, and a space be betwixt flock and flock.
17And he commanded to the former or first, and said, If thou shalt meet my brother Esau, and he shall ask thee, whose man thou art, or whither thou goest, or whose be these things which thou followest,
18thou shalt answer, Of thy servant Jacob; he hath sent gifts to his lord Esau, and he cometh after us.
19In like manner, he gave command-ments to the second, and to the third, and to all that pursued [or followed] the flocks; and said, Speak ye by the same words to Esau, when ye find him,
20and ye shall add, Also Jacob himself thy servant pursueth [or followeth] our way. For Jacob said, I shall please Esau with gifts that go before, and afterward I shall see him; in hap he shall be merciful to me.
21And so the gifts went before him; soothly he dwelled in that night in the tents.
22And when Jacob had risen hastily, he took his two wives, and so many handmaids, with his eleven sons, and he passed over the ford of Jabbok.
23And when all things that pertained to him were led over,
24Jacob dwelled there alone, and, lo! a man came, and wrestled with him till to the morrowtide.
25And when the man saw that he might not overcome Jacob, he touched the sinew of Jacob’s hip, and it dried anon.
26And he said to Jacob, Let go thou me, for the morrowtide goeth up now. Jacob answered, I shall not let go thee, no but thou bless me.
27Therefore he said, What name is to thee? He answered, Jacob.
28And the man said, Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel; for if thou were strong against God, how much more shalt thou have power against men.
29Jacob asked him, Say thou to me by what name thou art called? He answered, Why askest thou my name, which is wonderful? And he blessed Jacob in the same place.
30And Jacob called the name of that place Penuel, and said, I saw the Lord face to face, and my life is made safe.
31And anon the sun rose to him, after that he had passed over from Penuel; forsooth he halted in the foot.
32For which cause the sons of Israel eat not unto this present day the sinew, like that that dried in the hip of Jacob; for the man touched the sinew of Jacob’s hip, and it dried up.
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