Genesis 32
32
Jacob prepares to meet Esau
1Jacob went on his way, and God’s messengers approached him. 2When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s camp,” and he named that sacred place Mahanaim.#32.2 Or two camps 3Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau, toward the land of Seir, the open country of Edom. 4He gave them these orders: “Say this to my master Esau. This is the message of your servant Jacob: ‘I’ve lived as an immigrant with Laban, where I’ve stayed till now. 5I own cattle, donkeys, flocks, men servants, and women servants. I’m sending this message to my master now to ask that he#32.5 Or you be kind.’”
6The messengers returned to Jacob and said, “We went out to your brother Esau, and he’s coming to meet you with four hundred men.”
7Jacob was terrified and felt trapped, so he divided the people with him, and the flocks, cattle, and camels, into two camps. 8He thought, If Esau meets the first camp and attacks it, at least one camp will be left to escape.
9Jacob said, “LORD, God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I’ll make sure things go well for you,’ 10I don’t deserve how loyal and truthful you’ve been to your servant. I went away across the Jordan with just my staff, but now I’ve become two camps. 11Save me from my brother Esau! I’m afraid he will come and kill me, the mothers, and their children. 12You were the one who told me, ‘I will make sure things go well for you, and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, so many you won’t be able to count them.’”
13Jacob spent that night there. From what he had acquired, he set aside a gift for his brother Esau: 14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty nursing camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16He separated these herds and gave them to his servants. He said to them, “Go ahead of me and put some distance between each of the herds.” 17He ordered the first group, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, ‘Who are you with? Where are you going? And whose herds are these in front of you?’ 18say, ‘They are your servant Jacob’s, a gift sent to my master Esau. And Jacob is actually right behind us.’” 19He also ordered the second group, the third group, and everybody following the herds, “Say exactly the same thing to Esau when you find him. 20Say also, ‘Your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” Jacob thought, I may be able to pacify Esau with the gift I’m sending ahead. When I meet him, perhaps he will be kind to me. 21So Jacob sent the gift ahead of him, but he spent that night in the camp.
Jacob wrestles with God
22Jacob got up during the night, took his two wives, his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the Jabbok River’s shallow water. 23He took them and everything that belonged to him, and he helped them cross the river. 24But Jacob stayed apart by himself, and a man wrestled with him until dawn broke. 25When the man saw that he couldn’t defeat Jacob, he grabbed Jacob’s thigh and tore a muscle in Jacob’s thigh as he wrestled with him. 26The man said, “Let me go because the dawn is breaking.”
But Jacob said, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.”
27He said to Jacob, “What’s your name?” and he said, “Jacob.” 28Then he said, “Your name won’t be Jacob any longer, but Israel,#32.28 Or God struggles or one who struggles with God because you struggled with God and with men and won.”
29Jacob also asked and said, “Tell me your name.”
But he said, “Why do you ask for my name?” and he blessed Jacob there. 30Jacob named the place Peniel,#32.30 Or face of God “because I’ve seen God face-to-face, and my life has been saved.” 31The sun rose as Jacob passed Penuel, limping because of his thigh. 32Therefore, Israelites don’t eat the tendon attached to the thigh muscle to this day, because he grabbed Jacob’s thigh muscle at the tendon.
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Genesis 32: CEB
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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Genesis 32
32
1And Jacob hath gone on his way, and messengers of God come upon him;
2and Jacob saith, when he hath seen them, ‘This [is] the camp of God;’ and he calleth the name of that place ‘Two Camps.’
3And Jacob sendeth messengers before him unto Esau his brother, towards the land of Seir, the field of Edom,
4and commandeth them, saying, ‘Thus do ye say to my lord, to Esau: Thus said thy servant Jacob, With Laban I have sojourned, and I tarry until now;
5and I have ox, and ass, flock, and man-servant, and maid-servant, and I send to declare to my lord, to find grace in his eyes.’
6And the messengers turn back unto Jacob, saying, ‘We came in unto thy brother, unto Esau, and he also is coming to meet thee, and four hundred men with him;’
7and Jacob feareth exceedingly, and is distressed, and he divideth the people who [are] with him, and the flock, and the herd, and the camels, into two camps,
8and saith, ‘If Esau come in unto the one camp, and have smitten it — then the camp which is left hath been for an escape.’
9And Jacob saith, ‘God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Jehovah who saith unto me, Turn back to thy land, and to thy kindred, and I do good with thee:
10I have been unworthy of all the kind acts, and of all the truth which Thou hast done with thy servant — for, with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.
11‘Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I am fearing him, less he come and have smitten me — mother beside sons;
12and Thou — Thou hast said, I certainly do good with thee, and have set thy seed as the sand of the sea, which is not numbered because of the multitude.’
13And he lodgeth there during that night, and taketh from that which is coming into his hand, a present for Esau his brother:
14she-goats two hundred, and he-goats twenty, ewes two hundred, and rams twenty,
15suckling camels and their young ones thirty, cows forty, and bullocks ten, she-asses twenty, and foals ten;
16and he giveth into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and saith unto his servants, ‘Pass over before me, and a space ye do put between drove and drove.’
17And he commandeth the first, saying, ‘When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and hath asked thee, saying, Whose [art] thou? and whither goest thou? and whose [are] these before thee?
18then thou hast said, Thy servant Jacob's: it [is] a present sent to my lord, to Esau; and lo, he also [is] behind us.’
19And he commandeth also the second, also the third, also all who are going after the droves, saying, ‘According to this manner do ye speak unto Esau in your finding him,
20and ye have said also, Lo, thy servant Jacob [is] behind us;’ for he said, ‘I pacify his face with the present which is going before me, and afterwards I see his face; it may be he lifteth up my face;’
21and the present passeth over before his face, and he hath lodged during that night in the camp.
22And he riseth in that night, and taketh his two wives, and his two maid-servants, and his eleven children, and passeth over the passage of Jabbok;
23and he taketh them, and causeth them to pass over the brook, and he causeth that which he hath to pass over.
24And Jacob is left alone, and one wrestleth with him till the ascending of the dawn;
25and he seeth that he is not able for him, and he cometh against the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh is disjointed in his wrestling with him;
26and he saith, ‘Send me away, for the dawn hath ascended:’ and he saith, ‘I send thee not away, except thou hast blessed me.’
27And he saith unto him, ‘What [is] thy name?’ and he saith, ‘Jacob.’
28And he saith, ‘Thy name is no more called Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast been a prince with God and with men, and dost prevail.’
29And Jacob asketh, and saith, ‘Declare, I pray thee, thy name;’ and he saith, ‘Why [is] this, thou askest for My name?’ and He blesseth him there.
30And Jacob calleth the name of the place Peniel: for ‘I have seen God face unto face, and my life is delivered;’
31and the sun riseth on him when he hath passed over Penuel, and he is halting on his thigh;
32therefore the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew which shrank, which [is] on the hollow of the thigh, unto this day, because He came against the hollow of Jacob's thigh, against the sinew which shrank.
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