Genesis 32
32
1#Jacob’s negotiations with Esau. Laban kisses his daughters and grandchildren good-bye but not Jacob. On leaving Mesopotamia, Jacob has an encounter with angels of God (vv. 2–3), which provokes him to exclaim, “This is God’s encampment,” just as he exclaimed upon leaving Canaan, “This is the house of God, the gateway to heaven” (28:11–17). Early the next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them; then he set out on his journey back home. 2Meanwhile Jacob continued on his own way, and God’s angels encountered him. 3When Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s encampment.” So he named that place Mahanaim.#Mahanaim: a town in Gilead (Jos 13:26, 30; 21:38; 2 Sm 2:8; etc.). The Hebrew name means “two camps.” There are other allusions to the name in vv. 8, 11.
Envoys to Esau. 4Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,#Gn 36:6. 5ordering them: “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob: I have been residing with Laban and have been delayed until now. 6I own oxen, donkeys and sheep, as well as male and female servants. I have sent my lord this message in the hope of gaining your favor.’” 7When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We found your brother Esau. He is now coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
8Jacob was very much frightened. In his anxiety, he divided the people who were with him, as well as his flocks, herds and camels, into two camps. 9“If Esau should come and attack one camp,” he reasoned, “the remaining camp may still escape.” 10Then Jacob prayed: “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac! You, Lord, who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and your relatives, and I will be good to you.’#Gn 31:3. 11I am unworthy of all the acts of kindness and faithfulness that you have performed for your servant: although I crossed the Jordan here with nothing but my staff, I have now grown into two camps. 12Save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau! Otherwise I fear that he will come and strike me down and the mothers with the children. 13You yourself said, ‘I will be very good to you, and I will make your descendants like the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’”#Gn 28:14; 48:16; Ex 32:13; Heb 11:12.
14After passing the night there, Jacob selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: 15two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes and twenty rams; 16thirty female camels and their young; forty cows and ten bulls; twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 17He put these animals in the care of his servants, in separate herds, and he told the servants, “Go on ahead of me, but keep some space between the herds.” 18He ordered the servant in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? To whom do these animals ahead of you belong?’ 19tell him, ‘To your servant Jacob, but they have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. Jacob himself is right behind us.’” 20He also ordered the second servant and the third and all the others who followed behind the herds: “Thus and so you shall say to Esau, when you reach him; 21and also tell him, ‘Your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For Jacob reasoned, “If I first appease him with a gift that precedes me, then later, when I face him, perhaps he will forgive me.” 22So the gifts went on ahead of him, while he stayed that night in the camp.
Jacob’s New Name.#As Jacob crosses over to the land promised him, worried about the impending meeting with Esau, he encounters a mysterious adversary in the night with whom he wrestles until morning. The cunning Jacob manages to wrest a blessing from the night stranger before he departs. There are folkloric elements in the tale—e.g., the trial of the hero before he can return home, the nocturnal demon’s loss of strength at sunrise, the demon protecting its river, the power gained by knowledge of an opponent’s name—but these have been worked into a coherent though elliptical narrative. The point of the tale seems to be that the ever-striving, ever-grasping Jacob must eventually strive with God to attain full possession of the blessing. 23That night, however, Jacob arose, took his two wives, with the two maidservants and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 24After he got them and brought them across the wadi and brought over what belonged to him, 25Jacob was left there alone. Then a man#A man: as with Abraham’s three visitors in chap. 18, who appear sometimes as three, two, and one (the latter being God), this figure is fluid; he loses the match but changes Jacob’s name (v. 29), an act elsewhere done only by God (17:5, 15). A few deft narrative touches manage to express intimate contact with Jacob while preserving the transcendence proper to divinity. wrestled with him until the break of dawn. 26When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that Jacob’s socket was dislocated as he wrestled with him.#Hos 12:5. 27The man then said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” 28“What is your name?” the man asked. He answered, “Jacob.”#Gn 35:10; 1 Kgs 18:31; 2 Kgs 17:34. 29Then the man said, “You shall no longer be named Jacob, but Israel,#Israel: the first part of the Hebrew name Yisrael is given a popular explanation in the word saritha, “you contended”; the second part is the first syllable of ’elohim, “divine beings.” The present incident, with a similar allusion to the name Israel, is referred to in Hos 12:5, where the mysterious wrestler is explicitly called an angel. because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed.” 30Jacob then asked him, “Please tell me your name.” He answered, “Why do you ask for my name?” With that, he blessed him. 31Jacob named the place Peniel,#Peniel: a variant of the word Penuel (v. 32), the name of a town on the north bank of the Jabbok in Gilead (Jgs 8:8–9, 17; 1 Kgs 12:25). The name is explained as meaning “the face of God,” peni-’el. Yet my life has been spared: see note on 16:13. “because I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.”#Jgs 13:22.
32At sunrise, as he left Penuel, Jacob limped along because of his hip. 33That is why, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the sciatic muscle that is on the hip socket, because he had struck Jacob’s hip socket at the sciatic muscle.
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
Genesis 32
32
1And Ya’akov went on his way, and the angels of God-Elōhīm [The Living Word - The Many Powered] met him.
2And when Ya’akov saw them, he said, This [is] God-Elōhīm’s [The Living Word - The Many Powered] host: and he called the name of that place Machanayim [Two Camps] (two camps).
3And Ya’akov (he who holds onto the heel of) sent messengers before him to ‘Esav (hairy) his brother unto the land of Se’ir (hairy, shaggy; The Hairy Guys; riding the storm), the country of Edom (red, ruddy (reddish hair or complexion)).
4And he commanded them, saying, In the following manner shall youf speak unto my lord ‘Esav; youri servant Ya’akov (he who holds onto the heel of) says in this way, I have detained (held) with Lavan (to be white; white guy), and detained (held) there until now:
5And I have oxen, and donkeys, flocks, and menservants, and women servants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in youri sight.
6And the messengers returned to Ya’akov, saying, We came to youri brother ‘Esav, and also he comes to meet youi, and four hundred men with him.
7Then Ya’akov was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that [was] with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands;
8And said, If ‘Esav (hairy) come to the one company, and strike it, then the other company which is left shall escape.
9And Ya’akov (he who holds onto the heel of) said, O God-Elōhīm [The Living Word - The Many Powered] of my father Avraham [exalted father/Fly They Will], and God-Elōhīm [The Living Word - The Many Powered] of my father Yitz’chak [Laughter], the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) which said unto me, Return unto youri country, and to youri family, and I will deal well with youi:
10I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which youi have showed unto youri servant; for with my staff I passed over this Yarden (The Descender, Descending); and now I am become two bands.
11Deliver me, I pray youi, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of ‘Esav: for I fear him, lest he will come and strike me, [and] the mother with the children.
12And youi said, I will surely do youi good, and make youri seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for ‘Esav (hairy) his brother;
14Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams,
15Thirty milk production camels with their colts, forty cows, and ten bulls, twenty she donkeys, and ten foals.
16And he delivered [them] into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space between drove and drove.
17And he commanded the foremost, saying, When ‘Esav my brother meets youi, and asks youi, saying, Whose [are] youi? and to where go youi? and whose [are] these before youi?
18Then youi shall say, [They be] youri servant Ya’akov’s (he who holds onto the heel of); it [is] a present sent unto my lord ‘Esav: and, behold, also he [is] behind us.
19And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall you1sf speak unto ‘Esav (hairy), when you1sf find him.
20And say youf moreover, Behold, youri servant Ya’akov [is] behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept of me.
21So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.
22And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Yabok (emptying; to flow).
23And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
24And Ya’akov (he who holds onto the heel of) was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
25And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Ya’akov’s (he who holds onto the heel of) thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
26And he said, Let me go, for the day breaks. And he said, I will not let youi go, except youi bless me.
27And he said unto him, What [is] youri name? And he said, Ya’akov (he who holds onto the heel of).
28And he said, youri name shall be called no more Ya’akov (he who holds onto the heel of), but Isra’el [he who holds onto God-The Creator]: for as a prince have youi power with God [EL- The Powerful Living Word] and with men, and hast prevailed.
29And Ya’akov asked [him], and said, Tell [me], I pray youi, youri name. And he said, For what reason [is] it [that] youi ask after my name? And he Blessed (Favored by God; happy; prosperous) him there.
30And Ya’akov (he who holds onto the heel of) called the name of the place P’ni-El [Face of The Powerful Living Word of GOD]: for I have seen God-Elōhīm [The Living Word - The Many Powered] face to face, and my life is preserved.
31And Ya’akov (he who holds onto the heel of) as he passed over P’ni-El [Face of The Powerful Living Word of GOD] the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
32Therefore the children of Isra’el eat not [of] the sinew which shrank, which [is] upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Ya’akov’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.
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