Genesis 32
32
Jacob Sends Messages and Gifts to Esau
1 # 32:1
Genesis 32:1–32
in English Bibles is Genesis 32:2–33 in the Hebrew Bible. As Jacob went on his way, God’s angels met him. 2When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp!” He named that place Mahanaim [Two Camps].
3Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in Seir, the country of Edom. 4He commanded them to give this message to Esau, “Sir, this is what Jacob has to say, ‘I’ve been living with Laban and have stayed until now. 5I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, and male and female slaves. I’ve sent ⌞these messengers⌟ to tell you ⌞this news⌟ in order to win your favor.’ ”
6When the messengers came back to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you with 400 men.”
7Jacob was terrified and distressed. So he divided the people, the sheep and goats, the cattle, and the camels into two camps. 8He thought, “If Esau attacks the one camp, then the other camp will be able to escape.”
9Then Jacob prayed, “God of my grandfather Abraham and God of my father Isaac! Lord, you said to me, ‘Go back to your land and to your relatives, and I will make you prosperous.’ 10I’m not worthy of all the love and faithfulness you have shown me. I only had a shepherd’s staff when I crossed the Jordan River, but now I have two camps. 11Please save me from my brother Esau, because I’m afraid of him. I’m afraid that he’ll come and attack me and the mothers and children too. 12But you did say, ‘I will make sure that you are prosperous and that your descendants will be as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. No one will be able to count them because there are so many.’ ”
13He stayed there that night. Then he prepared a gift for his brother Esau from what he had brought with him: 14200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 female sheep and 20 male sheep, 1530 female camels with their young, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys.
16He placed servants in charge of each herd. Then he said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep a distance between the herds.” 17He commanded the first servant, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and whose animals are these ahead of you?’ 18then say, ‘Sir, they belong to your servant Jacob. This is a gift sent to you. Jacob is right behind us.’ ” 19He also commanded the second servant, the third, and all the others who followed the herds. He said, “Say the same thing to Esau when you find him. 20And be sure to add, ‘Jacob is right behind us, sir.’ ” He thought, “I’ll make peace with him by giving him this gift that I’m sending ahead of me. After that I will see him, and he’ll welcome me back.” 21So Jacob sent the gift ahead of him while he stayed in the camp that night.
Jacob’s Fourth Encounter with God—He Wrestles with God
22During that night he got up and gathered his two wives, his two slaves and his eleven children and crossed at the shallow part of the Jabbok River. 23After he sent them across the stream, he sent everything else across. 24So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until dawn. 25When the man saw that he could not win against Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that it was dislocated as they wrestled. 26Then the man said, “Let me go; it’s almost dawn.”
But Jacob answered, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.”
27So the man asked him, “What’s your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28The man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel [He Struggles With God], because you have struggled with God and with men—and you have won.”
29Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
The man answered, “Why do you ask for my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there. 30So Jacob named that place Peniel [Face of God], because he said, “I have seen God face to face, but my life was saved.” 31The sun rose as he passed Penuel.#32:31 Another name for Peniel. He was limping because of his hip. 32(Therefore, even today the people of Israel do not eat the muscle of the thigh attached to the hip socket because God touched the socket of Jacob’s hip at the muscle of the thigh.)
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Genesis 32
32
Genesis 32
1¶ And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
2And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host; and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
3¶ And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
4And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau: Thy slave Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now;
5and I have oxen and asses, flocks, and menslaves, and womenslaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.
6And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he comes to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.
7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that were with him, and the sheep and the cows and the camels, into two bands
8and said, If Esau comes to the one company and smites it, then the other company which is left shall escape.
9¶ And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said unto me, Return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee.
10I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy slave; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands.
11Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him lest he come and smite me and the mother with the children.
12And thou hast said, I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13¶ And he lodged there that same night and took of that which came to his hand as a present for Esau his brother:
14two hundred she goats and twenty he goats, two hundred sheep and twenty rams,
15thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.
16And he delivered them into the hand of his slaves, every drove by themselves and said unto his slaves, Pass before me and put a space between drove and drove.
17And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau, my brother, meets thee and asks thee, saying, Whose art thou? And where goest thou? And for whom are these before thee?
18Then thou shalt say, They are thy slave Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau; and, behold, also he is behind us.
19And so commanded he the second and the third and all that followed those droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau when ye find him.
20And ye shall also say, Behold, thy slave Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will reconcile his wrath with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept me.
21So the present went over before him, and he lodged that night in the company.
22And he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two womenservants and his eleven sons and passed over the ford Jabbok.
23And he took them and sent them over the brook and sent over all that he had.
24¶ And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
25And when the man saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was disjointed as he wrestled with him.
26And he said, Let me go, for the day breaks. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.
27And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28And he said, Thy name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast fought with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
29And Jacob asked him and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Why dost thou ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
30And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for I have seen God face to face, and my soul was saved.
31And as he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him, and he limped upon his thigh.
32Therefore the sons of Israel do not eat of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International