Genesis 32
32
1-2And Jacob went his way. Angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them he said, “Oh! God’s Camp!” And he named the place Mahanaim (Campground).
3-5Then Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir in Edom. He instructed them: “Tell my master Esau this, ‘A message from your servant Jacob: I’ve been staying with Laban and couldn’t get away until now. I’ve acquired cattle and donkeys and sheep; also men and women servants. I’m telling you all this, my master, hoping for your approval.’”
6The messengers came back to Jacob and said, “We talked to your brother Esau and he’s on his way to meet you. But he has four hundred men with him.”
7-8Jacob was scared. Very scared. Panicked, he divided his people, sheep, cattle, and camels into two camps. He thought, “If Esau comes on the first camp and attacks it, the other camp has a chance to get away.”
9-12And then Jacob prayed, “God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, God who told me, ‘Go back to your parents’ homeland and I’ll treat you well.’ I don’t deserve all the love and loyalty you’ve shown me. When I left here and crossed the Jordan I only had the clothes on my back, and now look at me—two camps! Save me, please, from the violence of my brother, my angry brother! I’m afraid he’ll come and attack us all, me, the mothers and the children. You yourself said, ‘I will treat you well; I’ll make your descendants like the sands of the sea, far too many to count.’”
13-16He slept the night there. Then he prepared a present for his brother Esau from his possessions: two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty camels with their nursing young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. He put a servant in charge of each herd and said, “Go ahead of me and keep a healthy space between each herd.”
17-18Then he instructed the first one out: “When my brother Esau comes close and asks, ‘Who is your master? Where are you going? Who owns these?’—answer him like this, ‘Your servant Jacob. They are a gift to my master Esau. He’s on his way.’”
19-20He gave the same instructions to the second servant and to the third—to each in turn as they set out with their herds: “Say ‘Your servant Jacob is on his way behind us.’” He thought, “I will soften him up with the succession of gifts. Then when he sees me face-to-face, maybe he’ll be glad to welcome me.”
21So his gifts went before him while he settled down for the night in the camp.
22-23But during the night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions.
24-25But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he couldn’t get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob’s hip out of joint.
26The man said, “Let me go; it’s daybreak.”
Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go ’til you bless me.”
27The man said, “What’s your name?”
He answered, “Jacob.”
28The man said, “But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it’s Israel (God-Wrestler); you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.”
29Jacob asked, “And what’s your name?”
The man said, “Why do you want to know my name?” And then, right then and there, he blessed him.
30Jacob named the place Peniel (God’s Face) because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!”
31-32The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip. (This is why Israelites to this day don’t eat the hip muscle; because Jacob’s hip was thrown out of joint.)
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Genesis 32: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Bereshis 32
32
1And Ya'akov went on his derech, and the malachim of Elohim met him.
2 And when Ya'akov saw them, he said, This is Mahaneh Elohim; and he called the shem of that makom (place) Machanayim.
[VAYISHLAH]
3 And Ya'akov sent malachim before him to Esav achiv unto Eretz Se'ir, the country of Edom.
4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto adoni Esav; Thy eved Ya'akov saith thus, I have sojourned with Lavan, and stayed there until now;
5 And I have shor (oxen), and chamor, tzon, and eved, and shifchah; and I have sent to tell adoni, that I may find chen (grace) in thy sight.
6 And the malachim returned to Ya'akov, saying, We came to Esav achicha, and also he cometh to meet thee, and arba me'ot ish with him.
7 Then Ya'akov was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided HaAm that was with him, and the tzon, and bakar, and the gemalim, into two machanot;
8 And said, If Esav come to the one machaneh, and attack it, then the other machaneh which is left shall escape.
9 And Ya'akov said, O Elohei Avi Avraham, and Elohei Avi Yitzchak, Hashem which saidst unto me, Shuv l'aretzecha and to thy moledet (kindred), and I will deal well with thee;
10 I am not worthy of the least of all the chasadim, and of all the emes, which Thou hast showed unto Thy eved; for with my makal (rod, staff) I passed over this Yarden; and now I am become two machanot.
11 Save me, now, from the yad achi, from the yad Esav; for I fear him, lest he will come and attack me, em with banim.
12 But Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy zera as the chol of the yam, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13 And he spent there that same night; and took of that which came to his yad a minchah for Esav achiv;
14 Two hundred female goats, and twenty male goats, two hundred rechelim (ewes), and twenty eilim (rams),
15 Thirty nursing gemalim with their colts, forty parot (cows), and ten parim (bulls), twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys.
16 And he delivered them into the yad of his avadim, every herd by itself; and said unto his avadim, Pass over before me, and keep a space between herd and herd.
17 And he commanded the rishon, saying, When Esav achi meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? And to where goest thou? And whose are these [animals] before thee?
18 Then thou shalt say, They are of thy eved Ya'akov; it is a minchah sent unto adoni Esav; and, hinei, also he is behind us.
19 And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the adarim (herds), saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esav, when ye find him.
20 And say ye moreover, Hinei, thy eved Ya'akov is behind us. For he said, Akhapperah (I will appease, cover) his face with the minchah that goeth ahead of me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.
21 So went the minchah (present) over ahead of him; but he himself stayed balailah in the machaneh.
22 And he rose up that night, and took his two nashim and his two shifchot, and his eleven yeladim, and passed over the ma'avar (ford) Yabbok.
23 And he took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over [all] that he had.
24 And Ya'akov was left by himself; and there wrestled an ish with him until the shachar (dawn, sunup).
25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he struck his hip socket; so Ya'akovʼs hip socket dislocated while he wrestled with him.
26 And he said, Let me go, for shachar breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, unless thou make a berakhah upon me.
27 And he said unto him, What is shemecha? And he said, Ya'akov.
28 And he said, Shimcha shall be called no more Ya'akov, but Yisroel: for sarita im Elohim ([yisrah=to prevail + El=G-d = Yisroel] ye have striven with Elohim) and with anashim, and hast overcome.
29 And Ya'akov asked him, and said, Tell me, now, shemecha. And he said, Why is it that thou dost ask after shmi? And he made a brocha upon him there.
30 And Ya'akov called the shem of the makom (place) Peniel (Face of G-d): for I have seen Elohim panim el panim, and my nefesh is saved.
31 And as he passed over Penuel the shemesh rose upon him, and he limped upon his hip.
32 Therefore the Bnei Yisroel eat not of the sinew of the thigh vein (sciatic nerve) which is upon the hip socket, unto this day; because he touched the hip socket of Ya'akov in the sinew of the thigh vein.
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
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