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.
Genesis 32
32
Esau Comes to Meet Jacob
1So Jacob went on his way, and #Num. 22:31; 2 Kin. 6:16, 17; (Ps. 34:7; 91:1; Heb. 1:14)the angels of God met him. 2When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s #Josh. 5:14; Ps. 103:21; 148:2; Luke 2:13camp.” And he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
3Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother #Gen. 14:6; 33:14, 16in the land of Seir, #Gen. 25:30; 36:6–9; Deut. 2:5; Josh. 24:4the country of Edom. 4And he commanded them, saying, #Prov. 15:1“Speak thus to my lord Esau, ‘Thus your servant Jacob says: “I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now. 5#Gen. 30:43I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that #Gen. 33:8, 15I may find favor in your sight.” ’ ”
6Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and #Gen. 33:1he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7So Jacob was greatly afraid and #Gen. 32:11; 35:3distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies. 8And he said, “If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the other company which is left will escape.”
9#(Ps. 50:15)Then Jacob said, #Gen. 28:13; 31:42“O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord #Gen. 31:3, 13who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’: 10I am not worthy of the least of all the #Gen. 24:27mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with #Job 8:7my staff, and now I have become two companies. 11#Ps. 59:1, 2Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and #Hos. 10:14the mother with the children. 12For #Gen. 28:13–15You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the #Gen. 22:17sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”
13So he lodged there that same night, and took what came to his hand as #Gen. 43:11a present for Esau his brother: 14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. 16Then he delivered them to the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put some distance between successive droves.” 17And he commanded the first one, saying, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going? Whose are these in front of you?’ 18then you shall say, ‘They are your servant Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord Esau; and behold, he also is behind us.’ ” 19So he commanded the second, the third, and all who followed the droves, saying, “In this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; 20and also say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us.’ ” For he said, “I will #(Prov. 21:14)appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.” 21So the present went on over before him, but he himself lodged that night in the camp.
Wrestling with God
22And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, #Num. 21:24; Deut. 3:16; Josh. 12:2and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. 23He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. 24Then Jacob was left alone; and #Josh. 5:13–15; Hos. 12:2–4a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and #Matt. 26:41; 2 Cor. 12:7the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26And #Luke 24:28He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”
But he said, #Hos. 12:4“I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
27So He said to him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Jacob.”
28And He said, #Gen. 35:10; 1 Kin. 18:31; 2 Kin. 17:34“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have #Hos. 12:3, 4struggled with God and #Gen. 25:31; 27:33with men, and have prevailed.”
29Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.”
And He said, #Judg. 13:17, 18“Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He #Gen. 35:9blessed him there.
30So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For #Gen. 16:13; Ex. 24:10, 11; 33:20; Num. 12:8; Deut. 5:24; Judg. 6:22; Is. 6:5; (Matt. 5:8; 1 Cor. 13:12)I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” 31Just as he crossed over Penuel the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip. 32Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip in the muscle that shrank.
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.