This edition follows the Hebrew versification; the traditional number is given in brackets.
Jacob’s Messengers to Esau
1[31:55]Early the next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and daughters and blessed them, and then he left and returned home. 2[32:1]Jacob went on his way, and angels of God met him. 3[32:2]When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim. 4[32:3]Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 5[32:4]He instructed them, “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now. 6[32:5]I have cattle and donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants. I am sending word to my lord, hoping to find favor in your eyes.’” 7[32:6]The messengers returned to Jacob and said, “We went to your brother Esau, and he is already coming to meet you, with four hundred men.” 8[32:7]Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people with him, along with the flocks, herds, and camels, into two camps,
Jacob’s Prayer
9[32:8]thinking, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, the camp that is left may still escape.” 10[32:9]Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, you who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will treat you well’ — 11[32:10]I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I crossed this Jordan with nothing but my staff, and now I have become two camps. 12[32:11]Please, rescue me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, mothers and children alike. 13[32:12]But you said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”
The Gift for Esau
14[32:13]Jacob spent that night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: 15[32:14]two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 16[32:15]thirty milk camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 17[32:16]He put them in the care of his servants, herd by herd, and said to his servants, “Go on ahead of me, and keep a space between the herds.” 18[32:17]He instructed the one in front, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Whose servant are you? Where are you going? And whose animals are these ahead of you?’ 19[32:18]then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and Jacob himself is right behind us.’” 20[32:19]He gave the same instructions to the second servant, and the third, and to all who were following the herds: “This is what you are to say to Esau when you find him. 21[32:20]And you are to add, ‘Your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease him with the gift that goes ahead of me, and after that I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.” 22[32:21]So the gift went on ahead of him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.
Jacob Wrestles at the Jabbok
23[32:22]That same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 24[32:23]He took them and sent them across the stream, along with everything he had. 25[32:24]Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 26[32:25]When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he struck Jacob’s hip socket, so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with him. 27[32:26]Then the man said, “Let me go, for daybreak is coming.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 28[32:27]The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. 29[32:28]Then he said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 30[32:29]Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why do you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 31[32:30]So Jacob named that place Peniel, saying, “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” 32[32:31]The sun rose on him as he passed by Penuel, limping because of his hip. 33[32:32]That is why, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the hip socket, because the man struck Jacob’s hip socket at the tendon.
