Old Testament · Law

Genesis chapter 32

Jacob continued on his way, and of met him.When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is Elohim’s !” So he named that place .Jacob sent ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of , the territory of .He told them, “Say this to Esau: ‘Your Jacob says — I’ve been staying with Laban and have been delayed until now.I’ve acquired cattle, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants. I’m sending word to my lord, hoping to find with you.’”The messengers came back to Jacob and said, “We went to your brother Esau, and he’s already on his way to meet you — with .”Jacob was . The anxiety overwhelmed him. So he divided his people into , along with the flocks, herds, and camels.He thought, “If Esau attacks one camp, the other camp can escape.”Then Jacob said, “, Elohim of my father Isaac — , you told me, ‘Go back to your homeland and your relatives, and I will make things go well for you’ —I don’t deserve any of the and you’ve shown your servant. I crossed this Jordan with nothing but my walking stick, and now I’ve become . me, please, from the hand of my brother — from the hand of Esau. I’m afraid of him. I’m afraid he’ll come and attack us all — the mothers and the children.But you said, ‘I will certainly make things go well for you, and I will make your descendants like the — too many to count.’”He spent the night there. Then from what he had with him, he set aside a for his brother Esau:two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,thirty milk camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and told his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some distance between each herd.”He instructed the one in front: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to? Where are you headed? And whose animals are these ahead of you?’then say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They’re a gift sent to my lord Esau. And Jacob himself is right behind us.’”He gave the same instructions to the second group, the third, and all the others who followed the herds: “Say the exact same thing to Esau when you find him.And be sure to add, ‘Your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” He thought, “I’ll with the gifts that go ahead of me. Then when I see him to face, maybe he’ll accept me.”So the went on ahead of him, and he himself spent that night in the camp.That night he got up, took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the .He took them and sent them across the stream, and sent everything he had across as well.And Jacob was left . Then with him until daybreak.When the man saw that he couldn’t overpower Jacob, he struck him on the , and Jacob’s hip was as they wrestled.The man said, “Let me go — it’s almost dawn.” But Jacob said, “I won’t let you go unless you .”The man asked him, “What is your name?” He answered, “.”Then the man said, “Your name won’t be Jacob anymore. From now on, your name is — because you’ve with Elohim and with people, and you’ve .”Jacob said, “Please — .” But he said, “Why do you ask my name?” And he gave Jacob a right there.So Jacob named the place , saying, “I have seen Elohim , and .”The sun rose over him as he passed Peniel — and he was because of his hip.That is why, to this day, the don’t eat the — because the man struck Jacob on the hip tendon.