Genesis 32 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Jacob continued on his way, and messengers of Elohim met him.

When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is Elohim's camp!" So he named that place Machanayim.

Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the territory of Edom.

He told them, "Say this to my lord Esau: 'Your servant 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 favor 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 four hundred men."

Jacob was terrified. The anxiety overwhelmed him. So he divided his people into two camps, 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 Abraham, Elohim of my father Isaac — Yahweh, 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 faithful love and trustworthiness you've shown your servant. I crossed this Jordan with nothing but my walking stick, and now I've become two camps.

Rescue 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 sand of the sea — too many to count.'"

He spent the night there. Then from what he had with him, he set aside a gift 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 soften him up with the gifts that go ahead of me. Then when I see him face to face, maybe he'll accept me."

So the gifts 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 Jabbok.

He took them and sent them across the stream, and sent everything he had across as well.

And Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

When the man saw that he couldn't overpower Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob's hip was wrenched out of joint as they wrestled.

The man said, "Let me go — it's almost dawn." But Jacob said, "I won't let you go unless you give me a gift of favor."

The man asked him, "What is your name?" He answered, "Jacob."

Then the man said, "Your name won't be Jacob anymore. From now on, your name is Israel — because you've struggled with Elohim and with people, and you've held your own."

Jacob said, "Please — tell me your name." But he said, "Why do you ask my name?" And he gave Jacob a gift of favor right there.

So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, "I have seen Elohim face to face, and my life has been spared."

The sun rose over him as he passed Peniel — and he was limping because of his hip.

That is why, to this day, the people of Israel don't eat the tendon attached to the hip socket — because the man struck Jacob on the hip tendon.