Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

¹ Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. ² When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

³ Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country^* of Edom. ⁴ He instructed them, “You are to say to my master Esau, ‘Your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now. ⁵ I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants, and maidservants. I have sent this message to inform my master, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”

⁶ When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you—^* he and four hundred men with him.”

⁷ In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels. ⁸ He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape.”

⁹ Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred,^* and I will make you prosper,’ ¹⁰ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps. ¹¹ Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me. ¹² But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”

¹³ Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau: ¹⁴ 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, ¹⁵ 30 milk^* camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys. ¹⁶ He entrusted them to his servants in separate herds and told them, “Go on ahead of me, and keep some distance between the herds.”

¹⁷ He instructed the one in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong, where are you going, and whose animals are these before you?’ ¹⁸ then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift, sent to my lord Esau. And behold, Jacob is behind us.’”

¹⁹ He also instructed the second, the third, and all those following behind the herds: “When you meet Esau, you are to say the same thing to him. ²⁰ You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease^* Esau with the gift that is going before me. After that I can face him, and perhaps he will accept^* me.”

²¹ So Jacob’s gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles with God

²² During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.

²⁴ So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled. ²⁶ Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷ “What is your name?” the man asked.

“Jacob,” he replied.

²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God^* and with men, and you have prevailed.”

²⁹ And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.

³⁰ So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God^* face^* to face,^* and yet my life was spared.”

³¹ The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip. ³² Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was struck near that tendon.