| 32 | Genesis | Passage |
|---|
| 1 |
Early next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban left to return home. |
JACOB prepares to meet Esau. Gn.32.1-21
|
| 2 |
While Jacob was going on his way, angels of God encountered him, |
|
| 3 |
and on seeing them he said, 'This is God's camp,' and he named the place Mahanaim. |
|
| 4 |
Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in Seir, the open country of Edom, |
|
| 5 |
with these instructions, 'Say this to my lord Esau, 'Here is the message of your servant Jacob: I have been staying with Laban and have been delayed there until now, |
|
| 6 |
and I own oxen, beasts of burden and flocks, and men and women slaves. I send news of this to my lord in the hope of winning your favour.' ' |
|
| 7 |
The messengers returned to Jacob and told him, 'We went to your brother Esau, and he is already on his way to meet you; there are four hundred men with him.' |
|
| 8 |
Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people with him, and the flocks and cattle, into two camps, |
|
| 9 |
thinking, 'If Esau comes to one of the camps and attacks it, the remaining camp may be able to escape.' |
|
| 10 |
Jacob said, 'God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh who told me, 'Go back to your native land and I will be good to you,' |
|
| 11 |
I am unworthy of all the faithful love and constancy you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, and now I have grown into two camps. |
|
| 12 |
I implore you, save me from my brother Esau's clutches, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me, mothers and children alike. |
|
| 13 |
Yet it was you who said, 'I shall be very good to you, and make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which is too numerous to count.' ' |
|
| 14 |
Then Jacob passed that night there. From what he had with him he chose a gift for his brother Esau: |
|
| 15 |
two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, |
|
| 16 |
thirty camels in milk with their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male. |
|
| 17 |
He put them in the charge of his servants, in separate droves, and told his servants, 'Go ahead of me, leaving a space between each drove and the next.' |
|
| 18 |
He gave the leading man this order: 'When my brother Esau meets you and asks, 'Whose man are you? Where are you going? Whose are those animals that you are driving?' |
|
| 19 |
you will answer, 'Your servant Jacob's. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau. And Jacob himself is just behind us.' ' |
|
| 20 |
He gave the same order to the second and the third, and to all who were following the droves. 'That is what you must say to Esau when you find him. |
|
| 21 |
And you must add, 'Your servant Jacob himself is just behind us.' ' For he thought, 'If I conciliate him by sending a gift in advance, perhaps he will be well inclined towards me when I face him.' |
|
| 22 |
The gift went ahead of him, but he himself spent that night in the camp. |
Peniel - Jacob is named Israel Gn.32.22-32
|
| 23 |
That same night he got up and, taking his two wives, his two slave-girls and his eleven children, crossed the ford of the Jabbok. |
|
| 24 |
After he had taken them across the stream, he sent all his possessions over too. |
|
| 25 |
And Jacob was left alone. Then someone wrestled with him until daybreak |
|
| 26 |
who, seeing that he could not master him, struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob's hip was dislocated as he wrestled with him. |
|
| 27 |
He said, 'Let me go, for day is breaking.' Jacob replied, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' |
|
| 28 |
The other said, 'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he replied. |
|
| 29 |
He said, 'No longer are you to be called Jacob, but Israel since you have shown your strength against God and men and have prevailed.' |
|
| 30 |
Then Jacob asked, 'Please tell me your name.' He replied, 'Why do you ask my name?' With that, he blessed him there. |
|
| 31 |
Jacob named the place Peniel, 'Because I have seen God face to face,' he said, 'and have survived.' |
|
| 32 |
The sun rose as he passed Peniel, limping from his hip. |
|
| 33 |
That is why to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh sinew which is at the hip socket: because he had struck Jacob at the hip socket on the thigh sinew. |
|