Genesis - The Old Testament

¹ Early next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban left to return home.

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.

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.