Genesis 32
New International Version - Genesis 32 << | >> 1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950 32:1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 32:2 When Jacob saw them, he said, 'This is the camp of God!' So he named that place Mahanaim. 32:3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 32:4 He instructed them: 'This is what you are to say to my master Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. 32:5 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.' ' 32:6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, 'We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.' 32:7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 32:8 He thought, 'If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.' 32:9 Then Jacob prayed, 'O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord , who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,' 32:10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. 32:11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 32:12 But you have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.' ' 32:13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: 32:14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 32:15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 32:16 He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, 'Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.' 32:17 He instructed the one in the lead: 'When my brother Esau meets you and asks, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?' 32:18 then you are to say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.' ' 32:19 He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: 'You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 32:20 And be sure to say, 'Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.' ' For he thought, 'I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.' 32:21 So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp. 32:22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 32:23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 32:24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 32:25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 32:26 Then the man said, 'Let me go, for it is daybreak.' But Jacob replied, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' 32:27 The man asked him, 'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he answered. 32:28 Then the man said, 'Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.' 32:29 Jacob said, 'Please tell me your name.' But he replied, 'Why do you ask my name?' Then he blessed him there. 32:30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, 'It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.' 32:31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32:32 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 touched near the tendon.