Genesis 32:1-32
32 Jacob then went on his way, and the angels of God met up with him.
2 As soon as he saw them, Jacob said: “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Ma·ha·naʹim.*
3 Then Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Eʹsau in the land of Seʹir,+ the territory* of Eʹdom,+
4 and he commanded them: “This is what you will say to my lord, to Eʹsau, ‘This is what your servant Jacob says: “I have resided* with Laʹban for a long time until now.+
5 And I have acquired bulls, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants,+ and I send this message to inform my lord, in order to find favor in your eyes.”’”
6 In time the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: “We met your brother Eʹsau, and he is now on his way to meet you, and there are 400 men with him.”+
7 And Jacob became very frightened and anxious.+ So he divided the people who were with him, as well as the flocks, the cattle, and the camels, into two camps.
8 He said: “If Eʹsau attacks the one camp, then the other camp will be able to escape.”
9 After that Jacob said: “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah, you who are saying to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives, and I will deal well with you,’+
10 I am unworthy of all the loyal love and of all the faithfulness that you have shown toward your servant,+ for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan and now I have become two camps.+
11 Save me, I pray you,+ from the hand of my brother Eʹsau, for I am afraid of him that he may come and attack me,+ as well as the mothers and their children.
12 And you have said: ‘I will certainly deal well with you, and I will make your offspring* like the grains of sand of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’”+
13 And he spent the night there. Then he took some of his possessions as a gift for Eʹsau his brother:+
14 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 female sheep, 20 rams,
15 30 camels nursing their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 full-grown male donkeys.+
16 He handed them over to his servants, one drove after another, and he said to his servants: “Cross over ahead of me, and you are to set a space between one drove and the next.”
17 He also commanded the first one: “In case Eʹsau my brother should meet you and ask, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these ahead of you belong?’
18 then you should say, ‘To your servant Jacob. It is a gift sent to my lord, to Eʹsau,+ and look! he himself is also behind us.’”
19 And he commanded also the second, the third, and all those following the droves: “According to this word, you are to speak to Eʹsau when you meet him.
20 And you should also say, ‘Here is your servant Jacob behind us.’” For he said to himself: ‘If I appease him by sending a gift ahead of me,+ then afterward when I see him, he may give me a kindly reception.’
21 So the gift crossed over ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.
22 Later during that night, he rose and took his two wives+ and his two female servants+ and his 11 young sons and crossed over the ford of Jabʹbok.+
23 So he took them and brought them across the stream,* and he brought over everything else he had.
24 Finally Jacob was left by himself. Then a man began to wrestle with him until the dawn broke.+
25 When he saw that he had not prevailed over him, he touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated during his wrestling with him.+
26 After that he said: “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” To this he said: “I am not going to let you go until you bless me.”+
27 So he said to him: “What is your name?” to which he said: “Jacob.”
28 Then he said: “Your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel,*+ for you have contended with God+ and with men and you have at last prevailed.”
29 In turn Jacob inquired: “Tell me, please, your name.” However, he said: “Why is it that you ask my name?”+ With that he blessed him there.
30 So Jacob named the place Pe·niʹel,*+ for he said, “I have seen God face-to-face, yet my life* was preserved.”+
31 And the sun rose upon him as soon as he passed by Pe·nuʹel,* but he was limping because of his hip.+
32 That is why to this day the sons of Israel are not accustomed to eat the thigh sinew,* which is on the socket of the hip joint, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip joint by the thigh sinew.
Footnotes
^ Meaning “Two Camps.”
^ Lit., “field.”
^ Or “resided as a foreigner.”
^ Lit., “seed.”
^ Or “torrent valley; wadi.”
^ Meaning “Contender (Perseverer) With God” or “God Contends.”
^ Meaning “Face of God.”
^ Or “soul.”
^ Or “Peniel.”
^ Lit., “the sinew of the thigh nerve.”