The Holy Bible · Genesis

Genesis 32

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1And Laban rose up early in the morning, and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them; and Laban departed and returned to his place.

2And Jacob departed for his journey; and having looked up, he saw the host of God encamped; and the angels of God met him.

3And when Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the Camp of God!” So he called the name of that place Encampments.

4Then Jacob sent messengers before his face to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, to the country of Edom.

5He instructed them, “Say to my lord Esau, ‘Your servant Jacob says: I have lived with Laban and remained there until now.’”

6“‘I have acquired oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female slaves. I have sent to tell my lord Esau, so your servant may find favor in your sight.’”

7Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and look, he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

8Jacob was greatly afraid and perplexed. He divided the people with him, the oxen, and the sheep into two camps.

9He said, “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, the remaining camp will escape.”

10Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Lord, who said to me, ‘Hurry to the land of your birth, and I will do you good,’”

11“All the righteousness and truth You have shown Your servant suffice for me. With my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.”

12“Rescue me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I fear that he may come and strike me down, mothers together with children.”

13“But You said, ‘I will surely do you good and make your seed like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted for its multitude.’”

14He slept there that night, took gifts from what he was carrying, and sent them to Esau his brother.

15two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

16thirty nursing camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty donkeys and ten foals.

17And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, herd by herd apart; and he said to his servants, “Pass on before me, and make a space between herd and herd.”

18He commanded the first servant, “If my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Whose servant are you? Where are you going? Whose animals are these before you?’”

19“then say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. He has sent gifts to my lord Esau, and he himself is behind us.’”

20He also instructed the first, the second, the third, and all who went behind these flocks, “Speak to Esau in this way when you meet him.”

21“Also say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease him with the gifts going before him; afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”

22The gifts went ahead of him, while he spent that night in the camp.

23And he rose up in the night and took his two wives, and his two slave women, and his eleven children, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok.

24He took them and crossed the torrent, and brought over all that he had.

25And Jacob was left behind alone; and a man wrestled with him until the morning.

26And when the man saw that he could not prevail against him, he touched the broad part of his thigh; and the broad part of Jacob’s thigh became numb in his wrestling with him.

27And he said to him, “Let me go, for the dawn has risen.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”

28Then he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”

29He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have been strong with God, and with men you are powerful.”

30And Jacob asked and said, “Tell me your name.” And he said, “Why is it that you ask for my name?” And he blessed him there.

31Jacob named the place Form of God, saying, “I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved.”

32The sun rose upon him as he passed Form of God, and he was limping because of his thigh.

33Therefore the Israelites do not eat the sinew that became numb, which is at the broad part of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the broad part of Jacob’s thigh, the sinew, and it became numb.

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Read this chapter with the Hebrew and Greek compared →

Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.