Genesis 32

1As Jacob continued on his journey, angels of God met him. 2At the sight of them Jacob said, “This is God’s own camp!” and he called the place Mahanaim.

3Jacob then sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau, to the land of Seir in the region of Edom. 4He instructed them, “Tell my lord Esau this: ‘Your servant Jacob sends word: I have lived as a guest with Laban and stayed on there until now. 5I own oxen and donkeys and flocks, and servants, men and women. I am sending to let my lord know, hoping you will look on me with favor.’” 6The messengers returned and told Jacob, “We reached your brother Esau. He is already coming out to meet you, with 400 men at his side.” 7Jacob was badly frightened and anxious. He divided his people into two camps, along with the flocks, the herds and the camels. 8His thought was, “If Esau falls on one camp and strikes it, the camp that is left will be able to escape.” 9And Jacob prayed: “God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, LORD, it was you who said to me, ‘Return to your land and your family, and I will make things go well for you.’ 10I am far too small for all the steadfast love and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only a staff in my hand when I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11Rescue me from my brother, from Esau’s hand. I fear that he will come and strike us all down, mothers and children together. 12Yet you yourself said, ‘I will surely make things go well for you, and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, beyond counting for their number.’” 13After spending the night there, he chose from his possessions a present for his brother Esau: 14200 female goats and twenty male goats, 200 ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty camels with their nursing young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16He handed them over to his servants, one drove at a time, and told them, “Cross ahead of me, and leave a gap between each drove and the next.” 17To the leading servant he said, “My brother Esau will meet you and ask, ‘Whose man are you? Where are you headed? And whose animals are these you are driving?’ 18Then you will say, ‘Your servant Jacob’s. This is a present he is sending to my lord Esau, and Jacob himself is following us.’” 19He gave the same command to the second, to the third, and to everyone who walked behind the droves: “This is what you are to tell Esau when you come upon him. 20Add this: ‘Your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” His plan was, “I will win him over with the present that goes ahead of me, and then I will meet him face to face. It may be that he will receive me kindly.” 21So the gift went on ahead of him, while he stayed the night in the camp. 22During that night he rose, took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons, and crossed at the ford of the Jabbok. 23He took them and sent them over the stream, along with everything he owned. 24Jacob stayed behind by himself. And a man wrestled with him there until dawn began to break. 25The man, seeing that he could not get the upper hand over Jacob, struck him at the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was wrenched out of joint while they wrestled. 26“Let me go,” said the man, “for the dawn is coming up.” Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27The man asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” 28He said, “You will be called Jacob no longer. Your name is Israel, for you have contended with God and with people and have come through victorious.” 29Then Jacob asked him, “Tell me, please, what your name is.” He replied, “Why is it that you ask for my name?” And there he blessed Jacob. 30Jacob named the place Peniel. “I have seen God face to face,” he said, “and my life has been rescued.” 31The sun was rising on him as he went past Penuel, and he went limping on his injured hip. 32This is the reason the people of Israel still do not eat the sinew on the hip socket: Jacob’s hip socket was struck at that sinew.