Genesis 32
1 And Laban rose up in the morning,
and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them; and Laban having
turned back, departed to his place.
2 And Jacob departed for his journey;
and having looked up, he saw the
aGr. camp.host of God encamped; and the angels of God met him.
3 And Jacob said, when he saw them,
This is the Camp of God; and he called the name of that place, Encampments.
4 And Jacob sent messengers before him
to Esau his brother to the land of Seir, to the country of Edom.
5 And he charged them, saying, Thus
shall ye say to my lord Esau: Thus saith thy servant Jacob; I have sojourned
with Laban and tarried until now.
6 And there were born to me oxen, and
asses, and sheep, and men-servants and women-servants; and I sent to tell my
lord Esau, that thy servant might find grace in thy sight.
7 And the messengers returned to
Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and lo! he comes to meet thee, and
four hundred men with him. 8 And Jacob
was greatly terrified, and was perplexed; and he divided the people that was
with him, and the cows, and the camels, and the sheep, into two camps.
9 And Jacob said, If Esau should come
to one camp, and smite it, the other camp shall be in safety.
10 And Jacob said, God of my father
Abraam, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, thou
art he that said to me, Depart quickly to the land of
thy birth, and I will do thee good.
11 Let there be to me a sufficiency
of all the justice and all the truth which thou hast wrought with thy servant;
for with this my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two
camps. 12 Deliver me from the hand of
my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him, lest haply he
should come and smite me, and the mother upon the children.
13 But thou saidst, I will do thee
good, and will make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which shall not be
numbered for multitude. 14 And he
slept there that night, and took of the gifts which he carried
with him, and sent out to Esau his brother,
15 two hundred she-goats, twenty
he-goats, two hundred sheep, twenty rams,
16 milch camels, and their foals,
thirty, forty kine, ten bulls, twenty asses, and ten colts.
17 And he gave them to his servants
each drove apart; and he said to his servants, Go on
before me, and put a space between drove and drove.
18 And he charged the first, saying,
If Esau my brother meet thee, and he ask thee, saying, Whose art thou? and
whither wouldest thou go, and whose are these possessions advancing before
thee? 19 Thou shalt say, Thy servant
Jacob's; he hath sent gifts to my lord Esau, and lo! he is behind us.
20 And he charged the first and the
second and the third, and all that went before him after these flocks, saying,
Thus shall ye speak to Esau when ye find him;
21 and ye shall say, Behold thy
servant Jacob comes after us. For he said, I will propitiate his countenance
with the gifts going before his presence, and afterwards I will behold his
face, for peradventure he will accept
bGr. my face.me. 22 So the presents went on
before him, but he himself lodged that night in the camp.
23 And he rose up in that night, and
took his two wives and his two servant-maids, and his eleven children, and
crossed over the ford of Jaboch.
24 And he took them, and passed over
the torrent, and brought over all his possessions.
25 And Jacob was left alone; and a
man wrestled with him till the morning.
26 And he saw that he prevailed not
against him; and he touched the broad part of his thigh, and the broad part of
Jacob's thigh was benumbed in his wrestling with him.
27 And he said to him, Let me go, for
the day has dawned; but he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
28 And he said to him, What is thy
name? and he answered, Jacob. 29 And
he said to him, Thy name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be
thy name; for thou hast prevailed with God, and shalt be mighty with men.
30 And Jacob asked and said, Tell me
thy name; and he said, Wherefore dost thou ask after my name? and he blessed
him there. 31 And Jacob called the
name of that place, the Face of God; for, said he, I
have seen God face to face, and my life was preserved.
32 And the sun rose upon him, when he
passed the Face of God; and he halted upon his thigh.
33 Therefore the children of Israel
will by no means eat of the sinew which was benumbed, which is on the broad
part of the thigh, until this day, because
the angel touched the broad part of the thigh of
Jacob—even the sinew which was benumbed.