Genesis 32: Wrestling at Peniel

Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

¹Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. ²When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

³Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. ⁴He instructed them, “You are to say to my master Esau, ‘Your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now. ⁵I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants, and maidservants. I have sent this message to inform my master, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”

⁶When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you—he and four hundred men with him.”

⁷In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels. ⁸He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape.”

⁹Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’ ¹⁰I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps. ¹¹Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me. ¹²But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”

¹³Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau: ¹⁴200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, ¹⁵30 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys. ¹⁶He entrusted them to his servants in separate herds and told them, “Go on ahead of me, and keep some distance between the herds.”

¹⁷He instructed the one in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong, where are you going, and whose animals are these before you?’ ¹⁸then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift, sent to my lord Esau. And behold, Jacob is behind us.’”

¹⁹He also instructed the second, the third, and all those following behind the herds: “When you meet Esau, you are to say the same thing to him. ²⁰You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease Esau with the gift that is going before me. After that I can face him, and perhaps he will accept me.”

²¹So Jacob’s gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles with God

²²During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.

²⁴So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ²⁵When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled. ²⁶Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷“What is your name?” the man asked.

“Jacob,” he replied.

²⁸Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”

²⁹And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.

³⁰So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

³¹The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip. ³²Therefore 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 struck near that tendon.