Chapter 32
1 Laban rose early in the morning, kissed his grandsons and daughters, and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.
Jacob Prepares To Meet Esau.[a] 2 As Jacob continued his journey, angels of God appeared to him. 3 When Jacob saw them he said, “This is the encampment of God,” and he called the place Mahanaim. 4 Then Jacob sent some messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 5 He gave them this command, “Say to my lord Esau, ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and I remained there until now. 6 I have come to own oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves. I am sending my lord this information to seek his favor.’ ”
7 The messengers returned to Jacob saying, “We went to your brother Esau. Now he is coming to meet you and he has four hundred men with him.” 8 Jacob was terribly afraid and filled with anxiety. He divided the men of his camp into two groups along with the flocks, the herds, and the camels. 9 He thought, “If Esau were to come to one group and destroy it, the other would be safe.”
10 Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Lord, who told me, ‘Return to your land, to your homeland, and I will bless you,’ 11 I am not worthy of the goodness and faithfulness that you have shown your servant. When I passed over the Jordan I had nothing but my staff, and now I have become so rich that I could establish two camps. 12 Save me from the hands of my brother Esau because I am afraid of him. Let him not come and kill all of us, even the mothers and children. 13 Besides, you said, ‘I will make you prosper and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, so numerous that you cannot count them.’ ”
14 Jacob spent the night there. Then he selected the following gifts from among his possessions for his brother Esau: 15 two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 16 thirty nursing camels and their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 17 He entrusted them to his servants, in separate groups, and told them, “Go ahead of me and leave some space between the groups.”
18 He gave this order to the first group, “When you meet Esau, my brother, and he asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Who owns all these animals that you are driving?’ 19 you are to answer, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift for my lord Esau. And Jacob himself is behind us.’ ”
20 He gave the same order to the second group and the third and all the other groups: “These are the words that you shall say to Esau when you meet him. 21 Tell him, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’ ” He was thinking, “The gifts that I am sending will calm him down, and then I will come before him. Maybe he will greet me kindly.” 22 Thus, the gifts went ahead of him, while he spent the night in the camp.
23 A Mysterious Struggle.[b] During the night Jacob arose, took his two wives, his two slaves, and his eleven sons and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. 24 He took them, crossed over the brook and carried over all his possessions. 25 So Jacob remained alone, and a man wrestled with him until the dawn. 26 Seeing that he could not beat him, the man struck Jacob at the hip joint. Jacob’s hip joint became dislocated while he continued to fight with him. 27 The man said, “Let me go because it is dawn.”
Jacob answered, “I will not let go of you until you will have blessed me.”
28 The man asked, “What is your name?”
He answered, “Jacob.”
29 The man then said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel[c] because you have wrestled with God and with man and have won.”
30 Jacob said to him, “Give me your name.” He answered, “Why are you asking my name?” And then he blessed him. 31 Jacob called the place Peniel[d] because he said, “I have seen God face to face, and I am still alive.”
32 The sun rose and Jacob left Penuel limping. 33 This is why Israelites to this day do not eat the sinew of the thigh, because the man had struck Jacob’s hip joint and the sinew shrank.
Footnotes
- Genesis 32:2 The way that Jacob has taken obliges him to go through the territory of the Edomites, and the suspicious Esau has undoubtedly not yet digested the wicked trick that his brother has played on him (Gen 27:1-45). According to the traditions, Jacob takes measures to save half of his caravan in case of a struggle or to disarm the hatred by gifts; the prayer that the author places on his lips provides the key to his story. Despite his unworthiness, Jacob is the heir of the promises; that is why the Lord protects him and heaps favors upon him. The adventures of the hero as well as those of the chosen people (Ex 3:11; Deut 7:7f) verify a law of the action of God who causes his power to appear through the weakness of human beings.
- Genesis 32:23 After the twenty years in Mesopotamia that were meant to purify him and straighten him out, Jacob is ready at last to begin his life as Patriarch of God’s people in the Promised Land. In the stranger who wrestles with him at the ford of the Jabbok without revealing his name, Jacob recognizes the Lord and compels him to give his blessing. This is a confirmation of the patriarchal blessing that he had received from his father (Gen 27:27-29; 28:3-4) and also from the Lord (Gen 28:13-15) when he was beginning his journey abroad. Here the blessing is accompanied by the giving of a new name, an action that indicates a special act of taking possession: from this moment on Jacob will truly be God’s man, who along with the name receives his special mission in life. From now on we see a man who has gradually learned to live by faith (see vv. 10-13, etc.).
- Genesis 32:29 Israel: the real etymology is uncertain; it may mean “God is mighty” or “God shows himself mighty.” Here, however, the popular etymology is given: “He has shown his strength by wrestling with God” (see also Hos 12:4-5).
- Genesis 32:31 Peniel: a variant of Penuel, a town north of the Jabbok in Gilead (Jdg 8:8f, 17). I have seen God face to face: apart from the present context, this means to present oneself before God in the sanctuary with offerings for worship (see Deut 16:16).