Genesis 32-34 (New American Standard Bible)

Genesis 32

Jacob's Fear of Esau

 ¹Now as Jacob went on his way, ^(A)the angels of God met him.

 ²Jacob said when he saw them, "This is God's ^[a]camp." So he named that place ^[b](B)Mahanaim.

 ³Then Jacob ^(C)sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of ^(D)Seir, the country of ^(E)Edom.

 ⁴He also commanded them saying, "Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: 'Thus says your servant Jacob, "I have sojourned with Laban, and ^(F)stayed until now;

 ^5(G)I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, ^(H)that I may find favor in your sight."'"

 ⁶The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore ^(I)he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."

 ⁷Then Jacob was ^(J)greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two companies;

 ⁸for he said, "If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape."

 ⁹Jacob said, "O ^(K)God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, '^(L)Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,'

 ¹⁰I am unworthy ^(M)of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.

 ¹¹"^(N)Deliver me, I pray, ^(O)from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the ^(P)mothers with the children.

 ¹²"For You said, '^(Q)I will surely prosper you and ^(R)make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.'"

 ¹³So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a ^(S)present for his brother Esau:

 ¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

 ¹⁵thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

 ¹⁶He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass on before me, and put a space between droves."

 ¹⁷He commanded the one in front, saying, "When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?'

 ¹⁸then you shall say, 'These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.'"

 ¹⁹Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the droves, saying, "After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him;

 ²⁰and you shall say, 'Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.'" For he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me."

 ²¹So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.

 ²²Now he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two maids and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the ^(T)Jabbok.

 ²³He took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.

Jacob Wrestles

 ²⁴Then Jacob was left alone, and a man ^(U)wrestled with him until daybreak.

 ²⁵When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

 ²⁶Then he said, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking." But he said, "^(V)I will not let you go unless you bless me."

 ²⁷So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob."

 ^28(W)He said, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but ^[c]Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed."

 ²⁹Then ^(X)Jacob asked him and said, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And he blessed him there.

 ³⁰So Jacob named the place ^[d]Peniel, for he said, "^(Y)I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved."

 ³¹Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over ^(Z)Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh.

 ³²Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.

Genesis 33

Jacob Meets Esau

 ¹Then Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, ^(AA)Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids.

 ²He put the maids and their children in front, and Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.

 ³But he himself passed on ahead of them and ^(AB)bowed down to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

 ⁴Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and ^(AC)fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

 ⁵He lifted his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, "Who are these with you?" So he said, "^(AD)The children whom God has graciously given your servant."

 ⁶Then the maids came near with their children, and they bowed down.

 ⁷Leah likewise came near with her children, and they bowed down; and afterward Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed down.

 ⁸And he said, "What do you mean by ^(AE)all this company which I have met?" And he said, "^(AF)To find favor in the sight of my lord."

 ⁹But Esau said, "^(AG)I have plenty, my brother; let what you have be your own."

 ¹⁰Jacob said, "No, please, if now I have found favor in your sight, then take my present from my hand, for I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably.

 ¹¹"Please take my ^(AH)gift which has been brought to you, ^(AI)because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have plenty." Thus he urged him and he took it.

 ¹²Then Esau said, "Let us take our journey and go, and I will go before you."

 ¹³But he said to him, "My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds which are nursing are a care to me. And if they are driven hard one day, all the flocks will die.

 ¹⁴"Please let my lord pass on before his servant, and I will proceed at my leisure, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord at ^(AJ)Seir."

 ¹⁵Esau said, "Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me." But he said, "^[e]What need is there? ^(AK)Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."

 ¹⁶So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

 ¹⁷Jacob journeyed to ^[f](AL)Succoth, and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock; therefore the place is named Succoth.

Jacob Settles in Shechem

 ¹⁸Now Jacob came safely to the city of ^(AM)Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from ^(AN)Paddan-aram, and camped before the city.

 ^19(AO)He bought the piece of land where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one hundred pieces of money.

 ²⁰Then he erected there an altar and called it ^[g]El-Elohe-Israel.

Genesis 34

The Treachery of Jacob's Sons

 ¹Now ^(AP)Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.

 ²When Shechem the son of Hamor ^(AQ)the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

 ³He was deeply attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her.

 ⁴So Shechem ^(AR)spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this young girl for a wife."

 ⁵Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; but his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob kept silent until they came in.

 ⁶Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.

 ⁷Now the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved, and they were very angry because he had done a ^(AS)disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.

 ⁸But Hamor spoke with them, saying, "The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him in marriage.

 ⁹"Intermarry with us; give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves.

 ¹⁰"Thus you shall live with us, and ^(AT)the land shall be open before you; live and ^(AU)trade in it and ^(AV)acquire property in it."

 ¹¹Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, "If I find favor in your sight, then I will give whatever you say to me.

 ¹²"Ask me ever so much bridal payment and gift, and I will give according as you say to me; but give me the girl in marriage."

 ¹³But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit, because he had defiled Dinah their sister.

 ¹⁴They said to them, "We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to ^(AW)one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us.

 ¹⁵"Only on this condition will we consent to you: if you will become like us, in that every male of you be circumcised,

 ¹⁶then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people.

 ¹⁷"But if you will not listen to us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go."

 ¹⁸Now their words seemed reasonable to Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son.

 ¹⁹The young man did not delay to do the thing, because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter. Now he was more respected than all the household of his father.

 ²⁰So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the ^(AX)gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying,

 ²¹"These men are friendly with us; therefore let them live in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage, and give our daughters to them.

 ²²"Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised.

 ²³"Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will live with us."

 ^24(AY)All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

 ²⁵Now it came about on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of Jacob's sons, ^(AZ)Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword and came upon the city unawares, and killed every male.

 ²⁶They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem's house, and went forth.

 ²⁷Jacob's sons came upon the slain and looted the city, because they had defiled their sister.

 ²⁸They took their flocks and their herds and their donkeys, and that which was in the city and that which was in the field;

 ²⁹and they captured and looted all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, even all that was in the houses.

 ³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have ^(BA)brought trouble on me by ^(BB)making me odious among the inhabitants of the land, among ^(BC)the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and ^(BD)my men being few in number, they will gather together against me and attack me and I will be destroyed, I and my household."

 ³¹But they said, "Should he treat our sister as a harlot?"