創世記 32
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Traditional)
雅各預備見以掃
32 雅各繼續前行，遇見了上帝的天使。 2 雅各看見他們，就說：「這是上帝的軍隊！」於是稱那地方為瑪哈念[a]。
3 雅各先派人到西珥，就是以東，去見他哥哥以掃， 4 並吩咐他們：「你們要這樣對我主以掃說，『你僕人雅各一直寄居在拉班家裡， 5 現在他帶了牛羊、驢和僕婢回來見你，派我們來報信，希望得到你的恩待。』」
6 報信的人回到雅各那裡，說：「我們到了你哥哥以掃那裡，他正帶著四百人前來見你。」 7 雅各聽了非常害怕，便把隨從、牛群、羊群和駱駝分成兩隊， 8 心想：「如果以掃來攻擊一隊，另一隊還可以逃生。」
9 他禱告說：「耶和華，我祖父亞伯拉罕和我父親以撒的上帝啊！你吩咐我回到家鄉和親族那裡，答應厚待我。 10 我不配蒙你以慈愛和信實相待，我先前過約旦河的時候，手上只有一根杖，現在卻有兩隊人丁家畜。 11 求你救我脫離我哥哥以掃的手，我怕他會來殺我和我的妻兒。 12 然而，你曾說，『我必厚待你，使你的後代多如海沙，不可勝數。』」
13 那天晚上，雅各就在那裡過夜，又挑選牲畜送給哥哥以掃作禮物： 14 母山羊二百隻、公山羊二十隻、母綿羊二百隻、公綿羊二十隻、 15 哺乳的駱駝三十頭及其小駱駝、母牛四十頭、公牛十頭、母驢二十頭、驢駒十頭。 16 雅各把牲畜每類分成一群，交給僕人看管，對他們說：「你們走在前頭，每群牲畜之間要保持一段距離！」 17 又吩咐走在最前面的僕人說：「我哥哥以掃遇到你的時候，如果問你是誰家的人？要到哪裡去？前頭這些牲畜是誰的？ 18 你就說，『是僕人雅各要送給他主人以掃的禮物，他自己就跟在後面。』」 19 雅各又吩咐看管第二群、第三群及其餘牲畜的僕人遇見以掃時也要這樣回答， 20 並且一定要說：「你僕人雅各就在後面。」雅各想先用禮物去化解以掃的怨恨，或許見面時以掃會善待他。 21 於是，他派人先把禮物送過去，自己則留在營裡過夜。
雅各遇見上帝
22 那天晚上，雅各起來帶著兩個妻子、兩個婢女和十一個兒子渡過雅博渡口。 23 雅各把他們連同一切所有都送過河以後， 24 自己獨自留下。這時，有一個人來和他摔跤，直到黎明。 25 那人見勝不過雅各，就在他的大腿窩摸了一下，他大腿的關節就脫了臼。 26 那人說：「天亮了，讓我走吧！」但雅各說：「你不祝福我，我就不讓你走。」 27 那人問道：「你叫什麼名字？」他說：「我叫雅各。」 28 那人說：「你以後不要再叫雅各了，你要叫以色列，因為你跟上帝和人角力都得勝了。」
29 雅各說：「請你告訴我你的名字。」那人說：「你為什麼問我的名字？」他就在那裡給雅各祝福。 30 雅各稱那地方為毗努伊勒，因為他說：「我當面見過上帝，竟能活命。」 31 雅各經過毗努伊勒的時候，太陽出來了，那時他的大腿瘸了。 32 以色列人至今都不吃大腿窩的筋，因為那人摸過雅各大腿窩的筋。
Footnotes
- 32·2 「瑪哈念」意思是「兩營軍隊」。
Genesis 32
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 32
1 [a]Early the next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them; then he set out on his journey back home. 2 Meanwhile Jacob continued on his own way, and God’s angels encountered him. 3 When Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s encampment.” So he named that place Mahanaim.[b]
Envoys to Esau. 4 Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,(A) 5 ordering them: “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob: I have been residing with Laban and have been delayed until now. 6 I own oxen, donkeys and sheep, as well as male and female servants. I have sent my lord this message in the hope of gaining your favor.’” 7 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We found your brother Esau. He is now coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
8 Jacob was very much frightened. In his anxiety, he divided the people who were with him, as well as his flocks, herds and camels, into two camps. 9 “If Esau should come and attack one camp,” he reasoned, “the remaining camp may still escape.” 10 Then Jacob prayed: “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac! You, Lord, who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and your relatives, and I will be good to you.’(B) 11 I am unworthy of all the acts of kindness and faithfulness that you have performed for your servant: although I crossed the Jordan here with nothing but my staff, I have now grown into two camps. 12 Save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau! Otherwise I fear that he will come and strike me down and the mothers with the children. 13 You yourself said, ‘I will be very good to you, and I will make your descendants like the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’”(C)
14 After passing the night there, Jacob selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: 15 two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes and twenty rams; 16 thirty female camels and their young; forty cows and ten bulls; twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 17 He put these animals in the care of his servants, in separate herds, and he told the servants, “Go on ahead of me, but keep some space between the herds.” 18 He ordered the servant in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? To whom do these animals ahead of you belong?’ 19 tell him, ‘To your servant Jacob, but they have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. Jacob himself is right behind us.’” 20 He also ordered the second servant and the third and all the others who followed behind the herds: “Thus and so you shall say to Esau, when you reach him; 21 and also tell him, ‘Your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For Jacob reasoned, “If I first appease him with a gift that precedes me, then later, when I face him, perhaps he will forgive me.” 22 So the gifts went on ahead of him, while he stayed that night in the camp.
Jacob’s New Name.[c] 23 That night, however, Jacob arose, took his two wives, with the two maidservants and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 24 After he got them and brought them across the wadi and brought over what belonged to him, 25 Jacob was left there alone. Then a man[d] wrestled with him until the break of dawn. 26 When the man saw that he could not prevail over him, he struck Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that Jacob’s socket was dislocated as he wrestled with him.(D) 27 The man then said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” 28 “What is your name?” the man asked. He answered, “Jacob.”(E) 29 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be named Jacob, but Israel,[e] because you have contended with divine and human beings and have prevailed.” 30 Jacob then asked him, “Please tell me your name.” He answered, “Why do you ask for my name?” With that, he blessed him. 31 Jacob named the place Peniel,[f] “because I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.”(F)
32 At sunrise, as he left Penuel, Jacob limped along because of his hip. 33 That is why, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the sciatic muscle that is on the hip socket, because he had struck Jacob’s hip socket at the sciatic muscle.
Footnotes
- 32:1–22 Jacob’s negotiations with Esau. Laban kisses his daughters and grandchildren good-bye but not Jacob. On leaving Mesopotamia, Jacob has an encounter with angels of God (vv. 2–3), which provokes him to exclaim, “This is God’s encampment,” just as he exclaimed upon leaving Canaan, “This is the house of God, the gateway to heaven” (28:11–17).
- 32:3 Mahanaim: a town in Gilead (Jos 13:26, 30; 21:38; 2 Sm 2:8; etc.). The Hebrew name means “two camps.” There are other allusions to the name in vv. 8, 11.
- 32:23–33 As Jacob crosses over to the land promised him, worried about the impending meeting with Esau, he encounters a mysterious adversary in the night with whom he wrestles until morning. The cunning Jacob manages to wrest a blessing from the night stranger before he departs. There are folkloric elements in the tale—e.g., the trial of the hero before he can return home, the nocturnal demon’s loss of strength at sunrise, the demon protecting its river, the power gained by knowledge of an opponent’s name—but these have been worked into a coherent though elliptical narrative. The point of the tale seems to be that the ever-striving, ever-grasping Jacob must eventually strive with God to attain full possession of the blessing.
- 32:25 A man: as with Abraham’s three visitors in chap. 18, who appear sometimes as three, two, and one (the latter being God), this figure is fluid; he loses the match but changes Jacob’s name (v. 29), an act elsewhere done only by God (17:5, 15). A few deft narrative touches manage to express intimate contact with Jacob while preserving the transcendence proper to divinity.
- 32:29 Israel: the first part of the Hebrew name Yisrael is given a popular explanation in the word saritha, “you contended”; the second part is the first syllable of ’elohim, “divine beings.” The present incident, with a similar allusion to the name Israel, is referred to in Hos 12:5, where the mysterious wrestler is explicitly called an angel.
- 32:31 Peniel: a variant of the word Penuel (v. 32), the name of a town on the north bank of the Jabbok in Gilead (Jgs 8:8–9, 17; 1 Kgs 12:25). The name is explained as meaning “the face of God,” peni-’el. Yet my life has been spared: see note on 16:13.
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