Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

32 Jacob also left that place. While he was traveling, he saw God’s angels. ² When he saw them, he said, “This is God’s camp!” So Jacob named that place Mahanaim.^[a]

³ Jacob’s brother Esau was living in the area called Seir in the hill country of Edom. Jacob sent messengers to Esau. ⁴ He told them, “Tell this to my master Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have lived with Laban all these years. ⁵ I have many cattle, donkeys, flocks, and servants. Sir, I am sending you this message to ask you to accept us.’”

⁶ The messengers came back to Jacob and said, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you. He has 400 men with him.”

⁷ Jacob was very frightened and worried. He divided the people who were with him and all the flocks, herds, and camels into two groups. ⁸ Jacob thought, “If Esau comes and destroys one group, the other group can run away and be saved.”

⁹ Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham! God of my father Isaac! Lord, you told me to come back to my country and to my family. You said that you would do good to me. ¹⁰ You have been very kind to me. You did many good things for me. The first time I traveled across the Jordan River, I owned nothing—only my walking stick. But now I own enough things to have two full groups. ¹¹ I ask you to please save me from my brother Esau. I am afraid that he will come and kill us all, even the mothers with the children. ¹² Lord, you said to me, ‘I will be good to you. I will increase your family and make your children as many as the sands of the sea. There will be too many to count.’”

¹³ Jacob stayed in that place for the night. He prepared some things to give to Esau as a gift. ¹⁴ He took 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 female sheep and 20 male sheep. ¹⁵ He took 30 camels and their colts, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. ¹⁶ He gave each flock of animals to his servants. Then he said to them, “Separate each group of animals. Go ahead of me and keep some space between each herd.” ¹⁷ Jacob gave them their orders. To the servant with the first group of animals he said, “When Esau my brother comes to you and asks you, ‘Whose animals are these? Where are you going? Whose servant are you?’ ¹⁸ then you should answer, ‘These animals belong to your servant Jacob. He sent them as a gift to you, my master Esau. And he also is coming behind us.’”

¹⁹ Jacob also ordered the second servant, the third servant, and all the other servants to do the same thing. He said, “You will say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. ²⁰ You will say, ‘This is a gift to you, and your servant Jacob is behind us.’”

Jacob thought, “If I send these men ahead with gifts, maybe Esau will forgive me and accept me.” ²¹ So Jacob sent the gifts to Esau, but he stayed that night in the camp.

²² During the night, Jacob got up and began moving his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven sons across the Jabbok River at the crossing. ²³ After he sent his family across the river, he sent across everything he had.

The Fight With God

²⁴ Jacob was left alone, and a man came and wrestled with him. The man fought with him until the sun came up. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he touched Jacob’s leg and put it out of joint.

²⁶ Then the man said to Jacob, “Let me go. The sun is coming up.”

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go. You must bless me.”

²⁷ And the man said to him, “What is your name?”

And Jacob said, “My name is Jacob.”

²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name will not be Jacob. Your name will now be Israel.^[b] I give you this name because you have fought with God and with men, and you have won.”

²⁹ Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”

But the man said, “Why do you ask my name?” Then the man blessed Jacob at that place.

³⁰ So Jacob named that place Peniel.^[c] He said, “At this place, I saw God face to face, but my life was spared.” ³¹ Then the sun came up as Jacob left Peniel. He was limping because of his leg. ³² So even today, the people of Israel don’t eat the muscle that is on the hip joint, because this is the muscle where Jacob was hurt.

Jacob Meets Esau

33 Jacob looked and saw Esau coming with 400 men. Jacob divided his family into four groups. Leah and her children were in one group, Rachel and Joseph were in one group, and the two maids and their children were in two groups. ² Jacob put the maids with their children first. Then he put Leah and her children behind them, and he put Rachel and Joseph in the last place.

³ Jacob himself went out before them. While he was walking toward his brother Esau, he bowed down to the ground seven times.

⁴ When Esau saw Jacob, he ran to meet him. He put his arms around Jacob, hugged his neck, and kissed him. Then they both cried. ⁵ Esau looked up and saw the women and children. He said, “Who are all these people with you?”

Jacob answered, “These are the children that God gave me. God has been good to me.”

⁶ Then the two maids and the children with them went to Esau. They bowed down before him. ⁷ Then Leah and the children with her went to Esau and bowed down. And then Rachel and Joseph went to him and bowed down.

⁸ Esau said, “Who were all those people I saw while I was coming here? And what were all those animals for?”

Jacob answered, “These are my gifts to you so that you might accept me.”

⁹ But Esau said, “You don’t have to give me gifts, brother. I have enough for myself.”

¹⁰ Jacob said, “No, I beg you! If you really accept me, please accept the gifts I give you. I am very happy to see your face again. It is like seeing the face of God. I am very happy to see that you accept me. ¹¹ So I beg you to also accept the gifts I give you. God has been very good to me. I have more than I need.” Because Jacob begged Esau to take the gifts, he accepted them.

¹² Then Esau said, “Now you can continue your journey. I will go with you.”

¹³ But Jacob said to him, “You know that my children are weak. And I must be careful with my flocks and their young animals. If I force them to walk too far in one day, all the animals will die. ¹⁴ So you go on ahead. I will follow you slowly. I will go slowly enough for the cattle and other animals to be safe and so that my children will not get too tired. I will meet you in Seir.”

¹⁵ So Esau said, “Then I will leave some of my men to help you.”

But Jacob said, “That is very kind of you, but there is no need to do that.” ¹⁶ So that day Esau started on his trip back to Seir. ¹⁷ But Jacob went to Succoth.^[d] There he built a house for himself and small barns for his cattle. That is why the place was named Succoth.

¹⁸ Jacob safely ended his trip from Paddan Aram when he came to the town of Shechem in Canaan. He made his camp in a field near the city. ¹⁹ He bought the field where he camped from the family of Hamor, father of Shechem. He paid 100 pieces of silver for it. ²⁰ He built an altar there to honor God. He named the place “El,^[e] the God of Israel.”

The Rape of Dinah

34 One day, Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, went out to see the women of that place. ² She was seen by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, who ruled that area. Shechem took Dinah and raped her. ³ But he was so attracted to her that he fell in love and began expressing his feelings to her. ⁴ He told his father, “Please get this girl for me so that I can marry her.”

⁵ Jacob learned that Shechem had done this very bad thing to his daughter. But all his sons were out in the fields with the cattle. So he did nothing until they came home. ⁶ Then Shechem’s father, Hamor, came out to talk with Jacob.

⁷ In the fields Jacob’s sons heard the news about what had happened. They were very angry because Shechem had brought shame to Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter. They came in from the fields as soon as they heard about the terrible thing Shechem had done.

⁸ But Hamor talked to Dinah’s brothers and said, “My son Shechem wants Dinah very much. Please let him marry her. ⁹ This marriage will show we have a special agreement. Then our men can marry your women, and your men can marry our women. ¹⁰ You can live in the same land with us. You will be free to own the land and to trade here.”

¹¹ Shechem also talked to Jacob and to Dinah’s brothers and said, “Please accept me. I will do anything you ask me to do. ¹² I will give you any gift^[f] you want if you will only allow me to marry Dinah. I will give you anything you ask, but let me marry her.”

¹³ Jacob’s sons decided to lie to Shechem and his father because Shechem had done such a bad thing to their sister Dinah. ¹⁴ The brothers said to them, “We cannot allow our sister to marry you because you are not yet circumcised. That would bring us shame. ¹⁵ But we will allow you to marry her if you do this one thing: Every man in your town must be circumcised like us. ¹⁶ Then your men can marry our women, and our men can marry your women. Then we will become one people. ¹⁷ If you refuse to be circumcised, we will take Dinah away.”

¹⁸ This agreement made Hamor and Shechem very happy. ¹⁹ Shechem was very happy to do what Dinah’s brothers asked.

Shechem was the most honored man in his family. ²⁰ Hamor and Shechem went to the meeting place of their city. They spoke to the men of the city and said, ²¹ “These people want to be friends with us. We want to let them live in our land and be at peace with us. We have enough land for all of us. We are free to marry their women, and we are happy to give them our women to marry. ²² But there is one thing that all our men must agree to do. They must agree to be circumcised as they are. ²³ If we do this, we will become rich from all their cattle and other animals. We should make this agreement with them so that they will stay here with us.” ²⁴ All the men who heard this in the meeting place agreed with Hamor and Shechem. And every man was circumcised at that time.

²⁵ Three days later the men who were circumcised were still sore. Two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, knew that the men would be weak at this time. So they went to the city and killed all the men there. ²⁶ Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, killed Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and left. ²⁷ Jacob’s sons went to the city and stole everything that was there because of what Shechem had done to their sister. ²⁸ So the brothers took all their animals, all their donkeys, and everything else in the city and in the fields. ²⁹ The brothers took everything those people owned. They even took their wives and children.

³⁰ But Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have caused me a lot of trouble. All the people in this place will hate me. All the Canaanites and the Perizzites will turn against me. There are only a few of us. If the people in this place gather together to fight against us, I will be destroyed. And all our people will be destroyed with me.”

³¹ But the brothers said, “Should we let these people treat our sister like a prostitute? They were wrong to do that to our sister!”