Jacob Sent to Laban

28 Then Isaac called Jacob ^(A)and blessed him and directed him, ^(B)“You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. ^2 (C)Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of ^(D)Bethuel your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. ^3 (E)God Almighty^[a] bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. ⁴ May he give ^(F)the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of ^(G)the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!” ⁵ Thus Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

Esau Marries an Ishmaelite

⁶ Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” ⁷ and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸ So when Esau saw ^(H)that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, ⁹ Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, ^(I)Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of ^(J)Nebaioth.

Jacob's Dream

¹⁰ Jacob left ^(K)Beersheba and went toward ^(L)Haran. ¹¹ And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. ¹² And he ^(M)dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder^[b] set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, ^(N)the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! ¹³ And behold, ^(O)the Lord stood above it^[c] and said, ^(P)“I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. ^(Q)The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. ¹⁴ Your offspring shall be like ^(R)the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and ^(S)your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. ¹⁵ Behold, ^(T)I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and ^(U)will bring you back to this land. For I will ^(V)not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” ¹⁶ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is ^(W)in this place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷ And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸ So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up ^(X)for a pillar ^(Y)and poured oil on the top of it. ¹⁹ He called the name of that place ^(Z)Bethel,^[d] but the name of the city was Luz at the first. ²⁰ Then Jacob ^(AA)made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ^21 (AB)so that I come again to my father's house in peace, ^(AC)then the Lord shall be my God, ²² and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, ^(AD)shall be God's house. And ^(AE)of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

Jacob Fears Esau

32 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. ² And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God's ^(A)camp!” So he called the name of that place ^(B)Mahanaim.^[a]

³ And Jacob sent^[b] messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of ^(C)Seir, the country of Edom, ⁴ instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. ⁵ I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that ^(D)I may find favor in your sight.’”

⁶ And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and ^(E)he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” ⁷ Then Jacob was ^(F)greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, ⁸ thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”

⁹ And Jacob said, ^(G)“O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who ^(H)said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ ^10 (I)I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. ¹¹ Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for ^(J)I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. ¹² But ^(K)you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

¹³ So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took ^(L)a present for his brother Esau, ¹⁴ two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵ thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶ These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” ¹⁷ He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ ¹⁸ then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’” ¹⁹ He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, ²⁰ and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him^[c] with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”^{[d] 21} So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles with God

²² The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children,^[e] and crossed the ford of the ^(M)Jabbok. ²³ He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. ²⁴ And Jacob was left alone. And ^(N)a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. ²⁵ When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. ²⁶ Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, ^(O)“I will not let you go unless you bless me.” ²⁷ And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” ²⁸ Then he said, ^(P)“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,^[f] for ^(Q)you have striven with God and ^(R)with men, and have prevailed.” ²⁹ Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, ^(S)“Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. ³⁰ So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,^[g] saying, “For ^(T)I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” ³¹ The sun rose upon him as he passed ^(U)Penuel, limping because of his hip. ³² Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.