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.
Genesis 32
1599 Geneva Bible
32 1 God comforteth Jacob by his Angels. 9, 10 He prayeth unto God confessing his unworthiness. 13 He sendeth presents unto Esau. 24, 28 He wrestled with the Angel who nameth him Israel.
1 Now Jacob went forth on his journey, and (A)the Angels of God met him.
2 And when Jacob saw them, he said, [a]This is God’s host: and he called the name of the same place [b]Mahanaim.
3 Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother, unto the land of Seir into the country of Edom.
4 To whom he gave commandment, saying, Thus shall ye speak to my [c]lord Esau: thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have been a stranger with Laban, and tarried unto this time.
5 I have beeves also and asses, sheep, and men servants, and women servants, and have sent to show my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.
6 ¶ So the messengers came again to Jacob, saying, We came unto thy brother Esau, and he also cometh against thee and four hundred men with him.
7 Then Jacob was [d]greatly afraid, and was sore troubled, and divided the people that was with him, and the sheep, and the beeves, and the camels into two companies.
8 For he said, If Esau come to the one company and smite it, the other company shall escape.
9 ¶ Moreover Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Lord, which (B)saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will do thee good.
10 I am not [e]worthy of the least of all the mercies, and all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant: for with my [f]staff came I over this Jordan, and now have I gotten two bands.
11 I pray thee, Deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the [g]mother upon the children.
12 And thou saidest, I will surely do to thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13 ¶ And he tarried there that same night and took of that which came to hand, a [h]present for Esau his brother:
14 Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams:
15 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bullocks, twenty she asses, and ten foals.
16 So he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves, and said unto his servants, Pass before me, and put a space between drove and drove.
17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, If my brother Esau meet thee, and ask thee, saying, Whose servant art thou? And whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?
18 Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob’s: it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and behold, he himself also is behind us.
19 So likewise commanded he the second and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, After this manner, ye shall speak unto Esau, when ye find him.
20 And ye shall say moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob cometh after us. (for he thought, I [i]will appease his wrath with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face: it may be that he will [j]accept me.)
21 So went the present before him: but he tarried that night with the company.
22 And he rose up the same night, and took his two wives, and his two maids, and his eleven children, and went over the ford Jabbok.
23 And he took them, and sent them over the river, and sent over that he had.
24 ¶ Now when Jacob was left himself alone, there wrestled a [k]man with him unto the breaking of the day.
25 And he saw that he could not [l]prevail against him: therefore he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was loosed, as he wrestled with him.
26 And he said, Let me go, for the morning appeareth. Who answered, (C)I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
27 Then said he unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And said he, (D)Thy name shall be called Jacob no more, but Israel: because thou hast had [m]power with God, thou shalt also prevail with men.
29 And Jacob demanded, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore now dost thou ask my name? and he blessed him there.
30 And Jacob called the name of the place, Peniel: for, said he, I have seen God face to face, and [n]my life is preserved.
31 And the sun rose up to him as he passed Peniel, and he [o]halted upon his thigh.
32 Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank in the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the sinew that shrank in the hollow of Jacob’s thigh.
Footnotes
- Genesis 32:2 He acknowledgeth God’s benefits: who for the preservation of his, sendeth hosts of Angels.
- Genesis 32:2 Or, tents.
- Genesis 32:4 He reverenced his brother in worldly things, because he chiefly looked to be preferred to the spiritual promise.
- Genesis 32:7 Albeit he was comforted by the Angels, yet the infirmity of the flesh doth appear.
- Genesis 32:10 Hebrew, I am less than all thy mercies.
- Genesis 32:10 That is, poor and without all provision.
- Genesis 32:11 Meaning, he will put all to death. This proverb cometh of them which kill the bird together with his young ones.
- Genesis 32:13 Not distrusting God’s assistance, but using such means as God had given him.
- Genesis 32:20 He thought it no loss to depart with these goods, to the intent he might follow the vocation whereunto God called him.
- Genesis 32:20 Hebrew, receive my face.
- Genesis 32:24 That is, God in form of man.
- Genesis 32:25 For God assaileth his with the one hand, and upholdeth them with the other.
- Genesis 32:28 God gave Jacob both power to overcome, and also the praise of the victory.
- Genesis 32:30 Or, my soul is delivered.
- Genesis 32:31 The faithful to overcome their tentations, that they feel the smart thereof, to the intent that they should not glory, but in their humility.
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