Genesis 32-34

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

32 Then Jacob went on his way, and God’s angels met him.

² When Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s army! So he named that place Mahanaim [two armies].^(A)

³ And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

⁴ And he commanded them, Say this to my lord Esau: Your servant Jacob says this: I have been living temporarily with Laban and have stayed there till now.

⁵ And I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants, and women servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find mercy and kindness in your sight.

⁶ And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau; and now he is [on the way] to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.

⁷ Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups,

⁸ Thinking, If Esau comes to the one group and smites it, then the other group which is left will escape.

⁹ Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord Who said to me, Return to your country and to your people and I will do you good,

¹⁰ I am not worthy of the least of all the mercy and loving-kindness and all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant, for with [only] my staff I passed over this Jordan [long ago], and now I have become two companies.

¹¹ Deliver me, I pray You, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and smite [us all], the mothers with the children.

¹² And You said, I will surely do you good and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

¹³ And Jacob lodged there that night and took from what he had with him as a present for his brother Esau:

¹⁴ Two hundred she-goats, 20 he-goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams,

¹⁵ Thirty milk camels with their colts, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 she-donkeys, and 10 [donkey] colts.

¹⁶ And he put them into the charge of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, Pass over before me and put a space between drove and drove.

¹⁷ And he commanded the first, When Esau my brother meets you and asks to whom you belong, where you are going, and whose are the animals before you,

¹⁸ Then you shall say, They are your servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover, he is behind us.

¹⁹ And so he commanded the second and the third and all that followed the droves, saying, This is what you are to say to Esau when you meet him.

²⁰ And say, Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.

²¹ So the present went on before him, and he himself lodged that night in the camp.

²² But he rose up that [same] night and took his two wives, his two women servants, and his eleven sons and passed over the ford [of the] Jabbok.

²³ And he took them and sent them across the brook; also he sent over all that he had.

²⁴ And Jacob was left alone, and a Man wrestled with him until daybreak.

²⁵ And when [the ^[a]Man] saw that He did not prevail against [Jacob], He touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob’s thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with Him.

²⁶ Then He said, Let Me go, for day is breaking. But [Jacob] said, I will not let You go unless You declare a blessing upon me.

²⁷ [The Man] asked him, What is your name? And [in shock of realization, whispering] he said, Jacob [supplanter, schemer, trickster, swindler]!

²⁸ And He said, Your name shall be called no more Jacob [supplanter], but Israel [contender with God]; for you have contended and have power with God and with men and have prevailed.^(B)

²⁹ Then Jacob asked Him, Tell me, I pray You, what [in contrast] is Your name? But He said, Why is it that you ask My name? And ^[b][the Angel of God declared] a blessing on [Jacob] there.

³⁰ And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel [the face of God], saying, For I have seen God face to face, and my life is spared and not snatched away.

³¹ And as he passed Penuel [Peniel], the sun rose upon him, and he was limping because of his thigh.

³² That is why to this day the Israelites do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the hollow of the thigh, because [the Angel of the Lord] touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh on the sinew of the hip.

33 And Jacob raised his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming and with him 400 men. So he divided the children to Leah and to Rachel and to the two maids.

² And he put the maids and their children in front, Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph last of all.

³ Then Jacob went over [the stream] before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

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

⁵ [Esau] looked up and saw the women and the children and said, Who are these with you? And [Jacob] replied, They are the children whom God has graciously given your servant.

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

⁷ And Leah also with her children came near, and they bowed themselves. After them Joseph and Rachel came near, and they bowed themselves.

⁸ Esau said, What do you mean by all this company which I met? And he said, These are that I might find favor in the sight of my lord.

⁹ And Esau said, I have plenty, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.

¹⁰ But Jacob replied, No, I beg of you, if now I have found favor in your sight, receive my gift that I am presenting; for truly to see your face is to me as if I had seen the face of God, and you have received me favorably.

¹¹ Accept, I beg of you, my blessing and gift that I have brought to you; for God has dealt graciously with me and I have everything. And he kept urging him and he accepted it.

¹² Then [Esau] said, Let us get started on our journey, and I will go before you.

¹³ But Jacob replied, You know, my lord, that the children are tender and delicate and need gentle care, and the flocks and herds with young are of concern to me; for if the men should overdrive them for a single day, the whole of the flocks would die.

¹⁴ Let my lord, I pray you, pass over before his servant; and I will lead on slowly, governed by [consideration for] the livestock that set the pace before me and the endurance of the children, ^[c]until I come to my lord in Seir.

¹⁵ Then Esau said, Let me now leave with you some of the people who are with me. But [Jacob] said, What need is there for it? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.

¹⁶ So Esau turned back that day on his way to Seir.

¹⁷ But Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built himself a house and made booths or places of shelter for his livestock; so the name of the place is called Succoth [booths].

¹⁸ When Jacob came from Padan-aram, he arrived safely and in peace at the town of Shechem, in the land of Canaan, and pitched his tents before the [enclosed] town.

¹⁹ Then he bought the piece of land on which he had encamped from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money.

²⁰ There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel [God, the God of Israel].

34 Now Dinah daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out [unattended] to see the girls of the place.

² And when Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he seized her, lay with her, and humbled, defiled, and disgraced her.

³ But his soul longed for and clung to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke comfortingly to her young heart’s wishes.

⁴ And Shechem said to his father Hamor, Get me this girl to be my wife.

⁵ Jacob heard that [Shechem] had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his livestock in the field. So Jacob held his peace until they came.

⁶ But Hamor father of Shechem went out to Jacob to have a talk with him.

⁷ When Jacob’s sons heard it, they came from the field; and they were distressed and grieved and very angry, for [Shechem] had done a vile thing to Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter, which ought not to be done.

⁸ And Hamor conferred with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem craves your daughter [and sister]. I beg of you give her to him to be his wife.

⁹ And make marriages with us and give your daughters to us and take our daughters to you.

¹⁰ You shall dwell with us; the country will be open to you; live and trade and get your possessions in it.

¹¹ And Shechem said to [Dinah’s] father and to her brothers, Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask of me.

¹² Ask me ever so much dowry and [marriage] gift, and I will give according to what you tell me; only give me the girl to be my wife.

¹³ The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, [justifying their intended action by saying, in effect, we are going to do this] because Shechem had defiled and disgraced their sister Dinah.

¹⁴ They said to them, We cannot do this thing and give our sister to one who is not circumcised, for that would be a reproach and disgrace to us.

¹⁵ But we do consent to do this: if you will become as we are and every male among you be circumcised,

¹⁶ Then we will give our daughters to you and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you and become one people.

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

¹⁸ Their words pleased Hamor and his son Shechem.

¹⁹ And the young man did not delay to do the thing, for he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. He was honored above all his family [so, ranking first, he acted first].

²⁰ Then Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their [enclosed] town and discussed the matter with the citizens, saying,

²¹ These men are peaceable with us; so let them dwell in the land and trade in it; for the land is large enough [for us and] for them; let us take their daughters for wives and let us give them our daughters.

²² But the men will consent to our request that they live among us and be one people only on condition that every male among us be circumcised, as they are.

²³ Shall not their cattle and their possessions and all their beasts be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell here with us.

²⁴ And all the people who went out of the town gate listened and heeded what Hamor and Shechem said; and every male was circumcised who was a resident of that town.

²⁵ But on the third day [after the circumcision] when [all the men] were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s [full] brothers, took their swords, boldly entered the city [without danger], and slew all the males.

²⁶ And they killed Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house [where she had been all this time] and departed.

²⁷ [Then the rest of] Jacob’s [eleven] sons came upon the slain and plundered the town, because there their sister had been defiled and disgraced.

²⁸ They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the town and in the field;

²⁹ All their wealth and all their little ones and their wives they took captive, making spoil even of all [they found] in the houses.

³⁰ And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have ruined me, making me infamous and embroiling me with the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites! And we are few in number, and they will gather together against me and attack me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my household.

³¹ And they said, Should he [be permitted to] deal with our sister as with a harlot?