Beginning
Jacob Meets Esau
32 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.[a] 2 When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s army.” He named that place Mahanaim.[b]
3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the region of Edom. 4 He gave them a command. “Tell my lord, Esau, ‘This is what your servant Jacob says: I have lived as an alien with Laban until very recently. 5 I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent this message to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”
6 The messengers returned to Jacob and reported, “We came to your brother Esau. Now he is coming to meet you, and he has four hundred men with him.”
7 So Jacob was terrified and very distressed. He divided the people who were with him, as well as the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two camps.[c] 8 He said, “If Esau comes to one camp and strikes it, then the other camp will escape.” 9 Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will do good for you,’ 10 I am not worthy of even a bit of all the mercy and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for I crossed over this Jordan with just my staff, and now I have grown into two camps. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid that he will come and strike me and the mothers, as well as the children. 12 You said, ‘I will surely do good for you and make your descendants like the grains of sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because there are so many.’”
13 Jacob spent that night there and selected a gift for Esau his brother from the possessions he had with him: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys with ten foals. 16 He handed them over to his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Cross over in front of me, and keep some space between each herd and the next one.” 17 He commanded the one in front, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks, ‘Whose people are you? Where are you going? Whose herds are these in front of you?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. It is a gift sent to you, my lord Esau. Look, he is right behind us.’” 19 He commanded the second group, and the third, and all those who followed the herds, “This is how you shall speak to Esau when you meet him. 20 You shall say, ‘What’s more, look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” Jacob said, “I will win his favor with the gift that I have sent ahead of me, and after that I will see his face, and perhaps he will accept me.”
21 So the gift was sent over ahead of him, but he himself spent that night in the camp.
22 He got up that night and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and he also sent his possessions across. 24 Jacob was left alone, and he wrestled with a man there until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he touched the socket of his thigh, and the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated as he wrestled. 26 The man said, “Let me go. It’s daybreak.”
Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 Then he said to him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Jacob.”
28 Then he said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men, and you have won.”
29 Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”
He said, “Why do you ask what my name is?” Then he blessed him there.
30 Jacob named the place Peniel,[d] because he said, “I have seen God face-to-face, and my life has been spared.” 31 The sun rose as he crossed over at Peniel, and he was limping because of his thigh. 32 For that reason, to this day the people of Israel do not eat the tendon of the hip that is on the socket of the thigh, because God touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh on the tendon of the hip.
33 Jacob looked up, and there was Esau coming with four hundred men. Jacob divided the children into groups with Leah and Rachel and with the two maids. 2 He put the maids and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph at the end. 3 He himself crossed over the stream ahead of the others and bowed to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
4 Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, hugged him around the neck, and kissed him. They both wept. 5 Then Esau looked up and saw the women and children and asked, “Who are these people with you?”
Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6 Then the maids came forward with their children, and they bowed low. 7 Leah and her children also came forward and bowed low. After them, Joseph came forward with Rachel, and they bowed low.
8 Esau said, “What did you mean by this whole camp that I met?”
Jacob said, “To gain favor in the sight of my lord.”
9 Esau said, “I have enough, my brother. Keep what is yours.”
10 Jacob said, “No, if I have now found favor in your sight, then please accept the gift from my hand, because when I saw your face, it was like seeing the face of God, now that you have accepted me. 11 Please accept the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have everything I need.” He urged him, and he accepted it.
12 Esau said, “Let us get going on our journey, and I will lead the way for you.”
13 Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are still young, and that my flocks and herds are nursing their young, and if the herdsmen drive them too hard for even one day, all the flocks will die. 14 Please let my lord go ahead of his servant, and I will follow slowly, at the right pace for the livestock and the right pace for the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”
15 Esau said, “Please let me leave some of my people with you.”
But he said, “Why? Just let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”
16 So Esau set out that day on his way back to Seir. 17 Jacob traveled to Succoth, built a house for himself, and made shelters for his livestock. That is why that place is called Succoth.[e]
18 When he returned from Paddan Aram, Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, and he camped in front of the city. 19 He bought the piece of land where he pitched his tent from the descendants of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for one hundred pieces of silver.[f] 20 He erected an altar there and called it El Elohe Israel.[g]
Dinah and Shechem
34 Dinah, Jacob’s daughter by Leah, went out to see the young women of the land. 2 Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the chief of that part of the land, saw her and took her, lay down with her, and humiliated her.[h] 3 He had a strong desire for Dinah,[i] the daughter of Jacob, and he was in love with the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.[j] 4 Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young woman as a wife.”
5 When Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, his sons were out in the field with his livestock, so Jacob kept quiet about it until they came back. 6 Hamor the father of Shechem came to talk with Jacob. 7 The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard about it. The men were shocked by the outrage, and they were very angry, because he had disgraced Israel by lying down with Jacob’s daughter, a thing that should not be done. 8 Hamor spoke with them. He said, “My son Shechem has a deep longing for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. 9 Intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You may live among us, and the land will be open to you. Live in it, conduct trade, and acquire property in it.”
11 Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you ask from me I will give. 12 No matter how great a bride price and gift[k] you demand, I will give it. Just give me the young woman as a wife.”
13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah. 14 They said to them, “We cannot do this—giving our sister to a man who is uncircumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. 15 Only on this condition will we consent to your offer: If all your males become circumcised as we are, 16 then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you, and we will become one people. 17 But if you do not accept our terms and undergo circumcision, then we will take our sister,[l] and we will be gone.”
18 Their offer pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. 19 The young man did not delay acting on it, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter, and he was the most important[m] of all the household of his father. 20 Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and discussed this with the men of their city. They said, 21 “These men want peace with us. So let them live in the land and trade in it. Look, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives for ourselves, and let us give them our daughters. 22 Only on this condition will the men agree to live with us and to become one people with us: if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised. 23 Won’t all their livestock, all their possessions, and all their animals become ours? So let’s accept their offer, so that they will settle among us.”
24 Everyone who assembled at the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to Shechem his son. So all the males who assembled at the gate of the city were circumcised. 25 Then on the third day, when they were still sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, attacked the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. 26 They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword. They took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and left.
27 Jacob’s sons then came to the dead bodies and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled. 28 They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, everything that was in the city, everything that was in the countryside, 29 and all their wealth. They took all their little ones and their wives as captives. They looted everything that was in the houses.
30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have ruined me. You have made me stink to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and attack me, and I will be destroyed, I and my household.”
31 But they said, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.