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Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau
32 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s camp.” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
3 Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He commanded them, saying, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: This is what your servant Jacob says, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now. 5 I have oxen and donkeys, flocks, and male servants and female servants, and I am sending this message to tell my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’ ”
6 The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you, and what is more, four hundred men are with him.”
7 Then Jacob was very afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that were with him, along with the flocks and herds and the camels, into two groups. 8 He said, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the other camp which is left may escape.”
9 And 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 relatives, and I will prosper you,’ 10 I am not worthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant. For with my staff I crossed over this Jordan, and now I have become two encampments. 11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. For I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children. 12 You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too many to be counted.’ ”
13 So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a gift for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He gave them to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and keep a distance between each drove.”
17 He commanded the one leading, saying, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals belong?’ 18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is also behind us.’ ”
19 Likewise 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 find him. 20 Moreover, say, ‘Your servant Jacob is behind us.’ ” For he said, “I will appease him with the gift that goes before me, and then I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.” 21 So the gift went before him, but he lodged that night in the encampment.
Jacob Wrestles With God
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream along with all that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him there until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that He did not prevail against Jacob, He touched the socket of his thigh, so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated, as he wrestled with Him. 26 Then He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”
But Jacob said, “I will not let You go, unless You bless me.”
27 So He said to him, “What is your name?”
And he said, “Jacob.”
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no more be called Jacob, but Israel. For you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
29 Then Jacob asked Him, “Tell me, I pray You, Your name.”
But He said, “Why do you ask Me My name?” Then He blessed him there.
30 Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved.”
31 As he crossed over Peniel, the sun rose over him, and he was limping on his thigh. 32 Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the sinew which is attached to the socket of the thigh, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.
Jacob Meets Esau
33 Then Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants. 2 He put the female servants and their children in front, then Leah and her children next, and then Rachel and Joseph last. 3 He went on before them, bowing 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. 5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and the children, he said, “Who are those with you?”
Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”
6 Then the female servants came near, they and their children, and they bowed down. 7 Leah also with her children came near and bowed themselves. Afterward Joseph and Rachel came near, and they bowed themselves.
8 Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?”
Jacob answered, “These are to find favor in the sight of my lord.”
9 Esau said, “I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself.”
10 Jacob said, “No, I pray you, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my gift from my hand. For I have seen your face, and it is as though I have seen the face of God, with you having received me favorably. 11 Please take my blessing that has been brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have plenty.” So he urged him, and he took it.
12 Then Esau said, “Let us journey on our way, and I will go ahead of you.”
13 But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are weak, and the flocks and herds with young are with me. If they are driven too hard one day, all the flock will die. 14 Please let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the livestock that goes before me and the pace the children will be able to endure, until I come to my lord at Seir.”
15 So Esau said, “Let me leave some of the people that are with me with you.”
But Jacob said, “What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”
16 So Esau returned that day making his way back to Seir. 17 But Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth and built himself a house and made booths for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Sukkoth.
18 Jacob came peacefully to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan Aram, and camped before the city. 19 He bought a parcel of a field, where he had pitched his tent, from the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces[a] of silver. 20 He erected an altar there and called it El Elohe Israel.
Dinah Is Defiled
34 Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2 When Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her and defiled her. 3 He was very smitten by Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke kindly to her. 4 Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl for my wife.”
5 Now Jacob heard that Shechem had violated his daughter Dinah, but his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came.
6 Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to commune with him. 7 The sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it, and the men were grieved and were very disturbed, because Shechem had disgraced Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, a thing that should not be done.
8 Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. I pray that you will give her to him to marry. 9 Make marriages with us, and give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You may dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Dwell and trade in it and get possessions in it.”
11 Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. 12 You can make the dowry and gift I must bring high, and I will give according to what you say to me. Just give me the girl to marry.”
13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 14 They said to them, “We cannot do this. To give our sister to one who is uncircumcised would be a disgrace to us. 15 But we will consent to you in this: If you will become as we are, that is, every one of your males 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 we will become one people. 17 But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will leave.”
18 Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. 19 The young man did not delay to do the thing, because he wanted Jacob’s daughter. Now he was more respected than all the household of his father. 20 So Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and they spoke with the men of their city, saying, 21 “These men are at peace with us. Therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as our wives, and let us give them our daughters. 22 Only on this condition will the men consent to dwell with us and be one people: if every male among us will be circumcised as they are circumcised. 23 Will not their livestock and their possessions and every animal of theirs be ours? Only, let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us.”
24 All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and Shechem his son, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.
25 On the third day, when they were in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and went to the unsuspecting city and killed all the males. 26 They killed Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword and took Dinah out of the house of Shechem and departed. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and looted the city, because they had defiled their sister. 28 They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys and whatever was in the city and in the fields. 29 They took captive and looted all their wealth, all their little ones, and their wives, even all that was in each house.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me revolting among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Our being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and slay me, and I will be destroyed, both I and my household.”
31 But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.