Chronological

Jacob Fears Esau

32 And Jacob went on his way, and angels of God met him. ² And when he saw them, Jacob said, “This is the camp of God!” And he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

³ Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother, to the land of Seir, the territory of Edom. ⁴ And he instructed them, saying, “Thus you must say to my lord, to Esau, ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, I have dwelled as an alien with Laban, and I have remained there until now. ⁵ And I have acquired cattle, male donkeys, flocks, and male and female slaves, and I have sent to tell my lord, to find favor in your eyes.’” ⁶ And the messengers returned to Jacob and said, “We came to your brother, to Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” ⁷ Then Jacob was very frightened and distressed. So he divided the people, flocks, cattle, and camels that were with him into two companies. ⁸ And he thought, “If Esau comes to one company and destroys it, the remaining company will be able to escape.” ⁹ Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your family, and I will deal well with you.’ ¹⁰ I am not worthy^[a] of all the loyal love and all the faithfulness that you have shown^[b] your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. ¹¹ Please rescue me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and attack mother and children alike. ¹² Now you yourself said, ‘I will surely deal well with you and make your offspring as the sand of the sea that cannot be counted for abundance.’”

¹³ And he lodged there that night. Then he took from what he had with him^[c] a gift for Esau his brother: ¹⁴ two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams, ¹⁵ thirty milk camels with their young, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶ And he put them under the hand of his servants, herd by herd,^[d] and said to his servants, “Cross on ahead before me, and put some distance between herds.^{[e] 17} And he instructed the foremost, saying, “When Esau my brother comes upon you and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you and where are you going? To whom do these animals belong ahead of you?’ ¹⁸ Then you must say, ‘To your servant, to Jacob. It is a gift sent to my lord, to Esau. Now behold, he is also coming after us.’” ¹⁹ And he also instructed the second servant and the third, and everyone else who was behind the herds, saying, “You must speak to Esau according to this word when you find him. ²⁰ And moreover, you shall say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “Let me appease him^[f] with the gift going before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will show me favor.”^{[g] 21} So the gift passed on before him, but he himself spent that night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles with God

²² That night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ And he took them and sent them across the stream. Then he sent across all his possessions. ²⁴ And Jacob remained alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the dawn. ²⁵ And when he^[h] saw that he could not prevail against him, he struck his hip socket, so that Jacob’s hip socket was sprained as he wrestled with him. ²⁶ Then he^[i] said, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking.” But he answered, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” ²⁷ Then he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” ²⁸ And he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,^[j] for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.” ²⁹ Then Jacob asked and said, “Please tell me your name.” And he said, “Why do you ask this—for my name?” And he blessed him there. ³⁰ Then Jacob called the name of the place Peniel which means “I have seen God face to face and my life was spared.” ³¹ Then the sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip. ³² Therefore the Israelites^[k] do not eat the sinew of the sciatic nerve that is upon the socket of the hip unto this day, because he struck the socket of the thigh of Jacob at the sinew of the sciatic nerve.

Jacob Meets Esau and Settles at Shechem

33 And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, Esau was coming and four hundred men were with him. And he^[l] divided the children among Leah and among Rachel, and among the two of his female servants. ² And he put the female slaves and their children first, then Leah and her children next, then Rachel with Joseph last. ³ And he himself passed on before them and bowed down to the ground seven times until he came to his brother. ⁴ But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell upon his neck and kissed him, and they wept. ⁵ Then Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, “Who are these with you?” And he said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” ⁶ Then the female servants drew near, they and their children, and they bowed down. ⁷ Then Leah and her children drew near and bowed down, and afterward Joseph and Rachel drew near and they bowed down. ⁸ And he^[m] said, “What do you mean by^[n] all this company that I have met?” Then he said, “To find favor in the eyes of my lord.” ⁹ Then Esau said, “I have enough^[o] my brother; keep what you have.”^{[p] 10} And Jacob said, “No, please, if I have found favor in your eyes, you must take my gift from my hand, for then I have seen your face which is like seeing the face of God, and you have received me. ¹¹ Please take my gift which has been brought to you, for God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.”^[q] And he urged him, so he took it. ¹² Then he^[r] said, “Let us journey and go on, and I will go ahead of you.” ¹³ But he said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and the flocks and the cattle which are nursing are a concern to me. Now if they drove them hard for a day all the flocks would die. ¹⁴ Let my lord pass on before his servant and I will move along slowly at the pace^[s] of the livestock that are ahead of me, and at the pace^[t] of the children until I come to my lord in Seir.” ¹⁵ And Esau said, “Let me leave some of my people with you.” But he said, “What need is there?^[u] Let me find favor in the eyes of my lord.” ¹⁶ So Esau turned that day on his way to Seir. ¹⁷ But Jacob traveled on to Succoth, and he built for himself a house, and he made shelters for his livestock. Therefore he called the name of the place Succoth. ¹⁸ And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan, on his way^[v] from Paddan-Aram. And he camped before the city. ¹⁹ And he bought a piece of land where he pitched his tent for one hundred pieces of money^[w] from the hand of the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem. ²⁰ And there he erected an altar and called it “El Elohe Israel.”^[x]

The Rape of Dinah and the Massacre at Shechem

34 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. ² And Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. And he took her and lay with her and raped her. ³ And his soul clung to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly^[y] to the girl. ⁴ So Shechem said to Hamor his father, saying, “Get this girl for me as a wife.”

⁵ And Jacob heard that Dinah his daughter had been defiled, but his sons were with his flocks in the field. And Jacob kept silent until they came. ⁶ And Hamor, father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him. ⁷ And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. And the men were distressed and very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by having sexual relations with the daughter of Jacob—something that^[z] should not be done. ⁸ And Hamor spoke with them saying, “Shechem my son is in love with^[aa] your daughter. Please give her to him for a wife. ⁹ Make marriages with us. Give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. ¹⁰ You shall dwell with us and the land shall be before you; settle and trade in it, and acquire property in it.” ¹¹ Then Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will do. ¹² Make the bride price and gift as high as you like;^[ab] I will give what you say to me. But give me the girl as a wife.” ¹³ Then the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor speaking deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. ¹⁴ And they said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to a man who is uncircumcised, for that is a disgrace for us. ¹⁵ Only on this condition will we give consent to you; if you will become like us—every male among you to be circumcised. ¹⁶ Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take for ourselves your daughters, and we will live with you and become one family. ¹⁷ But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our daughters and we will go.” ¹⁸ And their words were good in the eyes of Hamor and in the eyes of Shechem, the son of Hamor. ¹⁹ And the young man did not delay to do the thing, for he wanted the daughter of Jacob. Now he was the most honored of his father’s house. ²⁰ Then Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city, and they spoke to the men of their city, saying, ²¹ “These men are at peace with us. Let them dwell in the land and let them trade in it. Now, behold, the land is broad enough for them.^[ac] Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give our daughters to them. ²² Only on this condition will they give consent to us, to live with us and to become one family—when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. ²³ Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us give consent to them so they will live among us.” ²⁴ And all those who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and Shechem. Every male was circumcised, all those who went out of the gate of his city. ²⁵ And it happened that on the third day, while they were in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, each took his sword and came against the unsuspecting city and killed all the males. ²⁶ They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and they took Dinah from the house of Shechem and went out. ²⁷ The other sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. ²⁸ They took their flocks and their cattle and their donkeys, and whatever was in the field. ²⁹ They captured and plundered all that was in the houses—all their wealth, their little ones, and their women. ³⁰ Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites! I am few in number! If they gather against me and attack me, I will be destroyed—I and my household!” ³¹ But they said, “Shall he treat our sister like a prostitute?”