Chronological
Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau
32 [a]As Jacob went on his way, angels from God met him. 2 As he was watching them, Jacob said, “This must be God’s camp,” so he named that place Mahanaim.[b]
3 Then Jacob sent messengers ahead of him into the land of Seir (that is, into the territory of Edom) to meet his brother Esau. 4 He instructed them, “This is what you are to say to my master Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob told me to tell you, “I’ve journeyed to stay with Laban and I’ve remained there until now. 5 I now have cattle, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants. I’m sending this message to you, sir,[c] so that you’ll show favor to me.”’”
6 Later, the messengers returned to Jacob and reported, “We went to your brother Esau. He’s now coming to meet you—and he has 400 men with him!”
7 Feeling mounting terror and distress, Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, doing the same with the flocks, the cattle, and the camels. 8 Jacob was thinking, “If Esau comes to one group and attacks it, then the remaining group may escape.”
9 Then Jacob prayed,[d] “O God of my father Abraham, O God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you who told me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives and I’ll cause things to go well for you.’ 10 I’m unworthy of all your gracious love, your faithfulness, and everything that you’ve done for your servant. When I first crossed over this river, I had only my staff. But now I’ve become two groups. 11 Deliver me from my brother Esau’s control, because I’m terrified of him, and I’m afraid that he’s coming to attack me, the mothers, and their children. 12 Now, you promised me that ‘I’m certainly going to cause things to go well with you, and I’m going to make your offspring[e] as numerous as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”
13 Jacob spent the night there. Out of everything that he had brought with him, he chose a gift for his brother Esau— 14 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 15 30 milking camels with their young, 40 cows with ten bulls, and 20 female donkeys with ten male donkeys. 16 He entrusted them into the care of his servants, one herd at a time.[f] Then he told his servants, “Go in front of me, making sure there’s plenty of space between herds.”
17 To the first group he said, “When you meet my brother Esau, if he asks, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And to whom do these herds[g] belong?’ 18 then you are to reply, ‘We’re from[h] your servant Jacob. The herds[i] are a gift. He’s sending them to my master, Esau. Look! There he is, coming along behind us.’”
19 He issued similar instructions to the second and third group, as well as to all the others who drove the herds that followed: “This is how you are to speak to Esau when you find him. 20 You are to tell him, ‘Look! Your servant Jacob is coming along behind us.’”
Jacob was thinking, “I’ll pacify him with the presents that are being sent ahead of me. Then, when I meet him,[j] perhaps he’ll accept me.”[k] 21 So the presents went[l] ahead of him, while he spent that night in the camp. 22 Later that night, he woke up, quickly took his two wives, his[m] two women servants, and his eleven children, and forded the river at Jabbok. 23 He took them across the river, along with all his possessions.
Jacob Struggles with God
24 And so Jacob was left alone, and he struggled with a man until daybreak. 25 When the man realized that he hadn’t yet won the struggle, he injured the socket[n] of Jacob’s thigh, dislocating it as he wrestled with him, 26 and said, “Let me go, because the dawn has come.”[o]
“I won’t let you go,” Jacob[p] replied, “unless you bless me.”
27 Then the man[q] asked him, “What’s your name?”
“Jacob,” he responded
28 “Your name won’t be[r] Jacob anymore,” the man[s] replied, “but Israel, because you exerted yourself against both God and men, and you’ve emerged victorious.”
29 “Please,” Jacob inquired, “Tell me your name.”
But he asked, “Why are you asking about my name?” And he blessed Jacob[t] there.
30 Jacob would later call that place Peniel,[u] because “I saw God face to face, but my life was spared.”
31 The sun was rising above Jacob[v] as he crossed over from Peniel, limping due to his wounded thigh. 32 Therefore, to this day the Israelis do not eat the hip tendon that connects to the thigh socket, because he had injured the socket of the thigh where the tendon connected to Jacob’s hip.
Jacob Meets Esau
33 When Jacob looked off in the distance, there was Esau coming toward him, accompanied by 400 men! So Jacob divided Leah’s children, Rachel, and the children of the two servants into separate groups.[w] 2 Then he positioned the women servants and their children first, then Leah and her children next, and then Rachel and Joseph after them. 3 Then he went out to meet Esau,[x] passing in front of all of them, and bowed low to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
4 Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him. Then he fell on his neck and kissed him. And they wept.
5 When Esau eventually looked around, he saw the women and the children. “Who are these people[y] with you?” he asked.
“The children, whom God has graciously given[z] your servant,” he answered. 6 Then the women servants approached, accompanied by their children, and bowed low. 7 Leah also approached, and she and her children bowed low. After this, Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed low.
8 Then Esau asked, “What are all these livestock for?”
“To solicit favor from you,[aa] sir,”[ab] Jacob answered.
9 But Esau replied, “I already have so much, my brother, so keep what belongs to you.”
10 “Please,” Jacob implored him, “don’t refuse. If I’m to receive favor from you, then receive this gift from me, because seeing your face is like seeing the face of God, since you have favorably accepted me. 11 So receive my blessing, which has been sent to you, since God has been gracious to me. Besides, I have enough.” Because Jacob kept pressing him, Esau accepted the gifts.
12 Then Esau suggested, “Let’s set out and travel together, but let me go in front of you.”
13 “Sir, you know[ac] that the children are frail,” Jacob suggested, “and the ewes and cows with me are still nursing their young. If they’re driven even for a day, the entire flock will die. 14 So allow yourself to[ad] go ahead of your servant while I travel more slowly, letting the herds set their own pace[ae] with the children until I arrive to see my lord in Seir.”
15 Esau said, “Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.”
“Why do that?” Jacob asked. “I’ve already found favor in your sight, sir.”[af] 16 So Esau set out that very day back on his way to Seir, 17 but Jacob set out for Succoth, built a house there, and constructed some cattle shelters. He named the place Succoth.[ag]
Jacob Buys Land in Shechem
18 After Jacob had arrived safely from Paddan-aram,[ah] he entered the city of Shechem, which was located in the territory of Canaan, and encamped facing that city. 19 Then he bought a parcel of land for 100 pieces of silver from the descendants of Hamor, Shechem’s father. He pitched his tent there, 20 set up an altar, and named it El-elohe-israel.[ai]
Jacob’s Daughter Dinah is Raped
34 Some time later, Dinah, Leah’s daughter whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women[aj] of the land. 2 When Hamor the Hivite’s son Shechem, the regional leader, saw her, he grabbed her and raped her, humiliating her. 3 He was attached to[ak] Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, since he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.[al] 4 Then Shechem told his father Hamor, “Get this young woman[am] for me to be my wife.”
5 Because Jacob learned that Shechem had dishonored his daughter Dinah while his sons were still out with their cattle on the open range, he remained silent until they returned. 6 Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor arrived to talk to Jacob. 7 Just then Jacob’s sons arrived from the field. When they heard what had happened, they were distraught with grief and livid with anger toward Shechem,[an] because he had committed a disgraceful deed in Israel by forcing Jacob’s daughter to have sex, an act that never should have happened.
8 But Hamor said this: “My son is deeply attracted to your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. 9 Intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us and take our sons for yourselves. 10 Live with us anywhere you want.[ao] Live, trade, and grow rich in it.”
11 Shechem also addressed Dinah’s[ap] father and brothers. He told them, “If you’ll just approve me, I’ll give whatever you ask of me. 12 No matter how big or how extensive your demands are for a dowry and wedding presents from me, I’ll provide whatever you ask. Only give me the young lady to be my wife.”
Jacob’s Sons Plot Revenge
13 But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceptively, because Shechem had dishonored their sister Dinah. 14 They told them, “We can’t do this. We can’t give our sister to a man who isn’t circumcised, because that would be insulting to us. 15 But we’ll agree to your request, only if you will become like us by circumcising every male among you. 16 Then we’ll give our daughters to you and take your daughters for ourselves, live among you, and be as a united people. 17 But if you won’t listen to us, then we’re going to take our daughter and leave.” 18 What they said pleased Hamor and his son Shechem, 19 so the young man did not delay the matter any further, since he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.
Now Shechem was the most important person in his father’s household. 20 So Hamor and his son Shechem entered the gate of their city and addressed the men of their city. 21 “These men are at peace with us,” they announced. “Therefore, let them live in the land and trade in it. Look! The land is large enough for them. Let’s take their daughters as wives for ourselves and let’s give our sons to them.
22 “However,” they added, “only on this condition will the men consent to live with us and be united as a single people with us: every male among us will have to be circumcised just as they are. 23 Shouldn’t all their cattle, acquisitions, and animals belong to us? So, let’s give our consent to them, and then they’ll live with us.”
Simeon and Levi Attack Shechem
24 All of the males who heard Hamor and his son Shechem, who had gone out to the city gate, were circumcised. 25 Three days later, while they were still in pain, Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah’s brothers, each grabbed a sword and entered the city unannounced, intending to kill all the males. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took back Dinah from Shechem’s house, and left. 27 Jacob’s other sons came along afterward and plundered the city where their sister had been defiled, 28 seizing all of their flocks, herds, donkeys, and whatever else was in the city or had been left out in the field. 29 They carried off all their wealth, their children, and their wives as captives, plundering everything that remained in the houses.
30 Then Jacob told Simeon and Levi, “You have certainly stirred up trouble for me! You’ve made me despised by[aq] the Canaanites and the Perizzites who live in this territory. Because I have only a few men with me, they’re going to gather themselves together and attack me until I am totally destroyed, along with my entire household!”
31 “Should he have treated our sister like a whore?” they asked in response.
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.