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The Blue Letter Bible

Genesis 32 :: New International Version (NIV)

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Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:1 - Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:2 - When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:3 - Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:4 - He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:5 - I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’ ”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:6 - When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:7 - In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups,[fn] and the flocks and herds and camels as well.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:8 - He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group,[fn] the group[fn] that is left may escape.”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:9 - Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, LORD, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:10 - I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:11 - Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:12 - But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:13 - He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau:
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:14 - two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:15 - thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:16 - He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:17 - He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:18 - then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’ ”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:19 - He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:20 - And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’ ” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:21 - So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles With God

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:22 - That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:23 - After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:24 - So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:25 - When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:26 - Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:27 - The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:28 - Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,[fn] because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:29 - Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:30 - So Jacob called the place Peniel,[fn] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:31 - The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,[fn] and he was limping because of his hip.
Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:32 - Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
NIV Footnotes
Mahanaim means two camps.
Or camps
Or camp
Or camp
Israel probably means he struggles with God.
Peniel means face of God.
Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel
NIV

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Genesis Chapter 32 — Additional Translations: