32:1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
32:2 When Jacob saw them, he said, This is the camp of God! So he named that place Mahanaim. [Mahanaim means two camps.]
32:3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
32:4 He instructed them: This is what you are to say to my master Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.
32:5 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favour in your eyes.’
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.
32:7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, [Or camps also in verse 10] and the flocks and herds and camels as well.
32:8 He thought, If Esau comes and attacks one group, [Or camp] the group [Or camp] that is left may escape.
32:9 Then Jacob prayed, O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’
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 groups.
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.
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.’
32:13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau:
32:14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
32:15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
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.
32:17 He instructed the one in the lead: When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’
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.’
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.
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.
32:21 So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.
32:22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
32:23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
32:24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
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.
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.
32:27 The man asked him, What is your name? Jacob, he answered.
32:28 Then the man said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, [Israel means he struggles with God.] because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.
32:29 Jacob said, Please tell me your name. But he replied, Why do you ask my name? Then he blessed him there.
32:30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, [Peniel means face of God.] saying, It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.
32:31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, [Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel] and he was limping because of his hip.
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.