Genesis 32 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Jacob Fears Esau

Gen 32:1Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

Gen 32:2And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.[fn]

Gen 32:3And Jacob sent[fn] messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,

Gen 32:4instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now.

Gen 32:5

Gen 32:5I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’”

Gen 32:6

Gen 32:6And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.”

Gen 32:7

Gen 32:7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps,

Gen 32:8

Gen 32:8thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”

Gen 32:9

Gen 32:9And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’

Gen 32:10

Gen 32:10I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

Gen 32:11

Gen 32:11Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.

Gen 32:12

Gen 32:12But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

Gen 32:13

Gen 32:13So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau,

Gen 32:14

Gen 32:14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

Gen 32:15

Gen 32:15thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

Gen 32:16

Gen 32:16These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.”

Gen 32:17

Gen 32:17He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’

Gen 32:18

Gen 32:18then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’”

Gen 32:19

Gen 32:19He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him,

Gen 32:20

Gen 32:20and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him[fn] with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”[fn]

Gen 32:21

Gen 32:21So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles with God

Gen 32:22

Gen 32:22The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children,[fn] and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

Gen 32:23

Gen 32:23He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.

Gen 32:24

Gen 32:24And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.

Gen 32:25

Gen 32:25When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

Gen 32:26

Gen 32:26Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

Gen 32:27

Gen 32:27And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”

Gen 32:28

Gen 32:28Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,[fn] for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Gen 32:29

Gen 32:29Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.

Gen 32:30

Gen 32:30So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,[fn] saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

Gen 32:31

Gen 32:31The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

Gen 32:32

Gen 32:32Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(32:2)

Mahanaim means two camps

(32:3)

Or had sent

(32:20)

Hebrew appease his face

(32:20)

Hebrew he will lift my face

(32:22)

Or sons

(32:28)

Israel means He strives with God, or God strives

(32:30)

Peniel means the face of God

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

Genesis Chapter 32 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

Genesis 32 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Jacob Fears Esau

Jacob Wrestles with God

ESV Footnotes

Genesis Chapter 32 — Additional Translations:

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