Genesis 32 :: New International Version (NIV)

Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

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

Gen 32:2When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.[fn]

Gen 32:3Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

Gen 32:4He 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.

Gen 32:5

Gen 32:5I 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.’ ”

Gen 32:6

Gen 32:6When 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.”

Gen 32:7

Gen 32:7In 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.

Gen 32:8

Gen 32:8He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group,[fn] the group[fn] that is left may escape.”

Gen 32:9

Gen 32:9Then 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,’

Gen 32:10

Gen 32:10I 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.

Gen 32:11

Gen 32:11Save 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.

Gen 32:12

Gen 32:12But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”

Gen 32:13

Gen 32:13He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift 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 female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

Gen 32:16

Gen 32:16He 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.”

Gen 32:17

Gen 32:17He 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?’

Gen 32:18

Gen 32:18then 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.’ ”

Gen 32:19

Gen 32:19He 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.

Gen 32:20

Gen 32:20And 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.”

Gen 32:21

Gen 32:21So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles With God

Gen 32:22

Gen 32:22That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

Gen 32:23

Gen 32:23After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.

Gen 32:24

Gen 32:24So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.

Gen 32:25

Gen 32:25When 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.

Gen 32:26

Gen 32:26Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

Gen 32:27

Gen 32:27The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.

Gen 32:28

Gen 32:28Then 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.”

Gen 32:29

Gen 32:29Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

Gen 32:30

Gen 32:30So Jacob called the place Peniel,[fn] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

Gen 32:31

Gen 32:31The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,[fn] and he was limping because of his hip.

Gen 32:32

Gen 32:32Therefore 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.

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

NIV Footnotes

(32:2)

Mahanaim means two camps.

Or camps

Or camp

Or camp

Israel probably means he struggles with God.

(32:30)

Peniel means face of God.

(32:31)

Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel

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