1Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.[ † ]Numbers 22:312 Kings 6:16-17Psalms 34:7Psalms 91:1Hebrews 1:14 2When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.[ † ]Joshua 5:14Psalms 103:21Psalms 148:2Luke 2:13
3Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.[ † ]Genesis 14:6Genesis 33:14-16Genesis 25:30Genesis 36:6-9Deuteronomy 2:5Joshua 24:4 4He instructed them, “You are to say to my master Esau, ‘Your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now.[ † ]Proverbs 15:1 5I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants, and maidservants. I have sent this message to inform my master, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”[ † ]Genesis 30:43Genesis 33:8-15
6When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you—he and four hundred men with him.”[ † ]Genesis 33:1
7In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.[ † ]Genesis 32:11Genesis 35:3 8He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape.”
9Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the Lord who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’[ † ]Psalms 50:15Genesis 28:13Genesis 31:42Genesis 31:3-13 10I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.[ † ]Genesis 24:27Job 8:7 11Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me.[ † ]Psalms 59:1-2Hosea 10:14 12But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”[ † ]Genesis 28:13-15Genesis 22:17
13Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau:[ † ]Genesis 43:11 14200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 1530 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys. 16He entrusted them to his servants in separate herds and told them, “Go on ahead of me, and keep some distance between the herds.”
17He instructed the one in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong, where are you going, and whose animals are these before you?’ 18then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift, sent to my lord Esau. And behold, Jacob is behind us.’”
19He also instructed the second, the third, and all those following behind the herds: “When you meet Esau, you are to say the same thing to him. 20You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease Esau with the gift that is going before me. After that I can face him, and perhaps he will accept me.”[ † ]Proverbs 21:14
21So Jacob’s gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.
22During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.[ † ]Numbers 21:24Deuteronomy 3:16Joshua 12:2 23He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.
24So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak.[ † ]Joshua 5:13-15Hosea 12:2-4 25When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.[ † ]Matthew 26:412 Corinthians 12:7
26Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”[ † ]Luke 24:28Hosea 12:4
27“What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.
28Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”[ † ]Genesis 35:101 Kings 18:312 Kings 17:34Hosea 12:3-4Genesis 25:31Genesis 27:33
29And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.[ † ]Judges 13:17-18Genesis 35:9
30So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”[ † ]Genesis 16:13Exodus 24:10-11Exodus 33:20Numbers 12:8Deuteronomy 5:24Judges 6:22Isaiah 6:5Matthew 5:81 Corinthians 13:12
31The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip. 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 struck near that tendon.