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went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s camp.” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He instructed them: “You are to say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant Jacob says, “I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now. 5 I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, and menservants and maidservants. I have sent this message to inform my lord, in order that I may find favour in your eyes’.”
6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and he has four hundred men with him.”
7 Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people with him into two groups, along with the flocks, herds, and camels also. 8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks the first group, the group that is left may escape.”
9 Then Jacob prayed,
“O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’. 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown Your servant. I only had my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.
11 “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid of him; for he may come and attack me, and also the mothers with the children. 12 But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted for number’.”
13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he assembled a gift to present to his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty camels in milk with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He entrusted them to his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go on ahead of me, and leave some space between the herds.”
17 He instructed the one at the front: “When Esau my brother meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose animals are these ahead of you?’ 18 then you must say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau. And look, he is coming behind us’.”
19 Then 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. 20 Also be sure to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is coming behind us’.” For he thought, “I may appease Esau with these gifts I am sending on ahead of me. Then afterwards, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” 21 So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.
22 During the night Jacob got up and set out with his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had taken them across the stream, he sent over everything else he had. 24 Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that He could not overpower Jacob, He struck the socket of Jacob’s hip, and his hip was dislocated as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then He said to Jacob, “Let Me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
27 “What is your name?” the man asked.
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”
29 Then Jacob asked Him, “Please tell me Your name.”
But He answered, “Why do you ask My name?” Then He blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been spared.”
31 The sun rose upon him as he passed through Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 That is why, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the tendon of the thigh that is attached to the hip socket, because He struck the socket of Jacob’s hip at thigh tendon.