1 Jacob also went his way, and angels of God came to meet him.
Adverts
2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s army! ” That’s why he named that place Mahanaim.
3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau, in the region of Seir, in the territory of Edom.
4 And he commanded them, “You shall say this to my lord Esau: This is what your servant Jacob says: I lived in the house of Laban and have remained with him until now.
5 I have oxen and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. I now send this message to my lord, so that he may receive me well.”
Adverts
6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said to him, “We have come to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you with four hundred men.”
7 Jacob was filled with fear and was overcome with anguish. Then he divided everyone who was with him into two groups, as well as the sheep, the goats, the oxen, and the camels,
8 for this is what he thought: “If Esau comes and attacks one of the groups, the other will be able to escape.”
9 Then Jacob prayed: “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, 'Return to your land and to your relatives, and I will prosper you';
10 I am not worthy of all the kindness and loyalty with which you treated your servant. When I crossed the Jordan I only had my staff, but now I have two caravans.
11 Deliver me, I pray you, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he will attack us, both me and the mothers and children.
12 For you promised: 'Be assured that I will prosper him and make his descendants as numerous as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted' “.
13 After spending the night there, he chose a gift from among his flocks for his brother Esau:
14 two hundred goats and twenty goats, two hundred sheep and twenty rams,
15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
16 He placed each herd under the care of a servant, and said to them: “Go ahead of me and keep a certain distance between one herd and another.”
17 To the one in front he gave the following instruction: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, 'Who do you belong to, where are you going, and who owns all this flock in front of you?' ',
18 you will answer: It is from your servant Jacob. It is a gift for my lord Esau; and he himself is coming after us.”
19 He also instructed the second, the third, and all the others who followed the flocks: “Say the same thing to Esau when you find him.
20 And add: Your servant Jacob is coming after us.” Because he thought: “I will appease him with these gifts that I am sending before me; later, when I see him, perhaps he will welcome me.”
21 So Jacob's gifts went before him; but he spent the night in the camp.
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons to cross the crossing point of the Jabbok.
23 After he had made them cross the stream, he also made everything he had pass through.
24 And Jacob was left alone. Then a man came and fought with him until dawn.
25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the joint in Jacob's thigh, so that he dislocated his thigh while they fought.
26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for the day has dawned.” But Jacob answered him, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him: “What is your name? “Jacob,” he replied.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”
29 Jacob continued: “I ask you to say your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name? ” And blessed him there.
30 Jacob called that place Peniel, for he said, “I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 At sunrise he crossed Peniel, limping because of his thigh.
32 Therefore, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the muscle connected to the hip joint, because Jacob was injured in this muscle.
