Genèse 32

¹Laban rose at dawn, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, and gave them his blessing. Then he started back to his own home. ²As Jacob continued on his journey, angels of God met him. ³At the sight of them Jacob said, “This is God’s own camp!” and he called the place Mahanaim.

⁴Jacob then sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau, to the land of Seir in the region of Edom. ⁵He instructed them, “Tell my lord Esau this: ‘Your servant Jacob sends word: I have lived as a guest with Laban and stayed on there until now. ⁶I own oxen and donkeys and flocks, and slaves, men and women. I am sending to let my lord know, hoping you will look on me with favor.’” ⁷The messengers returned and told Jacob, “We reached your brother Esau. He is already coming out to meet you, with 400 men at his side.” ⁸Jacob was badly frightened and anxious. He divided his people into two camps, along with the flocks, the herds and the camels. ⁹His thought was, “If Esau falls on one camp and strikes it, the camp that is left will be able to escape.” ¹⁰And Jacob prayed: “God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, LORD, it was you who said to me, ‘Return to your land and your family, and I will make things go well for you.’ ¹¹I am far too small for all the steadfast love and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only a staff in my hand when I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. ¹²Rescue me from my brother, from Esau’s hand. I fear that he will come and strike us all down, mothers and children together. ¹³Yet you yourself said, ‘I will surely make things go well for you, and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, beyond counting for their number.’” ¹⁴After spending the night there, he chose from his possessions a present for his brother Esau: ¹⁵200 female goats and twenty male goats, 200 ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁶thirty camels with their nursing young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁷He handed them over to his servants, one drove at a time, and told them, “Cross ahead of me, and leave a gap between each drove and the next.” ¹⁸To the leading servant he said, “My brother Esau will meet you and ask, ‘Whose man are you? Where are you headed? And whose animals are these you are driving?’ ¹⁹Then you will say, ‘Your servant Jacob’s. This is a present he is sending to my lord Esau, and Jacob himself is following us.’” ²⁰He gave the same command to the second, to the third, and to everyone who walked behind the droves: “This is what you are to tell Esau when you come upon him. ²¹Add this: ‘Your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” His plan was, “I will win him over with the present that goes ahead of me, and then I will meet him face to face. It may be that he will receive me kindly.” ²²So the gift went on ahead of him, while he stayed the night in the camp. ²³During that night he rose, took his two wives, his two slave women and his eleven sons, and crossed at the ford of the Jabbok. ²⁴He took them and sent them over the stream, along with everything he owned. ²⁵Jacob stayed behind by himself. And a man wrestled with him there until dawn began to break. ²⁶The man, seeing that he could not get the upper hand over Jacob, struck him at the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was wrenched out of joint while they wrestled. ²⁷“Let me go,” said the man, “for the dawn is coming up.” Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” ²⁸The man asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” ²⁹He said, “You will be called Jacob no longer. Your name is Israel, for you have contended with God and with people and have come through victorious.” ³⁰Then Jacob asked him, “Tell me, please, what your name is.” He replied, “Why is it that you ask for my name?” And there he blessed Jacob. ³¹Jacob named the place Peniel. “I have seen God face to face,” he said, “and my life has been rescued.” ³²The sun was rising on him as he went past Penuel, and he went limping on his injured hip. ³³This is the reason the people of Israel still do not eat the sinew on the hip socket: Jacob’s hip socket was struck at that sinew.