Berean Standard Bible
- 1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
- 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is the camp of God." So he named 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 master Esau, 'Your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now.
- 5 I 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.'"
- 6 When 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."
- 7 In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.
- 8 He thought, "If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape."
- 9 Then Jacob declared, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Yahweh who told me, 'Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,'
- 10 I 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.
- 11 Please 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.
- 12 But 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.'"
- 13 Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau:
- 14 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams,
- 15 30 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.
- 16 He entrusted them to his servants in separate herds and told them, "Go on ahead of me, and keep some distance between the herds."
- 17 He 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?'
- 18 then 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.'"
- 19 He 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.
- 20 You 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."
- 21 So Jacob's gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.
- 22 During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
- 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.
- 24 So Jacob was left all alone, and there 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 dislocated it as they wrestled.
- 26 Then the man said, "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 replied.
- 28 Then 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."
- 29 And Jacob requested, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed Jacob there.
- 30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, "Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared."
- 31 The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.
- 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon which is at the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was struck near that tendon.
