Through My Bible Year 03 – April 12

Genesis 32:3-32

genesis 32

³ Jacob sent messengers from ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, which is the region of Edom. ⁴ He gave them an order. “Tell my lord Esau, this is what your servant Jacob says: I have lived with Laban like a stranger until recently. ⁵ I have cows, bulls, donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female slaves. I have sent this message to inform my Lord, so that I can get your blessings.

⁶ The messengers returned to Jacob and reported, “We came to your brother Esau. Now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him.”

⁷ Therefore Jacob became frightened and felt very sad. He also divided the people with him, sheep, goats, cattle, and camels into two groups. ^{(1) 8} He said, “If Esau comes near one camp and attacks it, the other camp will flee.” ⁹ Jacob said, “The God of my father Abraham, and the God of my father Isaac, GodWho said to me, return to your country and your relatives, and I will do good to you. ¹⁰ I am not worthy of all the mercy and all the truth that you have shown to your servant, because I crossed this Jordan only with the help of my staff, and now I have two camps. ¹¹ Please save me from the hand of my brother Esau, because I am afraid that he will come and kill me and the mothers and children as well. ¹² You said, ‘I will surely do good to you, and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, too numerous to be numbered, for they are so many.'”

¹³ Jacob spent the night there, and selected from his property a gift for his brother Esau: ¹⁴ two hundred goats, and twenty goats, and two hundred sheep, and twenty rams, ¹⁵ And thirty milch camels with their calves, forty cows, ten bulls, and twenty donkeys with ten calves. ¹⁶ And he separated them each herd and handed them over to his servants, and said to his servants, Go ahead of me, and put some space between each herd and the next herd. ¹⁷ He commanded the next one, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who are you? Where are you going? Whose herds are these in front of you?’ ¹⁸ Then you say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob.’ This is a gift sent to you, my lord Esau. Look, he’s right behind us.” ¹⁹ He commanded the second group, and the third group, and all those who followed the herd, “When you meet Esau, speak to him like this. ²⁰ You will say, ‘And behold, your servant Jacob is right behind us.'” Jacob said, “I will seek his favor with the gift I have sent ahead of me, and after that I will see his face, and perhaps he will accept me.”

²¹ Therefore, the gift was sent before him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

²² That night he got up and crossed the ford of the Jabbok River, taking with him his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons. ²³ He took them and sent them across the river, and he also sent his property across the river. ²⁴ Jacob was left alone, and there he wrestled with a man until morning. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he touched his thigh bone, and while wrestling, Jacob’s thigh bone was dislocated. ²⁶ The man said, “Let me go. It’s morning.”

Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷ Then he said to him, What is your name?

He said, “Jacob.”

²⁸ Then he said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.

²⁹ Jacob asked her, “Please tell me your name.”

He said, “Why do you ask what my name is?” Then he blessed him right there.

³⁰ Jacob called the name of that place Peniel, ⁽²⁾ For he said, I have seen God face to face, and my life is saved. ³¹ The sun had risen as he crossed Peniel, and he was limping because of his thigh. ³² This is why the people of Israel do not eat the thigh bone on the joint of the thigh bone to this day, because God had touched the joint of Jacob’s thigh bone on the thigh bone.