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Genesis 32
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Chapter 32
1
Laban rose early next morning, and kissing his sons and daughters he blessed them. Then Laban left to return home.
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While Jacob was going on his way angels of God met him,
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and on seeing them he said, ‘This is God’s camp’, and he named the place Mahanaim.
Jacob prepares for his meeting with Esau
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Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the countryside of Edom,
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with these instructions, ‘Say this to my lord Esau, “Here is the message of your servant Jacob: I have been staying with Laban till now,
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and have acquired oxen, beasts of burden and flocks, and men and women slaves. I send news of this to my lord in the hope of winning your approval.”‘
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The messengers returned to Jacob and told him, ‘We went to your brother Esau, and he is already on his way to meet you; there are four hundred men with him’.
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Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people with him, and the flocks and cattle, into two companies,
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saying, ‘If Esau comes to one of the companies and attacks it, the other company will be left to escape’.
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Jacob said, ‘O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh who said to me, “Go back to your country and family, and I will make you prosper”,
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I am unworthy of all the kindness and goodness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed the Jordan[*a] here, and now I can form two companies.
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I implore you, save me from my brother’s clutches, for I am afraid of him; he may come and attack us and the mothers and their children.
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Yet it was you who said, “I will make you prosper, and make your descendants like the sand on the seashore, so many that it cannot be counted”.’
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Then Jacob passed that night there. From what he had with him he chose a gift for his brother Esau:
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two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
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thirty camels in milk with their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten donkeys.
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He put them in the charge of his servants, in separate droves, and he told his servants, ‘Go ahead of me, leaving a space between each drove and the next’.
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He gave the first this order: ‘When my brother Esau meets you and asks, “To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Whose are those animals that you are driving?”
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you will answer, “To your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, Jacob himself is following.”‘
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He gave the same order to the second and the third, and to all who were following the droves, ‘That is what you must say to Esau when you find him.
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You must say, “Yes, your servant Jacob himself is following”. For he argued, ‘I shall conciliate him by sending a gift in advance; so when I come face to face with him he may perhaps receive me favourably’.
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The gift went ahead of him, but he himself spent that night in the camp.
Jacob wrestles with God
23
That same night he rose, and taking his two wives and his two slave-girls and his eleven children he crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
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He took them and sent them across the stream and sent all his possessions over too.
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And Jacob was left alone.
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And there was one that wrestled with him until daybreak who, seeing that he could not master him, struck him in the socket of his hip, and Jacob’s hip was dislocated as he wrestled with him.
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He said, ‘Let me go, for day is breaking’ But Jacob answered, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me’.
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He then asked, ‘What is your name?’ ‘Jacob’, he replied.
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He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have been strong[*b] against God, you shall prevail against men’.
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Jacob then made this request, ‘I beg you, tell me your name’, but he replied, ‘Why do you ask my name?’ And he blessed him there.
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Jacob named the place Peniel, ‘Because I have seen God face to face,’ he said ‘and I have survived’.
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The sun rose as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip.
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That is the reason why to this day the Israelites do not eat the sciatic nerve which is in the socket of the hip; because he had struck Jacob in the socket of the hip on the sciatic nerve.
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