Genesis 32

Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

1And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

Note"Angels" translates a Hebrew word that simply means "messengers." It is the same word used two verses later for the human messengers Jacob sends to Esau; the echo is invisible in English.

2When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's camp." So he named that place Mahanaim.

2And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

NoteMahanaim means "two camps." The name looks ahead to verse 7, where Jacob splits his household in two, the Hebrew word for "camp" there is the one buried in the place name.

3Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau, in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

3And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

NoteSeir was the rough hill country south-east of the Dead Sea, later called Edom, where Esau's descendants settled. Jacob sends word ahead because of what stands between them: about twenty years earlier he had bought Esau's birthright and then tricked their blind father into giving him the blessing meant for Esau, and had fled the country when Esau threatened to kill him (Genesis 25 and 27).

4He gave them these orders: "This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says this: I have been living with Laban, and I have stayed there until now.

4And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now:

Note"My lord" and "your servant" were the standard polite forms used when addressing a social superior, a subject to a king, or a weaker man asking a favor. Jacob, the younger brother who had claimed the elder brother's position, is deliberately putting the ranks back the other way round.

5I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent this message to tell my lord, so that I may find favor with you.'"

5And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.

NoteListing livestock and servants was the ordinary way of stating a man's wealth. The point of the list is that Jacob is coming home rich and is not returning to claim anything from their father's estate.

6The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him."

6And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.

NoteFour hundred men is a war party, not an escort; the same figure is used elsewhere for a raiding force. The messengers bring back no word at all about Esau's intentions, only about his strength.

7Then Jacob was very afraid and troubled. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups.

7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands;

NoteThe word rendered "groups" is the same Hebrew word as "camp" in verse 2. Jacob is literally turning himself into "two camps", Mahanaim.

8He said, "If Esau comes to one group and attacks it, then the other group that is left will get away."

8And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.

9Jacob said, "God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, LORD, you said to me, 'Go back to your country and to your relatives, and I will treat you well.'

9And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee:

NoteJacob is quoting back to God the instruction he says he was given when he decided to leave Laban (Genesis 31:3). Reminding a superior of his own words was a normal way of framing a petition.

10I am not worthy of the smallest part of all the kindness and all the faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant. When I crossed this Jordan I had only my walking staff, and now I have become two groups.

10I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.

Note"With my staff I crossed this Jordan": twenty years earlier Jacob had left home alone and on foot with nothing but a walking stick. He is setting that against the household and herds he now has.

11Please save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. I am afraid of him. He may come and attack me, and the mother along with the children.

11Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.

Note"From the hand of" is a Hebrew idiom meaning out of someone's power. "The mother along with the children" was a set phrase for killing that leaves no survivors, wiping out a household in a single generation.

12But you said, 'I will surely do you good, and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because there is so much of it.'"

12And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

NoteJacob is repeating back the promise he says was made to him, in the words used to his grandfather Abraham and to him at Bethel (Genesis 22:17; 28:13-15).

13He stayed there that night. From what he had with him he took a gift for his brother Esau:

13And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;

NoteThe Hebrew word for "gift" here is also the ordinary word for tribute, what a lesser ruler sends a greater one to buy peace. The animals listed in the next two verses come to 550 head, an enormous outlay.

14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred female sheep and twenty rams,

14Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams,

15thirty female camels that were nursing, along with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten young male donkeys.

15Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.

NoteNursing camels with their young were among the most valuable animals a man could own; camels were kept for milk and transport rather than meat, and a milking female with a calf was prime breeding stock.

16He handed them over to his servants, each herd by itself, and told his servants, "Go on ahead of me, and leave space between one herd and the next."

16And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove.

NoteSpacing the herds means Esau meets the gift over and over, in wave after wave, before he ever reaches Jacob himself.

17He gave orders to the servant in front: "When my brother Esau meets you and asks, 'Whose servant are you? Where are you going? And whose animals are these ahead of you?'

17And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?

18then you are to say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau. And look, Jacob himself is behind us.'"

18Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us.

19He gave the same orders to the second servant, and the third, and to all those who followed the herds: "This is what you are to say to Esau when you find him.

19And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him.

20And you are also to say, 'Look, your servant Jacob is behind us.'" For he said, "I will calm him down with the gift that goes ahead of me. After that I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."

20And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.

Note"Calm him down" is literally "cover his face" in Hebrew, and the verse goes on to "see his face" and "accept me" (literally "lift up my face"). The word "face" runs four times through this one verse in Hebrew, and comes back in the place name Peniel, "face of God," in verse 30.

21So the gift went on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

21So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.

22He got up that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the shallow place in the Jabbok River.

22And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.

NoteThe Jabbok is a river running west into the Jordan, in what is now the country of Jordan; a ford is a shallow point where people and animals can wade across. The Hebrew name (yabboq) sounds like both "Jacob" (ya'aqob) and the verb "wrestled" (ye'abeq) in verse 24. "Eleven sons": Benjamin has not yet been born, and Jacob's daughter Dinah is not counted, as daughters usually were not in such lists.

23He took them and sent them across the stream, and he sent across everything he had.

23And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.

24Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

24And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.

NoteThe text calls the opponent simply "a man" and never says who he is. Jacob afterwards says he has seen God face to face (verse 30), but the story itself leaves the identification open.

25When the man saw that he was not winning against him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip, and Jacob's hip was pulled out of joint as he wrestled with him.

25And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.

Note"The socket of the hip" is literally "the hollow of the thigh." In Hebrew the thigh is also the part of the body a man's descendants are spoken of as coming from, solemn oaths were sworn with a hand placed under the thigh (Genesis 24:2).

26The man said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

26And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

NoteA blessing was a formal spoken act, conferring prosperity and standing, and was thought to take effect once said and to be irreversible. The last blessing Jacob obtained he got by deceit.

27The man said to him, "What is your name?" He answered, "Jacob."

27And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.

NoteThe name Jacob (ya'aqob) sounds like the Hebrew words for "heel" and for "he supplants" or "he cheats." He was given it for grasping Esau's heel at birth (25:26), and Esau threw it back at him as an accusation (27:36).

28The man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have won."

28And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

NoteIsrael can be heard as "God strives," "he strives with God," or "God rules"; the text explains it by the struggle just described. Names in these stories are usually explained by what they sound like rather than by strict derivation.

29Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why do you ask my name?" And he blessed him there.

29And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.

NoteAsking someone's name was asking for more than a label: a name was held to say what its bearer was, and to give power to the one who knew it. The refusal is left unexplained.

30Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, "I have seen God face to face, and my life has been spared."

30And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

NotePeniel means "face of God." Behind Jacob's remark lies the common ancient assumption that seeing God directly meant death; his surprise is at still being alive.

31As he passed Penuel the sun rose on him, and he was limping because of his hip.

31And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.

NotePenuel is a variant spelling of Peniel, the same place, named in the verse before.

32That is why, to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the tendon that shrank, the one at the socket of the hip, because the man touched the socket of Jacob's hip at that tendon.

32Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.

NoteThe tendon is traditionally identified with the sciatic nerve, which runs through the hip. Removing it from the hindquarters of an animal before eating is still required in Jewish dietary law, where it is called the gid hanasheh. "To this day" is the narrator speaking to his own readers, long after the events described.