32:1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

32:2 When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is the camp of God!" So he named that place Mahanaim.

32:3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

32:4 He instructed them: "This is what you are to say to my master Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.

32:5 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.'"

32:6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, "We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."

32:7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well.

32:8 He thought, "If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape."

32:9 Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,'

32:10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.

32:11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.

32:12 But you have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'"

32:13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau:

32:14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

32:15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

32:16 He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds."

32:17 He instructed the one in the lead: "When my brother Esau meets you and asks, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?'

32:18 then you are to say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.'"

32:19 He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: "You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.

32:20 And be sure to say, 'Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.'" For he thought, "I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me."

32:21 So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

32:22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

32:23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.

32:24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.

32:25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.

32:26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

32:27 The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered.

32:28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

32:29 Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.

32:30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

32:31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.

32:32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.