Genesis 32:13–32

¹³Jacob stayed there for the night and prepared a gift for Esau from what he had with him: ¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred female sheep and twenty male sheep, ¹⁵thirty female camels and their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶Jacob gave each separate flock of animals to one of his servants and said to them, “Go ahead of me and keep some space between each herd.” ¹⁷Jacob gave them their orders. To the servant with the first group of animals he said, “My brother Esau will come to you and ask, ‘Whose servant are you? Where are you going and whose animals are these?’ ¹⁸Then you will answer, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. He sent them as a gift to you, my master Esau, and he also is coming behind us.’ ”

¹⁹Jacob ordered the second servant, the third servant, and all the other servants to do the same thing. He said, “Say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. ²⁰Say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’ ” Jacob thought, “If I send these gifts ahead of me, maybe Esau will forgive me. Then when I see him, perhaps he will accept me.” ²¹So Jacob sent the gifts to Esau, but he himself stayed that night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles with God

²²During the night Jacob rose and crossed the Jabbok River at the crossing, taking with him his two wives, his two slave girls, and his eleven sons. ²³He sent his family and everything he had across the river. ²⁴So Jacob was alone, and a man came and wrestled with him until the sun came up. ²⁵When the man saw he could not defeat Jacob, he struck Jacob’s hip and put it out of joint. ²⁶Then he said to Jacob, “Let me go. The sun is coming up.”

But Jacob said, “I will let you go if you will bless me.”

²⁷The man said to him, “What is your name?”

And he answered, “Jacob.”

²⁸Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob. Your name will now be Israel, ⁿ because you have wrestled with God and with people, and you have won.”

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

But the man said, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.

³⁰So Jacob named that place Peniel, ⁿ saying, “I have seen God face to face, but my life was saved.” ³¹Then the sun rose as he was leaving that place, and Jacob was limping because of his leg. ³²So even today the people of Israel do not eat the muscle that is on the hip joint of animals, because Jacob was touched there.