Genesis 32
1 Early in the morning Laban got up. He kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban left and went back home. 2 Jacob went on his way, and messengers of God met him. 3 When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's camp." So he named that place Mahanaim.
4 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau, in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 5 He commanded them, "This is what you must say to my lord Esau: 'This is what your servant Jacob says: I have been living as a foreigner with Laban, and I have stayed until now. 6 I have oxen and donkeys, flocks, slaves and maids. I have sent to tell my lord, so that I may find favor in your eyes.'" 7 The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We went to your brother Esau. He is also coming to meet you, and 400 men are with him." 8 Jacob was very afraid, and he felt trapped. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, the herds and the camels, into two camps. 9 He said, "If Esau comes to one camp and strikes it, the camp that is left will be able to escape." 10 Then Jacob said, "God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD, who said to me, 'Go back to your land and to your relatives, and I will treat you well': 11 I am too small for all the acts of loyalty and for all the truth that you have shown your servant. For I crossed this Jordan with my stick, and now I have become two camps.
12 Please rescue me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. For I am afraid of him. He may come and strike me, the mothers along with the children. 13 But you yourself said, 'I will surely treat you well. I will make your children like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because there is so much.'" 14 Jacob spent that night there. From what he had with him he took a gift for his brother Esau: 15 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 16 30 nursing camels with their young, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 young donkeys. 17 He put each herd by itself in the care of his slaves. He told his slaves, "Go on ahead of me, and keep a space between one herd and the next." 18 He commanded the first one, "When my brother Esau comes upon you and asks you, 'Whose man are you? Where are you going? Whose are these animals in front of you?' 19 then say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau. And look, Jacob himself is behind us.'"
20 He gave the same command to the second and the third, and to all who walked behind the herds: "Say these same words to Esau when you find him. 21 And say, 'Look, your servant Jacob is behind us too.'" For Jacob thought, "I will make peace with him by the gift that goes ahead of me. After that I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me." 22 So the gift went on ahead of Jacob, but he himself spent that night in the camp. 23 That night Jacob got up. He took his two wives, his two maids and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 24 He took them and sent them across the stream, and he sent across everything he had. 25 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the dawn came up. 26 When the man saw that he could not overcome Jacob, he touched the socket of his hip. And the socket of Jacob's hip was wrenched as he wrestled with him. 27 Then the man said, "Let me go, for the dawn has come up." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
28 The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. 29 The man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel. For you have struggled with elohim and with men, and you have overcome." 30 Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why do you ask for my name?" And he blessed Jacob there. 31 So Jacob named the place Peniel. "For I have seen elohim face to face," he said, "and my life has been rescued." 32 The sun rose on him as he passed Penuel, and he was limping on his hip. 33 That is why, to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip that is on the hip socket. For the man touched the socket of Jacob's hip, on the sinew of the hip.