Afraid of meeting Esau, Jacob sends gifts ahead and prays. That night he wrestles with a man until daybreak and will not let go without a blessing. He is renamed Israel and limps away from Peniel.
1 And Jacob went on his way , and the angels of God met him.
2 And when Jacob saw them , he said , This is God's host : and he called the name of that place Mahanaim .
3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir , the country of Edom .
4 And 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:
5 And 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 .
6 And 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.
7 Then 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 ;
8 And said , If Esau come to the one company , and smite it , then the other company which is left shall escape .
9 And 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:
10 I 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 .
11 Deliver 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 .
12 And thou saidst , I will surely do thee good , and make thy seed as the sand of the sea , which cannot be numbered for multitude .
13 And he lodged there that same night ; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother ;
14 Two hundred she goats , and twenty he goats , two hundred ewes , and twenty rams ,
15 Thirty milch camels with their colts , forty kine , and ten bulls , twenty she asses , and ten foals .
16 And 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 .
17 And 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?
18 Then 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 .
19 And 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.
20 And 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 .
21 So went the present over before him : and himself lodged that night in the company .
22 And he rose up that night , and took his two wives , and his two womenservants , and his eleven sons , and passed over the ford Jabbok .
23 And he took them , and sent them over the brook , and sent over that he had.
24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day .
25 And 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.
26 And he said , Let me go , for the day breaketh . And he said , I will not let thee go , except thou bless me.
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name ? And he said , Jacob .
28 And 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 .
29 And 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.
30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel : for I have seen God face to face , and my life is preserved .
31 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh .
32 Therefore 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 .