Genesis 32
Big idea: Jacob has escaped one danger and is walking straight into another, and this time he cannot scheme his way out. Word comes that Esau is on the way with four hundred men. Jacob does three things: he splits the camp so half might survive, he prays the most honest prayer in his life — I am not worthy of the least of your loving kindnesses; deliver me from my brother — and he sends wave after wave of livestock ahead as a gift. Then he sends everyone across the stream and is left alone. A man wrestles him until daybreak, dislocates his hip with a touch, and cannot get him to let go without a blessing. What Jacob gets is a question, a new name, and a limp: no longer Jacob the supplanter, but Israel — you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.
Chapter 32 ends with a limping man crossing Peniel at sunrise. Chapter 33 gives him the meeting he spent all night dreading, and it turns out to be an embrace.
32:1–12 — Four hundred men, and a prayer
Angels of God meet Jacob and he names the place God's Camp. He sends messengers ahead to Esau with a carefully humble message — your servant Jacob — and they return with news that Esau is coming with four hundred men. Greatly afraid, Jacob divides everyone into two companies so one might escape, then prays: God of Abraham and Isaac, you told me to return; I am not worthy of the least of your loving kindnesses; I crossed this Jordan with only my staff and now I am two companies. Deliver me from my brother's hand — for you said you would do me good.
1 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s army.” He called the name of that place Mahanaim. 3 Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. 4 He commanded them, saying, “This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: ‘This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now. 5 I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.’” 6 The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, along with the flocks, the herds, and the camels, into two companies. 8 He said, “If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape.” 9 Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I crossed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and strike me and the mothers with the children. 12 You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which can’t be counted because there are so many.’”
32:13–23 — A present sent ahead in waves
Jacob selects an enormous gift from what he has — five hundred and fifty animals in all — and sends it ahead in separate droves with space between them, each servant instructed to say the same thing: these are your servant Jacob's, a present sent to my lord Esau, and behold, he is behind us. His stated reasoning is to appease his brother's face before he sees it. Then he crosses everyone he has over the stream in the night.
13 He stayed there that night, and took from that which he had with him a present for Esau, his brother: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. 16 He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd.” 17 He commanded the foremost, saying, “When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?’ 18 Then you shall say, ‘They are your servant, Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.’” 19 He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, “This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him. 20 You shall say, ‘Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.’” For, he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.” 21 So the present passed over before him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp. 22 He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had.
32:24–32 — Jacob was left alone
Jacob is left alone, and a man wrestles him until daybreak. Unable to prevail, the man touches the hollow of his thigh and dislocates it, then asks to be released because the day is breaking. Jacob's answer is the sentence he is remembered for: I won't let you go unless you bless me. He is asked his name — the name he lied about to get a blessing once — and this time he says it: Jacob. And he is renamed Israel: you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed. He names the place Peniel, because he has seen God face to face and his life is preserved, and the sun rises on him as he limps across.
24 Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. 25 When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, the man touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained as he wrestled. 26 The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.” Jacob said, “I won’t let you go unless you bless me.” 27 He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob”. 28 He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” He said, “Why is it that you ask what my name is?” So he blessed him there. 30 Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh. 32 Therefore the children of Israel don’t eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).