A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Genesis 32
Genesis 32 is the thirty-second chapter of the book of Genesis and the chapter in which Jacob wrestles through the night with a man at the Jabbok and is renamed Israel. The 32-verse chapter follows Jacob's preparations to meet Esau, a long fearful prayer, the sending of gifts ahead, and the encounter that leaves him limping.
The chapter opens with Jacob meeting the angels of God. He names the place Mahanaim, "the camp of God." He sends messengers ahead to Esau in the land of Seir to find favor in his sight. The messengers return: Esau is coming with four hundred men.
In fear and distress Jacob divides his people, flocks, herds, and camels into two camps, reasoning that if Esau attacks one the other may escape. He then prays. He addresses the God of Abraham and Isaac and reminds the LORD of his promise to him. He says, "I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant," and asks for deliverance from Esau.
That night Jacob sets aside a large gift: hundreds of goats, ewes, rams, milk camels with their young, cows, bulls, and donkeys. He sends the droves ahead in stages, each shepherd telling Esau that these belong to his servant Jacob.
He then sends his two wives, two maidservants, and eleven children across the Jabbok with everything else he owns. He is left alone. A man wrestles with him until daybreak. When the man cannot overpower Jacob, he strikes the socket of Jacob's hip and dislocates it. He tells Jacob, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." Jacob answers, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
The man asks his name. Jacob says, "Jacob." The man replies, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed." Jacob asks the man's name, but the man only blesses him.
Jacob names the place Peniel, "for I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared." The sun rises as he leaves, and he is limping. The chapter closes with a note that the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip because of this.
Verse 1. Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
Verse 2. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.
Verse 3. Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
Verse 4. He instructed them, “You are to say to my master Esau, ‘Your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now.
Verse 5. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants, and maidservants. I have sent this message to inform my master, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”
Verse 6. When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you—he and four hundred men with him.”
Verse 7. In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.
Verse 8. He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape.”
Verse 9. Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’
Verse 10. I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.
Verse 11. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me.
Verse 12. But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”
Verse 13. Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau:
Verse 14. 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams,
Verse 15. 30 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.
Verse 16. He entrusted them to his servants in separate herds and told them, “Go on ahead of me, and keep some distance between the herds.”
Verse 17. He instructed the one in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong, where are you going, and whose animals are these before you?’
Verse 18. then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift, sent to my lord Esau. And behold, Jacob is behind us.’”
Verse 19. He also instructed the second, the third, and all those following behind the herds: “When you meet Esau, you are to say the same thing to him.
Verse 20. You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease Esau with the gift that is going before me. After that I can face him, and perhaps he will accept me.”
Verse 21. So Jacob’s gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.
Verse 22. During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
Verse 23. He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.
Verse 24. So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
Verse 25. When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.
Verse 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.”
Verse 27. “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.
Verse 28. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”
Verse 29. And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.
Verse 30. So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
Verse 31. The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.
Verse 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 struck near that tendon.
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