Genesis 32 - 35 - Legacy Standard Bible

Genesis 32 - 35

Jacob’s Fear of Esau

Now Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 Then Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim. 3 Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 He also commanded them saying, “Thus you shall say to my lord, to Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, “I have sojourned with Laban and have been delayed until now; 5 and I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.”’” 6 Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother, to Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two camps. 8 And he said, “If Esau comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the camp which remains will escape.” 9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your kin, and I will prosper you,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the truth which You have shown to Your slave; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and strike me down with the mothers and the children. 12 For You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’” 13 So he spent the night there. Then he took from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 And he gave them into the hand of his servants, every flock by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on before me and put a space between flocks.” 17 And he commanded the first one in front, saying, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord, to Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.’” 19 Then he commanded also the second and the third and all those who followed the flocks, saying, “After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; 20 and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.’” For he said, “I will appease his face with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will lift up my face.” 21 So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp. 22 And he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two servant-women and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 And he took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.

Jacob Wrestles with God

24 Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of dawn. 25 And he saw that he had not prevailed against him, so he touched the socket of his thigh; and so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been delivered.” 31 And the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. 32 Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh because he touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.

Jacob Meets Esau

Then Jacob lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two servant-women. 2 And he put the servant-women and their children first, and Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph after them. 3 But he himself passed on ahead of them and bowed down to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. 4 Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, “Who are these with you?” And he said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6 Then the servant-women came near with their children, and they bowed down. 7 Leah likewise came near with her children, and they bowed down; and afterward Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed down. 8 And he said, “What do you mean by all these camps which I have met?” And he said, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.” 9 But Esau said, “I have plenty, my brother; let what you have be your own.” 10 And Jacob said, “No, please, if now I have found favor in your sight, then take my present from my hand, for I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably. 11 Please take my blessing which has been brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have everything.” Thus he urged him, and he took it. 12 Then Esau said, “Let us take our journey and go, and I will go before you.” 13 But he said to him, “My lord knows that the children are weak and that the flocks and herds which are nursing are a care to me. And if they are driven hard one day, all the flocks will die. 14 Please let my lord pass on before his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.” 15 Then Esau said, “Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “Why do this? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.” 16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17 But Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock; therefore the place is named Succoth.

Jacob Camps in Shechem

18 Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city. 19 Then he bought a portion of a field where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred qesitah. 20 Then he set up there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

Simeon and Levi Deceive Shechem

Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2 Then Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her and took her and lay with her and violated her. 3 And he was deeply attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke to the heart of the young woman. 4 So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl as a wife.” 5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; but his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob kept silent until they came in. 6 Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7 Now the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved, and they were very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done. 8 But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him as a wife. 9 And intermarry with us; give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 Thus you shall live with us, and the land shall be open before you; live and trade in it and take possession of property in it.” 11 And Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “If I find favor in your sight, then I will give whatever you say to me. 12 Ask me ever so much bridal payment and gift, and I will give according as you say to me; but give me the girl as a wife.” 13 But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit, and thus they spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 14 And they said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a reproach to us. 15 Only on this condition will we consent to you: if you will become like us, in that every male among you be circumcised, 16 then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people. 17 But if you will not listen to us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go.” 18 Now their words seemed good in the sight of Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. 19 So the young man did not delay to do the thing because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was more honored than all the household of his father. 20 So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, 21 “These men are peaceful with us; therefore let them live in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters for us as wives and give our daughters to them. 22 Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised. 23 Will not their livestock and what they acquire and all their cattle be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will live with us.” 24 And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. 25 Now it happened on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword and came upon the unsuspecting city and killed every male. 26 And they killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and went away. 27 Jacob’s sons came upon the slain and plundered the city because they had defiled their sister. 28 They took their flocks and their herds and their donkeys and that which was in the city and that which was in the field; 29 and they captured and plundered all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, even all that was in the houses. 30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me odious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and my men being few in number, they will gather together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my household.” 31 But they said, “Should he treat our sister as a harlot?”

Jacob Goes Up to Bethel

Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you and cleanse yourselves and change your garments; 3 and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which they had and the rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem. 5 Then they journeyed on, and there was a terror from God upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. 7 And he built an altar there and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled from his brother. 8 Then Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; it was named Allon-bacuth.

Jacob Is Renamed Israel

9 Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. 10 And God said to him,

“Your name is Jacob;

Your name shall no longer be called Jacob,

But Israel shall be your name.”

Thus He called his name Israel. 11 God also said to him,

“I am God Almighty;

Be fruitful and multiply;

A nation and an assembly of nations shall come from you,

And kings shall come forth from your loins.

And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac,

I will give it to you,

And I will give the land to your seed after you.”

13 Then God went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him. 14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. 15 So Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel. 16 Then they journeyed from Bethel; and there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and Rachel gave birth, and she suffered severely in her labor. 17 Now it happened that when she was in severe labor the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for now you have another son.” 18 Now it happened as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 And Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. 21 Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

The Sons of Jacob

22 Now it happened while Israel was dwelling in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. And there were twelve sons of Jacob— 23

the sons of Leah:

Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn,

then Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun;

the sons of Rachel:

Joseph and Benjamin;

and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant-woman:

Dan and Naphtali;

and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant-woman:

Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

27 And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre of Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. 28 Now the days of Isaac were 180 years. 29 And Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, an old man and full of days; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.