Genesis 32 - 35
Jacob’s Fear of Esau
32Now Jacob went on his way, aand the angels of God met him. 2Then Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s 1camp.” So he named that place 2,aMahanaim.
3Then Jacob asent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of bSeir, the 1country of cEdom. 4He 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 adelayed until now; 5aand I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, bthat I may find favor in your sight.”’”
6Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother, to Esau, and furthermore ahe is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7Then Jacob was agreatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two camps. 8And he said, “If Esau comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the camp which remains will escape.”
9And Jacob said, “O aGod of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh, who said to me, ‘bReturn to your land and to your kin, and I will 1prosper you,’ 101I am unworthy aof 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“aDeliver me, I pray, bfrom the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and strike me down with the cmothers and the children. 12“For You said, ‘aI will surely 1prosper you and bmake your seed as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’”
13So he spent the night there. Then he took from what 1he had with him a apresent for his brother Esau: 14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16And 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.” 17And 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?’ 18then 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.’” 19Then 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; 20and 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.” 21So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.
22And 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 aJabbok. 23And he took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.
Jacob Wrestles with God
24Then Jacob was left alone, and a man awrestled with him until the 1breaking of dawn. 25And 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. 26Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is 1breaking.” But he said, “aI will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28aThen he said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but 1Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” 29Then aJacob 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. 30So Jacob named the place 1Peniel, for he said, “aI have seen God face to face, yet my 2life has been delivered.” 31And the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over aPenuel, and he was limping on his thigh. 32Therefore, 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
33Then Jacob lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, aEsau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children 1among Leah and Rachel and the two servant-women. 2And he put the servant-women and their children first, and Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph after them. 3But he himself passed on ahead of them and abowed down to the ground seven times, until he bcame near to his brother.
4Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and afell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, “1Who are these with you?” And he said, “aThe children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6Then the servant-women came near 1with their children, and they bowed down. 7Leah likewise came near with her children, and they bowed down; and afterward Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed down. 8And he said, “What do you mean by aall 1these camps which I have met?” And he said, “bTo find favor in the sight of my lord.” 9But Esau said, “aI have plenty, my brother; let what you have be your own.” 10And Jacob said, “No, please, if now I have found favor in your sight, then take my present from my hand, 1for I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably. 11“Please take my ablessing which has been brought to you, bbecause God has dealt graciously with me and because I have 1everything.” Thus he urged him, and he took it.
12Then 1Esau said, “Let us take our journey and go, and I will go before you.” 13But he said to him, “My lord knows that the children are weak and that the flocks and herds which are nursing are 1a 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 aSeir.”
15Then Esau said, “Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “Why do this? aLet me find favor in the sight of my lord.” 16So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17But Jacob journeyed to 1,aSuccoth and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock; therefore the place is named Succoth.
Jacob Camps in Shechem
18Now Jacob came safely to the city of aShechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from bPaddan-aram, and he camped before the city. 19aThen 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 1qesitah. 20Then he set up there an altar and called it 1El-Elohe-Israel.
Simeon and Levi Deceive Shechem
34Now aDinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2Then Shechem the son of Hamor athe Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her and took her and lay with her and violated her. 31And 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. 4So Shechem aspoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl as a wife.” 5Now 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. 6Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7Now 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 1,adisgraceful thing in Israel 2by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.
8But 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 1live with us, and athe land shall be open before you; 2live and btrade in it and ctake possession of property in it.” 11And 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.”
13But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit, and thus they spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 14And they said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to aone 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, 16then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will 1live 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.”
18Now their words seemed good in the sight of Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. 19So 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. 20So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the agate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, 21“These men are peaceful with us; therefore let them 1live in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is 2large 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 1live 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 1live with us.” 24aAnd 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.
25Now it happened on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of Jacob’s sons, aSimeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword and came upon the unsuspecting city and killed every male. 26And they killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and went away. 27Jacob’s sons came upon the slain and plundered the city because they had defiled their sister. 28They took their flocks and their herds and their donkeys and that which was in the city and that which was in the field; 29and they captured and plundered all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, even all that was in the houses. 30Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have abrought trouble on me by bmaking me odious among the inhabitants of the land, among cthe Canaanites and the Perizzites; and 1,dmy men being few in number, they will gather together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my household.” 31But they said, “Should he 1treat our sister as a harlot?”
Jacob Goes Up to Bethel
35Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to aBethel and 1live there, and make an altar there to bGod, who appeared to you cwhen you fled 2from your brother Esau.” 2So Jacob said to his ahousehold and to all who were with him, “Put away bthe foreign gods which are among you and ccleanse yourselves and change your garments; 3and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make aan altar there to God, bwho answered me in the day of my distress and chas been with me 1wherever I have gone.” 4So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which 1they had and the rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the 2oak which was near Shechem.
5Then they journeyed on, and there was 1,aa terror from God upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 6So Jacob came to aLuz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. 7aAnd he built an altar there and called the place 1El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled 2from his brother. 8Then aDeborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; it was named 1Allon-bacuth.
Jacob Is Renamed Israel
9Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He ablessed him. 10aAnd 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.11God also said to him, “I am 1,aGod Almighty;bBe fruitful and multiply;A nation and an cassembly of nations shall 2come from you,And dkings shall 3come forth from your loins.
12“aAnd 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.”13Then aGod went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him. 14And Jacob set up aa 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. 15So Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him, 1,aBethel.
16Then they journeyed from Bethel; and there was still some distance to go to aEphrath, and Rachel gave birth, and she 1suffered severely in her labor. 17Now it happened that when she was in severe labor the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for now ayou have another son.” 18Now it happened as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him 1Ben-oni; but his father called him 2Benjamin. 19So aRachel died and was buried on the way to bEphrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20And Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the apillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. 21Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the 1,atower of 2Eder.
The Sons of Jacob
22Now it happened while Israel was dwelling in that land, that aReuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. And there were twelve sons of Jacob—
23athe sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, then Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun; 24athe sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin; 25and athe sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant-woman: Dan and Naphtali; 26and athe sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant-woman: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.