Read the Bible

¹ And Jacob departed for his journey; and having looked up, he saw the host of God encamped; and the angels of God met him. ² And Jacob said, when he saw them, This is the Camp of God; and he called the name of that place, Encampments.

³ And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother to the land of Seir, to the country of Edom. ⁴ And he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye say to my lord Esau: Thus saith thy servant Jacob; I have sojourned with Laban and tarried until now. ⁵ And there were born to me oxen, and asses, and sheep, and men-servants and women-servants; and I sent to tell my lord Esau, that thy servant might find grace in thy sight. ⁶ And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and lo! he comes to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. ⁷ And Jacob was greatly terrified, and was perplexed; and he divided the people that was with him, and the cows, and the camels, and the sheep, into two camps. ⁸ And Jacob said, If Esau should come to one camp, and smite it, the other camp shall be in safety.

⁹ And Jacob said, God of my father Abraam, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, thou art he that said to me, Depart quickly to the land of thy birth, and I will do thee good. ¹⁰ Let there be to me a sufficiency of all the justice and all the truth which thou hast wrought with thy servant; for with this my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two camps. ¹¹ Deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him, lest haply he should come and smite me, and the mother upon the children. ¹² But thou saidst, I will do thee good, and will make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which shall not be numbered for multitude.

¹³ And he slept there that night, and took of the gifts which he carried with him, and sent out to Esau his brother, ¹⁴ two hundred she-goats, twenty he-goats, two hundred sheep, twenty rams, ¹⁵ milch camels, and their foals, thirty, forty kine, ten bulls, twenty asses, and ten colts. ¹⁶ And he gave them to his servants each drove apart; and he said to his servants, Go on before me, and put a space between drove and drove. ¹⁷ And he charged the first, saying, If Esau my brother meet thee, and he ask thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither wouldest thou go, and whose are these possessions advancing before thee? ¹⁸ Thou shalt say, Thy servant Jacob’s; he hath sent gifts to my lord Esau, and lo! he is behind us. ¹⁹ And he charged the first and the second and the third, and all that went before him after these flocks, saying, Thus shall ye speak to Esau when ye find him; ²⁰ and ye shall say, Behold thy servant Jacob comes after us. For he said, I will propitiate his countenance with the gifts going before his presence, and afterwards I will behold his face, for peradventure he will accept me. ²¹ So the presents went on before him, but he himself lodged that night in the camp. ²² And he rose up in that night, and took his two wives and his two servant-maids, and his eleven children, and crossed over the ford of Jaboch. ²³ And he took them, and passed over the torrent, and brought over all his possessions.

²⁴ And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him till the morning. ²⁵ And he saw that he prevailed not against him; and he touched the broad part of his thigh, and the broad part of Jacob’s thigh was benumbed in his wrestling with him. ²⁶ And he said to him, Let me go, for the day has dawned; but he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. ²⁷ And he said to him, What is thy name? and he answered, Jacob. ²⁸ And he said to him, Thy name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name; for thou hast prevailed with God, and shalt be mighty with men. ²⁹ And Jacob asked and said, Tell me thy name; and he said, Wherefore dost thou ask after my name? and he blessed him there. ³⁰ And Jacob called the name of that place, the Face of God; for, said he,I have seen God face to face, and my life was preserved. ³¹ And the sun rose upon him, when he passed the Face of God; and he halted upon his thigh. ³² Therefore the children of Israel will by no means eat of the sinew which was benumbed, which is on the broad part of the thigh, until this day, because the angel touched the broad part of the thigh of Jacob—even the sinew which was benumbed.