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¹ AND Jacob also went on his journey, and the angels of God met him.² And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host; so he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

³ And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother to the land of Seir, the country of Edom.⁴ And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall you speak to my lord Esau; Thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now;⁵ I have oxen, asses, flocks, menservants, and maidservants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find mercy in your sight.⁶ And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau, and behold he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him.⁷ Then Jacob was afraid and greatly distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups;⁸ And Jacob said, If my brother Esau should come against one group and destroy it, then the group which is left shall escape.

⁹ And Jacob prayed, and said. O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who didst say to me, Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you;¹⁰ I am not worthy of the least of all thy favors, and of all the truth that thou hast shown to thy servant; for alone with my staff I crossed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.¹¹ Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hands of my brother Esau; for I am afraid of him, lest he will come to smite me, and the mothers with their children.¹² And thou didst say, I will surely do you good, and make your descendants numerous as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude.

¹³ And he spent that night there; and took of that which he had with him as a present for his brother Esau;¹⁴ Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams,¹⁵ Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty cows, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.¹⁶ And he entrusted them to his servants, every drove by itself; and said to his servants, Pass over before me, and keep a distance between drove and drove.¹⁷ And he commanded the leader of the first drove, and said to him, When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, saying, Who are you? and where are you going? and whose are these that are before you?¹⁸ Then you shall say to him, They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present which he has sent to my lord Esau; and, behold, also he is coming behind us.¹⁹ And so he commanded the second and the third and all who followed with the droves, saying. In this manner you shall speak to Esau, when you find him.²⁰ And you shall say to him, moreover, Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us. For he said, I may appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; and perhaps he will accept me.²¹ So the present went over before him; and he himself lodged that night in the encampment.²² And he rose up in the night, and took his two wives and his two maidservants and his eleven sons, and led them to the desert of Jabbok.²³ And he took them, and brought them over the brook, and then he brought across everything that he had.

²⁴ And Jacob was left alone; and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak.²⁵ And when the man saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacobs thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.²⁶ And the man said to him, Let me go, for day is breaking. And he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me.²⁷ And he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob.²⁸ And he said to him. Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel (the Prince of God); for you have proved your strength wrestling with an angel and with man, and have prevailed.²⁹ And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me your name. And he said, Why is it that you ask my name? And the angel blessed him there.³⁰ And Jacob called the name of that place Peniel; for be said, I have seen an angel face to face, and my life is preserved.³¹ The sun rose upon him just as he left Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh.³² That is why the children of Israel do not eat of the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day; because the angel touched the hollow of Jacobs thigh on the sinew of the thigh.