Read the Bible

¹ And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.² And when Jacob saw them, he said, This [is] God's host: and 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 ye speak to my lord Esau: Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there till now:⁵ And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and men-servants, and women-servants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.⁶ And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he is coming to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.⁷ Then Jacob was greatly afraid, and distressed: and he divided the people that [were] with him, and the flocks, and herds, and camels, into two bands;⁸ And said, If Esau shall come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left, will escape.

⁹ And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who saidst to me, Return to thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee;¹⁰ I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shown to thy servant: for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.¹¹ Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he shall come and smite me, [and] the mother with the children.¹² And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

¹³ And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau, his brother;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 delivered [them] into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said to his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove.¹⁷ And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau, my brother, meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose [art] thou? and whither goest thou? and whose [are] these before thee?¹⁸ Then thou shalt say, They [are] thy servant Jacob's: it [is] a present sent to my lord Esau: and behold also he [is] behind us.¹⁹ And so he commanded the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, In this manner shall ye speak to Esau, when ye find him.²⁰ And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob [is] behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.²¹ So the present went over before him; and he himself lodged that night in the company.²² And he arose that night, and took his two wives, and his two women-servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.²³ And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that which he had.

²⁴ And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him, until the breaking of the day.²⁵ And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh: and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.²⁶ And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh; And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.²⁷ And he said to him, What [is] thy name? And he said, Jacob.²⁸ And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed.²⁹ And Jacob asked [him], and said, Tell [me], I pray thee, thy name: And he said, why [is] it [that] thou dost ask after my name? and he blessed him there.³⁰ And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.³¹ And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.³² Therefore the children of Israel eat not [of] the sinew which shrunk, which [is] upon the hollow of the thigh, to this day; because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrunk.