1Jacob continued on his journey, and God's angels met him.
2When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's army!" So he named that place Mahanaim.
3Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the region of Edom.
4He instructed them, "Tell my master Esau this: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have been living with Laban as a foreigner until now.
5I own cattle, donkeys, flocks of sheep and goats, male servants, and female servants. I have sent this message to inform my master, so that I may find favor with you.'"
6The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you, and he has four hundred men with him."
7Jacob was very frightened and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, herds, and camels, into two groups.
8He thought, "If Esau comes and attacks one group, the other group that is left will escape."
9Then Jacob prayed, "God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, you told me, 'Go back to your country and to your relatives, and I will be good to you.'
10I am not worthy of even the smallest amount of your faithful love and truth that you have shown to your servant. I crossed this Jordan River with only my staff, and now I have become two groups.
11Please rescue me from my brother Esau. I am afraid he will come and attack me, even the mothers and their children.
12You said, ‘I will surely be good to you and make your descendants as countless as the sand of the sea.’
13Jacob stayed there that night. He took some of what he had with him as a gift for his brother Esau:
14200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 female sheep, and 20 rams,
1530 mother camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.
16He divided them into separate herds and gave them to his servants. He told his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between each herd.”
17He instructed the first servant, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to? Where are you going? And whose are these animals in front of you?’
18You are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. It is a gift sent to my lord Esau. Look, he is right behind us.’”
19He gave the same instructions to the second and third servants, and to all who followed the herds, saying, “This is what you must say to Esau when you find him.
20You must also say, ‘And look, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” Jacob thought, “I will calm him down with these gifts that are going ahead of me. After that, I will see him face to face. Maybe he will accept me.”
21So the gifts went on ahead of him, while Jacob spent that night in the camp.
22That same night, Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the Jabbok River at a shallow place.
23He sent them across the stream, along with everything else he had.
24Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
25When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he touched Jacob’s hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was wrenched as he wrestled with him.
26The man said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27The man asked him, “What is your name?” He answered, “Jacob.”
28Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
29Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But the man said, “Why do you ask my name?” And he blessed Jacob there.
30Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31The sun rose on him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
32That is why, to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the tendon near the hip socket, because he touched Jacob’s hip socket at that tendon.