Genesis 32:1-32 NIV
Jacob Prepares to Meet
Esau
1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2When
Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place
Mahanaim.a
3Jacob
sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country
of Edom. 4He
instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my master Esau: ‘Your servant
Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. 5I
have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I
am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”
6When
the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and
now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
7In
great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two
groups,b and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 8He
thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group,c the groupd that is left may escape.”
9Then
Jacob prayed,
“O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, ‘Go back to your
country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10I
am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I
had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.
11Save
me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and
attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12But
you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants
like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”
13He
spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his
brother Esau: 14two hundred female goats and twenty male
goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty
female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female
donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16He put them in the care of his servants,
each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some
space between the herds.”
17He
instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To
whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in
front of you?’ 18then you are to say, ‘They belong to your
servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind
us.’”
19He
also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the
herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20And
be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I
will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him,
perhaps he will receive me.” 21So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but
he himself spent the night in the camp.
Jacob Wrestles With
God
22That
night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven
sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23After
he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24So
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
25
When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he
touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled
with the man.
26Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless
you bless me.”
27The
man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28Then
the man said,
“Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,e
because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
29Jacob
said, “Please tell me Your Name.”
But He replied,
“Why do
you ask My Name?” Then He blessed him there.
“It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life
was spared.”
31The
sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,g and he was limping because of his hip. 32Therefore
to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the
hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
Footnotes:
a 2 Mahanaim means two camps.
b 7 Or camps; also in verse 10
c 8 Or camp
d 8 Or camp
e 28 Israel means he struggles with God.
f 30 Peniel means face of God.
g 31 Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel
a 2 Mahanaim means two camps.
b 7 Or camps; also in verse 10
c 8 Or camp
d 8 Or camp
e 28 Israel means he struggles with God.
f 30 Peniel means face of God.
g 31 Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel
He was a divine Person, as appears from Jacob’s desiring
to be blessed by Him; and besides, being expressly called God and was, no
doubt, the pre-incarnate Son of God in an human form; who frequently appeared
in it as a token and pledge of His future Incarnation as Son of man.
Therefore “this wrestling” was real and corporeal on the
part of both; the man took hold of Jacob, and he took hold of the man, and they
strove and struggled together for victory as wrestlers do on a ring mat. The
man saw that He could not overpower Jacob and so made him go limping.
And on Jacob’s part it was also mental and spiritual, and
showed his fervent and importunate spirit of striving with God in prayer until
the breaking of the day.
Hosea 12:4
“Yes,
he wrestled with the angel and won. He wept and pleaded for a blessing from Him.
There at Bethel he met God face to face, and God spoke to him.”
Verse
28
“Your
name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God
and with men and have overcome.”
Hebrew text
וַיֹּ֗אמֶר לֹ֤א יַעֲקֹב֙ יֵאָמֵ֥ר עֹוד֙
שִׁמְךָ֔ כִּ֖י אִם־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כִּֽי־שָׂרִ֧יתָ עִם־אֱלֹהִ֛ים וְעִם־אֲנָשִׁ֖ים וַתּוּכָֽל׃
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵל
Yisrael God strives, preserves,
persists
ß
שָׂרָה sarah - to prevail, have power (as a prince).
With
God and Man
עִם־אֱלֹהִ֛ים וְעִם־אֲנָשִׁ֖ים
The Man Who wrestled with Jacob was none other than
the Son of God before He came in flesh. He was God and became Man. At Jabbok, He
showed the humanity side of Him to Jacob and He was weak so as not to overcome Jacob.