Genesis 32

¹Jacob also went on his journey that he had begun: and the Angels of God met him.

²Whom when he had seen, he said: These are the Camps of God, and he called the name of that place Mahanaim, that is, Camps.

³And he sent also messengers before him to Esau his brother into the land of Seir, into the country of Edom:

⁴and he commanded them, saying: Thus speak ye unto my lord Esau: This saith thy brother Jacob: I have sojourned, and have been with Laban until this present day.

⁵I have oxen, & asses, & sheep, & men servants: & women servants: & now I send a legacy to my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.

⁶And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: We came to Esau thy brother, & behold he cometh with speed to meet thee with four hundred men.

⁷Jacob feared exceedingly: and being sore afraid divided the people that was with him, the flocks also and the sheep, and the oxen, and the camels, into two troops,

⁸saying: If Esau come to one troop, and strike it, the other troop that remaineth shall be saved.

⁹And Jacob said: O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac; O Lord that didst say to me: Return into thy land, and into the place of thy nativity, and I will do thee good:

¹⁰I am inferior to all thy mercies, and thy truth that thou hast fulfilled to thy servant. With my staff I passed over this Jordan: and now with two troops I do return.

¹¹Deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, because I am sore afraid of him: lest perhaps he come, and strike the mother with the children.

¹²Thou didst say that thou wouldst do good to me, and dilate my seed as the sand of the sea, which for multitude cannot be numbered.

¹³And when he had slept there that night, he separated of those things which he had, gifts to his brother Esau,

¹⁴she goats two hundred, he goats twenty, ewes two hundred, and rams twenty,

¹⁵thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and twenty bulls, twenty she asses, and their foals ten.

¹⁶And he sent by the hands of his servants every flock by it-self, and he said to his servants: Go before me, and let there be a space between flock and flock.

¹⁷And he commanded the former, saying: If thou meet my brother Esau, and he ask thee, whose art thou? Or whither goest thou? Or whose are these that thou doest follow?

¹⁸Thou shalt answer: Jacob's thy servant, he hath sent them for gifts to my lord Esau: himself also cometh after us.

¹⁹In like manner he gave commandments to the second, and the third, and to all that followed the flocks, saying: With the self-same words speak ye to Esau, when you shall find him.

²⁰And ye shall add: Jacob also thy servant himself followeth on after us; for he said: I will pacify him with the gifts that go before, and afterward I will see him, perhaps he will be gracious unto me.

²¹The gifts therefore went before him, but himself lodged that night in the camp.

²²And when he was risen early, he took his two wives, and his handmaids as many, with his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Iaboc.

²³And when he had set over all things that appertained to him,

²⁴he tarried alone: and behold a man wrestled with him till morning.

²⁵Who when he saw that he could not overcome him, he touched the sinew of his thigh, and forthwith it shrank.

²⁶And he said to him: Let me go for it is break of day. He answered: I will not let thee go, unless thou bless me.

²⁷He therefore said: What is thy name? He answered: Jacob.

²⁸But he, no, thy name, quoth he, shall not be called Jacob. But Israel: for if thou hast been strong against God, how much more shalt thou prevail against men?

²⁹Jacob asked him: Tell me by what name art thou called? He answered: Why dost thou ask my name? and blessed him in the same place.

³⁰And Jacob called the name of the place Phanuel, saying: I have seen God face to face, and my soul was made safe.

³¹And immediately the sun rose to him, after that he was past Phanuel; but he halted on his foot.

³²For which cause the children of Israel eat not the sinew, that shrunk in Jacob's thigh, unto this present day: because he touched the sinew of his thigh, and it shrunk.