1: And Jacob went his way. Angels of God met him.
2: When Jacob saw them he said, "Oh! God's Camp!" And he named the place Mahanaim (Campground).
3: Then Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir in Edom.
4: He instructed them: "Tell my master Esau this, "A message from your servant Jacob: I've been staying with Laban and couldn't get away until now.
5: I've acquired cattle and donkeys and sheep; also men and women servants. I'm telling you all this, my master, hoping for your approval.'"
6: The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We talked to your brother Esau and he's on his way to meet you. But he has four hundred men with him."
7: Jacob was scared. Very scared. Panicked, he divided his people, sheep, cattle, and camels into two camps.
8: He thought, "If Esau comes on the first camp and attacks it, the other camp has a chance to get away."
9: And then Jacob prayed, "God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, GOD who told me, "Go back to your parents' homeland and I'll treat you well.'
10: I don't deserve all the love and loyalty you've shown me. When I left here and crossed the Jordan I only had the clothes on my back, and now look at me--two camps!
11: Save me, please, from the violence of my brother, my angry brother! I'm afraid he'll come and attack us all, me, the mothers and the children.
12: You yourself said, "I will treat you well; I'll make your descendants like the sands of the sea, far too many to count.'"
13: He slept the night there. Then he prepared a present for his brother Esau from his possessions:
14: two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
15: thirty camels with their nursing young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
16: He put a servant in charge of each herd and said, "Go ahead of me and keep a healthy space between each herd."
17: Then he instructed the first one out: "When my brother Esau comes close and asks, "Who is your master? Where are you going? Who owns these?'
18: -answer him like this, "Your servant Jacob. They are a gift to my master Esau. He's on his way.'"
19: He gave the same instructions to the second servant and to the third--to each in turn as they set out with their herds:
20: "Say "Your servant Jacob is on his way behind us.'" He thought, "I will soften him up with the succession of gifts. Then when he sees me face-to-face, maybe he'll be glad to welcome me."
21: So his gifts went before him while he settled down for the night in the camp.
22: But during the night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23: He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions.
24: But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
25: When the man saw that he couldn't get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob's hip out of joint.
26: The man said, "Let me go; it's daybreak." Jacob said, "I'm not letting you go 'til you bless me."
27: The man said, "What's your name?" He answered, "Jacob."
28: The man said, "But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it's Israel (God-Wrestler); you've wrestled with God and you've come through."
29: Jacob asked, "And what's your name?" The man said, "Why do you want to know my name?" And then, right then and there, he blessed him.
30: Jacob named the place Peniel (God's Face) because, he said, "I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!"
31: The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip.
32: (This is why Israelites to this day don't eat the hip muscle; because Jacob's hip was thrown out of joint.)