New International Reader s Version - NIrV - 1996
Genesis 32
1
Jacob also went on his way. The angels of God met him.
Reference
Parallel theme
Psalm 91:11
2
Jacob saw them. He said, "This is the army of God!" So he named that place Mahanaim.
Reference
📍 Mahanaim
Parallel theme
2 Samuel 2:8
Joshua 21:38
Joshua 5:14
Psalm 148:2
Psalm 34:7
1 Kings 2:8
2 Samuel 17:24
References God
Luke 2:13
3
Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau. Esau lived in the land of Seir. It was also called the country of Edom.
Reference
📍 Edom
4
Jacob told the messengers what to do. He said, "Here's what you must tell my master Esau. 'Your servant Jacob says, "I've been staying with Laban. I've remained there until now.
Reference
Parallel theme
Proverbs 6:3
Proverbs 15:1
Ecclesiastes 10:4
Genesis 4:7
References Lord
1 Peter 3:6
Exodus 32:22
Genesis 27:29
Genesis 23:6
Genesis 27:37
Genesis 32:18
5
I have cattle and donkeys and sheep and goats. I also have male and female servants. Now I'm sending this message to you. I hope I can please you." ' "
Reference
Grace
Genesis 33:8
Genesis 33:15
Genesis 33:11
Genesis 47:25
1 Samuel 1:18
Ruth 2:2
2 Samuel 16:4
Parallel theme
Job 6:22
Genesis 31:16
6
The messengers came back to Jacob. They said, "We went to your brother Esau. He's coming now to meet you. He has 400 men with him."
Reference
7
Jacob was very worried and afraid. So he separated the people who were with him into two groups. He also separated the flocks and herds and camels.
Reference
8
He thought, "Esau may come and attack one group. If he does, the group that's left can escape."
Reference
Parallel theme
Matthew 10:16
9
Then Jacob prayed, "You are the God of my grandfather Abraham. You are the God of my father Isaac. "Lord, you are the one who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your relatives. Then I will give you success.'
Reference
Parallel theme
Psalm 50:15
Psalm 91:15
References God
Genesis 31:42
Genesis 31:13
Genesis 28:13
Genesis 31:53
Exodus 3:6
Genesis 17:7
Genesis 31:29
References Lord
Genesis 31:3
10
You have been very kind and faithful to me. But I'm not worthy of any of this. When I crossed this Jordan River, all I had was my walking stick. But now I've become two groups.
Reference
📍 Jordan
11
"Please save me from the hand of my brother Esau. I'm afraid he'll come and attack me and the mothers with their children.
Reference
Parallel theme
Proverbs 18:19
12
But you have said, 'I will certainly give you success. I will make your children as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. People will not be able to count them.' "
Reference
13
Jacob spent the night there. He chose a gift for his brother Esau from what he had with him.
Reference
Parallel theme
Genesis 43:11
Proverbs 18:16
Proverbs 17:8
Proverbs 19:6
Proverbs 21:14
Genesis 43:26
14
He chose 200 female goats and 20 male goats. He chose 200 female sheep and 20 male sheep.
Reference
15
He chose 30 female camels with their little ones. He chose 40 cows and ten bulls. And he chose 20 female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
16
He put each herd by itself. Then he put his servants in charge of them. He said to his servants, "Go on ahead of me. Keep some space between the herds."
17
Jacob spoke to his servant who was leading the way. He said, "My brother Esau will meet you. He'll ask, 'Who is your master? Where are you going? And who owns all of these animals in front of you?'
Reference
Parallel theme
Genesis 33:3
18
"Then say to Esau, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift to you from him. And he is coming behind us.' "
19
He also spoke to the second and third servants. He told them and all of the others who followed the herds what to do. He said, "Say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.
20
Make sure you say, 'Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.' " Jacob was thinking, "I'll make peace with him with these gifts I'm sending on ahead. When I see him later, maybe he'll welcome me."
Reference
Parallel theme
Proverbs 21:14
21
So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him. But he himself spent the night in the camp.
22
That night Jacob got up. He took his two wives, his two female servants and his 11 sons and sent them across the Jabbok River.
Reference
📍 Jabbok
23
After they had crossed the stream, he sent over everything he owned.
25
The man saw that he couldn't win. So he touched the inside of Jacob's hip. As Jacob struggled with the man, Jacob's hip was twisted.
26
Then the man said, "Let me go. It is morning." But Jacob replied, "I won't let you go unless you bless me."
Reference
27
The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered.
28
Then the man said, "Your name will not be Jacob anymore. Instead, it will be Israel. You have struggled with God and with men. And you have won."
Reference
Parallel theme
Revelation 2:17
Genesis 17:5
Proverbs 16:7
John 1:42
Genesis 33:4
Genesis 25:31
References God
Genesis 35:10
Genesis 17:15
Isaiah 65:15
References Israel
2 Kings 17:34
29
Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you want to know my name?" Then he blessed Jacob there.
Reference
30
So Jacob named the place Peniel. He said, "I saw God face to face. But I'm still alive!"
Reference
📍 Peniel
Parallel theme
Numbers 12:8
Isaiah 6:5
Hebrews 11:27
Exodus 33:14
2 Timothy 1:10
References God
Genesis 16:13
Deuteronomy 5:24
John 1:18
Ephesians 1:17
31
The sun rose above Jacob as he passed by Peniel. He was limping because of his hip.
Reference
📍 Penuel
Parallel theme
2 Corinthians 12:7
32
That's why the people of Israel don't eat the meat attached to the inside of the hip. They don't eat it to this very day. It's because the inside of Jacob's hip was touched.
Chapter Summary
Genesis chapter thirty-two leads Jacob from the relief of having escaped from Laban into a new state of apprehension as to facing the brother he had wronged and from which he did not know what was in store for him.
A brief but notable episode opens the chapter as Jacob continues his journey; angels of God meet him and upon their meeting him, he exclaims this to be the camp of God and names the place Mahanaim, being the Hebrew word for two camps. This serves as a foreshadowing of the trials yet to come as Jacob meets one of the most stressful days of his life.
Jacob sends messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He instructs them as to what he should say, framing a message filled with humility, referring to himself as Esau's servant, and Esau as my lord, further stating that he has lived with Laban until now and has gained cattle, donkeys, sheep, and servants, and that he has sent this message ahead, hoping to find favor in his brother's eyes.
The messengers return with news that immediately puts Jacob into a panic, they tell him that we went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him. The number four hundred here serves as a warning as the number sounds more like a host of soldiers than a welcoming party, and given the memory of Jacob's wrongs against Esau, the angry vow he made to kill him and a feeling of fear grips Jacob.
The text tells us that Jacob is greatly afraid and distressed, so he divides everyone who traveled with him, along with the flocks, herds, and camels, into two groups, figuring that if Esau comes and attacks one group, the other might still escape.
Jacob prays and this time the tone of his prayer is notably humble, and he seems truly vulnerable in the words as compared to the calculated bargain Jacob used when making his vow to God in Bethel.
Jacob calls upon the God of his father Abraham, and the God of his father Isaac, the Lord who said to him go back to your country and he is unworthy of all the kindness God has shown him and he reminds God that he crossed the Jordan with nothing but his staff, and now he has become two camps.
Jacob pleads that he be saved from his brother Esau as he is afraid that he will attack him and the mothers with their children, reminding God that he told him that his descendants would be as numerous as the sand of the sea, too many to be counted.
After Jacob has prayed, he returns to his practical nature and selects a large gift from his belongings to send ahead to Esau: two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams, thirty female camels with their young, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys. Jacob divided the animals into herds and gave instructions to his servants to keep distance from one another as they traveled towards Esau. He told them that if Esau asked whose animals they were, they were to say that they belonged to Jacob, that they were a gift sent to his lord Esau, and that Jacob was right behind them. Jacob's reasoning is laid out in the narration: I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending ahead, and when I see him perhaps he will receive me.
That night Jacob sends his wives, his two female servants and his eleven children across the ford of the Jabbok along with everything he owned, but Jacob was alone behind on the other side.
And so a strange and well-known episode within this chapter occurs, as a man wrestles with him until daybreak. This mysterious figure, upon realizing that he could not overpower Jacob touches the socket of his hip, wrenching it out as they wrestled. Even injured Jacob refused to let go and the figure said let me go for it is daybreak and Jacob replied I will not let you go unless you bless me.
The man asks Jacob his name and upon his reply the man said your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome and Jacob asked the man's name, but he refused to answer and instead blessed him right there and Jacob named the place Peniel for it is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared.
As the sun rises, Jacob limps away from the place. The chapter ends with a note, that this is why the Israelites, to this day, do not eat the tendon attached to the hip socket for the reason of what had happened when the man touched Jacob's hip.
There is a nice symmetry running throughout this chapter, for Jacob in the daytime was afraid of a human confrontation with his brother, and struggled with a figure he thought to be God through the night. Jacob walks away from this confrontation changed, not only in having been given a new name, but marked with a lifelong limp, yet strangely stronger and better prepared to meet Esau than before, for the schemer who took the long walk across the night river and rose up the next day is not quite the same as he was when he crossed it the night before.
A brief but notable episode opens the chapter as Jacob continues his journey; angels of God meet him and upon their meeting him, he exclaims this to be the camp of God and names the place Mahanaim, being the Hebrew word for two camps. This serves as a foreshadowing of the trials yet to come as Jacob meets one of the most stressful days of his life.
Jacob sends messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He instructs them as to what he should say, framing a message filled with humility, referring to himself as Esau's servant, and Esau as my lord, further stating that he has lived with Laban until now and has gained cattle, donkeys, sheep, and servants, and that he has sent this message ahead, hoping to find favor in his brother's eyes.
The messengers return with news that immediately puts Jacob into a panic, they tell him that we went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him. The number four hundred here serves as a warning as the number sounds more like a host of soldiers than a welcoming party, and given the memory of Jacob's wrongs against Esau, the angry vow he made to kill him and a feeling of fear grips Jacob.
The text tells us that Jacob is greatly afraid and distressed, so he divides everyone who traveled with him, along with the flocks, herds, and camels, into two groups, figuring that if Esau comes and attacks one group, the other might still escape.
Jacob prays and this time the tone of his prayer is notably humble, and he seems truly vulnerable in the words as compared to the calculated bargain Jacob used when making his vow to God in Bethel.
Jacob calls upon the God of his father Abraham, and the God of his father Isaac, the Lord who said to him go back to your country and he is unworthy of all the kindness God has shown him and he reminds God that he crossed the Jordan with nothing but his staff, and now he has become two camps.
Jacob pleads that he be saved from his brother Esau as he is afraid that he will attack him and the mothers with their children, reminding God that he told him that his descendants would be as numerous as the sand of the sea, too many to be counted.
After Jacob has prayed, he returns to his practical nature and selects a large gift from his belongings to send ahead to Esau: two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams, thirty female camels with their young, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys. Jacob divided the animals into herds and gave instructions to his servants to keep distance from one another as they traveled towards Esau. He told them that if Esau asked whose animals they were, they were to say that they belonged to Jacob, that they were a gift sent to his lord Esau, and that Jacob was right behind them. Jacob's reasoning is laid out in the narration: I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending ahead, and when I see him perhaps he will receive me.
That night Jacob sends his wives, his two female servants and his eleven children across the ford of the Jabbok along with everything he owned, but Jacob was alone behind on the other side.
And so a strange and well-known episode within this chapter occurs, as a man wrestles with him until daybreak. This mysterious figure, upon realizing that he could not overpower Jacob touches the socket of his hip, wrenching it out as they wrestled. Even injured Jacob refused to let go and the figure said let me go for it is daybreak and Jacob replied I will not let you go unless you bless me.
The man asks Jacob his name and upon his reply the man said your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome and Jacob asked the man's name, but he refused to answer and instead blessed him right there and Jacob named the place Peniel for it is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared.
As the sun rises, Jacob limps away from the place. The chapter ends with a note, that this is why the Israelites, to this day, do not eat the tendon attached to the hip socket for the reason of what had happened when the man touched Jacob's hip.
There is a nice symmetry running throughout this chapter, for Jacob in the daytime was afraid of a human confrontation with his brother, and struggled with a figure he thought to be God through the night. Jacob walks away from this confrontation changed, not only in having been given a new name, but marked with a lifelong limp, yet strangely stronger and better prepared to meet Esau than before, for the schemer who took the long walk across the night river and rose up the next day is not quite the same as he was when he crossed it the night before.