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New Living Translation |   | |
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| | Gen 32:1 | As Jacob and his household started on their way again, angels of God came to meet him.
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| | Gen 32:2 | When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, "This is God's camp!" So he named the place Mahanaim.
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| | Gen 32:3 | Jacob now sent messengers to his brother, Esau, in Edom, the land of Seir.
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| | Gen 32:4 | He told them, "Give this message to my master Esau: 'Humble greetings from your servant Jacob! I have been living with Uncle Laban until recently,
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| | Gen 32:5 | and now I own oxen, donkeys, sheep, goats, and many servants, both men and women. I have sent these messengers to inform you of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to us.' "
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| | Gen 32:6 | The messengers returned with the news that Esau was on his way to meet Jacob--with an army of four hundred men!
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| | Gen 32:7 | Jacob was terrified at the news. He divided his household, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps.
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| | Gen 32:8 | He thought, "If Esau attacks one group, perhaps the other can escape."
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| | Gen 32:9 | Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my grandfather Abraham and my father, Isaac--O LORD, you told me to return to my land and to my relatives, and you promised to treat me kindly.
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| | Gen 32:10 | I am not worthy of all the faithfulness and unfailing love you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home, I owned nothing except a walking stick, and now my household fills two camps!
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| | Gen 32:11 | O LORD, please rescue me from my brother, Esau. I am afraid that he is coming to kill me, along with my wives and children.
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| | Gen 32:12 | But you promised to treat me kindly and to multiply my descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore--too many to count."
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| | Gen 32:13 | Jacob stayed where he was for the night and prepared a present for Esau:
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| | Gen 32:14 | two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams,
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| | Gen 32:15 | thirty female camels with their young, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys.
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| | Gen 32:16 | He told his servants to lead them on ahead, each group of animals by itself, separated by a distance in between.
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| | Gen 32:17 | He gave these instructions to the men leading the first group: "When you meet Esau, he will ask, 'Where are you going? Whose servants are you? Whose animals are these?'
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| | Gen 32:18 | You should reply, 'These belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present for his master Esau! He is coming right behind us.' "
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| | Gen 32:19 | Jacob gave the same instructions to each of the herdsmen and told them, "You are all to say the same thing to Esau when you see him.
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| | Gen 32:20 | And be sure to say, 'Your servant Jacob is right behind us.' " Jacob's plan was to appease Esau with the presents before meeting him face to face. "Perhaps," Jacob hoped, "he will be friendly to us."
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| | Gen 32:21 | So the presents were sent on ahead, and Jacob spent that night in the camp.
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| | Gen 32:22 | But during the night Jacob got up and sent his two wives, two concubines, and eleven sons across the Jabbok River.
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| | Gen 32:23 | After they were on the other side, he sent over all his possessions.
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| | Gen 32:24 | This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until dawn.
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| | Gen 32:25 | When the man saw that he couldn't win the match, he struck Jacob's hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket.
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| | Gen 32:26 | Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is dawn." But Jacob panted, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
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| | Gen 32:27 | "What is your name?" the man asked. He replied, "Jacob."
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| | Gen 32:28 | "Your name will no longer be Jacob," the man told him. "It is now Israel, because you have struggled with both God and men and have won."
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| | Gen 32:29 | "What is your name?" Jacob asked him. "Why do you ask?" the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.
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| | Gen 32:30 | Jacob named the place Peniel--"face of God"--for he said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared."
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| | Gen 32:31 | The sun rose as he left Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
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| | Gen 32:32 | That is why even today the people of Israel don't eat meat from near the hip, in memory of what happened that night.
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