Genesis 32King James Version
Jacob is afraid of meeting his brother Esau, whom he has not seen in twenty years. He sends gifts ahead to soften him. Alone at night by the river Jabbok, a man wrestles with him until dawn. The man cannot prevail and touches the hollow of Jacob's thigh. Jacob refuses to let go without a blessing. The man renames him Israel, one who has wrestled with God. Jacob limps away into the morning.
Jacob sends messengers to Esau ahead of him; they return saying Esau is coming with 400 men. Jacob is terrified. He divides his company in two for safety, prays urgently, and sends wave after wave of gifts toward Esau. Alone at night, a man wrestles with Jacob until dawn. The man cannot prevail and dislocates Jacob's hip. Jacob will not let him go without a blessing. The man gives Jacob a new name: Israel. Jacob names the place Peniel. He walks away limping.
Jacob's entire life of grabbing and scheming comes to a night when he cannot win by his own strength, and he receives his identity not by taking it but by refusing to let go.
28: "And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." The wrestler gives Jacob a name that will carry an entire nation: the one who strives with God.
The Jabbok is a tributary of the Jordan, cutting through the eastern highlands. Crossing it meant entering Esau's territory. Jacob has sent everything he owns ahead as gifts and kept nothing back except himself. The night he spends alone is his last night as the old Jacob. The limp he carries into the morning is visible evidence of what happened.
Jacob, alone and fighting; the unnamed wrestler, who is divine; Esau, approaching with 400 men but not yet present.
The wrestling match is one of the strangest and most analyzed scenes in the Bible. Is the wrestler an angel? God himself? The text does not say clearly, but Jacob names the place 'face of God' and says he saw God face to face and survived. The injury to Jacob's hip is permanent; the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh because of this night.
For when you are alone in the dark before something you are afraid of, with no plan left. Jacob has sent everyone ahead. He is alone. What meets him there is not comfort; it is a fight. And the fight is what changes him.
1And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
2And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
3And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
4And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now:
5And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.
6And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.
7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands;
8And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.
9And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee:
10I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.
11Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.
12And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;
14Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams,
15Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.
16And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove.
17And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?
18Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us.
19And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him.
20And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.
21So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.
22And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.
23And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
24And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
25And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
26And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
27And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
29And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
30And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
31And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
32Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.