Genesis 32:1-21

1 And Jacob departed for his journey; and having looked up, he saw the host of God encamped; and the angels of God met him.

2 And Jacob said, when he saw them, This is the Camp of God; and he called the name of that place, Encampments.

3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother to the land of Seir, to the country of Edom.

4 And he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye say to my lord Esau: Thus saith thy servant Jacob; I have sojourned with Laban and tarried until now.

5 And there were born to me oxen, and asses, and sheep, and men-servants and women-servants; and I sent to tell my lord Esau, that thy servant might find grace in thy sight.

6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and lo! he comes to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.

7 And Jacob was greatly terrified, and was perplexed; and he divided the people that was with him, and the cows, and the camels, and the sheep, into two camps.

8 And Jacob said, If Esau should come to one camp, and smite it, the other camp shall be in safety.

9 And Jacob said, God of my father Abraam, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, thou he that said to me, Depart quickly to the land of thy birth, and I will do thee good.

10 Let there be to me a sufficiency of all the justice and all the truth which thou hast wrought with thy servant; for with this my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two camps.

11 Deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him, lest haply he should come and smite me, and the mother upon the children.

12 But thou saidst, I will do thee good, and will make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which shall not be numbered for multitude.

13 And he slept there that night, and took of the gifts which he carried , and sent out to Esau his brother,

14 two hundred she-goats, twenty he-goats, two hundred sheep, twenty rams,

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

16 And he gave them to his servants drove apart; and he said to his servants, Go on before me, and put a space between drove and drove.

17 And he charged the first, saying, If Esau my brother meet thee, and he ask thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither wouldest thou go, and whose are these possessions advancing before thee?

18 Thou shalt say, Thy servant Jacob's; he hath sent gifts to my lord Esau, and lo! he is behind us.

19 And he charged the first and the second and the third, and all that went before him after these flocks, saying, Thus shall ye speak to Esau when ye find him;

20 and ye shall say, Behold thy servant Jacob comes after us. For he said, I will propitiate his countenance with the gifts going before his presence, and afterwards I will behold his face, for peradventure he will accept me.

21 So the presents went on before him, but he himself lodged that night in the camp.

Genesis 32:1-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 32

This chapter informs us of Jacob's proceeding on in his journey, and of his being met and guarded by an host of angels, Ge 32:1,2; of his sending messengers to his brother Esau, acquainting him with his increase, and desiring his favour and good will, Ge 32:3-5, who return and report to him, that Esau was coming to him with four hundred men, which put him into a panic, and after devising ways and means for the security of himself; and those with him, at least a part, if not the whole, Ge 32:6-8; then follows a prayer of his to God, pressing his unworthiness of mercies, and his sense of them, imploring deliverance from his brother, and putting the Lord in mind of his promises, Ge 32:9-12; after which we have an account of the wise methods he took for the safety of himself and family, by sending a present to his brother, dividing those who had the charge of it into separate companies, and directing them to move at a proper distance from each other, he, his wives and children, following after, Ge 32:13-23; when they were over the brook Jabbok, he stopped, and being alone, the Son of God in an human form appeared to him, and wrestled with him, with whom Jacob prevailed, and got the blessing, and hence had the name of Israel, Ge 32:24-28; and though he could not get his name, he perceived it was a divine Person he had wrestled with, and therefore called the name of the place Penuel, Ge 32:29-31; the hollow of his thigh being touched by him with whom he wrestled, which put it out of joint, he halted as he went over Penuel, in commemoration of which the children of Israel eat not of that part of the thigh, Ge 32:31,32.

Footnotes

• [a]. Gr. camp
• [b]. Gr. my face.