Genesis 32:15-25

15 thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.

16 And he delivered them into the hand of his slaves, every drove by themselves and said unto his slaves, Pass before me and put a space between drove and drove.

17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau, my brother, meets thee and asks thee, saying, Whose art thou? And where goest thou? And for whom are these before thee?

18 Then thou shalt say, They are thy slave Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau; and, behold, also he is behind us.

19 And so commanded he the second and the third and all that followed those droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau when ye find him.

20 And ye shall also say, Behold, thy slave Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will reconcile his wrath with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept me.

21 So the present went over before him, and he lodged that night in the company.

22 And he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two womenservants and his eleven sons and passed over the ford Jabbok.

23 And he took them and sent them over the brook and sent over all that he had.

24 And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.

25 And when the man saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was disjointed as he wrestled with him.

Genesis 32:15-25 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.