THE WORD OF ELOHIM

GENESIS

Chapter 32

     Early in the morning, Laban kissed his sons and daughters and bade them good-by; then Laban left on his journey homeward.  Ya’akov went on his way, and angels of Elohim encountered him.  When he saw them, Ya’akov said, “This is Elohim’s camp.”  So he named that place Machanayim.

     Ya’akov sent messengers ahead to his brother Esav in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, and instructed them as follows, “Thus shall you say, ‘To my lord Esav, thus says your servant Ya’akov:  I stayed with Laban and remained until now; I have acquired cattle, asses, sheep, and male and female slaves; and I send this message to my lord in the hope of gaining your favor.’”  The messengers returned to Ya’akov, saying, “We came to your brother Esav; he himself is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.”  Ya’akov was greatly frightened; in his anxiety, he divided the people with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, “If Esav comes to the one camp and attacks it, the other camp may yet escape.”

     Then Ya’akov said, “O Elohim of my father Abraham and Elohim of my father Yischaq, O Yehovah, who said to me, ‘Return to your native land and I will deal bountifully with you!’  I am unworthy of all the kindness that You have so steadfastly shown Your servant; with my staff alone, I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.  Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav; else, I fear, he may come and strike me down, mothers and children alike.  Yet you have said, ‘I will deal bountifully with you and make your offspring as the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’”

     After spending the night there, he selected from what was at hand these presents for his brother Esav:  200 she-goats and 20 he-goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milch camels with their colts, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 she-asses and 10 he-asses.  These he put in the charge of his servants, drove by drove, and he told his servants, “Go on ahead, and keep a distance between droves.”  He instructed the one in front as follows, “When my brother Esav meets you and asks you, ‘Whose man are you, where are you going, and whose [animals] are these ahead of you?’  You shall answer, ‘Your servant Ya’akov’s; they are a gift sent to my lord Esav; and [Ya’akov] himself is right behind us.’”  He gave similar instructions to the second one, and the third, and all the others who followed the droves, namely, “’Thus and so shall you say to Esav when you reach him.  And you shall add, ‘and your servant Ya’akov, himself, is right behind us.’”  For he reasoned, “If I propitiate him with presents in advance, and then face him, perhaps he will show me favor.”  And so the gift went on ahead, while he remained in camp that night.

     That same night he arose, and taking his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children, he crossed the ford of the Yabboq.  After taking them across the stream, he sent across all his possessions.  Ya’akov was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.  When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Ya’akov’s hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him.  Then he said, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking.”  But he answered, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”  Said the other, “What is your name?”  He replied, “Ya’akov.”  Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Ya’akov, but Yisrael, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.”  Ya’akov asked, “Pray tell me your name.”  But he said, “You must not ask my name!”  And he took leave of him there.  So Ya’akov named the place Peniel, meaning, “I have seen a divine being face to face, yet my life has been preserved.”   The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping on his hip.  That is why the children of Yisrael to this day do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Ya’akov’s hip socket was wrenched at the thigh muscle.

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