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Genesis 32
Jacob also went on the journey he had begun: and the
angels of God met him.
And when he saw them, he said: These are the camps of
God, and he called the name of that place Mahanaim,
that is, Camps.
And he sent messengers before him to Esau his brother
to the land of Seir to the country of Edom:
And he commanded them, saying: Thus shall ye speak to
my lord Esau: Thus saith thy brother Jacob: I have sojourned
with Laban, and have been with him until this day.
I have oxen, and asses, and sheep, and menservants,
and womenservants: and now I send a message to my lord,
that I may find favor in thy sight.
And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: We came
to Esau thy brother, and behold he cometh with speed
to meet thee with four hundred men.
Then Jacob was greatly afraid; and in his fear divided
the people that was with him, and the flocks, and the
sheep, and the oxen, and the camels, into two companies,
Saying: If Esau come to one company and destroy it,
the other company that is left shall escape.
And Jacob said: O God of my father Abraham, and God
of my father Isaac, O Lord, who saidst to me: Return
to thy land and to the place of thy birth, and I will
do well for thee,
I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and
of thy truth which thou hast fulfilled to thy servant.
With my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I return
with two companies.
Deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am
greatly afraid of him: lest perhaps he come, and kill
the mother with the children.
Thou didst say that thou wouldst do well by me, and
multiply my seed like the sand of the sea, which cannot
be numbered for the multitude.
And when he had slept there that night, he set apart,
of the things which he had, presents for his brother
Esau.
Two hundred she goats, twenty he goats, two hundred
ewes, and twenty rams,
Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and
twenty bulls, twenty she asses, and ten of their foals.
And he sent them by the hands of his servants, every
drove by itself, and he said to his servants: Go before
me, and let there be a space between drove and drove.
And he commanded the first, saying: If thou meet my
brother Esau, and he ask thee: Whose art thou? or whither
goest thou? or whose are these before thee?
Thou shalt answer: Thy servant Jacob's: he hath sent
them as a present to my lord Esau: and he cometh after
us.
In like manner he commanded the second and the third,
and all that followed with the droves, saying: Speak
ye the same words to Esau, when ye find him.
And ye shall add: thy servant Jacob himself also followeth
after us: for he said: I will appease him with the presents
that go before, and afterwards I will see him, perhaps
he will be gracious to me.
So the presents went before him, but himself lodged
that night in the camp.
And rising early he took his two wives, and his two
handmaids, with his eleven sons, and passed over the
ford of Jaboc.
And when all things were brought over that belonged
to him,
He remained alone: and behold a man wrestled with him
till morning.
And when he saw that he could not overcome him, he touched
the sinew of his thigh, and forthwith it shrank.
And he said to him: Let me go, for it is break of day.
He answered: I will not let thee go except thou bless
me.
And he said: What is thy name? He answered: Jacob.
But he said: Thy name shall not be called Jacob, but
Israel: for if thou hast been strong against God, how
much more shalt thou prevail against men?
Jacob asked him, Tell me by what name art thou called?
He answered: Why dost thou ask my name? And he blessed
him in the same place.
And Jacob called the name of the place Phanuel, saying:
I have seen God face to face, and my soul has been saved.
And immediately the sun rose upon him, after he was
past Phanuel; but he halted on his foot.
Therefore the children of Israel, unto this day, eat
not the sinew, that shrank in Jacob's thigh: because
he touched the sinew of his thigh and it shrank.
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