Jacob Meets Esau

As Jacob was going on his way to the land of Canaan, apparitions appeared to him and gave him good hope for his future, and he named that place the Camp of God. Wanting to know what his brother intended toward him, he sent messengers to bring him an exact report of everything, since he feared him because of the old suspicion between them. He instructed those he sent to tell Esau that Jacob had thought it wrong to live with him while he was angry with him, and so had left the country; that now, thinking the length of his absence must have settled their differences, he was coming back; that he was bringing with him his wives and his children, with whatever possessions he had gained; that he was handing himself over into his brother’s hands, along with what was dearest to him; and that he would count it his greatest happiness to share with his brother what God had given him. The messengers delivered this message. Esau was very glad at it, and came to meet his brother with four hundred armed men. [a]

When Jacob heard that he was coming to meet him with so many men, he was very much afraid. Still, he committed his hope of rescue to God, and considered how, in his present circumstances, he might save himself and those with him, and overcome his enemies if they attacked him wrongfully. So he divided his company into parts. Some he sent ahead of the rest, and the others he ordered to follow close behind, so that if the first were overpowered when his brother attacked them, they would have those following as a refuge to flee to. When he had put his company in this order, he sent some of them to take gifts to his brother. The gifts were pack animals and a great number of four-footed animals of many kinds, which would be very welcome to those who received them because they were rare. Those who were sent went at intervals, spaced apart, so that by coming thick one after another they might seem more numerous, and so that Esau might let go of his anger because of these gifts, if he was still in a rage. Those who were sent were also told to speak gently to him.

When Jacob had spent the whole day making these arrangements and night came on, he moved on with his company. When they had crossed a river called the Jabbok, Jacob was left behind. Meeting an apparition, he wrestled with it, the apparition beginning the struggle. But he overcame the apparition, which then used a voice and spoke to him in words. It urged him to be pleased with what had happened to him and not to think his victory a small one, for he had overcome a divine angel; he should take the victory as a sign of great blessings to come to him, that his descendants would never die out, and that no one would be too strong for his power. It also commanded that he be called Israel, which in Hebrew means one who struggled with the divine angel. These promises were made at Jacob’s request; for when he saw that it was the angel of God, he asked it to tell him what his lot would be. When the apparition had said this, it vanished. Jacob was pleased with these things and named the place Peniel, which means the face of God. And because he felt pain in his broad sinew from this struggle, he abstained from eating that sinew himself from then on; and for his sake it is still not eaten by us. [c]

When Jacob learned that his brother was near, he ordered his wives to go ahead, each by herself with her maidservants, so that they might watch from a distance what the men did as they fought, if Esau should be so inclined. Then he went up to his brother Esau and bowed down to him. But Esau had no evil intent toward him. He greeted him and asked about the company of children and women; and when he had learned all about them, he asked to go along with them himself to their father. But Jacob pleaded that the livestock were tired, and Esau went back to Seir, for that was where he lived. He had named the place Roughness, after his own hairy roughness. [e]