Genesis 32-35

Genesis 32

¹And Jacob went on his way; and the angels of God met him.

²And when Jacob saw them he said, This is the camp of God. And he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

³And Jacob sent messengers before his face to Esau his brother, into the land of Seir, the fields of Edom.

⁴And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak to my lord, to Esau: Thy servant Jacob speaks thus -- With Laban have I sojourned and tarried until now;

⁵and I have oxen, and asses, sheep, and bondmen, and bondwomen; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favour in thine eyes.

⁶And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother, to Esau; and he also is coming to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.

⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid, and was distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the sheep and the cattle and the camels, into two troops.

⁸And he said, If Esau come to the one troop and smite it, then the other troop which is left shall escape.

⁹And Jacob said, God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Jehovah, who saidst unto me: Return into thy country and to thy kindred, and I will do thee good,

¹⁰-- I am too small for all the loving-kindness and all the faithfulness that thou hast shewn unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two troops.

¹¹Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, and the mother with the children.

¹²And thou saidst, I will certainly deal well with thee, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

¹³And he lodged there that night; and took of what came to his hand a gift for Esau his brother --

¹⁴two hundred she-goats, and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes, and twenty rams;

¹⁵thirty milch camels with their colts; forty kine, and ten bulls; twenty she-asses, and ten young asses.

¹⁶And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself; and he said to his servants, Go on before me, and put a space between drove and drove.

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

¹⁸-- then thou shalt say, Thy servant Jacob's: it is a gift sent to my lord, to Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.

¹⁹And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, According to this word shall ye speak to Esau when ye find him.

²⁰And, moreover, ye shall say, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will propitiate him with the gift that goes before me, and afterwards I will see his face: perhaps he will accept me.

²¹And the gift went over before him; and he himself lodged that night in the camp.

²²And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok;

²³and he took them and led them over the river, and led over what he had.

²⁴And Jacob remained alone; and a man wrestled with him until the rising of the dawn.

²⁵And when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the joint of his thigh; and the joint of Jacob's thigh was dislocated as he wrestled with him.

²⁶And he said, Let me go, for the dawn ariseth. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.

²⁷And he said to him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.

²⁸And he said, Thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast wrestled with God, and with men, and hast prevailed.

²⁹And Jacob asked and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, How is it that thou askest after my name? And he blessed him there.

³⁰And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel -- For I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved.

³¹And as he passed over Peniel, the sun rose upon him; and he limped upon his hip.

³²Therefore the children of Israel do not eat of the sinew that is over the joint of the thigh, to this day; because he touched the joint of Jacob's thigh -- the sinew.

Genesis 33

¹And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. And he distributed the children to Leah, and to Rachel, and to the two maidservants:

²and he put the maidservants and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindmost.

³And he passed on before them, and bowed to the earth seven times, until he came near to his brother.

⁴And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept.

⁵And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, Who are these with thee? And he said, The children that God has graciously given thy servant.

⁶And the maidservants drew near, they and their children, and they bowed.

⁷And Leah also, with her children, drew near, and they bowed. And lastly Joseph drew near, and Rachel, and they bowed.

⁸And he said, What meanest thou by all the drove which I met? And he said, To find favour in the eyes of my lord.

⁹And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; let what thou hast be thine.

¹⁰And Jacob said, No, I pray thee; if now I have found favour in thine eyes, then receive my gift from my hand; for therefore have I seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou hast received me with pleasure.

¹¹Take, I pray thee, my blessing which has been brought to thee; because God has been gracious to me, and because I have everything. And he urged him, and he took it.

¹²And he said, Let us take our journey, and go on, and I will go before thee.

¹³And he said to him, My lord knows that the children are tender, and the suckling sheep and kine are with me; and if they should overdrive them only one day, all the flock would die.

¹⁴Let my lord, I pray thee, pass on before his servant, and I will drive on at my ease according to the pace of the cattle that is before me, and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord, to Seir.

¹⁵And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the people that are with me. And he said, What need? Let me find favour in the eyes of my lord.

¹⁶And Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

¹⁷And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house, and for his cattle he made booths. Therefore the name of the place was called Succoth.

¹⁸And Jacob came safely to the city Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan-Aram; and he encamped before the city.

¹⁹And he bought the portion of the field where he had spread his tent, of the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred kesitahs.

²⁰And there he set up an altar, and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

Genesis 34

¹And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

²And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and humbled her.

³And his soul fastened on Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the maiden, and spoke consolingly to the maiden.

⁴And Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, Take me this girl as wife.

⁵And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; but his sons were with his cattle in the fields, and Jacob said nothing until they came.

⁶And Hamor the father of Shechem came out to Jacob, to speak to him.

⁷And the sons of Jacob came from the fields when they heard it; and the men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had wrought what was disgraceful in Israel, in lying with Jacob's daughter, which thing ought not to be done.

⁸And Hamor spoke to them, saying, My son Shechem's soul cleaves to your daughter: I pray you, give her to him as wife.

⁹And make marriages with us: give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to you.

¹⁰And dwell with us, and the land shall be before you: dwell and trade in it, and get yourselves possessions in it.

¹¹And Shechem said to her father and to her brethren, Let me find favour in your eyes; and what ye shall say to me I will give.

¹²Impose on me very much as dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say to me; but give me the maiden as wife.

¹³And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and spoke -- because he had defiled Dinah their sister --

¹⁴and said to them, We cannot do this, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for that were a reproach to us.

¹⁵But only in this will we consent to you, if ye will be as we, that every male of you be circumcised;

¹⁶then will we give our daughters to you, and take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and be one people.

¹⁷But if ye do not hearken to us, to be circumcised, then will we take our daughter and go away.

¹⁸And their words were good in the eyes of Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son.

¹⁹And the youth did not delay to do this, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter. And he was honourable above all in the house of his father.

²⁰And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and spoke to the men of their city, saying,

²¹These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade in it. And the land -- behold, it is of wide extent before them. We will take their daughters as wives, and give them our daughters.

²²But only in this will the men consent to us to dwell with us, to be one people -- if every male among us be circumcised, just as they are circumcised.

²³Their cattle, and their possessions, and every beast of theirs, shall they not be ours? only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.

²⁴And all that went out at the gate of his city hearkened to Hamor and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised -- all that went out at the gate of his city.

²⁵And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.

²⁶And Hamor and Shechem his son they slew with the edge of the sword; and took Dinah out of Shechem's house; and went out.

²⁷The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.

²⁸Their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and what was in the city, and what was in the field they took;

²⁹and all their goods, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and plundered them, and all that was in the houses.

³⁰And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me, in that ye make me odious among the inhabitants of the land -- among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and I am few men in number, and they will gather themselves against me and smite me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.

³¹And they said, Should people deal with our sister as with a harlot?

Genesis 35

¹And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto the God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

²And Jacob said to his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments;

³and we will arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar to the God that answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way that I went.

⁴And they gave to Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hand, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth that is by Shechem.

⁵And they journeyed; and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

⁶And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.

⁷And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el; because there God had appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

⁸And Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died; and she was buried beneath Bethel, under the oak; and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.

⁹And God appeared to Jacob again after he had come from Padan-Aram, and blessed him.

¹⁰And God said to him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name Israel.

¹¹And God said to him, I am the Almighty God: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee; and kings shall come out of thy loins.

¹²And the land that I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

¹³And God went up from him in the place where he had talked with him.

¹⁴And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had talked with him, a pillar of stone, and poured on it a drink-offering, and poured oil on it.

¹⁵And Jacob called the name of the place where God had talked with him, Beth-el.

¹⁶And they journeyed from Bethel. And there was yet a certain distance to come to Ephrath, when Rachel travailed in childbirth; and it went hard with her in her childbearing.

¹⁷And it came to pass when it went hard with her in her childbearing, that the midwife said to her, Fear not; for this also is a son for thee.

¹⁸And it came to pass as her soul was departing -- for she died -- that she called his name Benoni; but his father called him Benjamin.

¹⁹And Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.

²⁰And Jacob erected a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.

²¹And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent on the other side of Migdal-Eder.

²²And it came to pass when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine; and Israel heard of it. And the sons of Jacob were twelve.

²³The sons of Leah: Reuben -- Jacob's firstborn -- and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun.

²⁴The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant: Dan and Naphtali.

²⁶And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob that were born to him in Padan-Aram.

²⁷And Jacob came to Isaac his father to Mamre -- to Kirjath-Arba, which is Hebron; where Abraham had sojourned, and Isaac.

²⁸And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years.

²⁹And Isaac expired and died, and was gathered to his peoples, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.