创世纪 第32章 共50章
- 1Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
- 2When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is the camp of God!" So he named that place Mahanaim.
- 3Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
- 4He instructed them: "This is what you are to say to my master Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.
- 5I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.' "
- 6When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, "We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."
- 7In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well.
- 8He thought, "If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape."
- 9Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD , who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,'
- 10I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.
- 11Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.
- 12But you have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.' "
- 13He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau:
- 14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
- 15thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
- 16He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds."
- 17He instructed the one in the lead: "When my brother Esau meets you and asks, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?'
- 18then you are to say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.' "
- 19He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: "You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.
- 20And be sure to say, 'Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.' " For he thought, "I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me."
- 21So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp. ( Jacob Wrestles With God )
- 22That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
- 23After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
- 24So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
- 25When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
- 26Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
- 27The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered.
- 28Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."
- 29Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.
- 30So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."
- 31The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
- 32Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.