Genesis chapter .xxxij.
¶ But Iacob went forth on his journey. And the angels of God came and met him.
And when Iacob saw them, he said: this is God's host: and called the name of that same place Mahanaim.
¶ Iacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother, unto the land of Seir and the field of Edom.
And he commanded them saying: see that ye speak after this manner to my lord Esau: thy servant, Iacob sayeth thus; I have sojourned and been a stranger with Laban unto this time:
and have gotten oxen, asses and sheep, menservants and womenservants, and have sent to shew it my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.
And the messengers came again to Iacob saying: we came unto thy brother Esau, and he cometh against thee and four hundred men with him.
Then was Iacob greatly afraid, and wist not which way to turn himself, and divided the people that was with him and the sheep, oxen and camels, into two companies,
and said: If Esau come to the one part and smite it, the other may save itself.
¶ And Iacob said: O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac: LORD, which saidest unto me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee.
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant. For with my staff came I over this Iordan, and now have I gotten two droves.
Deliver me from the hands of my brother Esau, for I fear him: lest he will come and smite the mother with the children.
Thou saidest that thou wouldest surely do me good, and wouldest make my seed as the sand of the sea which can not be numbered for multitude.
¶ And he tarried there that same night, and took of that which came to hand, a present, unto Esau his brother:
Two hundred she goats and twenty he goats: two hundred sheep and twenty rams:
thirty milch camels with their colts: forty kine and ten bulls: twenty she asses and ten foals
and delivered them unto his servants, every drove by them selves, and said unto them: go forth before me and put a space betwixt every drove.
And he commanded the foremost, saying: When Esau my brother meeteth thee and asketh thee saying: whose servant art thou and whither goest thou, and whose are these that go before thee:
thou shalt say, they be thy servant Iacob's, and are a present sent unto my lord Esau, and behold, he himself cometh after us.
And so commanded he the second, and even so the third, and likewise all that followed the droves saying, of this manner see that ye speak unto Esau when ye meet him,
and say moreover. Behold thy servant Iacob cometh after us, for he said. I will pease his wrath with the present that goeth before me and afterward I will see him myself, so peradventure he will receive me to grace.
So went the present before him and he tarried all that night in the tent,
and rose up the same night and took his two wives and his two maidens and his eleven sons, and went over the ford Iabok.
And he took them and sent them over the river, and sent over that he had
¶ and tarried behind himself alone. And there wrestled a man with him unto the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that he could not prevail against him, he smote him under the thigh, and the sinew of Iacob's thigh shrank as he wrestled with him.
And he said: let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said: I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
And he said unto him: what is thy name? He answered: Iacob.
And he said: thou shalt be called Iacob no more, but Israel. For thou hast wrestled with God and with men and hast prevailed.
And Iacob asked him saying, tell me thy name. And he said, wherefore dost thou ask after my name? and he blessed him there.
And Iacob called the name of the place Pheniel, for I have seen God face to face, and yet is my life reserved.
And as he went over Peniel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh:
wherefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew that shrank under the thigh, unto this day: because that he smote Iacob under the thigh in the sinew that shrank.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.