January 11
Genesis 32 - 34 (New International Version)
Genesis 32
Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau
1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met
him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is the camp of
God!" So he named that place Mahanaim.
3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to
his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4
He 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. 5 I 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.' "
6 When 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."
7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who
were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well.
8 He thought, "If Esau comes and attacks one group, the
group that is left may escape."
9 Then 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,' 10 I 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.
11 Save 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. 12 But you have said, 'I will surely make you
prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which
cannot be counted.' "
13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him
he selected a gift for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred
female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten
bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16
He 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."
17 He 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?' 18 then
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.' "
19 He 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. 20 And 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."
21 So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself
spent the night in the camp.
Jacob Wrestles With God
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two
maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all
his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man
wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When 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. 26 Then the
man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
27 The man asked him, "What is your
name?"
"Jacob," he answered.
28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob,
but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have
overcome."
29 Jacob said, "Please tell me your name."
But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is
because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was
limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore 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.
Genesis 33
Jacob Meets Esau
1 Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four
hundred men; so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two
maidservants. 2 He put the maidservants and their children
in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear.
3 He himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven
times as he approached his brother.
4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw
his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept. 5
Then Esau looked up and saw the women and children. "Who are these with
you?" he asked.
Jacob answered, "They are the children God has graciously given your
servant."
6 Then the maidservants and their children approached and
bowed down. 7 Next, Leah and her children came and bowed
down. Last of all came Joseph and Rachel, and they too bowed down.
8 Esau asked, "What do you mean by all these droves I
met?"
"To find favor in your eyes, my lord," he said.
9 But Esau said, "I already have plenty, my brother. Keep
what you have for yourself."
10 "No, please!" said Jacob. "If I have found favor in
your eyes, accept this gift from me. For to see your face is like seeing the
face of God, now that you have received me favorably. 11
Please accept the present that was brought to you, for God has been gracious
to me and I have all I need." And because Jacob insisted, Esau accepted it.
12 Then Esau said, "Let us be on our way; I'll accompany
you."
13 But Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children
are tender and that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing their
young. If they are driven hard just one day, all the animals will die.
14 So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move
along slowly at the pace of the droves before me and that of the children,
until I come to my lord in Seir."
15 Esau said, "Then let me leave some of my men with you."
"But why do that?" Jacob asked. "Just let me find favor in the eyes of my
lord."
16 So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir.
17 Jacob, however, went to Succoth, where he built a place
for himself and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place is
called Succoth.
18 After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at
the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city.
19 For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of
Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent.
20 There he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel.
Genesis 34
Dinah and the Shechemites
1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went
out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son of
Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated
her. 3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and
he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her. 4 And Shechem
said to his father Hamor, "Get me this girl as my wife."
5 When Jacob heard that his daughter
Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so
he kept quiet about it until they came home.
6 Then Shechem's father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob.
7 Now Jacob's sons had come in from the fields as soon as
they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because
Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's
daughter—a thing that should not be done.
8 But Hamor said to them, "My son Shechem has his heart
set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. 9
Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for
yourselves. 10 You can settle among us; the land is open
to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it."
11 Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, "Let
me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. 12
Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you
like, and I'll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the girl as my wife."
13 Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob's
sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor.
14 They said to them, "We can't do such a thing; we can't
give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to
us. 15 We will give our consent to you on one condition
only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. 16
Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves.
We'll settle among you and become one people with you. 17
But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we'll take our sister and go."
18 Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
19 The young man, who was the most honored of all his
father's household, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was
delighted with Jacob's daughter. 20 So Hamor and his son
Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to their fellow townsmen.
21 "These men are friendly toward us," they said. "Let them
live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We
can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. 22 But
the men will consent to live with us as one people only on the condition
that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. 23
Won't their livestock, their property and all their other animals become
ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us."
24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with
Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.
25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain,
two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords
and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 26
They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from
Shechem's house and left. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon
the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.
28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and
everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. 29
They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking
as plunder everything in the houses.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought
trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the
people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces
against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed."
31 But they replied, "Should he have treated our sister
like a prostitute?"