January 11
Genesis 32:1 — 34:31
January 11
Genesis 32:1 —
34:31
32
And as for Jacob, he got on his way, and the angels of God now met up with him.
2 Immediately
Jacob said, when he saw them: “The camp of God this is!” Hence he called the
name of that place Mahanaim.
3 Then
Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to Esau his brother to the land of Seir,
the field of Edom,
4
and he commanded them, saying: “This is what YOU will say to my lord, to Esau,
‘This is what your servant Jacob has said: “With Laban I have resided as an
alien and I have stayed for a long time till now.
5 And
I have come to have bulls and asses, sheep, and menservants and maidservants,
and I would like to send to notify my lord, that I may find favor in your
eyes.”’”
6 In
time the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: “We got to your brother Esau,
and he is also on his way to meet you, and four hundred men with him.”
7 And
Jacob became very much afraid and grew anxious. So he divided the people who
were with him, and the flocks and the cattle and the camels into two camps,
8 and
he said: “If Esau should come to the one camp and assault it, then there is
certain to be a camp remaining to make an escape.”
9 After
that Jacob said: “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O
Jehovah, you who are saying to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives
and I will deal well with you,’
10 I
am unworthy of all the loving-kindnesses and of all the faithfulness that you
have exercised toward your servant, for with but my staff I crossed this Jordan
and now I have become two camps.
11 Deliver
me, I pray you, from my brother’s hand, from Esau’s hand, because I am afraid
of him that he may come and certainly assault me, mother together with children.
12 And
you, you have said, ‘Unquestionably I shall deal well with you and I will
constitute your seed like the grains of sand of the sea, which cannot be
numbered for multitude.’”
13 And
he kept lodging there on that night. And from what came to his hand he proceeded
to take a gift for Esau his brother:
14 two
hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred female sheep and twenty rams,
15 thirty
camels giving suck and their young ones, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty
she-asses and ten full-grown asses.
16 Then
he handed over to his servants one drove after another by itself and repeatedly
said to his servants: “Cross over ahead of me, and YOU are to set an interval
between drove and drove.”
17 Further
he commanded the first one, saying: “In case that Esau my brother should meet
you and ask you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going and to
whom do these ahead of you belong?’
18 then
you must say, ‘To your servant, to Jacob. A gift it is, sent to my lord, to Esau,
and look! he himself is also behind us.’”
19 And
he went on to command also the second, also the third, also all those following
the droves, saying: “According to this word YOU are to speak to Esau on YOUR
encountering him.
20 And
YOU must say also, ‘Here is your servant Jacob behind us.’” For he said to
himself: “I may appease him by the gift going ahead of me, and afterward I shall
see his face. Perhaps he will give a kindly reception.”
21 So
the gift went crossing over ahead of him, but he himself lodged that night in
the camp.
22 Later
during that night he rose and took his two wives and his two maidservants and
his eleven young sons and crossed over the ford of Jabbok.
23 So
he took them and brought them over the torrent valley, and he brought over what
he had.
24 Finally
Jacob was left by himself. Then a man began to grapple with him until the dawn
ascended.
25 When
he got to see that he had not prevailed over him, then he touched the socket of
his thigh joint; and the socket of Jacob’s thigh joint got out of place during
his grappling with him.
26 After
that he said: “Let me go, for the dawn has ascended.” To this he said: “I am not
going to let you go until you first bless me.”
27 So
he said to him: “What is your name?” to which he said: “Jacob.”
28 Then
he said: “Your name will no longer be called Jacob but Israel, for you have
contended with God and with men so that you at last prevailed.”
29 In
turn Jacob inquired and said: “Tell me, please, your name.” However, he said:
“Why is it that you inquire for my name?” With that he blessed him there.
30 Hence
Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,
because, to quote him, “I have seen God face to face and yet my soul was
delivered.”
31 And
the sun began to flash upon him as soon as he passed by Penuel,
but he was limping upon his thigh.
32 That
is why the sons of Israel are not accustomed to eat the sinew of the thigh
nerve, which is on the socket of the thigh joint, down to this day, because he
touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh joint by the sinew of the thigh nerve.
33
In
time Jacob raised his eyes and looked, and here Esau was coming and with him
four hundred men. Consequently he divided off the children to Leah and to
Rachel and to the two maidservants,
2 and
he put the maidservants and their children foremost and Leah and her children
after them and Rachel and Joseph to the rear of them.
3 And
he himself passed on ahead of them and proceeded to bow down to the earth seven
times until he got near to his brother.
4 And
Esau went running to meet him, and he began to embrace him and fall upon his
neck and kiss him, and they burst into tears.
5 Then
he raised his eyes and saw the women and the children and said: “Who are these
with you?” to which he said: “The children with whom God has favored your
servant.”
6 At
that the maidservants came forward, they and their children, and bowed down;
7 and
Leah too came forward, and her children, and they bowed down, and afterward
Joseph came forward, and Rachel, and they bowed down.
8 He
now said: “What do you mean by all this camp of travelers that I have met?” To
this he said: “In order to find favor in the eyes of my lord.”
9 Then
Esau said: “I have a great many, my brother. Let continue yours what is yours.”
10 However,
Jacob said: “No, please. If, now, I have found favor in your eyes, then you must
take my gift at my hand, because in harmony with its purpose I have seen your
face as though seeing God’s face in that you received me with pleasure.
11 Take,
please, the gift conveying my blessing which was brought to you, because God has
favored me and because I have everything.” And he continued to urge him, so that
he took it.
12 Later
on he said: “Let us pull out and go, and let me go in advance of you.”
13 But
he said to him: “My lord is aware that the children are delicate and sheep and
cattle that are giving suck are in my charge, and should they drive them too
quickly for one day, then the whole flock will certainly die.
14 Let
my lord, please, pass on ahead of his servant, but may I myself continue the
journey at my leisure according to the pace of the livestock that is before me
and according to the pace of the children until I shall come to my lord at Seir.”
15 Then
Esau said: “Let me, please, put at your disposal some of the people who are
with me.” To this he said: “Why this? Let me find favor in the eyes of my lord.”
16 So
on that day Esau turned back on his way to Seir.
17 And
Jacob pulled out for Succoth, and he proceeded to build himself a house and for
his herd he made booths. That was why he called the name of the place Succoth.
18 In
time Jacob came safe and sound to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of
Canaan, while he was coming from Paddan-aram; and he pitched camp in front of
the city.
19 Then
he acquired a tract of the field where he pitched his tent at the hand of the
sons of Hamor the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money.
20 After
that he set up there an altar and called it God the God of Israel.
34
Now
Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, used to go out to see
the daughters of the land.
2 And
Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, a chieftain of the land, got to see her
and then took her and lay down with her and violated her.
3 And
his soul began clinging to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he fell in love
with the young woman and kept speaking persuasively to the young woman.
4 Finally
Shechem said to Hamor his father: “Get me this young lady as a wife.”
5 And
Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. And his sons happened to be
with his herd in the field; and Jacob kept silent until they should come in.
6 Later
Hamor, Shechem’s father, went out to Jacob to speak with him.
7 And
the sons of Jacob came in from the field as soon as they heard of it; and the
men became hurt in their feelings and they grew very angry, because he had
committed a disgraceful folly against Israel in lying down with Jacob’s
daughter, whereas nothing like that ought to be done.
8 And
Hamor proceeded to speak with them, saying: “As for Shechem my son, his soul
is attached to YOUR daughter. Give her, please, to him as a wife,
9 and
form marriage alliances with us. YOUR daughters YOU are to give to us, and our
daughters YOU are to take for yourselves.
10 And
with us YOU may dwell, and the land will become available for YOU. Dwell and
carry on business in it and get settled in it.”
11 Then
Shechem said to her father and to her brothers: “Let me find favor in YOUR
eyes, and whatever YOU will say to me I shall give it.
12 Raise
very high the marriage money and gift imposed upon me, and I stand willing to
give according to what YOU may say to me; only give me the young woman as a
wife.”
13 And
Jacob’s sons began to answer Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit and to
speak so because he had defiled Dinah their sister.
14 And
they went on to say to them: “We cannot possibly do such a thing, to give our
sister to a man who has a foreskin, because that is a reproach to us.
15 Only
on this condition can we give consent to YOU, that YOU become like us, by every
male of YOURS getting circumcised.
16 Then
we shall certainly give our daughters to YOU, and YOUR daughters we shall take
for ourselves, and we shall certainly dwell with YOU and become one people.
17 But
if YOU do not listen to us to get circumcised, then we will take our daughter
and go.”
18 And
their words seemed good in the eyes of Hamor and in the eyes of Shechem, Hamor’s
son,
19 and
the young man did not delay to perform the condition, because he did find
delight in Jacob’s daughter and he was the most honorable of the whole house of
his father.
20 So
Hamor and Shechem his son went to the gate of their city and began to speak to
the men of their city, saying:
21 “These
men are peace-loving toward us. Hence let them dwell in the land and carry on
business in it, as the land is quite wide before them. Their daughters we can
take as wives for ourselves and our own daughters we can give to them.
22 Only
on this condition will the men give us their consent to dwell with us so as to
become one people, that every male of ours gets circumcised just the way they
are circumcised.
23 Then
their possessions and their wealth and all their livestock, will they not be
ours? Only let us give them our consent that they may dwell with us.”
24 Then
all those going out by the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to Shechem
his son, and all the males got circumcised, all those going out by the gate of
his city.
25 However,
it came about that on the third day, when they got to be aching, the two sons of
Jacob, Simeon
and Levi, brothers of Dinah, proceeded to take each one his sword and to go
unsuspectedly to the city and to kill every male.
26 And
Hamor and Shechem his son they killed with the edge of the sword. Then they
took Dinah from Shechem’s house and went on out.
27 The
other sons of Jacob attacked the fatally wounded men and went plundering the
city, because they had defiled their sister.
28 Their
flocks and their herds and their asses and what was in the city and what was in
the field they took.
29 And
all their means of maintenance and all their little children and their wives
they carried off captive, so that they plundered all that was in the houses.
30 At
this Jacob said to Simeon
and to Levi: “YOU have brought ostracism upon me in making me a stench to the
inhabitants of the land, with the Canaanites
and the Perizzites;
whereas I am few in number, and they will certainly gather together against me
and assault me and I must be annihilated, I and my house.”
31 In
turn they said: “Ought anyone to treat our sister like a prostitute?”