Line upon Line

Genesis 32

Jacob Wrestles at Peniel

Jacob comes home to the edge of Canaan, where angels meet him and word comes that Esau is coming to meet him with four hundred men. He prays, sends droves of animals ahead, and sends his family across the Jabbok. Left alone, he wrestles until dawn with a man who renames him Israel; he names the place Peniel, “face of God,” and limps away.

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The return from Haran, twenty years after Jacob left Canaan (Gen. 31:41). The text gives no year. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library
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Background

Jacob is coming home after twenty years in Laban’s house (Gen. 31:41), because the LORD said, “Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee” (Gen. 31:3).

Jacob is coming home after twenty years in Laban’s house (Gen. 31:41), because the LORD said, “Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee” (Gen. 31:3). He left because his brother Esau had said in his heart, “then will I slay my brother Jacob” (Gen. 27:41–45). Chapter 31 ends with the parting from Laban. Now Jacob stands at the border of the land, and the one person he has not seen since is coming to meet him.

The chapter has six parts: angels at Mahanaim (verses 1–2), the news of Esau (3–8), Jacob’s prayer (9–12), the present for Esau (13–21), the crossing of the Jabbok (22–23), and the wrestle at Peniel (24–32). Here Jacob is given the name Israel; it is given again at Bethel (Gen. 35:10), and it becomes the name of his descendants.

Hosea looks back on this night (Hosea 12:3–5), and the Book of Mormon uses wrestling as a figure for mighty prayer (Enos 1:2; Alma 8:10); the note on verse 26 takes these up.

The thread through the chapter

Genesis 32 turns on one Hebrew word, panim, “face.” In verse 20 Jacob, planning how to meet the brother he fled, uses it four times: he will “appease” (literally, “cover”) Esau’s…

Genesis 32 turns on one Hebrew word, panim, “face.” In verse 20 Jacob, planning how to meet the brother he fled, uses it four times: he will “appease” (literally, “cover”) Esau’s face with a present that goes “before” his own face, “afterward I will see his face,” and perhaps Esau “will accept of me,” which in Hebrew is “will lift up my face.” The present itself passes over “before his face” (verse 21, which the KJV renders “before him”). That night, alone, Jacob meets another face. He names the place Peniel, “face of God,” “for I have seen God face to face” (verse 30). The next chapter finishes the thought. When Esau has run to meet him, Jacob says, “I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God” (Gen. 33:10).

The order of events carries the chapter’s argument. Jacob first does everything he can to cover Esau’s face: messengers, a prayer, droves of animals. Only after all of that is sent ahead is he left alone, and the wrestle begins. The text does not explain the order, but the experience “confirmed for Jacob the Lord’s promises and helped prepare him to meet his brother.”

With the face come a name and a blessing. Asked, “What is thy name?” Jacob (“supplanter”) says “Jacob,” and is given “Israel.” He will not let the man go “except thou bless me” (verse 26), and the man “blessed him there” (verse 29).

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–2

The camp of God at Mahanaim

In plain words

Jacob went on his way, and angels of God met him. When he saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” and he named that place Mahanaim (“two camps”).

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

2 And when Jacob saw them, he said, : and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

Verses 3–8

News of Esau

In plain words

Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He told them to say, “Your servant Jacob says: I have lived with Laban until now. I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, and servants, and I am sending this message to my lord so that I may find favor with you.” The messengers came back and said, “We went to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you with four hundred men.” Jacob was terrified and distressed. He divided the people with him, and the flocks, herds, and camels, into two camps, thinking, “If Esau attacks one camp, the other can escape.”

3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto ; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now:

5 And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.

6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and with him.

7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands;

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

Verses 9–12

Jacob’s prayer

In plain words

Jacob prayed, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Lord, who told me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper’: I am not worthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I crossed this Jordan with only my staff, and now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and strike me down, mothers and children together. You said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, too many to count.’”

9 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, , and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee:

10 , and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.

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

12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

Verses 13–21

The present for Esau

In plain words

Jacob stayed there that night and chose from what he had a present for Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty nursing camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. He put them in the hands of his servants, drove by drove, and told them, “Go on ahead of me, and leave a space between the droves.” He told the first, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Whose are you, where are you going, and whose animals are these?’ say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau, and Jacob himself is right behind us.’” He gave the same instructions to the second, the third, and all who followed the droves: “Say this to Esau when you meet him, and add, ‘Your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will cover his face with the present going ahead of me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will receive me.” So the present went on ahead of him, and Jacob spent that night in the camp.

13 And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;

14 Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams,

15 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.

16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove.

17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?

18 Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us.

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

20 And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.

21 So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.

Verses 22–23

Across the Jabbok

In plain words

That same night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the Jabbok at the ford. He took them and sent them across the stream, and sent over everything he had.

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

23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.

Verses 24–32

The wrestle at Peniel

In plain words

Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as they wrestled. The man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked, “What is your name?” “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel, because you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” The man said, “Why do you ask my name?” and he blessed him there. Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “I have seen God face to face, and my life has been spared.” The sun rose as he passed Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip. That is why the Israelites to this day do not eat the sinew of the hip socket: the man touched Jacob’s hip socket at the sinew.

24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.

25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, ; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.

26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, .

27 And he said unto him, .

28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but : for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

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

30 And Jacob called the name of the place : for , and my life is preserved.

31 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.

32 , which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.

Seeing Christ in Genesis 32

Jacob prays to “the God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac” (verse 9), the God the Book of Mormon names as the one who would be “lifted up” and crucified (1 Ne. 19:10; see Gen. 26:24). The chapter’s other link to the Savior is in one word. The verb Jacob uses to “appease” Esau, kapar, “cover” (see the note on verse 20), is also the Hebrew verb of atonement: it is used of the priest who “shall make the atonement” (Lev. 16:32), and with God as the subject it expresses the thought that “God in his sovereignty may himself provide an atonement or covering for men and their sins which could not be provided by men.” Atonement is “the setting ‘at one’ of those who have been estranged.”

One Latter-day Saint scholar reads verse 20 as “I will atone his face” and sets it beside Jacob’s words after the reconciliation, “I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God” (Gen. 33:10), and beside Enos, who after his own wrestle looks to the day he will stand before “my Redeemer” and “see his face with pleasure” (Enos 1:27). That is one scholar’s reading, not a Church teaching.

Worth exploring next

  • Hosea’s reading. Read Hosea 12:2–6 beside verses 24–30.
  • Enos’s wrestle. Enos 1:1–8, then Enos 1:27.
  • The meeting. Gen. 33:1–11, and the name Israel given again at Gen. 35:9–15.
  • Jacob’s own summary. Gen. 48:15–16, and D&C 132:37 on Jacob among the exalted.
  • “Let God Prevail.” President Nelson’s talk (general conference, October 2020) on the name Israel.
  • An especially good essay. “Jacob in the Presence of God” (Religious Studies Center, Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament) follows the whole of Jacob’s life from Bethel to the Jabbok.

Sources & further reading