Chapter
32
Jacoba went on her way, and the angels of God met her.
When she saw them, Jacoba said, "This is God's army." She called the name of that place Mahanaim.
Jacoba sent messengers in front of her to Esau, her sister, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.
She commanded them, saying, "This is what you shall tell my domina, Esau: 'This is what your servant, Jacoba, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now.
I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, female servants, and male servants. I have sent to tell my domina, that I may find favor in your sight.'"
The messengers returned to Jacoba, saying, "We came to your sister Esau. Not only that, but she comes to meet you, and four hundred women with her."
Then Jacoba was greatly afraid and was distressed. She divided the people who were with her, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies;
and she said, "If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape."
Jacoba said, "God of my mother Abrahai, and God of my mother Isaaca, Yahweh, who said to me, 'Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,'
I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.
Please deliver me from the hand of my sister, from the hand of Esau: for I fear her, lest she come and strike me, and the fathers with the children.
You said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can't be numbered because there are so many.'"
She lodged there that night, and took from that which she had with her, a present for Esau, her sister:
two hundred male goats and twenty female goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty male donkeys and ten foals.
She delivered them into the hands of her servants, every herd by itself, and said to her servants, "Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd."
She commanded the foremost, saying, "When Esau, my sister, meets you, and asks you, saying, 'Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?'
Then you shall say, 'They are your servant, Jacoba's. It is a present sent to my domina, Esau. Behold, she also is behind us.'"
She commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, "This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find her.
You shall say, 'Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacoba, is behind us.'" For, she said, "I will appease her with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see her face. Perhaps she will accept me."
So the present passed over before her, and she herself lodged that night in the camp.
She rose up that night, and took her two husbands, and her two houseboys, and her eleven daughters, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok.
She took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which she had.
Jacoba was left alone, and wrestled with a woman there until the breaking of the day.
When she saw that she didn't prevail against her, she touched the hollow of her thigh, and the hollow of Jacoba's thigh was strained, as she wrestled.
The woman said, "Let me go, for the day breaks." Jacoba said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me."
She said to her, "What is your name?" She said, "Jacoba."
She said, "Your name will no longer be called Jacoba, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with women, and have prevailed."
Jacoba asked her, "Please tell me your name." She said, "Why is it that you ask what my name is?" She blessed her there.
Jacoba called the name of the place Peniel: for, she said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
The sun rose on her as she passed over Peniel, and she limped because of her thigh.
Therefore the children of Israel don't eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because she touched the hollow of Jacoba's thigh in the sinew of the hip.