- And Jacob departed for his journey; and
having looked up, he saw the [a] host of God
encamped; and the angels of God met him.
- And Jacob said, when he saw them, This
is the Camp of God; and he called the name
of that place, Encampments.
- And Jacob sent messengers before him
to Esau his brother to the land of Seir, to
the country of Edom.
- And he charged
them, saying, Thus shall ye say to my lord
Esau: Thus saith thy servant Jacob; I have
sojourned with Laban and tarried until
now.
- And there were born to me oxen,
and asses, and sheep, and men-servants and
women-servants; and I sent to tell my lord
Esau, that thy servant might find grace in
thy sight.
- And the messengers returned
to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother
Esau, and lo! he comes to meet thee, and
four hundred men with him.
- And Jacob
was greatly terrified, and was perplexed;
and he divided the people that was with
him, and the cows, and the camels, and the
sheep, into two camps.
- And Jacob said, If
Esau should come to one camp, and smite
it, the other camp shall be in safety.
- And
Jacob said, God of my father Abraam, and
God of my father Isaac, O Lord, thou art
he that said to me, Depart quickly to the
land of thy birth, and I will do thee good.
- Let there be to me a sufficiency of all the
justice and all the truth which thou hast
wrought with thy servant; for with this my
staff I passed over this Jordan, and now
I am become two camps.
- Deliver me from
the hand of my brother, from the hand of
Esau, for I am afraid of him, lest haply he
should come and smite me, and the mother
upon the children.
- But thou saidst, I
will do thee good, and will make thy seed as
the sand of the sea, which shall not be numbered
for multitude.
- And he slept there
that night, and took of the gifts which he
carried with him, and sent out to Esau his
brother,
- two hundred she-goats, twenty
he-goats, two hundred sheep, twenty rams,
- milch camels, and their foals, thirty, forty
kine, ten bulls, twenty asses, and ten colts.
- And he gave them to his servants each
drove apart; and he said to his servants, Go
on before me, and put a space between drove
and drove.
- And he charged the first, saying,
If Esau my brother meet thee, and he
ask thee, saying, Whose art thou? and
whither wouldest thou go, and whose are
these possessions advancing before thee?
- Thou shalt say, Thy servant Jacob's; he
hath sent gifts to my lord Esau, and lo! he
is behind us.
- And he charged the first
and the second and the third, and all that
went before him after these flocks, saying,
Thus shall ye speak to Esau when ye find
him;
- and ye shall say, Behold thy servant
Jacob comes after us. For he said, I will
propitiate his countenance with the gifts
going before his presence, and afterwards I
will behold his face, for peradventure he will
accept [b] me.
- So the presents went on before
him, but he himself lodged that night in
the camp.
- And he rose up in that night,
and took his two wives and his two servant-maids,
and his eleven children, and crossed
over the ford of Jaboch.
- And he took
them, and passed over the torrent, and
brought over all his possessions.
- And Jacob was left alone; and a man
wrestled with him till the morning.
- And
he saw that he prevailed not against him;
and he touched the broad part of his thigh,
and the broad part of Jacob's thigh was
benumbed in his wrestling with him.
- And
he said to him, Let me go, for the day has
dawned; but he said, I will not let thee go,
except thou bless me.
- And he said to
him, What is thy name? and he answered,
Jacob.
- And he said to him, Thy name
shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel
shall be thy name; for thou hast prevailed
with God, and shalt be mighty with men.
- And Jacob asked and said, Tell me thy
name; and he said, Wherefore dost thou
ask after my name? and he blessed him
there.
- And Jacob called the name of that
place, the Face of God; for, said he, I have
seen God face to face, and my life was preserved.
- And the sun rose upon him, when
he passed the Face of God; and he halted
upon his thigh.
- Therefore the children of
Israel will by no means eat of the sinew
which was benumbed, which is on the broad
part of the thigh, until this day, because the
angel touched the broad part of the thigh of
Jacob -- even the sinew which was benumbed.
[a] Gr. camp
[b] Gr. my face.
[English translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee
Brenton (1807-1862) originally published by Samuel Bagster & Sons,
Ltd., London, 1851]