Esau Comes with Four Hundred Men

Genesischapter 32

32 verses · BSB310 cross-references outward · 316 inwardGenesis book hub →

Speaks with:Genesis 33×6 Genesis 32×4 Hosea 12×3 2 Corinthians 12×3 Genesis 35×2 Genesis 28×2

Jacob Wrestles with the Angel — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866) — public domain

Chapter summary

Wrestling at Peniel.

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Wrestling at Peniel. News comes that Esau is approaching with four hundred men. Jacob divides his company, sends waves of gifts ahead, and prays. Alone by the ford Jabbok, a man wrestles with him till the breaking of the day. Jacob's thigh is dislocated. ‘I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.’ His name is changed from Jacob (supplanter) to Israel (one who strives with God and has prevailed). He names the place Peniel — ‘I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved’. He limps into the sunrise. Hosea 12:4 and Calvin both read this as conversion by conflict — a blessing that leaves a scar.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Law · Moses — Genesis overview

A. 1–8 Esau Comes with Four Hundred Men
B. 9–12 Jacob Prays for Deliverance
C. 13–21 A Present Sent Ahead in Droves
D. 22–32 Wrestling Until the Break of Day

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, “You are to say to my master Esau, ‘Your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now.

5 I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants, and maidservants. I have sent this message to inform my master, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”

6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you—he and four hundred men with him.”

7 In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.

8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape.”

9 Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’

10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.

11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me.

12 But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”

13 Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau:

14 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams,

15 30 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.

16 He entrusted them to his servants in separate herds and told them, “Go on ahead of me, and keep some distance between the herds.”

17 He instructed the one in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong, where are you going, and whose animals are these before you?’

18 then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift, sent to my lord Esau. And behold, Jacob is behind us.’”

19 He also instructed the second, the third, and all those following behind the herds: “When you meet Esau, you are to say the same thing to him.

20 You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease Esau with the gift that is going before me. After that I can face him, and perhaps he will accept me.”

21 So Jacob’s gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.

22 During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

23 He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.

24 So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

25 When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.

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 “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”

29 And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.

30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

31 The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.

32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon which is at the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was struck near that tendon.

Continue: Genesis 33 →

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The five questions

Who

Adam Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph

What

Prayer

Where

Eden Ur Canaan Egypt Mount Sinai

The Exodus route, mapped →

When

From creation to the plains of Moab — the world's beginning to c. 1406 BC.

Why

Everything else in the Bible stands on these five books: the promise of the Seed (Genesis 3:15), the covenant with Abraham, the Passover lamb, and the law that shows why a Redeemer must come. More on Torah →

Top cross-references

Genesis 334 verses
- Genesis 33:1Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants.
- Genesis 33:3But Jacob himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
- Genesis 33:8“What do you mean by sending this whole company to meet me?” asked Esau. “To find favor in your sight, my lord,” Jacob answered.
- Genesis 33:15“Let me leave some of my people with you,” Esau said. But Jacob replied, “Why do that? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”
- Read Genesis 33 →
Genesis 324 verses
- Genesis 32:4He instructed them, “You are to say to my master Esau, ‘Your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now.
- Genesis 32:8He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape.”
- Genesis 32:20You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease Esau with the gift that is going before me. After that I can face him, and perhaps he will accept me.”
- Genesis 32:28Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”
- Read Genesis 32 →
Hosea 122 verses
- Hosea 12:3In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel, and in his vigor he wrestled with God.
- Hosea 12:4Yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought His favor; he found Him at Bethel and spoke with Him there—
- Read Hosea 12 →
2 Corinthians 122 verses
- 2 Corinthians 12:7or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
- 2 Corinthians 12:8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
- Read 2 Corinthians 12 →
Genesis 352 verses
- Genesis 35:3Then let us arise and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to God, who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone.”
- Genesis 35:10And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.” So God named him Israel.
- Read Genesis 35 →
Genesis 281 verse
- Genesis 28:13And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.
- Read Genesis 28 →
Proverbs 182 verses
- Proverbs 18:16A man’s gift opens doors for him, and brings him before great men.
- Proverbs 18:19An offended brother is harder to win than a fortified city, and disputes are like the bars of a castle.
- Read Proverbs 18 →
Genesis 432 verses
- Genesis 43:11Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and carry them down as a gift for the man—a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.
- Genesis 43:26When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought, and they bowed to the ground before him.
- Read Genesis 43 →

310 outbound · 316 inbound

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.

Words in this chapter

Connections from this chapter

A new name given1

Jacob -> Israel ('he strives with God', embeds El); names the nation, feeds the El-theophoric thread.

Genesis 35:10 →

And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be…

Gen 32:28; 35:10; Hos 12:3-4

God appearing1

'The LORD appeared' to Abraham by the oaks (terebinths) of Mamre <-> Jacob 'I have seen God face to face' at Peniel; the tree of Mamre is a named-place theophany station. Justin (Dial. 56) reads the Son + two angels; Augustine (City of God 16.29) three created angels - present both, framework-labeled.

Genesis 18:1 →

Then the LORD appeared to Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre in the heat of the day, while he was sitting at…

Gen 18:1; 32:30; Justin Martyr Dial. 56 (PD, CCEL anf01); Augustine City of God 16.29 (PD, NPNF)

The world behind this chapter

Genesis 32

When

The patriarchal age · c. 1909 BC (traditional dating)

Where

Mahanaim and the ford of the Jabbok, a gorge running west into the Jordan

Who first heard it

Israel in the wilderness — the nation that carries the name given on this riverbank

The history

The gift sent ahead is diplomatic tribute, and it is enormous: hundreds of goats, sheep, camels, cattle, and donkeys, sent in separate droves with a space between each so the impression lands wave after wave. Sending gifts ahead of an unwanted meeting, with servants briefed on what to say, is exactly how a weaker party approached a stronger one.

Esau's four hundred men could be an escort or a war band, and Jacob has no way to know which. He splits his camp so that half might survive — ordinary caravan prudence in dangerous country.

The Jabbok cuts a deep gorge; its ford is a natural boundary and a natural place to be alone after sending everyone across. Jacob is left with nothing but himself, which is the point.

The wrestling leaves him permanently lamed at the hip socket, and renamed. A new name from a superior was a change of status; from now on the man who grabbed at heels is called one who strives with God. The chapter ends with a food custom Israel still kept, tied to that injury.

What it meant to them

The nation's own name came from this night. They were not the sons of a winner; they were the sons of a man who limped away from a fight he lost and held on until he was blessed.

Jacob's prayer — I am not worthy of the least of all your steadfast love — is the first prayer in Genesis to plead a promise back to God, and it became the shape of Israel's praying.

Sources cited

Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch

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