Chronological Plan

¹Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him.

²And when he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

³Then Jacob sent messengers ahead of himself to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

⁴He commanded them, saying, “This is what you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says the following: “I have resided with Laban, and stayed until now;

⁵and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants; and I have sent messengers to tell my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.” ’ ”

⁶And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, the herds, and the camels, into two companies;

⁸for he said, “If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.”

⁹Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, LORD, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’

¹⁰I am unworthy of all the favor and of all the faithfulness, which You have shown to Your servant; for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.

¹¹Save me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children.

¹²For You said, ‘I will assuredly make you prosper and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be counted.’ ”

¹³So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a gift for his brother Esau:

¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

¹⁵thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

¹⁶Then he placed them in the care of his servants, every flock by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between flocks.”

¹⁷And he commanded the one in front, saying, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?’

¹⁸then you shall say, ‘These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a gift sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.’ ”

¹⁹Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the flocks, saying, “In this way you shall speak to Esau when you find him;

²⁰and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.’ ” For he said, “I will appease him with the gift that goes ahead of me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.”

²¹So the gift passed on ahead of him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.

²²Now he got up that same night and took his two wives, his two female slaves, and his eleven children, and crossed the shallow place of the Jabbok.

²³He took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.

²⁴Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

²⁵When the man saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

²⁶Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”

²⁸Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have contended with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

²⁹And Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there.

³⁰So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”

³¹Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his hip.

³²Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the tendon of the hip which is on the socket of the hip, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip in the tendon of the hip.

¹Then Jacob raised his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel, and the two slave women.

²He put the slave women and their children in front, and Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.

³But he himself passed on ahead of them and bowed down to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

⁴Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

⁵He raised his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, “Who are these with you?” So he said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”

⁶Then the slave women came forward with their children, and they bowed down.

⁷And Leah likewise came forward with her children, and they bowed down; and afterward Joseph came forward with Rachel, and they bowed down.

⁸And he said, “What do you mean by all this company which I have met?” And he said, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.”

⁹But Esau said, “I have plenty, my brother; let what you have be your own.”

¹⁰Jacob said, “No, please, if now I have found favor in your sight, then accept my gift from my hand, for I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably.

¹¹Please accept my gift which has been brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have plenty.” So he urged him, and he accepted it.

¹²Then Esau said, “Let’s journey on and go, and I will go ahead of you.”

¹³But he said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds that are nursing are a matter of concern to me. And if they are driven hard just one day, all the flocks will die.

¹⁴Please let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will proceed at my leisure, at the pace of the cattle that are ahead of me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.”

¹⁵Then Esau said, “Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”

¹⁶So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

¹⁷But Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock; therefore the place is named Succoth.

¹⁸Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped before the city.

¹⁹He bought the plot of land where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money.

²⁰Then he erected there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

¹Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.

²When Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her and raped her.

³But he was deeply attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her.

⁴So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this young woman as a wife.”

⁵Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah; but his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob said nothing until they came in.

⁶Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.

⁷Now the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard about it; and the men were grieved, and they were very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.

⁸But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him in marriage.

⁹And intermarry with us; give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves.

¹⁰So you will live with us, and the land shall be open to you; live and trade in it and acquire property in it.”

¹¹Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your sight, and I will give whatever you tell me.

¹²Demand of me ever so much bridal payment and gift, and I will give whatever you tell me; but give me the girl in marriage.”

¹³But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit, because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

¹⁴They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, that is, give our sister to a man who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us.

¹⁵Only on this condition will we consent to you: if you will become like us, in that every male of you will be circumcised,

¹⁶then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people.

¹⁷But if you do not listen to us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go.”

¹⁸Now their words seemed reasonable to Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son.

¹⁹The young man did not delay to do this, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was more respected than all the household of his father.

²⁰So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the people of their city, saying,

²¹“These men are friendly to us; therefore let them live in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. We will take their daughters in marriage, and give our daughters to them.

²²Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised just as they are circumcised.

²³Will their livestock and their property and all their animals not be ours? Let’s just consent to them, and they will live with us.”

²⁴All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

²⁵Now it came about on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of Jacob’s sons—Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers—each took his sword and came upon the city undetected, and killed every male.

²⁶They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and left.

²⁷Jacob’s sons came upon those killed and looted the city, because they had defiled their sister.

²⁸They took their flocks, their herds, and their donkeys, and that which was in the city and that which was in the field;

²⁹and they captured and looted all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, even everything that was in the houses.

³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me repulsive among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and since my men are few in number, they will band together against me and attack me, and I will be destroyed, I and my household!”

³¹But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”