Jacob returns and wrestles with God
Patriarchs · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 3006cc204bb16068 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: not assigned.
Jacob leaves secretly with his family and flocks; Laban pursues him to Gilead, where they make a covenant at a heap of stones. Afraid of Esau, Jacob sends gifts ahead, and at the Jabbok he wrestles through the night with a man who renames him Israel. Esau runs to meet and embrace him. Jacob settles at Succoth and then Shechem, where he buys land and builds an altar.
Primary Scripture
31:17 Then Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on camels,
31:18 and he drove all his livestock before him, along with all the possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land in Canaan.
31:19 Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
31:20 Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away.
31:21 So he fled with all his possessions, crossed the Euphrates, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.
31:22 On the third day Laban was informed that Jacob had fled.
31:23 So he took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.
31:24 But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
31:25 Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there as well.
31:26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and carried off my daughters like captives of war!
31:27 Why did you run away secretly and deceive me, without even telling me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and harps.
31:28 But you did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. Now you have done a foolish thing.
31:29 I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
31:30 Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”
31:31 “I was afraid,” Jacob answered, “for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.
31:32 If you find your gods with anyone here, he shall not live! In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself if anything is yours, and take it back.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.
31:33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.
31:34 Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. And Laban searched everything in the tent but found nothing.
31:35 Rachel said to her father, “Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period.” So Laban searched but could not find the household idols.
31:36 Then Jacob became incensed and challenged Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “For what sin of mine have you so hotly pursued me?
31:37 You have searched all my goods! Have you found anything that belongs to you? Put it here before my brothers and yours, that they may judge between the two of us.
31:38 I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flock.
31:39 I did not bring you anything torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or night.
31:40 As it was, the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
31:41 Thus for twenty years I have served in your household—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks—and you have changed my wages ten times!
31:42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”
31:43 But Laban answered Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, these sons are my sons, and these flocks are my flocks! Everything you see is mine! Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine or the children they have borne?
31:44 Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between you and me.”
31:45 So Jacob picked out a stone and set it up as a pillar,
31:46 and he said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and made a mound, and there by the mound they ate.
31:47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.
31:48 Then Laban declared, “This mound is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore the place was called Galeed.
31:49 It was also called Mizpah, because Laban said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are absent from each other.
31:50 If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, although no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”
31:51 Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is the mound, and here is the pillar I have set up between you and me.
31:52 This mound is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this mound to harm you, and you will not go past this mound and pillar to harm me.
31:53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.
31:54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. And after they had eaten, they spent the night on the mountain.
31:55 Early the next morning, Laban got up and kissed his grandchildren and daughters and blessed them. Then he left to return home.
32:1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
32:2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.
32:3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
32:4 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.
32:5 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.’”
32:6 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.”
32:7 In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.
32:8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape.”
32:9 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,’
32:10 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.
32:11 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.
32:12 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.’”
32:13 Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau:
32:14 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams,
32:15 30 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.
32:16 He entrusted them to his servants in separate herds and told them, “Go on ahead of me, and keep some distance between the herds.”
32:17 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?’
32:18 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.’”
32:19 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.
32:20 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.”
32:21 So Jacob’s gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.
32:22 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.
32:23 He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.
32:24 So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
32:25 When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.
32:26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
32:27 “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.
32:28 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.”
32:29 And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.
32:30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
32:31 The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.
32:32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was struck near that tendon.
33:1 Now 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.
33:2 He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.
33:3 But Jacob himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
33:4 Esau, however, ran to him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.
33:5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?” Jacob answered, “These are the children God has graciously given your servant.”
33:6 Then the maidservants and their children approached and bowed down.
33:7 Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.
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.
33:9 “I already have plenty, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what belongs to you.”
33:10 But Jacob insisted, “No, please! If I have found favor in your sight, then receive this gift from my hand. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me favorably.
33:11 Please accept my gift that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.” So Jacob pressed him until he accepted.
33:12 Then Esau said, “Let us be on our way, and I will go ahead of you.”
33:13 But Jacob replied, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and I must care for sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard for even a day, all the animals will die.
33:14 Please let my lord go ahead of his servant. I will continue on slowly, at a comfortable pace for the livestock and children, until I come to my lord at Seir.”
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.”
33:16 So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir,
33:17 but Jacob went on to Succoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock; that is why the place was called Succoth.
33:18 After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.
33:19 And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.
33:20 There he set up an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.
Related Scripture
Hosea recalls Jacob struggling with the angel.
Location evidence
Event map marker: Proposed site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.69211, 32.187016]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Shechem: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.281944, 32.213611]. Classification source: editorial.
Mizpah of Gilead: Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.77702, 32.118511]. Classification source: editorial.
Mahanaim: Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.68667, 32.18575]. Classification source: editorial.
Peniel: Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.69211, 32.187016]. Classification source: editorial.
Succoth: Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.62118, 32.1966]. Classification source: editorial.
For the class
Jacob comes away blessed but limping. What does that say about meeting God?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/patriarchs.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm