Listening A1: Genesis Chapter 1 - Genesis 32

Jacob sent people before him to see Esau his brother in the land of Seir near Edom.

He told them to say, "This is what your servant Jacob says: I have stayed with Laban and I am here now."

He said, "I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, men who work, and women who work."

"I sent to tell you so I can find your kindness."

The people came back to Jacob and said, "We met your brother Esau and he is coming to meet you with four hundred men."

Jacob was very afraid and sad.

He divided the people with him, the animals, and the camels into two groups.

He said, "If Esau comes to one group and hits it, the other group can run away."

Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Lord, you told me to go back to my home and my family and you said you will do good to me."

"I am not worthy of your love and truth, because I crossed this Jordan River with my staff and now I have two groups."

"Please save me from my brother Esau, because I fear he will come and hit me, my wife, and my children."

"You said, ‘I will do good to you and make your children many like the sand by the sea that cannot be counted.'"

He stayed there that night and took a gift he had for Esau his brother.

He took two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred female sheep and twenty male sheep, thirty milk camels with their babies, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten baby donkeys.

He gave the animals to his servants, each group by itself, and told them to go ahead and leave space between the groups.

He told the first group, "When Esau my brother meets you and asks who you are, where you go, and whose animals these are, say, ‘They are Jacob your servant's gift for my lord Esau, and look, he is behind us.'"

He told the second and third groups and all who followed the animals to say the same when they see Esau, and to say Jacob is behind us.

He said, "I will make him happy with the gift before me, and then I will see his face; maybe he will accept me."

So the gift went ahead, and Jacob stayed with the people that night.

He got up that night and took his two wives, his two helper women, and his eleven children and crossed the Jabbok river.

He sent them and all he had across the water.

Jacob stayed alone, and a man fought with him until morning.

When the man saw he could not win, he touched Jacob's thigh and it hurt.

He said, "Let me go, the day is coming." And Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

The man asked, "What is your name?" Jacob said, "Jacob."

The man said, "Your name will not be Jacob but Israel, because you have fought with God and with people and you won."

Jacob asked, "Please tell me your name." The man said, "Why do you ask?" and he blessed Jacob there.

Jacob said the place name Peniel, because he said, "I saw God face to face, and I am alive."

The sun came up as he left Peniel, and he walked with a limp.

That is why the people of Israel do not eat the part near the hip, because the man touched Jacob's hip there.