Genesis 32, Jacob Wrestles

When Jacob left the home of his father Isaac, he was fleeing his brother Esau, headed to Laban's home, seeking a bride.  On the road, at night, he had a dream in which God stood at the top of a long ramp and repeated the promises made previously to Abraham and Isaac. Later Jacob, fleeing Laban, headed back to Canaan and toward Seir. (Mount Seir, traditionally the home of the Edomites, is in southwest Jordan, east and south of Jerusalem. See this Wikipedia page.)  Jacob is retracing a path he took twenty years before.

Genesis 32:1-5, Two camps

Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is the camp of God!" So he named that place Mahanaim.

Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He instructed them: "This is what you are to say to my master Esau: `Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.'"

We are briefly alerted that Jacob met angels. Then the story moves on to the upcoming conflict with Esau.

The name "Mahanaim" means "two camps".  "Two camps" will have several meanings in this story.

Genesis 32:6-8, Four hundred men
When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, "We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him." In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, "If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape."

The Hebrew word machaneh (מַחֲנֶה) means "camp". The NIV translates that word as "group" here but it is essentially the same word as Mahanaim, above. So the concept of "two camps" (Mahanaim) continues.  

Jacob expects violence from Esau. The old feud, caused long ago by Jacob's deceit, still festers. When one is a deceiver, this is always a concern.

Genesis 32:9-12, But You promised!

Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, `Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,' I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.

"Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, `I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'"

Jacob reminds God of His covenant promise.

Throughout the book of Genesis, there is a certain honest selfishness in the way humans deal with God. I find this refreshing.

Genesis 32:13-20, A train of gifts for Esau

He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds." 

He instructed the one in the lead: "When my brother Esau meets you and asks, `To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?' then you are to say, `They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.'"

He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: "You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. And be sure to say, `Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.'" For he thought, "I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me."

Jacob prepares a large train of gifts for Esau, to soften him up.  Each is to arrive, one after the other, hoping to persist in getting Esau's attention and eventual goodwill.

Genesis 32:21-23, Jacob separates from his possessions

So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp. That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.

Jacob finally sends his family and possessions across the Jabbok. He is now alone. The tension of this coming meeting has reached its height.

Genesis 32:24-29, Jacob finally wrestles with God

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.

Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." 

But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

The man asked him, "What is your name?" 

"Jacob," he answered.

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." 

Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." 

But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.

What a strange story. A determined Jacob wrestles with a stranger, a stranger who names him Israel, "one who struggles with God." It would seem, of course, that the stranger (angel?) had more power than demonstrated in this wrestling contest. That supernatural being will not give Jacob his own name, but blesses him.

We will see, throughout the Torah, that God often honors people who "wrestle". He gently chastises Sarah when she doubts His promise of a son; YHWH argues with Moses repeatedly in Exodus. YHWH, although a very scary God, intervenes personally in lives and seems to take pleasure in the conversation.

Genesis 32:30-32, Jacob limps

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 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 touched near the tendon.

The Hebrew word panim (פָנִים) means "face" or "before". Combine that word with the general word "el" for "god" and one has Peniel, the "face of God." Crooked and deceitful Jacob has come face-to-face with God and now has been made literally crooked; he must walk with a limp.  The deceiver has faced numerous reckonings and must grow and mature. (Wrestling with God, whether physically or metaphorically, presumably forces this maturity on one.)

The last verse offers a tribal instruction for remembering this event.

Some Hebrew vocabulary

The Hebrew name Machanayim 

מַחֲניִם

means "two camps." Like most languages, Hebrew has singular and plural forms for its nouns but -- somewhat special to Semitic languages -- it also has a dual ending, which usually means "exactly two." That ending often appears in nouns where there are naturally pairs, such as two eyes, two legs, etc.. But in this chapter, the singular machaneh mentioned in the paragraph after verse 8, above, is dualized to give the place where Jacob meets the angels. The Hebrew dual is an interesting concept; see this article for more.

Some Random Thoughts

Jacob leads a stressful life, borne out of his natural tendency for deception. Occasionally one meets a person who seems to rely on deception. In my professional life I knew one woman who could not trust what others said because (I think) she believed that everyone lied. She certainly was dishonest; she seemed to always be on the make, and because of that, she seemed to believe everyone else was also.  I have also met several rather poisonous people that I would call "gaslighters." They could say one thing in one place and the complete opposite a moment later, and ever deny any deceit. I identified one of these individuals (an assistant pastor!) by eventually taking copious notes and collaborating with a colleague that saw what I saw. This individual did a lot of damage -- but along the way was fired from the pastorate, fired from a teaching job (for preying on high school girls) and divorced by his wife. I don't know if he was ever truly aware of his deceit; there is a certain mental condition, I think, in which one lies even to oneself.

The great deceiver Jacob pays a price, but over time is confronted and (slowly) changed. It is not easy to wrestle with God!

First published Feb 7, 2023; updated Feb 6, 2026