Jacob was thinking, "If Esau comes to one group and attacks it, then the remaining group may escape."

Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, O God of my father Isaac, O LORD, you who told me, "Return to your country and to your relatives and I'll cause things to go well for you.'

Jacob spent the night there. Out of everything that he had brought with him, he chose a gift for his brother Esau

then you are to reply, "We're from your servant Jacob. The herds are a gift. He's sending them to my master, Esau. Look! There he is, coming along behind us.'"

You are to tell him, "Look! Your servant Jacob is coming along behind us.'"

Jacob was thinking, "I'll pacify him with the presents that are being sent ahead of me. Then, when I meet him, perhaps he'll accept me." So the presents went ahead of him, while he spent that night in the camp.

And so Jacob was left alone, and he struggled with a man until daybreak.

When the man realized that he hadn't yet won the struggle, he injured the socket of Jacob's thigh, dislocating it as he wrestled with him,

and said, "Let me go, because the dawn has come." "I won't let you go," Jacob replied, "unless you bless me."

Then the man asked him, "What's your name?" "Jacob," he responded

"Your name won't be Jacob anymore," the man replied, "but Israel, because you exerted yourself against both God and men, and you've emerged victorious."

"Please," Jacob inquired, "Tell me your name." But he asked, "Why are you asking about my name?" And he blessed Jacob there.

Jacob would later call that place Peniel, because "I saw God face to face, but my life was spared."

The sun was rising above Jacob as he crossed over from Peniel, limping due to his wounded thigh.

Therefore, to this day the Israelis do not eat the hip tendon that connects to the thigh socket, because he had injured the socket of the thigh where the tendon connected to Jacob's hip.

When Jacob looked off in the distance, there was Esau coming toward him, accompanied by 400 men! So Jacob divided Leah's children, Rachel, and the children of the two servants into separate groups.

Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him. Then he fell on his neck and kissed him. And they wept.

Then Esau asked, "What are all these livestock for?" "To solicit favor from you, sir," Jacob answered.

"Please," Jacob implored him, "don't refuse. If I'm to receive favor from you, then receive this gift from me, because seeing your face is like seeing the face of God, since you have favorably accepted me.

So receive my blessing, which has been sent to you, since God has been gracious to me. Besides, I have enough." Because Jacob kept pressing him, Esau accepted the gifts.

"Sir, you know that the children are frail," Jacob suggested, "and the ewes and cows with me are still nursing their young. If they're driven even for a day, the entire flock will die.

"Why do that?" Jacob asked. "I've already found favor in your sight, sir." So Esau set out that very day back on his way to Seir,

but Jacob set out for Succoth, built a house there, and constructed some cattle shelters. He named the place Succoth.

After Jacob had arrived safely from Paddan-aram, he entered the city of Shechem, which was located in the territory of Canaan, and encamped facing that city.

Some time later, Dinah, Leah's daughter whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land.

He was attached to Dinah, Jacob's daughter, since he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.

Because Jacob learned that Shechem had dishonored his daughter Dinah while his sons were still out with their cattle on the open range, he remained silent until they returned.

Meanwhile, Shechem's father Hamor arrived to talk to Jacob.

Just then Jacob's sons arrived from the field. When they heard what had happened, they were distraught with grief and livid with anger toward Shechem, because he had committed a disgraceful deed in Israel by forcing Jacob's daughter to have sex, an act that never should have happened.

But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceptively, because Shechem had dishonored their sister Dinah.

so the young man did not delay the matter any further, since he was delighted with Jacob's daughter.

Three days later, while they were still in pain, Jacob's sons Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah's brothers, each grabbed a sword and entered the city unannounced, intending to kill all the males.

Jacob's other sons came along afterward and plundered the city where their sister had been defiled,

Then Jacob told Simeon and Levi, "You have certainly stirred up trouble for me! You've made me despised by the Canaanites and the Perizzites who live in this territory. Because I have only a few men with me, they're going to gather themselves together and attack me until I am totally destroyed, along with my entire household!"

Later, God told Jacob, "Get up, move to Bethel, and live there. Build an altar to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau."

Jacob announced to his household and to everyone with him, "Throw away the foreign gods that you've kept among you, purify yourselves, and change your clothes.

So they handed over to Jacob all their foreign gods on which they had been depending, along with the rings that they were wearing on their ears. Jacob buried them under the oak that grew near Shechem.

As they set out on their journey, because the people who lived in the cities around them feared God, they did not pursue Jacob's sons.

Eventually, Jacob and everyone with him arrived at Luz (also called Beth-el) in the territory of Canaan.

God appeared again to Jacob after he had arrived from Paddan-aram and blessed him.

Then God told him, "Your name is Jacob. No longer are you to be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel."

Jacob erected a pillar of stone at that very place where God had spoken to him. He poured a drink offering over it, anointed it with oil,

Just before she died, Rachel called her son's name Ben-oni, but his father Jacob named him Benjamin.

Jacob erected a pillar over her grave, and that pillar stands over Rachel's grave to this day.

Jacob continued his travels, and eventually pitched his tent facing Migdal Eder.

But while Israel lived in that land, Reuben went inside his father's tent and had sexual relations with his father's concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Now Jacob had twelve sons.

Leah's sons were Reuben (Jacob's first-born), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

Leah's servant Zilpah's sons were Gad and Asher. These were Jacob's sons who were born to him while he lived in Paddan-aram.

So Jacob reached his father Isaac at Mamre, in Kiriath-arba (also known as Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had lived.

when he died and joined his ancestors at a ripe old age. Then his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Later, Esau took his wives, his children, everyone in his household, his livestock, all his animals, and all his possessions that he had acquired in the territory of Canaan and moved far away from his brother Jacob,

Jacob continued to live in the land they were occupying, where his father had journeyed in the territory of Canaan.

This is a record of Jacob's descendants.

As it was, when Joseph arrived where his brothers were, they stripped off the tunic that Jacob had given him that is, the richly-embroidered tunic that he was wearing.

So Jacob tore his clothes, dressed himself in sackcloth, and then mourned many days for his son.

Eventually, Jacob observed that there was grain in Egypt, so he asked his sons, "Why do you keep on staring at one another?

Jacob would not send Joseph's brother Benjamin to accompany them, because he was saying, "I'm afraid that he'll come to some kind of harm."

As soon as they had returned to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him everything that had happened to them.

Their father Jacob told them, "You're causing me to lose my children! Joseph is gone. Now Simeon is gone, and you're planning to take Benjamin, too. Everything's going against me!"

But Jacob replied, "My son isn't going back with you, since his brother is dead and he's the only one left. If something should harm him as you travel, then it'll be death for me and my sad, gray hair!"

As a result, when Jacob's family was beginning to eat the last of the grain that they had brought back from Egypt, their father Jacob told his sons, "Go back to Egypt and buy us some food."

So Joseph's brothers left Egypt and returned to the land of Canaan and to their father Jacob,

where they informed their father, "Joseph is still alive! As a matter of fact, he's ruling the entire land of Egypt." But Jacob didn't believe them, because he had become cynical.

However, as soon as his sons had told him everything Joseph had said, and after he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent along to carry him, their father Jacob's spirit was encouraged.

God spoke to Israel through night visions, addressing him, "Jacob! Jacob!" "Here I am!" Jacob replied.

So Jacob got up and left Beer-sheba, and Israel's sons carried their father Jacob, their little ones, and their wives in the transport wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry them.

They took their livestock and their household property that they had acquired in the land of Canaan and traveled to Egypt. Jacob and all of his descendants went with him

Here's a list of the names of Israel's sons, that is, of Jacob and his sons who moved to Egypt: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn;

These were all sons from Leah, whom she bore for Jacob in Paddan-aram, along with his daughter Dinah. He had 33 sons and daughters.

These were all sons from Zilpah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Leah. She bore these sixteen children for Jacob.

Jacob's wife Rachel's sons were Joseph and Benjamin.

These were all the sons of Rachel, who were born for Jacob fourteen in all.

These were sons of Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel. She bore these children for Jacob seven in all.

All of these people, who belonged to Jacob's family, traveled to Egypt. All of Jacob's direct descendants, not including his sons' wives, numbered 66 persons in all.

Joseph had two sons born to him in Egypt, and all of Jacob's household who went to Egypt numbered 70.

Jacob sent Judah ahead of them to meet with Joseph, who would be guiding them to Goshen, and so they arrived.

Joseph prepared his chariot and went to meet his father Israel in Goshen. As soon as Jacob appeared in his presence, he embraced him and wept for a long time as he held on to him.

Later, Joseph brought his father Jacob to Pharaoh and introduced him. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

"How old are you?" Pharaoh asked Jacob.

"I'm 130 years old," Jacob replied. "My years have turned out to be few and unpleasant, but I haven't yet reached the age my ancestors did during their travels on earth."

Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and then left the throne room.

Some time later, somebody informed Joseph, "Your father is ill!" So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him to visit Jacob.

As soon as Jacob was informed, "Look! Your son Joseph has come to visit you," Israel rallied his strength and sat up in bed.

Jacob reminded Joseph, "God Almighty revealed himself to me at Luz in Canaan and blessed me.

"These are my sons," Joseph replied. "God gave them to me here in Egypt." "Please bring them close to me," Jacob said, "so I can bless them."

That very day, Jacob blessed them with this blessing: "By you Israel will extend this blessing: "May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh!'"

After this, Jacob called his sons together and told them, "Assemble yourselves around me so I can tell you all what is going to happen to you in the last days.

"Gather together and listen, you children of Jacob. Listen to your father Israel."

Their anger is cursed, because it is so fierce, as is their vehemence, because it is so cruel. I will separate them throughout Jacob's territory and disperse them throughout Israel."

nevertheless his bow remained steady and his arms kept in shape by the strength of Jacob's Mighty One, in the name of the Shepherd, Israel's Rock,

In his last words, Jacob issued this set of instructions to them all: "I'm about to join our ancestors. Bury me alongside my ancestors in the cave in the field that used to belong to Ephron the Hittite.

After concluding this set of instructions to his sons, Jacob tucked his feet up into bed, quit breathing, and was gathered to his ancestors.

Later, Joseph told his brothers, "I'm going to die soon, but God will certainly provide for you and bring you up from this land to the land that he promised with an oath to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

These are the names of the Israelis who entered Egypt with Jacob, each one having come with his family:

All those who descended from Jacob totaled 75 persons. Now Joseph was already in Egypt.

God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Then he said, "I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

God also told Moses, "Tell the Israelis, "The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

"Go and gather the elders of Israel. Tell them, "The LORD God of your ancestors, appeared to me the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and he said, "I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt.

God said, "I've done this so that they may believe that the LORD God of their ancestors the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you."