19. FACING THE MISDEEDS OF YOUTH

Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau, to the land of Seir, which is the territory of the Edomites. And he gave this command to them, 'Say to my lord Esau: "Your servant Jacob declares, I have lived with Laban and have stayed until now. I have oxen and asses, flocks and male and female slaves, and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may win your favor. The messengers returned to Jacob with the report, 'We came to your brother Esau, even as he was coming to meet you with four hundred men.'

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Then Jacob was greatly alarmed and distressed. So he divided the people that were with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two companies and said, 'If Esau comes to the one company and attacks and destroys it, then the company which is left can escape.'

Jacob also prayed: 'O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah who saidst to me, “Return to thy country, and to thy kinsmen, and I will do well by thee," I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and all the faithfulness which thou hast shown thy servant, for with only my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear that he will come and attack me, the mother with the children.'

Then Jacob took from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female asses and ten young asses. These he gave into the charge of his servants,

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each drove by itself, and said to them, 'Pass over before me and leave a space between the droves.' He also gave those in front this command: 'When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, "To whom do you belong? and where are you going? and whose are these before you?" then you shall say, "To your servant Jacob; it is a present sent by him to my lord Esau; and he himself is just behind us.' Jacob also commanded the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, 'In this way you shall speak to Esau when you find him, and you shall say, "Moreover your servant Jacob is just behind us. For he said to himself, 'I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and then when I meet him, perhaps he will receive me.' So the present passed over before him, but he himself spent that night in the camp.

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Then he rose up that night and took his two wives, his two slave wives, and his eleven children, and sent them over the ford of the Jabbok.

Jacob was left alone, and one wrestled with him until break of day. When he saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the socket of his thigh and the socket of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled with him. Then he said, 'Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.' But Jacob replied, 'I will not let thee go except thou bless me.' So he said to him, 'What is your name?' He replied, 'Jacob.' Then he said, 'Your name shall be no longer Jacob, but Israel [Striver with God]; for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.' And Jacob asked him, 'Tell me, I pray thee, thy name.' And he said, 'Why do you ask my name?' And he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Penuel [Face of God], for he said, 'I have seen God face to face and my life has been preserved.'

But the sun rose as soon as he had passed beyond Penuel, and he limped upon his thigh. This is why to this day the Israelites do not eat the hip muscle, which is at the socket of the thigh, for he touched the socket of Jacob's thigh on the hip muscle.

20. THE RECONCILIATION OF TWO BROTHERS

When Jacob looked up, he saw Esau coming with four hundred men. Then he assigned the children to Leah and to Rachel and to the two slave wives. And he put the slave wives and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear. Then he himself passed over before them, and he bowed to the ground seven times, as he approached his brother. Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept. When Esau looked up and saw the women and the children, he said, 'Who are these with you?' Jacob answered, 'The children whom God has graciously given your servant.' Then the slave wives, together with their children, approached and bowed down. Leah also and her children approached and bowed down, and afterwards Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.

Esau said, 'What do you mean by all this company which I met?' Jacob replied, "To win the favor of my lord.' Esau said, 'I have enough, my brother; keep what you have.' But Jacob replied, 'No, if now I have won your favor, receive my offering from my hand; for I have looked upon your face as one looks upon the face of God, and you have regarded me favorably. Take, I beg of you, my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt generously with me, and I have enough.' So he urged Esau until he took it.

Then Esau said, 'Let us set out on our way, and let me go before you.' But Jacob replied, 'My lord knows that the children are delicate, and I have flocks and herds with their young; if they are overdriven one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord, I beg of you, pass over before his servant, and I will proceed leisurely by stages according to the pace of the cattle which I am driving and of the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.' Then Esau said, 'Let me at least leave with you some of the people who are with me.' But Jacob replied, 'What need is there? Let me only enjoy the favor of my lord.' So Esau turned back that day on his way to Seir.

Then God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel and stay there and build an altar to God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.' So Jacob and all the people who were with him went to Bethel which is in. the land of Canaan. But when they set out from Bethel and were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel felt the pains of childbirth. When she was suffering intensely the attendant said to her, 'Do not be afraid, for now you will have another son.' But as her life was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Benoni [Son of my sorrow]; but his father called him Benjamin [Son of the right hand]. So Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), and Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar on Rachel's grave, which stands until this day.

THE JOSEPH NARRATIVES

21. THE VICTIM OF FAVORITISM

Jacob made his home in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived as a resident alien. Joseph at the age of seventeen was a shepherd with his brothers, but he aroused the anger of the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's slave wives, for he brought a bad report about them to their father. Now Jacob loved his son Joseph, who was born in his old age; and he made him a long robe with sleeves. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his other sons, they hated him and could not speak to him in a friendly manner.

Joseph also had a dream and told it to his brothers, and they hated him still more. This is what he said to them, 'Hear, if you will, this dream which I have had; for as we were binding sheaves in the field, my sheaf rose up and remained standing, while your sheaves came around and bowed down to my sheaf.' His brothers said to him, 'Will you surely be king over us? Will you indeed rule us?' So they hated him still more because of his dreams and his words.

Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, 'I have had another dream, and it seemed to me that the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me.' But when he told it to his father and his brothers, his father reproved him and said, 'What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed