Genesis · 32 verses
Genesis 32
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
At daybreak, Jacob has a new name, a damaged hip, and no answer to the one question he most plainly asked. The man who wrestled him would not say his name, yet Jacob named the place Peniel because he believed he had seen God face to face.
Two camps, and a very large giftvv. 1–21
Angels meet Jacob on the road, and he calls the place Mahanaim, “the camp of God.” Then comes news that Esau is approaching with four hundred men, which sends Jacob into the brisk logistics of fear: two camps, a prayer, and a gift so large it requires its own procession. Goats, sheep, camels, cattle, and donkeys are sent ahead in separate herds, each servant instructed to say that Jacob is right behind them. It is a diplomatic arrangement with hooves.
The wrestler who would not give his namevv. 22–32
In the night Jacob sends his family and possessions across the Jabbok, then remains alone. A man wrestles with him until daybreak, strikes his hip out of joint, and—finding that Jacob still will not release him—asks to be let go because morning has arrived. Jacob will trade release only for a blessing. Asked his name, he answers Jacob; told that his name will now be Israel, he asks the man’s name in return. The answer is a question, followed by a blessing and a remarkably evasive silence. Jacob names the place Peniel, while the sun rises over a limping man. The chapter then gives the injury a long afterlife at the dinner table: the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the hip socket.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Gen 32:1Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
Gen 32:2When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.
Gen 32:3Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
Gen 32:4He 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.
Gen 32:5I 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.’”
Gen 32:6When 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.”
Gen 32:7In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.
Gen 32:8He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape.”
Gen 32:9Then 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,’
Gen 32:10I 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.
Gen 32:11Please 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.
Gen 32:12But 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.’”
Gen 32:13Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau:
Gen 32:14200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams,
Gen 32:1530 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.
Gen 32:16He entrusted them to his servants in separate herds and told them, “Go on ahead of me, and keep some distance between the herds.”
Gen 32:17He 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?’
Gen 32:18then 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.’”
Gen 32:19He 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.
Gen 32:20You 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.”
Gen 32:21So Jacob’s gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.
Gen 32:22During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
Gen 32:23He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.
Gen 32:24So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
Gen 32:25When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.
Gen 32:26Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
Gen 32:27“What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.
Gen 32:28Then 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.”
Gen 32:29And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.
Gen 32:30So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
Gen 32:31The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.
Gen 32:32Therefore 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.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 308 passages were voted onto 27 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 24Hosea 12:3–5In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel, and in his vigor he wrestled with God.
- 26Hosea 12:4Yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought His favor; he found Him at Bethel and spoke with Him there—
- 28Revelation 2:17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.
- 24Ephesians 6:12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
- 28Genesis 35:10And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.” So God named him Israel.
- 26Psalms 115:12–13The LORD is mindful of us; He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron;
- 28Isaiah 62:2–4Nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.
- 24Luke 13:24“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.
- 24Genesis 32:28Then 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.”
- 262 Corinthians 12:8–9Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
- 9Genesis 31:42If 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.”
- 252 Corinthians 12:7–9or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
- 261 Chronicles 4:10And Jabez called out to the God of Israel, “If only You would bless me and enlarge my territory! May Your hand be with me and keep me from harm, so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted the request of Jabez.
- 26Psalms 67:1For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song. May God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, Selah
- 28Genesis 27:33–36Isaac began to tremble violently and said, “Who was it, then, who hunted the game and brought it to me? Before you came in, I ate it all and blessed him—and indeed, he will be blessed!”
- 9Psalms 34:4–6I sought the LORD, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.
Onward