Bible Reading Plan – Day 10

₁As Jacob went on his way, some angels met him. ₂When he saw them, he said, “This is God's camp”; so he called the place Mahanaim.

₃Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the country of Edom. ₄He instructed them to say: “I, Jacob, your obedient servant, report to my master Esau that I have been staying with Laban and that I have delayed my return until now. ₅I own cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, and slaves. I am sending you word, sir, in the hope of gaining your favour.”

₆When the messengers came back to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and he is already on his way to meet you. He has 400 men with him.” ₇Jacob was frightened and worried. He divided into two groups the people who were with him, and also his sheep, goats, cattle, and camels. ₈He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks the first group, the other may be able to escape.”

₉Then Jacob prayed, “God of my grandfather Abraham and God of my father Isaac, hear me! You told me, LORD, to go back to my land and to my relatives, and you would make everything go well for me. ₁₀I am not worth all the kindness and faithfulness that you have shown me, your servant. I crossed the Jordan with nothing but a walking stick, and now I have come back with these two groups. ₁₁Save me, I pray, from my brother Esau. I am afraid — afraid that he is coming to attack us and destroy us all, even the women and children. ₁₂Remember that you promised to make everything go well for me and to give me more descendants than anyone could count, as many as the grains of sand along the seashore.”

_13-15After spending the night there, Jacob chose from his livestock as a present for his brother Esau: 200 female goats and twenty males, 200 female sheep and twenty males, thirty milk camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten males. ₁₆He divided them into herds and put one of his servants in charge of each herd. He said to them, “Go ahead of me, and leave a space between each herd and the one behind it.” ₁₇He ordered the first servant, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who is your master? Where are you going? Who owns these animals in front of you?’ ₁₈you must answer, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. He sends them as a present to his master Esau. Jacob himself is just behind us.’ ” ₁₉He gave the same order to the second, the third, and to all the others who were in charge of the herds: “This is what you must say to Esau when you meet him. ₂₀You must say, ‘Yes, your servant Jacob is just behind us.’ ” Jacob was thinking, “I will win him over with the gifts, and when I meet him, perhaps he will forgive me.” ₂₁He sent the gifts on ahead of him and spent that night in camp.

₂₂That same night Jacob got up, took his two wives, his two concubines, and his eleven children, and crossed the River Jabbok. ₂₃After he had sent them across, he also sent across all that he owned, ₂₄but he stayed behind, alone.

Then a man came and wrestled with him until just before daybreak. ₂₅When the man saw that he was not winning the struggle, he struck Jacob on the hip, and it was thrown out of joint. ₂₆The man said, “Let me go; daylight is coming.”

“I won't, unless you bless me,” Jacob answered.

₂₇“What is your name?” the man asked.

“Jacob,” he answered.

₂₈The man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob. You have struggled with God and with men, and you have won; so your name will be Israel.”

₂₉Jacob said, “Now tell me your name.”

But he answered, “Why do you want to know my name?” Then he blessed Jacob.

₃₀Jacob said, “I have seen God face to face, and I am still alive”; so he named the place Peniel. ₃₁The sun rose as Jacob was leaving Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. ₃₂Even today the descendants of Israel do not eat the muscle which is on the hip joint, because it was on this muscle that Jacob was struck.

₁Jacob saw Esau coming with his 400 men, so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two concubines. ₂He put the concubines and their children first, then Leah and her children, and finally Rachel and Joseph at the rear. ₃Jacob went ahead of them and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother. ₄But Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms round him, and kissed him. They were both crying. ₅When Esau looked round and saw the women and the children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?”

“These, sir, are the children whom God has been good enough to give me,” Jacob answered. ₆Then the concubines came up with their children and bowed down; ₇then Leah and her children came, and last of all Joseph and Rachel came and bowed down.

₈Esau asked, “What about that other group I met? What did that mean?”

Jacob answered, “It was to gain your favour.”

₉But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have.”

₁₀Jacob said, “No, please, if I have gained your favour, accept my gift. To see your face is for me like seeing the face of God, now that you have been so friendly to me. ₁₁Please accept this gift which I have brought for you; God has been kind to me and given me everything I need.” Jacob kept on urging him until he accepted.

₁₂Esau said, “Let's prepare to leave. I will go ahead of you.”

₁₃Jacob answered, “You know that the children are weak, and I must think of the sheep and cattle with their young. If they are driven hard for even one day, the whole herd will die. ₁₄Please go on ahead of me, and I will follow slowly, going as fast as I can with the livestock and the children until I catch up with you in Edom.”

₁₅Esau said, “Then let me leave some of my men with you.”

But Jacob answered, “There is no need for that for I only want to gain your favour.” ₁₆So that day Esau started on his way back to Edom. ₁₇But Jacob went to Sukkoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was named Sukkoth.

₁₈On his return from Mesopotamia Jacob arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan and set up his camp in a field near the city. ₁₉He bought that part of the field from the descendants of Hamor father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver. ₂₀He put up an altar there and named it after El, the God of Israel.

₁One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the Canaanite women. ₂When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who was chief of that region, saw her, he took her and raped her. ₃But he found the young woman so attractive that he fell in love with her and tried to win her affection. ₄He said to his father, “I want you to get this woman for me as my wife.”

₅Jacob learnt that his daughter had been disgraced, but because his sons were out in the fields with his livestock, he did nothing until they came back. ₆Shechem's father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob, ₇just as Jacob's sons were coming in from the fields. When they heard about it, they were shocked and furious that Shechem had done such a thing and had insulted the people of Israel by raping Jacob's daughter. ₈Hamor said to him, “My son Shechem has fallen in love with your daughter; please let him marry her. ₉Let us make an agreement that there will be intermarriage between our people and yours. ₁₀Then you may stay here in our country with us; you may live anywhere you wish, trade freely, and own property.”

₁₁Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, “Do me this favour, and I will give you whatever you want. ₁₂Tell me what presents you want, and set the payment for the bride as high as you wish; I will give you whatever you ask, if you will only let me marry her.”

₁₃Because Shechem had disgraced their sister Dinah, Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor in a deceitful way. ₁₄They said to him, “We cannot let our sister marry a man who is not circumcised; that would be a disgrace for us. ₁₅We can agree only on the condition that you become like us by circumcising all your males. ₁₆Then we will agree to intermarriage. We will settle among you and become one people with you. ₁₇But if you will not accept our terms and be circumcised, we will take her and leave.”

₁₈These terms seemed fair to Hamor and his son Shechem, ₁₉and the young man lost no time in doing what was suggested, because he was in love with Jacob's daughter. He was the most important member of his family.

₂₀Hamor and his son Shechem went to the meeting place at the city gate and spoke to the people of the town: ₂₁“These men are friendly; let them live in the land with us and travel freely. The land is large enough for them also. Let us marry their daughters and give them ours in marriage. ₂₂But these men will agree to live among us and be one people with us only on condition that we circumcise all our males, as they are circumcised. ₂₃Won't all their livestock and everything else they own be ours? So let us agree that they can live among us.” ₂₄All the citizens of the city agreed with what Hamor and Shechem proposed, and all the males were circumcised.

₂₅Three days later, when the men were still sore from their circumcision, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took their swords, went into the city without arousing suspicion, and killed all the men, ₂₆including Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah from Shechem's house and left. ₂₇After the slaughter Jacob's other sons looted the town to take revenge for their sister's disgrace. ₂₈They took the flocks, the cattle, the donkeys, and everything else in the city and in the fields. ₂₉They took everything of value, captured all the women and children, and carried off everything in the houses.

₃₀Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me; now the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and everybody else in the land will hate me. I haven't many men; if they all band together against me and attack me, our whole family will be destroyed.”

₃₁But they answered, “We cannot let our sister be treated like a common whore.”

₁God said to Jacob, “Go to Bethel at once, and live there. Build an altar there to me, the God who appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau.”

₂So Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that you have; purify yourselves and put on clean clothes. ₃We are going to leave here and go to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who helped me in the time of my trouble and who has been with me everywhere I have gone.” ₄So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that they had and also the earrings that they were wearing. He buried them beneath the oak tree near Shechem.

₅When Jacob and his sons started to leave, great fear fell on the people of the nearby towns, and they did not pursue them. ₆Jacob came with all his people to Luz, which is now known as Bethel, in the land of Canaan. ₇He built an altar there and named the place after the God of Bethel, because God had revealed himself to him there when he was running away from his brother. ₈Rebecca's nurse Deborah died and was buried beneath the oak south of Bethel. So it was named “Oak of Weeping”.

₉When Jacob returned from Mesopotamia, God appeared to him again and blessed him. ₁₀God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but from now on it will be Israel.” So God named him Israel. ₁₁And God said to him, “I am Almighty God. Have many children. Nations will be descended from you, and you will be the ancestor of kings. ₁₂I will give you the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, and I will also give it to your descendants after you.” ₁₃Then God left him. ₁₄There, where God had spoken to him, Jacob set up a memorial stone and consecrated it by pouring wine and olive oil on it. ₁₅He named the place Bethel.