World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 32
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went on his way, and the of met him. When he saw them, said, "This is army." He called the name of that place . sent in front of him to , his brother, to the land of , the field of . He commanded them, saying, "This is what you shall tell my , : 'This is what , , says. I have lived as a with , and stayed until now. I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my , that I may find in your sight.'" The returned to , saying, "We came to your brother . He is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him." Then was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, along with the flocks, the herds, and the camels, into two companies. He said, "If comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape." said, " of , and of , , who said to me, 'Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,' I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to ; for with my I crossed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. Please me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of ; for I fear him, lest he come and strike me and the mothers with the children. You said, 'I will surely do you good, and make as the sand of the sea, which can't be counted because there are so many.'" He stayed there that night, and took from that which he had with him a present for , his brother: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. He them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd." He commanded the foremost, saying, "When , my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, 'Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?' Then you shall say, 'They are , . It is a present sent to my , . Behold, he also is behind us.'" 19He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, "This is how you shall speak to , when you find him. You shall say, 'Not only that, but behold, , , is behind us.'" For, he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see . Perhaps he will accept me." 21So the present passed over before him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp. He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the . 23He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. When he saw that he didn't prevail against him, the man touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of thigh was strained as he wrestled. The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks." said, "I won't let you go unless you me." 27He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "". He said, "Your name will no longer be called , but Israel; for you have fought with and with men, and have prevailed." asked him, "Please tell me your name." He said, "Why is it that you ask what my name is?" So he him there. called the name of the place ; for he said, "I have seen to , and my life is preserved." The sun rose on him as he passed over , and he limped because of his thigh. Therefore the don't eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of thigh in the sinew of the hip.
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The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis