He took them and sent them across the stream, then sent his possessions across; and Jacob was left alone. Then some man wrestled with him until daybreak.  When he saw that he did not defeat Jacob, he struck Jacob’s hip socket, so that his hip was dislocated while wrestling with him.  The man said, “Let me go, […]

The messengers returned to Ya‘akov saying, “We went to your brother ‘Esav, and he is coming to meet you; with him are four hundred men.” Jacob became greatly afraid and distressed. -Genesis 32:7-8 It’s important to keep in mind that Jacob was now quite an old man at this time in his life. Depending on which […]

Today we begin Genesis Chapter 32. For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here. If you prefer the King James version, click here. “And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim. […]

After Laban finishes searching every tent in Jacob’s party and fails to find his god idols, Jacob’s long pent-up anger explodes. “These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock.  That which was torn by beasts I did not […]

 Now Rachel had taken the household idols, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. And Laban searched all about the tent but did not find them.  And she said to her father, “Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is with me.” And he searched […]