Angels again, I wonder what they are up to.

Good good. Naming places is always useful.

Wait, What happened to the angels? have I missed something? perhaps they were going about some other business and this was just a chance meeting. Anyway, Jacob sends some messengers to his Orang-utan-like brother Esau.

Now as I recall (and by recall I mean, had another look at the text so as not to recall incorrectly) The blessing bestowed upon Jacob by Isaac his father was that he should be the master of his brother Esau. Calling himself Esau's servant as he has above is either forgetfulness on the part of the author as to who got which blessing or it is simply a case of Jacob sucking up to his brother to try and persuade him not to kill him for stealing his birthright.

Sucking up and bribery too.

Has Esau brought an army to murder his brother?

OK, I'm not certain what his plan is but then I'm no military strategist.

I see, it's a plan of basic cowardice, which is not entirely out of character.

Jacob prays. Is this the first prayer? No gods are present, either in person or in vision form, I think this may actually be the first example of someone talking to an absent god.

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The prayer is over. I'm wondering why Jacob didn't sacrifice an animal or erect a pillar to curry favour with the LORD. Are sacrifices unnecessary when asking God for something now?

OK.

Nice present so far.

That really is a lot. Who'd have thought Jacob was so rich. Esau is sure to be pleased.

Coward that he is Jacob makes the servants go before him.

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He intends to send his servants in waves toward Esau's army, each wave proclaiming that the livestock they have is a gift for Esau.

He's basically grovelling. He must know that he did something wrong all those years ago my stealing both Esau's birthright and his blessing however it seems that it is only the threat of death that makes him contrite and not the wrongness of the acts themselves.

Jacob sleeps while he sends his servants toward an army.

Is this the same direction that his servants went?

OK.

That was a bit unexpected. Who is this man that Jacob has been wrestling all night? Where did he come from?

Now I'm wrestling with a definition. Where is the hollow of the thigh? is it the groin?

OK.

The man asks for Jacob's name and he gives it.

Hmm, a renaming. We've only ever seen The LORD rename people thus far. Is this 'man' The LORD?

Jacob asks the man for his name.

Now, it doesn't say here that the man gave his name but for some reason, perhaps the renaming, Jacob is convinced that this 'man' is God, either way it would more aptly read "And Jacob called the name of the place Penile: for here is where my wang has been touched by the hand of God"

Are we talking groin again?

Is the sinew that shrank a penile euphemism?

Jacob is afraid of his brother Esau and plans to bribe him with his ill-gotten riches.

For a completely unexplained reason, while Jacob's servants are off bribing Esau, Jacob engages in a wrestling match with a stranger.

The Wrestling match was with The LORD! Yes God is a wrestler and a dirty one at that. In order to win, The "Almighty" LORD resorts to a cheap shot to Jacob's manly danglers. Why is it necessary for the LORD to wrestle? The source of the disagreement is not explained and even if it were, why wrestling? Was this really The LORD? might it just have been some unknown fellow pretending to be The LORD? After all Jacob has had a vision of The LORD before and for some reason didn't recognise his adversary.

Jacob gets a new name, he is now called Israel.

Genesis 32.OK, so that was fun. What have we learned.So, Will Esau smite his slippery con-man of a brother? Lets see if Genesis 33 has the answer.