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13 He spent the night there, and from his possessions he prepared a gift for his brother Esau: 14 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 female sheep and 20 rams, 15 30 milk camels and their colts, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. 16 When he had rounded them up, he made various servants responsible for driving each herd. He gave them instructions.
Jacob: Travel on ahead of me, and put some distance between each herd.
17 (to the leader) When Esau, my brother, meets you and asks you, “To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose herds are these?” 18 then say, “They belong to your servant, Jacob, and are a gift sent to my master, Esau. Jacob is coming along behind us.”
19 Jacob instructed those responsible for the second and third herds, as well as those who followed behind to help:
Jacob: When you meet Esau, say the same thing these other herdsman have said, 20 and make sure you tell him, “Your servant Jacob is coming along behind us.”
(to himself) I might be able to appease Esau with these gifts. He will see them before he sees me. When I see his face, I’ll know whether he’ll accept and forgive me.
21 So the gifts were driven on ahead, and he stayed the night in the camp, waiting.
22 Later that same night, Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his 11 children; and he crossed the Jabbok River. 23 He sent them all ahead across the stream along with everything he had; 24 but Jacob stayed behind, left alone in his distress and doubt. In the twilight of his anguish, an unknown man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw he was not winning the battle with Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was thrown out of joint as he continued to wrestle with him.
Man: 26 Let me go; the dawn is breaking.
Jacob: I will not let you go unless you bless me.
Man: 27 What’s your name?
Jacob: Jacob.
Man: 28 You will no longer go by the name Jacob. From now on, your name will be Israel because you have wrestled with God and humanity, and you have prevailed.
Jacob: 29 Please, tell me your name.
Man: Why do you ask what my name is?
Right then and right there the man blessed Jacob. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel because as he said, “I have come face to face with God, and yet my life was spared.” 31 The sun began to rise as Jacob passed by Penuel, limping because of his dislocated hip. 32 And to this day, the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached near the hip socket of any animal, since that is where God struck Jacob when He dislocated his hip.
33 Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and 400 men were with him. Jacob quickly divided the children among Leah and Rachel and their two servants. 2 He put the female servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. 3 He himself went on ahead of them, and he bowed to the ground seven times as he approached his brother. 4 But Esau ran to meet him. He embraced Jacob, kissed his neck, and they both cried. 5 Esau looked up and saw the women and children.
Esau: Who are these people with you?
Jacob: These are the children God has graciously given your servant.
6 Then the female servants came closer, along with their children, and they bowed down. 7 Leah did likewise; she and her children approached and bowed down. Finally Joseph and Rachel came forward, and they bowed down as well.
Esau: 8 What was your intent in sending all of your men and herds ahead of you?
Jacob: I hope to find favor with you, my master.
Esau: 9 I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself.
Jacob expects trouble from Esau, but he finds the pain of the past healed. Now Esau wants nothing from his brother.
Jacob: 10 No, please. If I have found favor with you after all these years, please accept the gifts I offer. Seeing your face again is like seeing the face of God, so graciously and warmly have you welcomed me. 11 Please accept the blessing I bring. God has graciously provided for me and my family. I have everything I could want.
Jacob kept insisting that Esau accept the gift. Finally he did.
Esau: 12 Now let’s be on our way, and I will walk on ahead of you.
Jacob: 13 My master knows that the children are very small and the nursing flocks and herds are under my care. If they are driven too hard for even one day, I’m afraid I’ll lose all the flocks. 14 Please, my master, go on ahead of me, and I will keep on at a slower pace—the pace of the animals up ahead and the children—until I come to you in Seir.
Esau: 15 Let me leave some of my people to accompany you.
Jacob: Why go to all that trouble? You have done enough already. Just let me find favor with my master.
16 Esau agreed and set out that day to go back to Seir. 17 But Jacob journeyed instead to Succoth, and he built himself a house there and put up some shelters for his cattle. That’s why this place is called Succoth, which means “shelters.”
18 At last Jacob came to the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan. Overall it had been a safe and peaceful journey from Paddan-aram. He camped outside of the city 19 and purchased the land on which he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor (who was Shechem’s father) for one hundred pieces of money. 20 And there also he built an altar he called El-Elohe-Israel, which means “God, the God of Israel.”
34 One day Dinah, Leah and Jacob’s daughter, went out to visit some of the women who lived in the land. 2 But when Shechem (son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the region) saw Dinah, he grabbed her and raped her. 3 His soul was drawn to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He fell in love with her and spoke tenderly to her. 4 Shechem went then and spoke with his father, Hamor.
Shechem: I need you to arrange for this girl to be my wife.
5 Now Jacob found out that Shechem had dishonored and raped his daughter, Dinah, but at the time, all of his sons were out in the field working with the livestock. So Jacob stayed calm and did not react until they came back. 6 Meanwhile Hamor, Shechem’s father, had come to speak with Jacob to arrange a marriage. 7 When news of the attack reached Jacob’s sons, they came in from the field. The young men were appalled and extremely angry because Shechem had done such a horrible thing in Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter. Something like this should never happen.
8 Hamor tried speaking with them.
Hamor: My son’s soul longs for your daughter. Please give her to him in marriage. 9 In fact, let’s intermarry our families. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 We’ll live together. The entire land will be open to you. You can live on it, trade on it, and buy property on it.
Shechem (to Jacob and his sons): 11 Please, let me find my way into your favor! Whatever you ask, I will give it to you. 12 Set the bride-price and gift as high as you like, and I will give you whatever it takes. Just please allow me to marry the young woman.
13 Jacob’s sons were still angry that Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, so they answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully.
Jacob’s Sons: 14 We can’t agree to this arrangement: to give our sister to someone who isn’t circumcised would bring shame on all of us. 15 We will consent to allow you to marry our sister on one condition: you must be circumcised as the rest of us have been. Every male among you must be circumcised.[a] 16 Then we will give our daughters to you and will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you in peace and become one people. 17 But if you don’t agree to this condition and be circumcised, then we will take our sister[b] and go.
18 Hamor and his son Shechem were willing to go along with the demand, 19 and the young man wasted no time in fulfilling the requirement since he was so taken with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored man in all of his family, 20 so Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of the city and addressed all of the men.
Hamor and Shechem (to the men of the city): 21 These men are peaceful and friendly to us, so let’s allow them to live in the land and trade in it. You see this land is large enough for them too. Let’s take their daughters in marriage, and let’s give them our daughters. 22 They will agree to live among us in peace and become one people on one condition: every male among us must be circumcised, just as they already are. 23 Wouldn’t we have much to gain—their livestock, property, and animals? Let’s agree to their condition, and they will live among us and increase the vitality of our city.
24 So everyone who passed by the city gate listened to Hamor and his son, Shechem, and they all were circumcised—every single man who went out the city gates that day. 25 Three days later, when the men of the city were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting people of the city, killing all of the men. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword as well; they took Dinah out of Shechem’s house—where she had remained during the negotiations—and then went away. 27 Jacob’s other sons saw those who were killed, and they plundered the city. All of this was done in anger, because it was here that their sister had been raped and the family dishonored. 28 They took all of the flocks, herds, donkeys, and whatever was in the city and the field. 29 All of their wealth, all of their children, and all of their wives—everything they could find in the houses—they plundered and made it their own.
Jacob (reacting to Simeon and Levi): 30 You have brought a lot of trouble to me. The people of this land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, can smell the stink of my sons’ actions. I don’t have huge armies of men to defend us. If they all decide to gather against me and attack me, I will be destroyed along with my entire household.
Simeon and Levi: 31 Would you rather have our sister treated as a whore?
7 John’s disciples left, and Jesus began to speak to a crowd about John.
Jesus: What did you go into the desert to see? Did you expect to see a reed blowing around in the wind? 8 No? Were you expecting to see a man dressed in the finest silks? No, of course not—you find silk in the sitting rooms of palaces and mansions, not in the middle of the wilderness. 9 So what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes. Yes, a prophet and more than a prophet. 10 When you saw John, you saw the one whom the prophet Malachi envisioned when he said,
I will send My messenger ahead of You,
and he will prepare the way for You.[a]
11 This is the truth: no one who has ever been born to a woman is greater than John the Baptist.[b] And yet the most insignificant person in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12-13 All of the prophets of old, all of the law—that was all prophecy leading up to the coming of John. Now, that sort of prepares us for this very point, right here and now. When John the Baptist[c] came, the kingdom of heaven began to break in upon us, and those in power are trying to clamp down on it—why do you think John is in jail? 14 If only you could see it—John is the Elijah, the prophet we were promised would come and prepare the way. 15 He who has ears for the truth, let him hear.
In this way, Jesus invites His followers to understand who John is, and, in turn, who He must be.
16 What is this generation like? You are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out, 17 “When we played the flute, you did not dance; and when we sang a dirge, you did not mourn.” 18 What I mean is this: When John came, he dressed in the clothes of a prophet, and he did not eat and drink like others but lived on honey and wild locusts. And people wondered if he was crazy, if he had been possessed by a demon. 19 Then the Son of Man appeared—He didn’t fast, as John had, but ate with sinners and drank wine. And the people said, “This man is a glutton! He’s a drunk! And He hangs around with tax collectors and sinners, to boot.” Well, Wisdom will be vindicated by her actions—not by your opinions.
20 Then Jesus began to preach about the towns He’d visited. He’d performed some of His most fantastic miracles in places like Chorazin and Bethsaida, but still the people in those places hadn’t turned to God.
Jesus: 21 Woe to you, Chorazin! And woe to you, Bethsaida! Had I gone to Tyre and Sidon and performed miracles there, they would have repented immediately, taking on sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you this: the people from Tyre and Sidon will fare better on the day of judgment than you will. 23 And Capernaum! Do you think you will reign exalted in heaven? No, you’ll rot in hell. Had I gone to Sodom and worked miracles there, the people would have repented, and Sodom would still be standing, thriving, bustling. 24 Well, you know what happened to Sodom. But know this—the people from Sodom will fare better on the day of judgment than you will.
25 And then Jesus began to pray:
Jesus: I praise You, Father—Lord of heaven and earth. You have revealed Your truths to the lowly and the ignorant, the children and the crippled, the lame and the mute. You have hidden wisdom from those who pride themselves on being so wise and learned. 26 You did this, simply, because it pleased You. 27 The Father has handed over everything to My care. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son—and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal the Father. 28 Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Put My yoke upon your shoulders—it might appear heavy at first, but it is perfectly fitted to your curves. Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. When you are yoked to Me, your weary souls will find rest. 30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
Psalm 14
For the worship leader. A song of David.
This is a wisdom psalm that grieves over the pervasiveness of sin and its sad effects. It is repeated with minor changes in Psalm 53. Paul refers to this Davidic psalm to explain how all of humanity is tainted by sin (Romans 3:1–12).
1 A wicked and foolish man truly believes there is no God.
They are vile, their sinfulness nauseating to their Creator;
their actions are soiled and repulsive; every deed is depraved;
not one of them does good.
2 The Eternal leans over from heaven to survey the sons of Adam.
No one is missed, and no one can hide.
He searches to see who understands true wisdom,
who desires to know the True God.
3 They all turn their backs, walking their own roads;
they are rancid, leaving a trail of rotten footsteps behind them;
not one of them does good,
not even one.
4 Do the wicked have no clue about what really matters?
They devour my brothers and sisters the way a man eats his dinner.
They ignore the Eternal and don’t call on Him, rejecting His reality and truth.
5 They shall secretly tremble behind closed doors, hearts beating hard within their chests,
knowing that God always avenges the upright.
6 You laugh at the counsel of the poor, the needy, the troubled who put their trust in God.
You try to take away their only hope,
but the Eternal is a strong shelter in the heaviest storm.
7 May a new day, a day of deliverance come for Israel, starting with Zion.
When the Eternal breaks the chains of His oppressed people,
the family of Jacob will rejoice, and Israel will be delighted.
19 It was by wisdom that the Eternal fashioned the earth
and by understanding that He designed the heavens.
20 Through His knowledge, the deep was divided into seas and sky,
and the clouds understood when to let down the morning dew.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.