During the night Jacob took his two wives, two servants, and eleven sons across the ford of the Jabbok. After sending his family and all his possessions over the stream, Jacob remained alone.
A man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man did not prevail, he struck Jacob’s hip socket and dislocated it. As dawn approached, the man asked to be released. Jacob refused to let him go without a blessing.
The man asked Jacob’s name. When Jacob answered, the man said he would no longer be called Jacob but Israel, because he had struggled with God and humans and had endured.
Jacob asked the man’s name, but the man replied by asking why Jacob wanted to know. Then he blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Peniel, saying that he had seen God face to face and survived.
This happened on the night before Jacob expected to meet Esau. He had already sent gifts ahead and moved his household across the stream. After every person and possession was on the other side, the conflict began with Jacob alone. The passage does not identify the man at the outset or explain how the wrestling started.
Jacob did not emerge unwounded. Even after his hip was struck, he held on and asked specifically for a blessing. The new name and the lasting limp belonged to the same encounter. His later naming of the place expressed not mastery over the stranger but amazement that he had encountered God and remained alive.
The sun rose as Jacob passed beyond Peniel. He limped because of his injured hip. In memory of that wound, Israelites did not eat the tendon at the hip socket.