s coming
to meet them.

Poor Jacob! He remembered the sin of his youth, when he had stolen the
blessing from Esau, and he was afraid, and prayed God to protect him.

He sent his servants again to meet Esau with great presents of flocks,
and herds, and camels, and after placing his wives and little ones in
the safest place, he sent all that he had over the brook Jabbok, and he
stayed on the other side to pray. It was as if he wrestled with a man
all night, and when the day began to break the man wished to go, but
Jacob said:

"I will not let thee go except thou bless me."

So the man blessed him there, and call his name Israel; "for as a
prince," he said, "hast thou power with God and with men, and hast
prevailed."

Then Jacob knew that the Lord Himself, in the form of a man, had been
with him, and he had seen Him face to face.

And as the sun rose he passed over the brook. When he looked up he saw
Esau and his men coming, and when he had told his family to follow him,
he went straight before them, for he was no longer afraid to meet his
brother.

Jacob's prayer had been answered, and Esau ran to meet his brother, and
throwing his arms around him, wept on his shoulder. Then they talked
in a loving and brotherly way, and Esau returned to his home with the
presents Jacob had given him, and Jacob went on his way into Canaan
full of joy and thankfulness. He stopped a little while in a pleasant
place to rest his flocks and cattle, but he longed to see the place
where he first saw the angels of God, and heard the voice of the Lord
blessing him, so they journeyed on to Beth-el, and there built an altar
and worshipped God.

[Illustration: Meeting of Jacob and Esau]

Again the Lord spoke to Jacob at Beth-el, and called him Israel, and
blessed him.

After they left Beth-el, they came near to Bethlehem, where many
hundred years afterward the Lord Jesus was born, and there another
little son was born to Rachel, and there too God sent for her, and took
her to Himself, and there her grave was made.

[Illustration: Jacob and Rachel]

The little boy was named Benjamin, and was the youngest of Jacob's
twelve sons, who became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, and
the princes of a great nation.

Jacob was almost home. His great family, with all the flocks and
herds, had been long on the way, for they often spread their tents by
the brooks in the green valleys, that the cattle might rest and find
pasture,