Twenty years after fleeing, Jacob returned with his great household to face Esau. Crossing the ford of the Jabbok at night, he was left alone — and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. When the man saw he could not prevail, he touched Jacob's hip socket; Jacob's thigh was put out of joint. The man said: 'Let me go, for the day is breaking.' Jacob answered: 'I will not let you go, unless you bless me.'
The man asked his name. 'Jacob.' 'Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel — for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.' Jacob asked the man's name; he refused to give it, but blessed him. Jacob called the place Peniel — 'the Face of God' — 'for I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.' He limped from that day forward. The episode is the founding renaming of the people of Israel.