The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time,

I promise that I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand along the seashore. Your descendants will conquer their enemies.

The angel of God spoke to me in the dream and said, 'Jacob!' 'Yes,' I answered.

I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, where you dedicated a stone as a memorial by pouring olive oil on it and where you made a vow to me. Now get ready and go back to the land where you were born.' "

but he stayed behind, alone. Then a man came and wrestled with him until just before daybreak.

The man said, "Let me go; daylight is coming." "I won't, unless you bless me," Jacob answered.

The man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob. You have struggled with God and with men, and you have won; so your name will be Israel."

Jacob said, "I have seen God face-to-face, and I am still alive"; so he named the place Peniel.

Then he blessed Joseph: "May God, whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac served, bless these boys! May God, who has led me to this very day, bless them!

May the angel, who has rescued me from all harm, bless them! May my name and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac live on through these boys! May they have many children, many descendants!"

There the angel of the LORD appeared to him as a flame coming from the middle of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire but that it was not burning up.

When the LORD saw that Moses was coming closer, he called to him from the middle of the bush and said, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Yes, here I am."

I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." So Moses covered his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

The angel of the LORD went from Gilgal to Bochim and said to the Israelites, "I took you out of Egypt and brought you to the land that I promised to your ancestors. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you.

So I tell you now that I will not drive these people out as you advance. They will be your enemies, and you will be trapped by the worship of their gods."

Then the LORD's angel came to the village of Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was threshing some wheat secretly in a wine press, so that the Midianites would not see him.

The LORD answered, "You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man."

Then the LORD's angel reached out and touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick he was holding. Fire came out of the rock and burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel disappeared.

But the LORD told him, "Peace. Don't be afraid. You will not die."

(SEE 13:15)

The angel asked, "Why do you want to know my name? It is a name of wonder."

While the flames were going up from the altar, Manoah and his wife saw the LORD's angel go up toward heaven in the flames. Manoah realized then that the man had been the LORD's angel, and he and his wife threw themselves face downward on the ground. They never saw the angel again.

Manoah said to his wife, "We are sure to die, because we have seen God!"

from all their suffering. It was not an angel, but the LORD himself who saved them. In his love and compassion he rescued them. He had always taken care of them in the past,

Their ancestor Jacob struggled with his twin brother Esau while the two of them were still in their mother's womb; when Jacob grew up, he fought against God---

This was the LORD God Almighty---the LORD is the name by which he is to be worshiped.

Anyone who strikes you strikes what is most precious to me." So the LORD Almighty sent me with this message for the nations that had plundered his people:

"The LORD himself will fight against you, and you will be plundered by the people who were once your servants." When this happens, everyone will know that the LORD Almighty sent me.

The LORD Almighty answers, "I will send my messenger to prepare the way for me. Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim my covenant."

No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.

'I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and dared not look.

I have seen the cruel suffering of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans, and I have come down to set them free. Come now; I will send you to Egypt.'

He led the people out of Egypt, performing miracles and wonders in Egypt and at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.

He is the one who was with the people of Israel assembled in the desert; he was there with our ancestors and with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and he received God's living messages to pass on to us.

He alone is immortal; he lives in the light that no one can approach. No one has ever seen him; no one can ever see him. To him be honor and eternal power! Amen.

I have heard your request about Ishmael, so I will bless him and give him many children and many descendants. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I will make a great nation of his descendants.

I will also give many children to the son of the slave woman, so that they will become a nation. He too is your son."

and sat down about a hundred yards away. She said to herself, "I can't bear to see my child die." While she was sitting there, she began to cry.

Ishmael, whom Hagar, the Egyptian slave of Sarah, bore to Abraham,

Mishma, Dumah, Massa,

They were the ancestors of twelve tribes, and their names were given to their villages and camping places.

The descendants of Ishmael lived in the territory between Havilah and Shur, to the east of Egypt on the way to Assyria. They lived apart from the other descendants of Abraham.

the people of Edom and the Ishmaelites; the people of Moab and the Hagrites;

the people of Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, and of Philistia and Tyre.