Genesis 32:1–21

Jacob’s Fear of Esau

¹Now as Jacob went on his way, ^athe angels of God met him.

²Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s ¹camp.” So he named that place ^2aMahanaim.

³Then Jacob ^asent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of ^bSeir, the ¹country of ^cEdom.

⁴He also commanded them saying, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, “I have sojourned with Laban, and ^astayed until now;

^5aI have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, ^bthat I may find favor in your sight.” ’ ”

⁶The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore ^ahe is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

⁷Then Jacob was ^agreatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two companies;

⁸for he said, “If Esau comes to the one company and ¹attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.”

⁹Jacob said, “O ^aGod of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, ‘^bReturn to your country and to your relatives, and I will ¹prosper you,’

¹⁰¹I am unworthy ^aof all the lovingkindness and of all the ²faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.

¹¹“^aDeliver me, I pray, ^bfrom the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and ¹attack me and the ^cmothers with the children.

¹²“For You said, ‘^aI will surely ¹prosper you and ^bmake your ²descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’ ”

¹³So he spent the night there. Then he ¹selected from what ²he had with him a ^apresent for his brother Esau:

¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

¹⁵thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

¹⁶He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on before me, and put a space between droves.”

¹⁷He commanded the ¹one in front, saying, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?’

¹⁸then you shall say, ‘These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.’ ”

¹⁹Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the droves, saying, “After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him;

²⁰and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.’ ” For he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.”

²¹So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.