Genesis 32:1–21

Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

32^aJacob also went on his way, and the angels of God^o met him. ²When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!”^p So he named that place Mahanaim.^bq

³Jacob sent messengers^r ahead of him to his brother Esau^s in the land of Seir,^t the country of Edom.^{u 4}He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord^v Esau: ‘Your servant^w Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban^x and have remained there till now. ⁵I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants.^y Now I am sending this message to my lord,^z that I may find favor in your eyes.^a’ ”

⁶When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”^b

⁷In great fear^c and distress^d Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups,^ce and the flocks and herds and camels as well. ⁸He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group,^d the group^e that is left may escape.”

⁹Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham,^f God of my father Isaac,^g Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’^{h 10}I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulnessⁱ you have shown your servant. I had only my staff^j when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.^{k 11}Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid^l he will come and attack me,^m and also the mothers with their children.^{n 12}But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand^o of the sea, which cannot be counted.^p’ ”

¹³He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift^q for his brother Esau: ¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,^{r 15}thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.^{s 16}He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”^t

¹⁷He instructed the one in the lead: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ ¹⁸then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant^u Jacob. They are a gift^v sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’ ”

¹⁹He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: “You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. ²⁰And be sure to say, ‘Your servant^w Jacob is coming behind us.’ ” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts^x I am sending on ahead;^y later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.”^{z 21}So Jacob’s gifts^a went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.