Genesis 32:3–11

Jacob Sends Presents to Appease Esau

³Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,^{* 4}instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have lived with Laban as an alien and stayed until now,^{* 5}and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves, and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’ ”^*

⁶The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”^{* 7}Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people who were with him and the flocks and herds and camels into two companies,^{* 8}thinking, “If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape.”

⁹And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,’^{* 10}I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.^{* 11}Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children.^*