Genesis 32:3-21 - Jacob Sends Gifts To Esau

³ Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in Seir, the country of Edom. ⁴ He informed them to say: Your obedient servant, Jacob, reports to my master Esau that I have been staying with Laban and that I have delayed my return until now. ⁵ I own cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, and slaves. I am sending you word in the hope of gaining your favor.

⁶ When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said: We went to your brother Esau. He is already on his way to meet you. He has four hundred men with him. ⁷ Jacob was frightened and worried. He divided the people who were with him into two groups. He also divided his sheep, goats, cattle, and camels. ⁸ He thought: If Esau comes and attacks the first group, the other may be able to escape.

⁹ Then Jacob prayed: O God of my father Abraham, the God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah, you said to me: 'Go back to your country and your family and I will be good to you.' ¹⁰ I am less than nothing in comparison with all your love and your faithfulness to me your servant. I only had a stick in my hand when I traveled across Jordan. Now I have become two armies. ¹¹ Save me from the hand of Esau, my brother. I fear that he will attack me and kill both mothers and children. ¹² You said, 'I will make sure that you are prosperous and that your descendants will be as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. No one will be able to count them because there are so many.'

¹³ Jacob stayed there that night. Then he prepared a gift for his brother Esau from what he had brought with him: ¹⁴ There were two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred female sheep and twenty male sheep, ¹⁵ also thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶ He placed servants in charge of each herd. He said to his servants: Go ahead of me, and maintain a distance between the herds.

¹⁷ He commanded the first servant: When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and whose animals are these ahead of you?' ¹⁸ Say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. This is a gift sent to you. Jacob is directly behind us.'

¹⁹ He also commanded the second servant, the third, and all the others who followed the herds. He said: Say the same thing to Esau when you find him. ²⁰ Be sure to say, 'Jacob is right behind us.' He thought: I will make peace with him by giving him this gift that I am sending ahead of me. After that, I will see him, and he will welcome me back.

²¹ Jacob sent the gift ahead of him, while he stayed in the camp that night.