Genesis 32:3-21

3Then Jacob 1sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of 2Seir, the 3country of 4Edom. 4He also commanded them saying, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, “I have sojourned with Laban, and 5stayed until now; 56I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, 7that I may find favor in your sight.”’”

6The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore 8he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7Then Jacob was 9greatly 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 10attacks it, then the company which is left will escape.”

9Jacob said, “O 11God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, ‘12Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will 13prosper you,’ 1014I am unworthy 15of all the lovingkindness and of all the 16faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. 1117Deliver me, I pray, 18from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and 19attack me and the 20mothers with the children. 12For You said, ‘21I will surely 22prosper you and 23make your 24descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’”

13So he spent the night there. Then he 25selected from what 26he had with him a 27present 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 28one 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.