4
He commanded them, saying, "This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: `This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now.
5
I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, men-servants, and maid-servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.`"
6
The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him."
7
Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed: and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies;
8
and he said, "If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape."
9
Jacob said, "God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, `Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good.`
10
I am not worthy of the least of all the lovingkindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.
11
Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children.
12
You said, `I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can`t be numbered because there are so many.`"
13
He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother:
14
two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
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thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty she-donkeys and ten foals.
16
He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd."
17
He commanded the foremost, saying, "When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, `Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?`
18
Then you shall say, `They are your servant, Jacob`s. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.`"
19
He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, "This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him.
20
You shall say, `Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.`" For, he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."
21
So the present passed over before him: and he himself lodged that night in the camp.