Genesis 32:9-21

New International Version

⁹ Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham,^(A) God of my father Isaac,^(B) Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’^{(C) 10} I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness^(D) you have shown your servant. I had only my staff^(E) when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.^{(F) 11} Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid^(G) he will come and attack me,^(H) and also the mothers with their children.^{(I) 12} But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand^(J) of the sea, which cannot be counted.^(K)’”

¹³ He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift^(L) for his brother Esau: ¹⁴ two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,^{(M) 15} thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.^{(N) 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.”^(O)

¹⁷ He 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?’ ¹⁸ then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant^(P) Jacob. They are a gift^(Q) sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”

¹⁹ He 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. ²⁰ And be sure to say, ‘Your servant^(R) Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts^(S) I am sending on ahead;^(T) later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.”^{(U) 21} So Jacob’s gifts^(V) went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.