Genesis 32:1-13

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

32 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him; ² when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called that place Mahanaim.^[a](A)

Jacob Sends Presents to Appease Esau

³ Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,^{(B) 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,^{(C) 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.’ ”^(D)

⁶ The 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.”^{(E) 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,^{(F) 8} thinking, “If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape.”

⁹ And 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,’^{(G) 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.^{(H) 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.^{(I) 12} Yet you have said, ‘I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.’ ”^(J)

¹³ So he spent that night there, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau,^(K)