Genesis 32:1-11 ▼

1 Now Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

2 Then Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

3 Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

4 He also commanded them saying, “Thus you shall say to my lord, to Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob, “I have sojourned with Laban and have been delayed until now;

5 And I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.”’”

6 Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother, to Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two camps.

8 And he said, “If Esau comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the camp which remains will escape.”

9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your kin, and I will prosper you,’

10 I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the truth which You have shown to Your slave; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and strike me down with the mothers and the children.