Genesis 32:1-15 ▼

1 Meanwhile Jacob continued on his own way, and God’s angels encountered him.

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

3 Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,

4 ordering them: “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob: I have been residing with Laban and have been delayed until now.

5 I own oxen, donkeys and sheep, as well as male and female servants. I have sent my lord this message in the hope of gaining your favor.’”

6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We found your brother Esau. He is now coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

7 Jacob was very much frightened. In his anxiety, he divided the people who were with him, as well as his flocks, herds and camels, into two camps.

8 “If Esau should come and attack one camp,” he reasoned, “the remaining camp may still escape.”

9 Then Jacob prayed: “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac! You, LORD, who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and your relatives, and I will be good to you.’

10 I am unworthy of all the acts of kindness and faithfulness that you have performed for your servant: although I crossed the Jordan here with nothing but my staff, I have now grown into two camps.

11 Save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau! Otherwise I fear that he will come and strike me down and the mothers with the children.

12 You yourself said, ‘I will be very good to you, and I will make your descendants like the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’”

13 After passing the night there, Jacob selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau:

14 two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes and twenty rams;

15 thirty female camels and their young; forty cows and ten bulls; twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.