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Genesis 32:1-21 — Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

Gen.32.1-21

¹Laban rose early in the morning, kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place. ²Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. ³When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim . ⁴Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. ⁵He commanded them, saying, "Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: 'Thus says your servant Jacob: I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. ⁶I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.'" ⁷The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is also coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” ⁸Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, along with the flocks, the herds, and the camels, into two camps. ⁹He said, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the remaining camp will escape.” ¹⁰Then Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,' ¹¹I am unworthy 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 camps. ¹²Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and attack me, the mothers with the children. ¹³But You said, 'I will surely do you good, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, which is too numerous to be counted.'" ¹⁴He spent that night there, and from what he had with him, he took a present for his brother Esau: ¹⁵two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁶thirty nursing camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁷He placed them into the hand of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between herd and herd.” ¹⁸He commanded the first one, saying, "When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and whose are these ahead of you?' ¹⁹then you shall say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. It is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.' ²⁰He also commanded the second, also the third, and also all who followed the herds, saying, "According to this word you shall speak to Esau when you find him. ²¹And you shall also say, '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."

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4/11/2026

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