Genesis 32:1-21

Jacob went on his way, and God’s angels met him. When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he called that place Mahanaim. Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the territory of Edom. He commanded them, “You are to say to my lord Esau, ‘This is what your servant Jacob says. I have been staying with Laban and have been delayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female slaves. I have sent this message to inform my lord, in order to seek your favor.’” When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau; he is coming to meet you — and he has four hundred men with him.” Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; he divided the people with him into two camps, along with the flocks, herds, and camels. He thought, “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, the remaining one can escape.” Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and to your family, and I will cause you to prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. Indeed, I crossed over the Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two camps. Please rescue me from my brother Esau, for I am afraid of him; otherwise, he may come and attack me, the mothers, and their children. You have said, ‘I will cause you to prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to be counted.’” He spent the night there and took part of what he had brought with him as a gift for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams, thirty milk camels with their young, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys. He entrusted them to his slaves as separate herds and said to them, “Go on ahead of me, and leave some distance between the herds.” And he told the first one, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to? Where are you going? And whose animals are these ahead of you?’ then tell him, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau. And look, he is behind us.’” He also told the second one, the third, and everyone who was walking behind the animals, “Say the same thing to Esau when you find him. You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I want to appease Esau with the gift that is going ahead of me. After that, I can face him, and perhaps he will forgive me.” So the gift was sent on ahead of him while he remained in the camp that night.