3 Then Yacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the Se’ir region in the country of Edom, 4 instructing them, “This is what you’ll say to my master, to Esau: ‘This is what your servant Yacob says, “I have been staying with Uncle Lavan and have remained there until now. 5 Now I have cattle and donkeys, flocks, and male and female slaves. And I’ve sent these messengers to speak with my master, so that I’ll find favour in your eyes.” ’ ”

6 In due course the messengers returned to Yacob, saying, “We went to your brother Esau and now he’s coming to meet you along with his four hundred men!” 7 This made Yacob very scared and distressed, so he divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two groups, 8 reasoning, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the camp that’s left can escape.”

9 Then he prayed, “Yahweh, God of my grandfather Abraham, and God of my father Yitshak, who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives, and I will cause things to prosper with you,’ 10 I’m unworthy of all the kindnesses and of all the faithfulness that you have shown me your slave, because I crossed this Jordan River with only my staff, but now I’ve become two camps. 11 Please save me from my brother Esau, because I’m afraid that he’ll come and attack me and the mothers with the children. 12 But you said,[ref] ‘I will surely cause things to prosper with you, and I’ll make your descendants as numerous as the sand grains on the beach which are too many to be counted.’ ”

13 Then he stayed there for that night and he selected gifts for his brother Esau from what he had with him: 14 two hundred female and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milk camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female and ten male donkeys. 16 Then he handed them over to his slaves, each herd by itself, and he told them, “Go ahead of me one by one, and keep a space between each herd.” 17 And he instructed the first one, saying, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going? And who do those animals belong to?’ 18 then you should answer, ‘They belong to your servant Yacob. They are a gift sent to my master Esau. In fact, he’s coming along behind us.’ ” 19 Then Yacob also instructed the second and third slaves, as well as everyone who followed behind the herds, telling them, “Say the same thing to Esau when you find him, 20 and also say, ‘Look, your servant Yacob is behind us.’ ” Yacob was thinking, “I’ll cheer him up with the gifts that are going ahead of me, and after that, when I see him in person, perhaps he’ll accept me.” 21 So the gifts went ahead of him, and he himself stayed in the camp for that night.