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1Jacob looked up and saw that Esau was coming along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants.[#tn Heb “and Jacob lifted up his eyes.”; #tn Or “and look, Esau was coming.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the reader to view the scene through Jacob’s eyes.]
2He put the servants and their children in front, with Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph behind them.[#sn This kind of ranking according to favoritism no doubt fed the jealousy over Joseph that later becomes an important element in the narrative. It must have been painful to the family to see that they were expendable.]
3But Jacob himself went on ahead of them, and he bowed toward the ground seven times as he approached his brother.[#tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn Heb “until his drawing near unto his brother.” The construction uses the preposition with the infinitive construct to express a temporal clause.]
4But Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, hugged his neck, and kissed him. Then they both wept.
5When Esau looked up and saw the women and the children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?” Jacob replied, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”[#tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn Heb “lifted up his eyes.”; #tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn The Hebrew verb means “to be gracious; to show favor”; here it carries the nuance “to give graciously.”]
6The female servants came forward with their children and bowed down.[#tn Heb “and the female servants drew near, they and their children and they bowed down.”]
7Then Leah came forward with her children and they bowed down. Finally Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed down.
8Esau then asked, “What did you intend by sending all these herds to meet me?” Jacob replied, “To find favor in your sight, my lord.”[#tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn Heb “Who to you?”; #tn Heb “all this camp which I met.”; #tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.]
9But Esau said, “I have plenty, my brother. Keep what belongs to you.”
10“No, please take them,” Jacob said. “If I have found favor in your sight, accept my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me, it is as if I have seen the face of God.[#tn Heb “and Jacob said, ‘No, please.’” The words “take them” have been supplied in the translation for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse rearranged for stylistic reasons.; #tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, expressing a contingent future nuance in the “then” section of the conditional sentence.; #tn The verbal form is the preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive, indicating result here.; #tn Heb “for therefore I have seen your face like seeing the face of God and you have accepted me.”sn This is an allusion to the preceding episode (32:22-31) in which Jacob saw the face of God and realized his prayer was answered.]
11Please take my present that was brought to you, for God has been generous to me and I have all I need.” When Jacob urged him, he took it.[#tn Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.; #tn Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.; #tn Heb “all.”; #tn Heb “and he urged him and he took.” The referent of the first pronoun in the sequence (“he”) has been specified as “Jacob” in the translation for clarity.]
12Then Esau said, “Let’s be on our way! I will go in front of you.”[#tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn Heb “let us travel and let us go.” The two cohortatives are used in combination with the sense, “let’s travel along, get going, be on our way.”]
13But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.[#tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn Heb “weak.”; #tn Heb “and the sheep and the cattle nursing [are] upon me.”]
14Let my lord go on ahead of his servant. I will travel more slowly, at the pace of the herds and the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.”[#tn Heb “and I, I will move along according to my leisure at the foot of the property which is before me and at the foot of the children.”]
15So Esau said, “Let me leave some of my men with you.” “Why do that?” Jacob replied. “My lord has already been kind enough to me.”[#tn The cohortative verbal form here indicates a polite offer of help.; #tn Heb “and he said, ‘Why this?’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.; #tn Heb “I am finding favor in the eyes of my lord.”]
16So that same day Esau made his way back to Seir.[#tn Heb “returned on his way.”]
17But Jacob traveled to Succoth where he built himself a house and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was called Succoth.[#tn The disjunctive clause contrasts Jacob’s action with Esau’s.; #sn But Jacob traveled to Succoth. There are several reasons why Jacob chose not to go to Mt. Seir after Esau. First, as he said, his herds and children probably could not keep up with the warriors. Second, he probably did not fully trust his brother. The current friendliness could change, and he could lose everything. And third, God did tell him to return to his land, not Seir. But Jacob is still not able to deal truthfully, probably because of fear of Esau.; #tn Heb “why he called.” One could understand “Jacob” as the subject of the verb, but it is more likely that the subject is indefinite, in which case the verb is better translated as passive.; #sn The name Succoth means “shelters,” an appropriate name in light of the shelters Jacob built there for his livestock.]
18After he left Paddan Aram, Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped near the city.[#tn Heb “in front of.”]
19Then he purchased the portion of the field where he had pitched his tent; he bought it from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money.[#tn The words “he bought it” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 19 is one long sentence.; #tn The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה (qÿsitah) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value is unknown. (However, cf. REB, which renders the term as “sheep”).]
20There he set up an altar and called it “The God of Israel is God.”[#tn Heb “God, the God of Israel.” Rather than translating the name, a number of modern translations merely transliterate it from the Hebrew as “El Elohe Israel” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB). It is not entirely clear how the name should be interpreted grammatically. One option is to supply an equative verb, as in the translation: “The God of Israel [is] God.” Another interpretive option is “the God of Israel [is] strong [or “mighty”].” Buying the land and settling down for a while was a momentous step for the patriarch, so the commemorative naming of the altar is significant.]