32:1. Jacob also went on the journey he had begun: and the angels of
God met him.
32:2. And when he saw them, he said: These are the camps of God, and he
called the name of that place Mahanaim, that is, Camps.
32:3. And he sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother, to the
land of Seir, to the country of Edom:
32:4. And he commanded them, saying: Thus shall ye speak to my lord
Esau: Thus saith thy brother Jacob: I have sojourned with Laban, and
have been with him until this day:
32:5. I have oxen, and asses, and sheep, and menservants, and
womenservants: and now I send a message to my lord, that I may find
favour in thy sight.
32:6. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: We came to Esau,
thy brother, and behold he cometh with speed to meet thee with four
hundred men.
32:7. Then Jacob was greatly afraid; and in his fear divided the people
that was with him, and the flocks, and the sheep, and the oxen, and the
camels, into two companies,
32:8. Saying: If Esau come to one company, and destroy it, the other
company that is left, shall escape.
32:9. And Jacob said: O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father
Isaac: O Lord who saidst to me, Return to thy land, and to the place of
thy birth, and I will do well for thee.
32:10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of thy
truth which thou hast fulfilled to thy servant. With my staff I passed
over this Jordan; and now I return with two companies.
32:11. Deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am greatly
afraid of him; lest perhaps he come, and kill the mother with the
children.
32:12. Thou didst say, that thou wouldst do well by me, and multiply my
seed like the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
32:13. And when he had slept there that night, he set apart, of the
things which he had, presents for his brother Esau,
32:14. Two hundred she-goats, twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes, and
twenty rams,
32:15. Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and twenty
bulls, twenty she-asses, and ten of their foals.
32:16. And he sent them by the hands of his servants, every drove by
itself, and he said to his servants: Go before me, and let there be a
space between drove and drove.
32:17. And he commanded the first, saying: If thou meet my brother
Esau, and he ask thee: Whose art thou? or whither goest thou? or whose
are these before thee?
32:18. Thou shalt answer: Thy servant Jacob's: he hath sent them as a
present to my lord Esau; and he cometh after us.
32:19. In like manner he commanded the second, and the third, and all
that followed the droves, saying: Speak ye the same words to Esau, when
ye find him.
32:20. And ye shall add: Thy servant Jacob himself also followeth after
us; for he said: I will appease him with the presents that go before,
and afterwards I will see him, perhaps he will be gracious to me.
32:21. So the presents went before him, but himself lodged that night
in the camp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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