1Jacob went on his way, and the messengers of God met him.2When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is the camp of God," and he named that place Mahanaim.3Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.4He instructed them: "Say this to my lord Esau: 'Thus says your servant Jacob: I have sojourned with Laban and remained there until now.'5I have acquired cattle and donkeys, flocks, male and female servants, and I am sending this message to my lord to find favor in your sight."6The messengers returned to Jacob and reported, "We came to your brother Esau, and he also is going to meet you with four hundred men."7Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, so he divided the people with him, along with the flocks, the cattle, and the camels, into two camps.8He said, "If Esau comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the remaining camp will be for escape."9Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD, you who said to me, 'Return to your land and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you.'"10I am too small for all the kindnesses and for all the faithfulness that you have done with your servant, for with my rod I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.11Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him, lest he come and strike me down, mother with children.12Yet you have said, 'I will surely do you good and make your offspring like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted for multitude.'13He spent that night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau:14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,15thirty nursing camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.16He entrusted them to his servants in separate droves and instructed the servants, "Go ahead of me, and keep some space between each drove."17He commanded the first, saying, "When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, 'To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these before you?'18you shall answer, 'They belong to your servant Jacob; it is a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he himself is behind us.'"19He gave the same instructions to the second and third groups and to all who followed the droves: "When you meet Esau, speak to him in this way."20You shall also say, 'Your servant Jacob is behind us.' For he said, 'I will atone his face with the offering that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will lift my face.'21So the gift went on ahead of him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.