Jacob Prays in Fear

4Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to Esau his brother, to the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

5And he commanded them, saying, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob: I have sojourned with Laban and have stayed until now.’”

6I have oxen and donkeys, flocks, male servants and female servants, and I have sent to tell my lord, so that I may find favor in your eyes.

7The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother, to Esau, and he is also coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

8Then Jacob was very afraid and distressed, and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two camps.

9He said, “If Esau comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the camp that remains will escape.”

10And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your kindred, and I will do you good,’”

11I am unworthy of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

12Please 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, the mother with the children.

13But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of its abundance.’