1. So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him.
2. When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.
3. Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the region of Edom.
4. He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.
5. I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants. I have sent this message to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”
6. The messengers returned to Jacob and said, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you and has four hundred men with him.”
7. Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels.
8. “If Esau attacks one camp,” he thought, “then the other camp will be able to escape.”
9. Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’
10. I am not worthy of all the faithful love you have shown your servant. With only my walking stick I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.
11. Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children.
12. But you said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’”
13. Jacob stayed there that night. Then he sent as a gift to his brother Esau
14. two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,