1 Then Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, AGen 32:6Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children 1Or toamong Leah and Rachel and the two maids. 2 He put the maids and their children 1Lit firstin front, and Leah and her children 2Lit behindnext, and Rachel and Joseph 2Lit behindlast. 3 But he himself passed on ahead of them and AGen 42:6; 43:26bowed down to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

4 Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and AGen 45:14, 15fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 He lifted his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, “1Or What relation are these to you?Who are these with you?” So he said, “AGen 48:9; Ps 127:3; Is 8:18The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6 Then the maids came near 1Lit they andwith their children, and they bowed down. 7 Leah likewise came near with her children, and they bowed down; and afterward Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed down. 8 And he said, “What do you mean by AGen 32:13-16all this company which I have met?” And he said, “BGen 32:5To find favor in the sight of my lord.” 9 But Esau said, “AGen 27:39, 40I have plenty, my brother; let what you have be your own.” 10 Jacob said, “No, please, if now I have found favor in your sight, then take my present from my hand, 1Lit for therefore I have seen your face like seeing God’s facefor I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably. 11  “Please take my 1Lit blessingA1 Sam 25:27gift which has been brought to you, BGen 30:43because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have 2Lit allplenty.” Thus he urged him and he took it.

12 Then 1Lit heEsau said, “Let us take our journey and go, and I will go before you.” 13 But he said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds which are nursing are 1Lit upon mea care to me. And if they are driven hard one day, all the flocks will die. 14  “Please let my lord pass on before his servant, and I will proceed at my leisure, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord at AGen 32:3Seir.”

15 Esau said, “Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “1Lit Why this?What need is there? ARuth 2:13Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.” 16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17 Jacob journeyed to 1I.e. boothsAJosh 13:27; Judg 8:5, 14; Ps 60:6Succoth, and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock; therefore the place is named Succoth.

18 Now Jacob came safely to the city of AGen 12:6; Josh 24:1; Judg 9:1Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from BGen 25:20; 28:2Paddan-aram, and camped before the city. 19 AJosh 24:32; John 4:5He bought the piece of land where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred 1Heb qesitahpieces of money. 20 Then he erected there an altar and called it 1I.e. God, the God of IsraelEl-Elohe-Israel.