1Then Jacob glanced up and saw, behold, there was Esau coming—and 400 men with him. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two female servants.

2He put the female servants and their children first, then Leah and her children behind them, then Rachel and Joseph behind them.

3But he himself passed on ahead of them, and bowed to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother.

4But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, fell on his neck and kissed him—and they wept.

5His eyes glanced up and he saw the women and the children, and said, “Who are these with you?” “The children whom God has graciously given your servant,” he said.

6Then the female servants approached, they and their children, and bowed down.

7Leah also approached, along with her children, and they bowed down, and finally, Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.

8“What do you mean by this whole caravan that I’ve met?” So he said, “To find favor in your eyes, my lord.”

9But Esau said, “I have plenty! O my brother, do keep all that belongs to you.”

10Yet Jacob said, “No, please! If I have found favor in your eyes, then you will take my offering from my hand. For this is the reason I’ve seen your face—it is like seeing the face of God—and you’ve accepted me!

11Please, take my blessing that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me, and because I have everything.” So he kept urging him until he accepted.

12Then he said, “Let’s journey and be on our way, and I’ll go ahead of you.

13He continued, “My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and the cattle in my care are nursing. So if they were pushed hard just one day, all the flocks would die.

14Please, let my lord pass on ahead of your servant, and I’ll move on further gradually, at a pace suited to the livestock that are before me and at a pace suited to the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”

15Then Esau said, “Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “What’s this? Let me find favor in my lord’s eyes.”

16So on that day Esau returned on his way to Seir,

17but Jacob journeyed to Sukkot and built a house for himself, and for his livestock he made booths. That is the reason that place is called Sukkot.

18So Jacob arrived in shalom to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped right in front of the city.

19He purchased the portion of the field there where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for 100 pieces of money.

20There he set up an altar, and he called it, El is Israel’s God.

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Genesis 33

CHAPTER 33

1Forsooth Jacob raised up his eyes, and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him; and he parted the sons of Leah, and of Rachel, and of both the servantesses.

2And he put ever either handmaid, and the free children of them, in the beginning; soothly he put Leah, and her sons, in the second place; forsooth he put Rachel and Joseph the last.

3And Jacob went before, and worshipped or honoured lowly to the earth seven times, till his brother nighed.

4And so Esau ran against his brother, and embraced him, and Esau held his neck, and kissed him, and wept.

5And when Esau’s eyes were raised up, he saw the women, and the little children of them, and said, What will these mean to themselves? and whether they pertain to thee? Jacob answered, They be the little children, which God hath given to me, thy servant.

6And the handmaids and their sons nighed, and were bowed.

7Also Leah nighed with her free children; and when they had worshipped in like manner, Joseph and Rachel last worshipped.

8And Esau said, What be these companies, which I met? And Jacob answered, That I should find grace before my lord.

9And he said, My brother, I have full many things, thy things be to thee.

10And Jacob said, I beseech thee, do not thou so, but if I have found grace in thine eyes, take thou a little gift of mine hands; for I saw so thy face as if I had seen the cheer of God; be thou merciful to me,

11and receive the blessing which I have brought to thee, and which blessing God giving all things gave to me. Scarcely desiring it, while the brother compelled, he received,

12and said, Go we together, and I shall be a fellow of thy way.

13And Jacob said, My lord, thou knowest that I have little children tender, and sheep, and kine with calves with me, and if I shall make them for to travail more in going, all the flocks shall die in one day;

14my lord go before his servant, and I shall pursue [or follow] little and little his steps, as I see that my little children be able, till I come to my lord, into Seir.

15Esau answered, I pray thee, that of the people which is with me, dwell they namely fellows of thy way. Jacob said, It is no need; I have need to this one thing only, that I find grace in thy sight, my lord.

16And so Esau turned again in that day in the way by which he came, into Seir.

17And Jacob came into Succoth, where when he had builded an house, and had set tents, he called the name of that place Succoth, that is, taber-nacles.

18And Jacob passed into Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, after that he turned again from Mesopotamia of Syria, and he dwelled beside the city.

19And he bought for an hundred lambs a part of the field, in which he set tabernacles, of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

20And when he had raised an altar there, he inwardly called on it the full strong God of Israel.

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Genesis 33

Genesis 33