32:6 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.” 32:7 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. 32:8 “If Esau attacks one camp,” 1 he thought, 2 “then the other camp will be able to escape.” 3
32:9 Then Jacob prayed, 4 “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said 5 to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ 6 32:10 I am not worthy of all the faithful love 7 you have shown 8 your servant. With only my walking stick 9 I crossed the Jordan, 10 but now I have become two camps. 32:11 Rescue me, 11 I pray, from the hand 12 of my brother Esau, 13 for I am afraid he will come 14 and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. 15
1 tn Heb “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.”
2 tn Heb “and he said, ‘If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.” The Hebrew verb אָמַר (’amar) here represents Jacob’s thought or reasoning, and is therefore translated “he thought.” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 tn Heb “the surviving camp will be for escape.” The word “escape” is a feminine noun. The term most often refers to refugees from war.
4 tn Heb “said.”
5 tn Heb “the one who said.”
6 tn Heb “I will cause good” or “I will treat well [or “favorably”].” The idea includes more than prosperity, though that is its essential meaning. Here the form is subordinated to the preceding imperative and indicates purpose or result. Jacob is reminding God of his promise in the hope that God will honor his word.
7 tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).
8 tn Heb “you have done with.”
9 tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.
10 tn Heb “this Jordan.”
11 tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.
12 tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”
13 tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”
14 tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”
15 sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.