Discovery BoxGenesis 32:5 
Context32:5 I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants. I have sent 1 this message 2 to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”
Genesis 32:18
Context32:18 then you must say, 3 ‘They belong 4 to your servant Jacob. 5 They have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. 6 In fact Jacob himself is behind us.’” 7
1 tn Or “I am sending.” The form is a preterite with the vav consecutive; it could be rendered as an English present tense – as the Hebrew perfect/preterite allows – much like an epistolary aorist in Greek. The form assumes the temporal perspective of the one who reads the message.
2 tn The words “this message” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive; it has the nuance of an imperfect of instruction.
4 tn The words “they belong” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
5 tn Heb “to your servant, to Jacob.”
6 tn Heb “to my lord, to Esau.”
7 tn Heb “and look, also he [is] behind us.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
