Genesis 32:4

32:1-8 The angels of God appeared to Jacob, to encourage him with the assurance of the Divine protection. When God designs his people for great trials, he prepares them by great comforts. While Jacob, to whom the promise belonged, had been in hard service, Esau was become a prince. Jacob sent a message, showing that he did not insist upon the birth-right. Yielding pacifies great offences, Ec 10:4. We must not refuse to speak respectfully, even to those unjustly angry with us. Jacob received an account of Esau's warlike preparations against him, and was greatly afraid. A lively sense of danger, and quickening fear arising from it, may be found united with humble confidence in God's power and promise.

And he commanded them,.... Being his servants: saying, thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; being not only a lord of a country, but his eldest brother, and whom he chose to bespeak in this manner, to soften his mind, and incline it to him; and that he might see he did not pique himself upon the birthright and blessing he had obtained; and as if these were forgotten by him, though hereby he does not give up his right in them: thy servant Jacob saith thus, expressing great humility and modesty; for though his father Isaac by his blessing had made him lord over Esau, the time was not come for this to take place, his father not being yet dead; and besides, was to have its accomplishment not in his own person, but in his posterity: I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now; had been a sojourner and a servant in Laban's family for twenty years past, and had had an hard master, and therefore could not be the object of his brother's envy, but rather of his pity and compassion.

Genesis 32:4 . Speak unto my lord Esau — He calls Esau his lord, and himself his servant, to intimate that he did not insist on the prerogatives of the birthright and blessing which he had obtained for himself, but left it to God to fulfil his own purpose in his seed. And he gives him a short account of himself and of his property, and where he had sojourned, expressing withal a desire for his favour and friendship.

My lord Esau; which title being but a civil respect commonly given in Scripture to such persons as have no authority nor superiority over them who use it, as Genesis 23:6 24:18 , Jacob doth not hereby renounce his right of primogeniture which was devolved upon him, nor return it to Esau. Nor if he did hereby acknowledge Esau his superior for the present, would this have been injurious to that right, because Jacob was not yet in actual possession of it, for it was not to commence till his father’s death; and indeed did more belong to his posterity than to his person; and as to his person, did more respect his spiritual advantages than his worldly greatness. See Genesis 27:29 . I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now, as a stranger and exile, and so a more proper object for thy pity than for thy envy.

4. Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau—The purport of the message was that, after a residence of twenty years in Mesopotamia, he was now returning to his native land, that he did not need any thing, for he had abundance of pastoral wealth, but that he could not pass without notifying his arrival to his brother and paying the homage of his respectful obeisance. Acts of civility tend to disarm opposition and soften hatred (Ec 10:4). Thy servant Jacob—He had been made lord over his brethren (compare Ge 27:29). But it is probable he thought this referred to a spiritual superiority; or if to temporal, that it was to be realized only to his posterity. At all events, leaving it to God to fulfil that purpose, he deemed it prudent to assume the most kind and respectful bearing.

Verses 4, 5. - And he commanded them , saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus ; - the expression "my lord "may have been designed to intimate to Esau that he (Jacob) did not intend to assert that superiority or precedency which had been assigned him by Isaac s blessing ( Genesis 27:29 ), at least so far as to claim a share in Isaac's wealth (Calvin, Bush, Gerlach), but was probably due chiefly to the extreme courtesy of the East (Gerlach), or to a desire to conciliate his brother (Keil), or to a feeling of personal contrition for his misbehavior towards Esau (Kalisch), and perhaps also to a secret apprehension of danger from Esau's approach (Alford, Inglis) - I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed - אֵחַר e fut. Kal. of אָחַר curring only here, is a contraction for אֶךאחַר , like תֹּסֵק for תֹּאסֵק ( Psalm 104:29 ; vide Gesenius, § 68, 2) - there until now: and I have (literally, there are to me , so that I stand in need of no further wealth from either thee or Isaac ) oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and women servants : - cf. 12:16 (Abraham); 26:13, 14 (Isaac) - and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight (cf. 33:8, 15; 39:4; and vide 6:8; 18:3). Genesis 32:4

Jacob now sends a message to Esau apprising him of his arrival. Unto the land of Seir. Arabia Petraea, with which Esau became connected by his marriage with a daughter of Ishmael. He was now married 56 years to his first two wives, and 20 to his last, and therefore, had a separate and extensive establishment of children and grandchildren. Jacob endeavors to make amends for the past by an humble and respectful approach to his older brother, in which he styles himself, "thy servant" and Esau, "my lord." He informs him of his wealth, to intimate that he did not expect anything from him. "Four hundred men with him." This was a formidable force. Esau had begun to live by the sword Genesis 27:40 , and had surrounded himself with a numerous body of followers. Associated by marriage with the Hittites and the Ishmaelites, he had rapidly risen to the rank of a powerful chieftain. It is vain to conjecture with what intent Esau advanced at the head of so large a retinue. It is probable that he was accustomed to a strong escort, that he wished to make an imposing appearance before his brother, and that his mind was in that wavering state, when the slightest incident might soothe him into good-will, or arouse him to vengeance. Jacob, remembering his own former dealings with him, has good cause for alarm. He betakes himself to the means of deliverance. He disposes of his horde into two camps, that if one were attacked and captured, the other might meanwhile escape.

From this point Jacob sent messengers forward to his brother Esau, to make known his return in such a style of humility ("thy servant," "my lord") as was adapted to conciliate him. אחר ( Genesis 32:5 ) is the first pers. imperf. Kal for אאחר, from אחר to delay, to pass a time; cf. Proverbs 8:17 , and Ges. 68, 2. The statement that Esau was already in the land of Seir ( Genesis 32:4 ), or, as it is afterwards called, the field of Edom, is not at variance with Genesis 36:6 , and may be very naturally explained on the supposition, that with the increase of his family and possessions, he severed himself more and more from his father's house, becoming increasingly convinced, as time went on, that he could hope for no change in the blessings pronounced by his father upon Jacob and himself, which excluded him from the inheritance of the promise, viz., the future possession of Canaan. Now, even if his malicious feelings towards Jacob had gradually softened down, he had probably never said anything to his parents on the subject, so that Rebekah had been unable to fulfil her promise ( Genesis 27:45 ); and Jacob, being quite uncertain as to his brother's state of mind, was thrown into the greatest alarm and anxiety by the report of the messengers, that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men.

The simplest explanation of the fact that Esau should have had so many men about him as a standing army, is that given by Delitzsch; namely, that he had to subjugate the Horite population in Seir, for which purpose he might easily have formed such an army, partly from the Canaanitish and Ishmaelitish relations of his wives, and partly from his own servants. His reason for going to meet Jacob with such a company may have been, either to show how mighty a prince he was, or with the intention of making his brother sensible of his superior power, and assuming a hostile attitude if the circumstances favoured it, even though the lapse of years had so far mitigated his anger, that he no longer seriously thought of executing the vengeance he had threatened twenty years before. For we are warranted in regarding Jacob's fear as no vain, subjective fancy, but as having an objective foundation, by the fact that God endowed him with courage and strength for his meeting with Esau, through the medium of the angelic host and the wrestling at the Jabbok; whilst, on the other hand, the brotherly affection and openness with which Esau met him, are to be attributed partly to Jacob's humble demeanour, and still more to the fact, that by the influence of God, the still remaining malice had been rooted out from his heart.