Genesis Chapter 33

¹And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids.

² And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost.

³ And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

Jacob arranged his wives and children so that the first ones were the handmaids that he had taken to have children with along with the children they bore, Leah and her children came next and then Rachel and Joseph were last. Jacob then went in front of all of them and bowed himself to the ground seven times until he reached his bother. He arranged things that were the most important to him were the furthest away from Esau because he didn’t know how Esau would receive him. After he did the arranging of his wives and children, Jacob went out in front of them. I imagine his heart was pounding.

⁴ And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.

Switching over to Esau’s perspective, Esau was looking at his long-lost twin brother…. he missed him and was so happy to see him again at last. Perhaps Esau had come to accept that he was the reason he lost his birthright, that he had traded it away for a bowl of soup. Esau also received a blessing from his father Isaac and was living a great life…so he was no longer angry and was excited to see his brother again.
My personal thoughts are that Esau never valued his birthright, so getting over losing it to Jacob was not such a big deal to him, his blessing from Isaac gave him what he wanted and he was enjoying his life. Jacob on the other hand wanted the birthright, it had tremendous value to him, so getting over losing it was inconceivable…. which is why he expected Esau to still be angry about it.

⁵ And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.

⁶ Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.

⁷ And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

⁸ And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my lord.

Esau asked Jacob why he had all the droves coming to him. In chapter 32 we see Jacob had sent these droves with a space between them and each time the servant who was taking them was told to tell Esau ” They be thy servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us.” It was like a breadcrumb trail of gifts leading to Jacob.

⁹ And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself.

In my mind I see a smiling Esau all happy to see his family again saying “No, you don’t have to do that…I’m doing great!”

¹⁰ And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me.

Originally Jacob was trying to quench anger he thought Esau would still have by giving him these gifts, now that he has seen Esau and realizes his brother isn’t angry at all and in fact is happy to see him, Jacob wants him to have the gifts anyway because of the blessing of their reunion. Jacob knows God has blessed him with favor .

¹¹ Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took it.

Jacob shares his blessing from God with Esau.

¹² And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee.

Esau wants to go ahead of Jacob. I’m guess Esau was offering to help guide Jacob and his family into their destination. My impression is that Esau and his men were rugged men who rode fast and hard.

¹³ And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die.

¹⁴ Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir.

Jacob replied to Esau that his children and young flock were too fragile to ride hard and asked if it would be ok to go at a slow pace that would allow them to tend to the children’s needs and those of the new members of the flocks.

¹⁵ And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of my lord.

Esau was offering to leave some of his men there to help Jacob, but Jacob kindly refused.

¹⁶ So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir.

¹⁷ And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

¹⁸ And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city.

¹⁹ And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for an hundred pieces of money.

²⁰ And he erected there an altar, and called it EleloheIsrael.

El-Elohe-Israel means God is the God of Israel or mighty is the God of Israel.