Genesis 33:16

Jacob had taken Esau’s birthright and then, by deceiving their father Isaac, the blessing as well (Genesis 27), and the brothers had lived apart ever since. Twenty years later Jacob came home afraid of meeting him. He prayed to be delivered from his brother (Genesis 32:9–12), sent droves of gifts ahead of him (Genesis 32:13–21) and wrestled through the night at Peniel (Genesis 32:22–32). Esau came with four hundred men (Genesis 33:1), yet he ran to meet Jacob and embraced him, and they wept together (Genesis 33:4). He at first refused Jacob’s gift, saying he had enough (Genesis 33:9), and accepted it when Jacob pressed him, telling Esau that seeing his face was like seeing “the face of God” (Genesis 33:10).

So when Esau speaks in verse 12, he is the one reaching out. The verb for “said”, ʼâmar, is the everyday word for saying, and the weight of the moment lies in what he says. “Let us take our journey” translates nâçaʻ, to pull up tent pegs, and so to break camp and set out. “Let us go” and “I will go” both use yâlak, the common verb for walking or going. The double “let us” is the Hebrew cohortative, the form of a proposal made together, and the doubled invitation shows how much Esau wants them to travel side by side as brothers.

To go before a company in those days was to lead it. The one in front chose the road, watched for danger and took responsibility for the people behind him. Travel was hard and often dangerous for a household like Jacob’s, with women, children and great numbers of animals, so Esau is offering protection and hospitality along with his company. The brother Jacob had wronged, and had dreaded all the way home, now offers to walk ahead of him and guard his family.

Jacob answers with deference, “My lord knoweth”, and gives his reason before he makes his request. He has two kinds of weakness in his company. The first is his children. “Children” is yeled, the ordinary word for a child or boy, literally something born, and “tender” is rak, soft, delicate or weak. Jacob’s children are small, and a hard march would be too much for them.

The second is his livestock. “The flocks and herds with young” are animals giving milk, for the verb ʻûwl means to suckle, and the KJV’s “with young” describes ewes, cows and other animals still nursing their young. Mothers and young alike wear out quickly under stress and fatigue when they are pushed. Jacob’s household lived from these flocks. They were its food, its wealth and its means of moving from place to place, so losing them would mean ruin.

“If men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die.” The verb dâphaq means to knock, and by extension to press hard, which is what it would be to drive animals faster than they can go. mûwth is the plain word for dying. Jacob says that a single day of such driving would cost him all the flock. He may mean every animal, or he may be stating the danger as strongly as he can so that Esau will grasp it, and either way his point is plain: Esau’s pace would destroy the household.

Esau tries once more to help. “Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me.” These would be some of his retainers, likely from the four hundred who came with him. On the roads of that time an escort of armed men was a valued protection against bandits, wild animals and hostile tribes, and the offer shows Esau’s care for his brother’s safety.

Jacob answers, “What needeth it?” The question word is mâh, “what”, used here in the sense “why?” or “to what purpose?” It is a gentle refusal, and Jacob means that guards are needless now. Then he says what he does want: “let me find grace in the sight of my lord.” chên means graciousness or favour. To find favour in someone’s sight was to be accepted and regarded kindly by him, and in that world it mattered greatly to have the goodwill of a greater man, for safe passage and much else. Jacob already has Esau’s goodwill, and he values it above any escort.

The man who once won what he wanted by cunning now asks only to be looked on with favour, and he calls his brother “my lord”. Since Peniel Jacob walks more humbly, and his answer shows him resting on the peace God has made and on God’s care for the road ahead. As the psalm says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD” (Psalm 37:23).

“So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir.” The KJV opens the verse with a paragraph mark (¶), setting it off as the close of the meeting. shûwb means to turn back or return, and Esau simply turns for home. “That day” is yôwm, day, and he leaves on the day the brothers met, so the parting follows the reunion at once. “Way” is derek, a road or journey, a word also used of the course of a person’s life. Esau goes his way and Jacob goes his.

This short verse closes a struggle that began before the brothers were born, when the LORD told Rebekah that two nations were in her womb (Genesis 25:23). Esau had once cried out that Jacob “took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing” (Genesis 27:36). Now he goes home in peace. Seir became the home of Esau and his descendants the Edomites, and Genesis later tells of him moving away from Jacob and settling in Mount Seir (Genesis 36:6–8). Jacob went on toward Canaan, the land promised to his descendants, Israel. From here the two lines unfold separately, and the line of promise runs through Jacob, the nation through whom the Messiah would come.

The peace of these verses is the LORD’s doing. Jacob had prayed for deliverance, and God, who had promised at Bethel to keep him, answered by changing the heart of the man he feared. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1). “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Proverbs 16:7). God kept his promise to Jacob in spite of Jacob’s past sins and his fears.

The parting also shows what peace between brothers can look like. Esau and Jacob are reconciled, and each goes his own way with goodwill, with his own household and his own calling. Paul writes, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18), and Jesus tells us to leave our gift before the altar and “first be reconciled to thy brother” (Matthew 5:23–24).

The scene points beyond itself. Esau’s running to embrace the brother who wronged him is like the father of the prodigal son, who ran to embrace his returning son (Luke 15:20). Here a wronged brother forgives, and in a far greater way God, whom we have all wronged, has reconciled us to himself: “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). Jesus is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and he has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18–19). By grace we are saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9), and being justified by faith we have peace with God (Romans 5:1).

Esau offered to go before Jacob, and Christ goes before his people. He has entered the heavenly sanctuary as our forerunner (Hebrews 6:20), and as our great high priest he lets us come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:14–16). He is the way (John 14:6). By his blood those who were far off are brought near, for he is our peace and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:13–16), and in him believers are one, whatever once divided them (Galatians 3:28).

Jacob’s gentle pace for the weakest of his flock is a small picture of the Good Shepherd. The LORD is a shepherd who leads his flock beside still waters and restores the soul (Psalm 23:1–3). Jesus had compassion on the crowds (Matthew 9:36), called the weary to himself, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28–30), and laid down his life for the sheep (John 10:11). It is the will of the Father in heaven that none of his little ones should perish (Matthew 18:14).

These verses show a God who keeps his word. He promised to be with Jacob, and he brought him through the meeting he dreaded with his brother at peace with him. He turns hearts, so that a quarrel twenty years old ends with an embrace and a courteous farewell on the road. In Jacob’s care for tender children and nursing ewes we see something of God’s own care for the weak, for he is the shepherd who gently leads those that are with young. The brothers part with the old wrong forgiven, and this points us to the greater peace God gives, peace with himself through Christ, who goes before his people on the way.