Jacob, Joseph & Egypt

Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.

Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.

Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

Laban said, “This heap is witness between me and you this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed

and Mizpah, for he said, “The LORD watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.

If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you.”

Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you.

May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.

The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.

Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.

Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.

Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s army.” He called the name of that place Mahanaim.

Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.

He commanded them, saying, “This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: ‘This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now.

I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.’”

The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him.”

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies;

and he said, “If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape.”

Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD, who said to me, ‘Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,’

I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.

Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children.

You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can’t be numbered because there are so many.’”

He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother:

two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,