The message of Laban awakened Esau's old hatred toward Jacob with
increased fury, and he assembled his household, consisting of sixty
men. With them and three hundred and forty inhabitants of Seir, he went
forth to do battle with Jacob and kill him. He divided his warriors
into seven cohorts, giving to his son Eliphaz his own division of
sixty, and putting the other six divisions under as many of the
Horites.
While Esau was hastening onward to meet Jacob, the messengers which
Laban had sent to Esau came to Rebekah and told her that Esau and his
four hundred men were about to make war upon Jacob, with the purpose of
slaying him and taking possession of all he had. Anxious lest Esau
should execute his plan while yet Jacob was on the journey, she hastily
dispatched seventy-two of the retainers of Isaac's household, to give
him help. Jacob, tarrying on the banks of the brook Jabbok, rejoiced at
the sight of these men, and he greeted them with the words, "This is
God's helping host," wherefore he called the place of their meeting
Mahanaim, Host.
After the warriors sent by Rebekah had satisfied his questions
regarding the welfare of his parents, they delivered his mother's
message unto him, thus: "I have heard, my son, that thy brother Esau
hath gone forth against thee on the road, with men of the children of
Seir the Horite, and therefore, my son, hearken to my voice, and take
counsel with thyself what thou wilt do, and when he cometh up to thee,
supplicate him, and do not speak roughly to him, and give him a present
from what thou possessest, and from what God has favored thee with. And
when he asketh thee concerning thy affairs, conceal nothing from him,
perhaps he may turn from his anger against thee, and thou wilt thereby
save thy soul, thou and all belonging to thee, for it is thy duty to
honor him, since he is thy elder brother."
And when Jacob heard the words of his mother which the messengers had
spoken to him, he lifted up his voice and wept bitterly, and did as his
mother commanded him.
He sent messengers to Esau to placate him, and they said unto him:
"Thus speaketh thy servant Jacob: My lord, think not that the blessing
which my father bestowed upon me profited me. Twenty years I served
Laban, and he deceived me, and changed my hire ten times, as thou well
knowest. Yet did I labor sorely in his house, and God saw my
affliction, my labor, and the work of my hands, and afterward He caused
me to find grace and favor in the sight of Laban. And through God's
great mercy and kindness, I acquired oxen and asses and cattle and
men-servants and maid servants. And now I am coming to my country and
to my home, to my father and mother, who are in the land of Canaan. And
I have sent to let my lord know all this in order to find favor in the
eyes of my lord, so that he may not imagine that I have become a man of
substance, or that the blessing with which my father blessed me has
benefited me."[233]
Furthermore spake the messengers: "Why dost thou envy me in respect to
the blessing wherewith my father blessed me? Is it that the sun shineth
in my land, and not in thine? Or doth the dew and the rain fall only
upon my land, and not upon thine? If my father blessed me with the dew
of heaven, he blessed thee with the fatness of the earth, and if he
spoke to me, Peoples will serve thee, he hath said unto thee, By thy
sword shalt thou live. How long, then, wilt thou continue to envy me?
Come, now, let us set up a covenant between us, that we will share
equally all the vexations that may occur."
Esau would not agree to this proposal, his friends dissuaded him
therefrom, saying, "Accept not these conditions, for God hath said to
Abraham, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land
that is not theirs, and shall serve the people thereof, and the aliens
shall afflict them four hundred years. Wait, therefore, until Jacob and
his family go down into Egypt to pay off this debt."
Jacob also sent word to Esau, saying: "Though I dwelt with that heathen
of the heathen, Laban, yet have I not forgotten my God, but I fulfil
the six hundred and thirteen commandments of the Torah.[234] If thy
mind be set upon peace, thou wilt find me ready for peace. But if thy
desire be war, thou wilt find me ready for war. I have with me men of
valor and strength, they have but to utter a word, and God fulfils it.
I tarried with Laban until Joseph should be born, he who is destined to
subdue thee.[235] And though my descendants be held in bondage in this
world, yet a day will come when they will rule over their rulers."[236]
In reply to all these gentle words, Esau spoke with arrogance: "Surely
I have heard, and truly it has been told unto me what Jacob has been to
Laban, who brought him up in his house, and gave him his daughters for
wives, and he begot sons and daughters, and abundantly increased in
wealth and riches in Laban's house and with his help. And when he saw
that his wealth was abundant and his riches were great, he fled with
all belonging to him from Laban's house, and he carried away Laban's
daughters from their father as captives of the sword, without telling
him of it. And not only to Laban hath Jacob done thus, but also unto me
hath he done so, and he hath twice supplanted me, and shall I be
silent? Now, I have this day come with my camp to meet him, and I will
do unto him according to the desire of my heart."
The messengers dispatched by Jacob now returned to him, and reported
these words of Esau unto him.[237] They also told him that his brother
was advancing against him with an army consisting of four hundred
crowned heads, each leading a host of four hundred men.[238] "It is
true, thou art his brother, and thou treatest him as a brother should,"
they said to Jacob, "but he is an Esau, thou must be made aware of his
villainy."[239]
Jacob bore in mind the promise of God, that He would bring him back to
his father's house in peace, yet the report about his brother's purpose
alarmed him greatly. A pious man may never depend upon promises of
earthly good. God does not keep the promise if he is guilty of the
smallest conceivable trespass, and Jacob feared that he might have
forfeited happiness by reason of a sin committed by him. Moreover, he
was anxious lest Esau be the one favored by God, inasmuch as he had
these twenty years been fulfilling two Divine commands that Jacob had
had to disregard. Esau had been living in the Holy Land, Jacob outside
of it; the former had been in attendance upon his parents, the latter
dwelling at a distance from them. And much as he feared defeat, Jacob
also feared the reverse, that he might be victorious over Esau, or
might even slay his brother, which would be as bad as to be slain by
him. And he was depressed by another apprehension, that his father had
died, for he reasoned that Esau would not take such warlike steps
against his own brother, were his father still alive.[240]
When his wives saw the anxiety that possessed Jacob, they began to
quarrel with him, and reproach him for having taken them away from
their father's house, though he knew that such danger threatened from
Esau.[241] Then Jacob determined to apply the three means that might
save him from the fate impending: he would cry to God for help, appease
Esau's wrath with presents, and hold himself in readiness for war if
the worst came to the worst.[242]
He prayed to God: "O Thou God of my father Abraham, and God of my
father Isaac, God of all who walk in the ways of the pious and do like
unto them! I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all
the truth, which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant. O Lord of the
world, as Thou didst not suffer Laban to execute his evil designs
against me, so also bring to naught the purpose of Esau, who desireth
to slay me. O Lord of the world, in Thy Torah which Thou wilt give us
on Mount Sinai it is written, And whether it be cow or ewe, ye shall
not kill it and her young both in one day. If this wretch should come
and murder my children and their mothers at the same time, who would
then desire to read Thy Torah which Thou wilt give us on Mount Sinai?
And yet Thou didst speak, For the sake of thy merits and for the merits
of thy fathers I will do good unto thee, and in the future world thy
children shall be as numerous as the sand of the sea."
As Jacob prayed for his own deliverance, so also he prayed for the
salvation of his descendants, that they might not be annihilated by the
descendants of Esau.
Such was the prayer of Jacob when he saw Esau approaching from afar,
and God heard his petition and looked upon his tears, and He gave him
the assurance that for his sake his descendants, too, would be redeemed
from all distress.[243]
Then the Lord sent three angels, and they went before Esau, and they
appeared unto Esau and his people as hundreds and thousands of men
riding upon horses. They were furnished with all sorts of weapons, and
divided into four columns. And one division went on, and they found
Esau coming with four hundred men, and the division ran toward them,
and terrified them. Esau fell off his horse in alarm, and all his men
separated from him in great fear, while the approaching column shouted
after them, "Verily, we are the servants of Jacob, the servant of God,
and who can stand against us?" Esau then said unto them, "O, then my
lord and brother Jacob is your lord, whom I have not seen these twenty
years, and now that I have this day come to see him, do you treat me in
this manner?" The angels answered, "As the Lord liveth, were not Jacob
thy brother, we had not left one remaining of thee and thy people, but
on account of Jacob we will do nothing to thee." This division passed
from Esau, and when he had gone from there about a league, the second
division came toward him, and they also did unto Esau and his men as
the first had done to them, and when they permitted him to go on, the
third came and did like the first, and when the third had passed also,
and Esau still continued with his men on the road to Jacob, the fourth
division came and did to them as the others had done. And Esau was
greatly afraid of his brother, because he thought that the four columns
of the army which he had encountered were the servants of Jacob.
After Jacob had made an end of praying, he divided all that journeyed
with him into two companies, and he set over them Damesek and Alinus,
the two sons of Eliezer, the bondman of Abraham, and their sons.[244]
Jacob's example teaches us not to conceal the whole of our fortune in
one hiding-place, else we run the danger of losing everything at one
stroke.
Of his cattle he sent a part to Esau as a present, first dividing it
into three droves in order to impress his brother more. When Esau
received the first drove, he would think he had the whole gift that had
been sent to him, and suddenly he would be astonished by the appearance
of the second portion, and again by the third. Jacob knew his brother's
avarice only too well.[245]
The men who were the bearers of Jacob's present to Esau were charged
with the following message, "This is an offering to my lord Esau from
his slave Jacob." But God took these words of Jacob in ill part,
saying, "Thou profanest what is holy when thou callest Esau lord."
Jacob excused himself; he was but flattering the wicked in order to
escape death at his hands.[246]