17 He commanded the first servant, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and whose animals are these ahead of you?’
18 then say, ‘Sir, they belong to your servant Jacob. This is a gift sent to you. Jacob is right behind us.’”
19 He also commanded the second servant, the third, and all the others who followed the herds. He said, “Say the same thing to Esau when you find him.
20 And be sure to add, ‘Jacob is right behind us, sir.’” He thought, “I’ll make peace with him by giving him this gift that I’m sending ahead of me. After that I will see him, and he’ll welcome me back.”
21 So Jacob sent the gift ahead of him while he stayed in the camp that night.
22 During that night he got up and gathered his two wives, his two slaves and his eleven children and crossed at the shallow part of the Jabbok River.
23 After he sent them across the stream, he sent everything else across.