How do Jacob and Esau meet, and why does Jacob choose to travel at a slower pace?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Esau embraces and kisses Jacob, weeps, and eventually accepts his gift. Jacob asks Esau to go ahead because the children and animals with young cannot be driven hard. Esau returns to Seir; Jacob goes to Socoth and then Salem, where he buys a field and raises an altar.

Chapter breakdown

Jacob looks up and sees Esau coming with four hundred men. He divides the children among Lia, Rachel and the two handmaids. The handmaids and their children go first, Lia and her children second, and Rachel and Joseph last. Jacob goes ahead and bows with his face to the ground seven times until his brother comes near. Esau runs to meet him, embraces him, clasps him about the neck, kisses him and weeps.

Esau sees the women and children and asks who they are and whether they belong to Jacob. Jacob answers that these are the children God has given to him, Esau’s servant. The handmaids and their children come near and bow. Lia and her children do the same, followed last by Joseph and Rachel.

Esau asks about the herds he met. Jacob explains that he sent them to find favour before his lord. Esau says he already has plenty and tells his brother to keep what is his. Jacob begs him instead to receive the little present if he has found favour with him. He compares seeing Esau’s face to seeing God’s countenance, meaning God’s face, and asks Esau to be gracious to him. He calls the gift a blessing that God has given him, since God gives all things. Esau finally accepts it, reluctantly, after Jacob’s earnest urging.

Esau proposes that they go on together and offers to accompany Jacob. Jacob explains that he has tender children, along with sheep and cows with young. If he drives the flocks too hard, he says, they will all die in one day. He asks his lord Esau to go ahead of his servant. He will follow slowly at a pace his children can manage, until he comes to Esau in Seir. That is Jacob’s stated plan; the chapter’s following travel account gives his movements to Socoth and Salem.

Esau asks that at least some of his people stay to accompany Jacob along the way. Jacob says there is no need: he wants only to find favour in Esau’s sight. Esau returns to Seir that day by the way he came. Jacob goes to Socoth, builds a house and pitches tents. He calls the place Socoth, meaning Tents.

After returning from Mesopotamia of Syria, Jacob goes to Salem, a city of the Sichemites in the land of Chanaan, and lives by the town. He buys the part of the field where he has pitched his tents from the children of Hemor, the father of Sichem, for one hundred lambs. There he raises an altar and invokes the most mighty God of Israel.

The story inside

The gift conversation shows how the brothers’ meeting continues after the embrace. Esau asks why Jacob sent the herds, and Jacob states his purpose: to find favour. Esau first refuses because he has plenty. Jacob keeps asking him to accept, tying the gift to both the welcome he has received and the gifts God has given him. Acceptance comes only after earnest urging. The next exchange concerns travel. Esau offers company, while Jacob names a concrete limit: the children and the sheep and cows with young cannot endure being driven too hard. He also declines the smaller offer of people to accompany him. The welcome and accepted gift are therefore followed by separate journeys. The chapter records a restored meeting between brothers without making shared travel a condition of it.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The meeting is shown through actions before explanations: Jacob bows seven times, and Esau runs to embrace and kiss him and weeps. These recorded acts give the reader evidence of how the encounter unfolds without assigning an unstated cause to Esau’s response.
2
Jacob connects the gift with favour and with what God has given him. Esau’s initial refusal and eventual acceptance matter because the gift is accepted after an exchange between the brothers, rather than simply delivered as an unexplained payment.
3
Jacob gives the needs of the children and animals as his reason for a slower journey. He describes the risk of driving the flocks too hard and asks Esau to go ahead. The practical limit helps explain why a welcoming meeting still ends with separate travel.

Test your recall

Why does Esau first refuse the gift, how does Jacob persuade him to accept it, and what needs lead Jacob to ask for a slower journey?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 3781–3797
Genesis Chapter 33 Jacob and Esau meet: Jacob goeth to Salem, where he raiseth an altar. 33:1. And Jacob lifting up his eyes, saw Esau coming, and with him four hundred men: and he divided the children of Lia and of Rachel, and of the two handmaids. 33:2. And he put both the handmaids and their children foremost: and Lia and her children in the second place: and Rachel and Joseph last. 33:3. And he went forward and bowed down with his face to the ground seven times, until his brother came near. 33:4. Then Esau ran to meet his brother, and embraced him: and clasping him fast about the neck, and kissing him, wept.
Lines 3798–3807
33:5. And lifting up his eyes, he saw the women and their children, and said: What mean these? And do they belong to thee? He answered: They are the children which God hath given to me, thy servant. 33:6. Then the handmaids and their children came near and bowed themselves. 33:7. Lia also, with her children, came near and bowed down in like manner; and last of all, Joseph and Rachel bowed down.
Lines 3808–3822
33:8. And Esau said: What are the droves that I met? He answered: That I might find favour before my lord. 33:9. But he said: I have plenty, my brother, keep what is thine for thyself. 33:10. And Jacob said: Do not so I beseech thee, but if I have found favour in thy eyes, receive a little present at my hands: for I have seen thy face, as if I should have seen the countenance of God: be gracious to me, 33:11. And take the blessing which I have brought thee, and which God hath given me, who giveth all things. He took it with much ado at his brother’s earnest pressing him,
Lines 3823–3833
33:12. And said: Let us go on together, and I will accompany thee in thy journey. 33:13. And Jacob said: My lord, thou knowest that I have with me tender children, and sheep, and kine with young: which if I should cause to be overdriven, in one day all the flocks will die. 33:14. May it please my lord to go before his servant: and I will follow softly after him, as I shall see my children to be able, until I come to my lord in Seir.
Lines 3834–3843
33:15. Esau answered: I beseech thee, that some of the people, at least, who are with me, may stay to accompany thee in the way. And he said: There is no necessity: I want nothing else but only to find favour, my lord, in thy sight. 33:16. So Esau returned that day, the way that he came, to Seir. 33:17. And Jacob came to Socoth: where having built a house, and pitched tents, he called the name of the place Socoth, that is, Tents.
Lines 3844–3855
33:18. And he passed over to Salem, a city of the Sichemites, which is in the land of Chanaan, after he returned from Mesopotamia of Syria: and he dwelt by the town. 33:19. And he bought that part of the field, in which he pitched his tents, of the children of Hemor, the father of Sichem, for a hundred lambs. 33:20. And raising an altar there, he invoked upon it the most mighty God of Israel.