Jacob meets Esau
1When Jacob looked, he saw Esau coming to him. There were 400 men with Esau. Jacob divided the children between Leah and Rachel and the 2 servant women. 2He told the servant women and their children to walk in front. Leah and her children walked behind them and Rachel and Joseph were last. 3Jacob walked before them and he bowed down low before he came to his brother. He did this 7 times.
4Esau ran to him and hugged Jacob. He put his arms around Jacob's neck and kissed him, and they both cried.
5Esau saw the women and children and he asked: ‘Who are these people with you?’ Jacob said: ‘These are the children that God has given me. God was very good to me.’
6Then the servant women and their children came and they bowed before Esau. 7Leah and her children also came after them and they bowed, and Joseph and Rachel came last and they bowed.
8Then Esau asked Jacob: ‘Why did you give all those gifts to me?’ And Jacob said: ‘Sir, these are gifts so that you will be friendly to me, your servant.’ 9And Esau said: ‘My brother, I have a lot of things. Keep your animals for yourself.’ 10But Jacob said: ‘No, sir, if you want to be friendly to me, then please take my gifts because I gave them to you like a gift to God, and you were friendly to me. 11Please take the gifts that I sent you because God was good to me, and I have everything that I need.’
Jacob continued saying this and then Esau took the gifts. 12Esau said to Jacob: ‘Let us go further. I will go before you.’
13But Jacob said to him: ‘Sir, you know the children with us are small and weak. I must also look after the sheep and cattle, and the lambs and calves that have to drink. They will die if I chase them too fast even for one day. 14Sir, please go in front of me, then I will follow you slowly, as fast as the animals and the children can walk, until I come to you in the land of Seir.’
15Then Esau said: ‘I will leave some of my men to stay with you.’
But Jacob said: ‘Why do you want to do that? Please believe me.’
16Esau went back to the land of Seir on that day. 17Jacob went to another place and he built a house there. He took branches and he built kraals for his sheep and goats. That is why he named the place Sukkoth.![](https://storage.googleapis.com/ibep-prod.appspot.com/mediaPackage/BSSA-1caad7b6f6d6241d-01/108.jpg?GoogleAccessId=firebase-adminsdk-5de4x%40ibep-prod.iam.gserviceaccount.com&Expires=1725939273&Signature=lwLyJhmb5WUz0%2Bik9PHDzDrbmn7iTEDCn0wp98ZY5FPu8fx5DfxvKQFabA9yZjllhX7YBJ2vaNDIUtw0m6MZ2mcK9duD0RDTLD%2BK7qHYN5n6O%2FnybYDROhjZDmAMzn%2FwwZcNsVGiH2X7LZzUXsNGXybj2RQmVMbMBziGforoX2AZKVZro43HsemuAfSJvXzp952tGyif%2BzW%2Fplpf%2BT4vhwbFOJTyIvCmKrFr6PrSSBGWVHxe1g5PnmTXSRmBrrUPomC7q2hDNyNednTjjdjHw2iS7D8RhEH4UGBVz12mBN4GyGoiUdIXr%2FsHhq%2Bd2gUszrjpop81ple4bpXFgS7UTw%3D%3D)
Jacob buys land in Shechem
18Jacob went to the town of Shechem in Canaan and he got there safely. He went from Paddan-Aram to there and he put up his tents near the town. 19Then he bought the land where he had put up his tents. He bought it from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father. He paid 100 pieces_of_silver for it. 20Jacob built an altar there and he named it ‘Only the God of Israel is God.’