1 AND JACOB raised his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming and with him 400 men. So he divided the children to Leah and to Rachel and to the two maids. 2 And he put the maids and their children in front, Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. 3 Then Jacob went over [the stream] before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
4 But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 [Esau] looked up and saw the women and the children and said, Who are these with you? And [Jacob] replied, They are the children whom God has graciously given your servant. 6 Then the maids came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves. 7 And Leah also with her children came near, and they bowed themselves. After them Joseph and Rachel came near, and they bowed themselves. 8 Esau said, What do you mean by all this company which I met? And he said, These are that I might find favor in the sight of my lord. 9 And Esau said, I have plenty, my brother; keep what you have for yourself. 10 But Jacob replied, No, I beg of you, if now I have found favor in your sight, receive my gift that I am presenting; for truly to see your face is to me as if I had seen the face of God, and you have received me favorably. 11 Accept, I beg of you, my blessing and gift that I have brought to you; for God has dealt graciously with me and I have everything. And he kept urging him and he accepted it.
12 Then [Esau] said, Let us get started on our journey, and I will go before you. 13 But Jacob replied, You know, my lord, that the children are tender and delicate and need gentle care, and the flocks and herds with young are of concern to me; for if the men should overdrive them for a single day, the whole of the flocks would die. 14 Let my lord, I pray you, pass over before his servant; and I will lead on slowly, governed by [consideration for] the livestock that set the pace before me and the endurance of the children, 1 until I come to my lord in Seir.
15 Then Esau said, Let me now leave with you some of the people who are with me. But [Jacob] said, What need is there for it? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord. 16 So Esau turned back that day on his way to Seir. 17 But Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built himself a house and made booths or places of shelter for his livestock; so the name of the place is called Succoth [booths].
18 When Jacob came from Padan-aram, he arrived safely and in peace at the town of Shechem, in the land of Canaan, and pitched his tents before the [enclosed] town. 19 Then he bought the piece of land on which he had encamped from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money. 20 There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel [God, the God of Israel].