Messengers and message (32:4-6)

Sending messengers was not uncommon in a predominantly illiterate era, and messengers are prevalent throughout the HB.¹⁸ Thus, after his encounter with the Myhl) yk)lm, the first thing Jacob does is send messengers of his own (Myk)lm) to his brother Esau. However, as noted above, this double use of “messenger” might remind the reader that the human and divine are intimately linked in this narrative, a theme which will continue throughout ch. 32-33.¹⁹

What is immediately striking about Jacob’s message are the titles which he applies to Esau and himself. He refers to Esau, not as his brother, but as ynd)l, “my lord.” And conversely, Jacob refers to himself as Esau’s servant, Kdb(. Again, this is

conspicuous because in the previous verse (32:4) the narrator has referred to Esau as Jacob’s brother, and when the servants of Jacob return having delivered his message, they refer to Esau as Jacob’s brother as well (32:7). At this point it is worth noting that the narrator puts the word “brother” on the lips of everyone except Jacob.

The message goes on to give an extremely abbreviated description of Jacob’s life since he last saw his brother. He has been staying all these years with their uncle Laban, and has accumulated various belongings: cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, and servants. The message ends in 32:6 declaring Jacob’s purpose: “I am sending to declare to my lord (ynd)l), that I might find favor (Nx-)cml) in your eyes.” There

17 There are 15 usages between 32:1-33:14. On Mynp and its various derivatives, see H. Simian-Yofre,

“Mynp,” TDOT 11:589-615.

18 Westermann has commented on the importance of sending messengers and the messenger speech in the ANE and throughout the HB. SeeWestermann, Genesis 12-36, 506, and the literature cited there.

19 Brueggemann, Genesis, 262.

are two salient issues here. First of all, what is meant by “finding favor”? And secondly, why does Jacob catalogue his possessions? What are his intentions, and how does he think this will lead to the favor he so desires?²⁰

The term Nx carries the idea of “acceptance.” In several ancient languages, this term is connected to the face and eyes, as favor was thought to be shown on the face. “To show one’s face…means to be favorably disposed toward a person. In anger one’s face is hidden.”²¹ In the realm of human relationships, favor can be sought as a gift, and when sought, often includes the elements of giving gifts, deferential language, and prostration.²² The scene in Gen 32-33 fits many of these descriptions.

The account of Jacob and Esau in Gen. 32f. takes us to the pinnacle of the OT teaching on ḥ&n. …The story contains four quotations from Jacob in which he seeks ḥ&n from Esau. … This ḥ&n is the goal of his activity (32:6,8[5,7]), namely a permanent change of disposition or attitude on Esau’s part. … He has no request to make; instead he comes with gifts to give, and he compliments Esau with this phrase by urging him to accept these (33:10). Jacob knows that if Esau accepts the gifts it will demonstrate that Esau has accepted him as well, i.e. that Jacob has indeed found favor in his brother’s eyes.²³

However, this does not answer the question regarding Jacob’s disposition. How are we to understand Jacob’s words and intentions in 32:5-6? There are various ways of interpreting these verses; for the sake of convenience, we will divide them into those who see Jacob as showing 1) humility, or 2) strength and wealth.

Those who see humility in Jacob’s words focus on the use of titles (“lord” and

“servant”) and Jacob’s explicit statement that he is seeking Esau’s favor. Driver notes that here we see a Jacob who is “very humble and conciliatory.”²⁴ Indeed, several scholars have noted that Jacob’s deferential language goes well beyond ancient

20 Another issue on which the text is silent is why Jacob omits reference to his wives and children.

21 D.N. Freedman, and J. Lundbom, “Nnx,” TDOT 5:24; Terence E. Fretheim, “Nnx,” NIDOTTE 2:203-206. For more on Nx in the HB, see William L. Reed, “Some Implications of HEN for Old Testament Religion,” JBL 73:1 (1954): 36-41.

22 Freedman and Lundbom, “Nnx,” 5:26-27. See Gen 34:11; Gen 42:21; 2 Sam 14:22; Ruth 2:10; Ps 31:10; Esth 4:8.

23 Freedman and Lundbom, “Nnx,” 5:29. As Zimmerli notes, Jacob’s use of this language shows at some level his intention to reconcile with his brother. H. Conzelmann and W. Zimmerli, “0123),”

TDNT 9:380.

24 Driver, Genesis, 291. John Wesley connects this to Jacob’s developing life of faith: “He calls Esau his Lord, himself his servant, to intimate that he did not insist upon the prerogatives of the birth-right and blessing he had obtained for himself, but left it to God to fulfill his own purpose in his seed.” See his comment on 32:4, in Wesley's Notes on the Bible, 684. A similar approach can be found in Waltke, Genesis, 442.

oriental courtesy between siblings.²⁵ Spero offers the fullest explanation along these lines:

Jacob reasoned that Esau believed that his (Jacob’s) actions in both the bechora and bracha events were driven by an unbridled ambition to rule over him, to become the head of the family after Isaac, with its material and social benefits. Therefore, in this conciliatory message Jacob: (1) Describes himself as servant to my lord Esau—indicating that he does not consider himself superior and has no desire to rule; (2) states that he has become independently wealthy and has no need for the family inheritance; and (3) points out that by being banished from their parents’ home for so long, he has been amply “punished” for his alleged

misdeeds.²⁶

Conversely, those who understand Jacob in 32:5-6 as presenting a show of strength tend to focus on the list of possessions he catalogues. Spina, for instance, understands that Jacob’s servants are to inform Esau that their master has become, “fabulously wealthy and would be interested in an accommodation.”²⁷ This is, then, a thinly disguised bribe.

Cohen offers a modifying position, seeing elements of both humility and arrogance in Jacob’s message:

Anyone in Jacob’s position, pleading for his life from one whom he feared as a militant pursuer clearly intent on vengeance, would assuredly prepare every word of his plea for clemency with the greatest care and the finest attention to detail. He would couch it in the most conciliatory of terms, present himself in the most self-effacing manner possible. … While all this sounds obvious, it would seem, however, that Jacob was ignorant of all those required proprieties. For his submission to Esau was couched in a manner calculated to achieve the very opposite effect: to convince Esau that his antipathy toward his brother over the matter of the birthright was fully justifiable, because clearly Jacob had no feeling of remorse in his heart, but rather the same old dogmatic self-assurance and self-justification for having seized the birthright.²⁸

25 Wenham, Genesis 16-50, 290; Jacob, Das Erste Buch Der Tora, 630.

26 Shubert Spero, “Jacob and Esau: The Relationship Reconsidered,” JBQ 32:4 (2004):248. For more on Jacob as an “artful negotiator,” see Lester, “Admiring,” 81. Fokkelman (Narrative Art, 197) also picks up on Jacob’s reference to sojourning with Laban, highlighting his status as a foreigner in order to gain pity from his brother. Not all commentators who subscribe to Jacob’s humility here agree on the sincerity of this humility. Steinberg, for instance, comments that, “Through the servile attitude he feigns toward Esau, Jacob appears secure in the knowledge that he is presently safe from the vengeance of Esau.” Steinberg, Kinship and Marriage, 109. While one can indeed argue that Jacob’s humility might not be totally sincere, the idea that he feels secure and is free from fear does not make sense in the larger narrative. In reality, much of Jacob’s reaction to the response he receives from his

messengers seems to be predicated on fear, as will be outlined below.

27 Spina, Faith, 22. It is interesting that Tg. Ps.-J. offers an antithetical understanding to this one regarding Jacob’s possessions. Tg. Ps.-J. amends 32:6 to read: “And of all those things with which my father blessed me I have nothing; I have but a few oxen and asses, sheep and menservants and maidservants, and I have sent to tell my master that that blessing has not profited me, and so that I might find mercy in your eyes, that you might not bear a grudge against me because of it.”

28 Jeffrey M. Cohen, “The Jacob-Esau Reunion,” JBQ 21:3 (1993):159-160.

Cohen goes on to note that Jacob’s speech seems “calculated to do no more than show Esau that the birthright and its blessings were truly fulfilled to the letter, leaving Jacob a man of great substance and self-sufficiency quite able to bestow substantial alms upon his less fortunate brother.”²⁹ Yet, even in the midst of all this posturing, Jacob uses the language of lord and servant. Why? This, according to Cohen, is another example of Jacob’s ambivalence coming through. His attitude and actions throughout these two chapters reveal the same mixed signals.³⁰

Thus, Jacob’s message in 32:5-6 has been understood as both a posture of humility, as a show of strength and a possible bribe, or as a confused combination of the two.

Whatever the case, the text does not inform us of Jacob’s motives. The reader is left with perhaps the same ambivalence that Jacob himself feels about the ensuing encounter.

5.2.2.3 Esau’s response and Jacob’s division of the camp (32:7-9) The story jumps directly to the response Jacob’s messengers bring to him. Again, reference to Esau as Jacob’s brother comes from the lips of someone other than Jacob himself. The response is short, and has two elements. First, Esau is coming to meet Jacob (Kt)rql Klh). And second, Esau has four hundred men with him.

As Fokkelman notes, Esau is acting indirectly at this juncture in the narrative and, along with Jacob, the reader is unsure of Esau’s motives. The fact that Esau is

“coming to meet” his brother is not especially illuminating, as the root )rq can be construed as friendly or hostile.³¹ The four hundred men, however, does seem to have ominous overtones. Heard notes in passing that if Esau is semi-nomadic, in the same vein as Abraham and Isaac, this may simply be the size of his travelling group, in which case he is bringing his family to greet Jacob.³² However, elsewhere in the HB,

29 Cohen, “The Jacob-Esau Reunion,” 160.

30 Cohen, “The Jacob-Esau Reunion,” 161.

31 See BDB, 896-897.

32 See Heard, Dynamics, 128-130.

this is the approximate size of a militia (see 1 Sam 22:2; 25:13).³³ Westermann goes so far as to describe Esau as the leader of a “mercenary army.”³⁴

The text never does inform the reader regarding Esau’s intentions with this large group. If anything, this mention of the four hundred men and Esau’s approach is intentionally ambiguous, and is used as a rhetorical device to heighten the sense of tension in the scene in light of the brothers’ history.³⁵ And in this sense, it works. Just as Jacob’s message to his brother contained an element of ambiguity, so Esau’s approach is ambiguous. Jacob, however, assumes the worst. Afraid and exceedingly distressed, Jacob divides into two camps (twnxm yn#l) all of the people and

possessions with him (32:8). The reader is informed of Jacob’s reasoning: “He said,

‘If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the remaining camp will escape’”

(32:9).

Jacob’s division of his group into two “camps” reminds the reader of his encounter at Mahanaim. Yet while his encounter with the messengers of God was a peaceful one, the response from his own messengers leads to Jacob essentially cutting his losses in case of emergency. If the encounter with God’s messengers was meant to be

reassuring on Jacob’s return to his homeland, it is not working. And this leads back to our earlier discussion on Jacob’s motives. The text makes clear in 32:9 that the

overriding motivation for Jacob’s actions is fear.

Yet, as Fokkelman points out, if Esau has ill intentions, why does he spare the messengers?³⁶ Why does he not respond with a message of his own? Again, Esau’s actions are “off stage,” which may serve to remind us that this narrative is ultimately about Jacob, and to focus the reader on his actions. And what the reader sees is familiar: Jacob is a man with a plan. First he sends a message to his brother. Then he divides his camp. The next step will be to seek divine assistance.

33 Sarna, Genesis, 224.

34 Westermann, Genesis 12-36, 507. Wesley comments that Esau is tired of waiting for his father to die, and so has decided to do away with his brother straight away. See Wesley’s Notes on the Bible, 684.

35 Spina, Faith, 22-23.

36 Fokkelman, Narrative Art, 201.