Genesis 32:11-12

32:11 Rescue me, ¹  I pray, from the hand ²  of my brother Esau, ³  for I am afraid he will come ⁴  and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. ⁵  32:12 But you ⁶  said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper ⁷  and will make ⁸  your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’” ⁹ 

[32:11]  ¹ tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.

[32:11]  ² tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”

[32:11]  ³ tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”

[32:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”

[32:11]  ⁵ sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.

[32:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “But you, you said.” One of the occurrences of the pronoun “you” has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

[32:12]  ⁷ tn Or “will certainly deal well with you.” The infinitive absolute appears before the imperfect, underscoring God’s promise to bless. The statement is more emphatic than in v. 9.

[32:12]  ⁸ tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the nuance of the preceding verb forward.

[32:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “which cannot be counted because of abundance.” The imperfect verbal form indicates potential here.