Genesis 32:9-13

32:9 Then Jacob prayed, ¹  “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said ²  to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ ³  32:10 I am not worthy of all the faithful love ⁴  you have shown ⁵  your servant. With only my walking stick ⁶  I crossed the Jordan, ⁷  but now I have become two camps. 32:11 Rescue me, ⁸  I pray, from the hand ⁹  of my brother Esau, ¹⁰  for I am afraid he will come ¹¹  and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. ¹²  32:12 But you ¹³  said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper ¹⁴  and will make ¹⁵  your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’” ¹⁶ 

32:13 Jacob ¹⁷  stayed there that night. Then he sent ¹⁸  as a gift ¹⁹  to his brother Esau

[32:9]  ¹ tn Heb “said.”

[32:9]  ² tn Heb “the one who said.”

[32:9]  ³ tn Heb “I will cause good” or “I will treat well [or “favorably”].” The idea includes more than prosperity, though that is its essential meaning. Here the form is subordinated to the preceding imperative and indicates purpose or result. Jacob is reminding God of his promise in the hope that God will honor his word.

[32:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).

[32:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “you have done with.”

[32:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.

[32:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “this Jordan.”

[32:11]  ⁸ tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.

[32:11]  ⁹ tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”

[32:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”

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

[32:11]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “But you, you said.” One of the occurrences of the pronoun “you” has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

[32:12]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the nuance of the preceding verb forward.

[32:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “which cannot be counted because of abundance.” The imperfect verbal form indicates potential here.

[32:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he took from that which was going into his hand,” meaning that he took some of what belonged to him.

[32:13]  ¹⁹ sn The Hebrew noun translated gift can in some contexts refer to the tribute paid by a subject to his lord. Such a nuance is possible here, because Jacob refers to Esau as his lord and to himself as Esau’s servant (v. 4).