He said, “My lord, ¹  if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by and leave your servant. ² 

When we returned to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

“Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife gave me two sons. ¹ 

“So now, when I return to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us – his very life is bound up in his son’s life. ¹ 

“So now, please let your servant remain as my lord’s slave instead of the boy. As for the boy, let him go back with his brothers.

He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant ¹  Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.

When his master heard his wife say, ¹  “This is the way ²  your slave treated me,” ³  he became furious. ⁴ 

When he sees the boy is not with us, ¹  he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father in sorrow to the grave.

Indeed, ¹  your servant pledged security for the boy with my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame before my father all my life.’

Your ¹  servant has found favor with you, ²  and you have shown me great ³  kindness ⁴  by sparing ⁵  my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because ⁶  this disaster will overtake ⁷  me and I’ll die. ⁸ 

I am not worthy of all the faithful love ¹  you have shown ²  your servant. With only my walking stick ³  I crossed the Jordan, ⁴  but now I have become two camps.

You must also say, ‘In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.’” ¹  Jacob thought, ²  “I will first appease him ³  by sending a gift ahead of me. ⁴  After that I will meet him. ⁵  Perhaps he will accept me.” ⁶ 

When Esau ¹  looked up ²  and saw the women and the children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?” Jacob ³  replied, “The children whom God has graciously given ⁴  your servant.”

Then Judah approached him and said, “My lord, please allow your servant to speak a word with you. ¹  Please do not get angry with your servant, ²  for you are just like Pharaoh. ³