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.

If he said, ¹  ‘The speckled animals ²  will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to speckled offspring. But if he said, ‘The streaked animals will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to streaked offspring.

The Lord ¹  took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”

So he ¹  said to his servants, “You two stay ²  here with the donkey while ³  the boy and I go up there. We will worship ⁴  and then return to you.” ⁵ 

When you searched through all my goods, did you find anything that belonged to you? ¹  Set it here before my relatives and yours, ²  and let them settle the dispute between the two of us! ³ 

When he saw the bracelets on his sister’s wrists and the nose ring ¹  and heard his sister Rebekah say, ²  “This is what the man said to me,” he went out to meet the man. There he was, standing ³  by the camels near the spring.

Now go up to my father quickly ¹  and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not delay!

‘Tell Joseph this: Please forgive the sin of your brothers and the wrong they did when they treated you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sin of the servants of the God of your father.” When this message was reported to him, Joseph wept. ¹