Coverdale(i)
4 & commaunded the, & sayde: Saye thus vnto my lorde Esau: Thy seruaunt Iacob sendeth ye this worde: I haue bene out wt Laban, & haue bene hither to amonge straungers,
5 & haue oxen & Asses, shepe, seruauntes & maydes, & haue sent forth to shewe it the my lorde, yt I might fynde fauoure in thy sight.
6 The messaungers came agayne vnto Iacob, and sayde: We came vnto thy brother Esau, & he commeth forth also agaynst the with foure hundreth men.
7 Then was Iacob sore afrayed, and wyst not what waye to turne himself, & deuyded the people that was with him, and the shepe, and the oxen, & the Camels in to two droues,
8 & sayde: Yf Esau come vpon the one droue, and smyte it, the other shal escape.
9 Iacob sayde morouer: O God of my father Abraha, God of my father Isaac, LORDE thou that saydest vnto me: Departe agayne to thine owne londe and to thy kynred, and I wyl do the good:
10 I am to litle for all the mercies and all the trueth that thou hast shewed vnto thy seruaunt (for I had no more but this staff whan I wente ouer this Iordan, and now am I become two droues)
11 delyuer me from ye hande of my brother, fro the hade of Esau, for I am afrayed of him, lest he come and smyte me the mother with the children.
12 Thou saydest: I wyll do the good, and wyll make thy sede as the sonde of ye see, which can not be nombred for multitude.
13 And there he taried that night, and toke of soch as came to hande, a present vnto his brother Esau,
14 two hudreth she goates, twentye he goates, two hundreth shepe, twentye rammes
15 and thirtie mylck camels wt their foales, fourtye kyne, ten bullockes, twentye she Asses with ten foales,
16 and put them in the handes of his seruauntes, euery flock by them selues, & sayde vnto them: Go ye forth before me, & put a space betwixte one flocke after the other,
17 and commaunded the first and sayde: When my brother Esau meteth the, and axeth the: Whose art thou? & whyther goest thou? and whose are these that thou dryuest before the?
18 Thou shalt saye: They be thy seruaunt Iacobs, which sendeth a present vnto his lorde Esau, and commeth behynde vs him self.
19 Thus commaunded he the seconde also, and the thirde, and all them that folowed the flockes, and sayde: Like as I haue tolde you, so speake ye vnto Esau, whan ye mete him,
20 and saye vnto him also: Beholde, yi seruaut Iacob is behynde vs. For he thought: I wyll reconcyle him with the present that goeth before me, after warde wyll I se him my self, peraduenture he shall receaue me to grace.
21 So the present wente before him, but he taried in the tente the same night,