NET Bible
"He instructed the servant leading the first herd,“When my brother Esau meets you and asks,‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Whose herds are you driving?’"
— Genesis 32:17, NET Bible
“And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?”
“And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee? ”
“He commanded the foremost, saying, "When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, 'Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?'”
“And he commanded the first, saying: If thou meet my brother Esau, and he ask thee: Whose art thou? or whither goest thou? or whose are these before thee?”
“And he gave orders to the first, saying, When my brother Esau comes to you and says, Whose servant are you, and where are you going, and whose are these herds?”
“And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee?”
two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
He entrusted them to his servants, who divided them into herds. He told his servants,“Pass over before me, and keep some distance between one herd and the next.”
He instructed the servant leading the first herd,“When my brother Esau meets you and asks,‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Whose herds are you driving?’
then you must say,‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. In fact Jacob himself is behind us.’”
He also gave these instructions to the second and third servants, as well as all those who were following the herds, saying,“You must say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.
You must also say,‘In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.’” Jacob thought,“I will first appease him by sending a gift ahead of me. After that I will meet him. Perhaps he will accept me.”