He instructed them: "This is what you are to say to my master Esau:`Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.
I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favour in your eyes.'"
Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me,`Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,'
I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.
He instructed the one in the lead: "When my brother Esau meets you and asks,`To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?'
And be sure to say,`Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.'" For he thought, "I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me."
Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.