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 nothing but an announcement of his arrival and his great wealth (cf. 33$12ff.$) The shepherd, with all his success, is at the mercy of the fierce marauder who was to 'live by his sword' (27$40$).—7. The messengers return with the ominous news that Esau is already on the march with 400 men. How he was ready to strike so far north of his own territory is a difficulty (see p. 415).—8, 9. Jacob's first resource is to divide his company into two camps, in the hope that one might escape while the other was being captured. The arrangement is perhaps adverted to in 33$8$.—10-13. Jacob's prayer, consisting of an invocation ($10$), thanksgiving ($11$), petition ($12$), and appeal to the divine faithfulness ($13$), is a classic model of OT devotion (Gu.); though the element of confession, so prominent in later supplications, is significantly absent.—12. mother with (or on) children] Hos. 10$14$; cf. Dt. 22$6$. A popular saying,—the mother conceived as bending over the children to protect them (Tu.).—14a. spent that night there] i.e., at Maḥanaim (v.$22$). We may suppose (with We. Gu.) that an explicit etymology, based on the 'two camps' (vv.$8. 11$), preceded or followed this clause.

Vv.$10-13$ appear to be one of the later expansions of the Yahwistic narrative, akin to 13$14-17$ 22$15-18$ 26$3b-5$ 28$14$. They can be removed without loss of continuity, $14a$ being a natural continuation of $9$. The insertion gives an interpretation to the 'two camps' at variance with the primary motive of the division (v.$9$); and its spirit is different from that of the narrative in which it is embedded. Comp. also with 22$17$, with 16$10$ 22$17$. See Gu. 316.

'''14b-22. The present for Esau (E).—14.' a present''] Not

§ 49 e.—8. ] [root] intrans. = 'be cramped'; on the form, cf. G-K. § 67 p.—] G$A$ om. and transp. .—] That this implies an etymology of Maḥanaim, and that J located the incident there, cannot reasonably be doubted (as by Ho.). The name is obviously regarded as a dual (in contrast to v.$3$), showing that the current pronunciation is very ancient (Di.).—9. ] [E] (masc.), which is demanded by the context, as well as by prevailing usage (Albrecht, ZATW, xvi. 52).—11. ] 'too insignificant for'; G-K. § 133 c.—] The writer apparently locates Maḥanaim in the vicinity of the Jordan; but the allusion, in an editorial passage, has perhaps no great topographical importance.

14. ] Art. with ptcp. (not pf.); see G-K. § 138 k; Dri. Sam.