Kommentar zu Bereschit 32:18

למי אתה means TO WHOM DO YOU BELONG, implying who has sent thee? The Targum should be דמאן את “of whom are you” and not למאן את as some editions have.

למי אתה, the word עבד is implied, i.e. Esau would ask: “whose servant are you?”

ויצו את הראשון לאמור, He instructed the first one (messenger) to say, etc. The apparently superfluous word לאמו was that even if Esau were not to phrase his enquiry in exactly the words Jacob assumed he would, he would no doubt use words to that effect.

ויצו, for each species of animal formed a herd by itself supervised by a separate servant. Yaakov instructed the one walking with the first herd to reply to Esau’s enquiry in the manner a servant answers his master.

כי יפגשך עשו אחי, “when Esau my brother will encounter you,“ My father of sainted memory, the ר'אש, commented on this that Yaakov instructed his messengers not to open a conversation with Esau, but only to reply to him if he engaged them in conversation first. If Esau did not begin a conversation they should simply proceed on their way to Esau’s home.

To whom is this gift being sent... I.e., the second למי conveys [“to whom”, which is] its primary meaning. But למי אתה does not convey its primary meaning, which would be: “To whom are you bringing it.” [Rashi knows this] because it says afterward, “You should say, ‘They belong to your servant, Yaakov.’” This is answering Eisov’s first question first, as Rashi explains there. But if the first למי conveyed its simple meaning, then it should say afterward, “To my master, Eisov” — for that would be the answer to Eisov’s [first] question.

I will appease him. He told them to relate to Eisov how ashamed he was about the injustice he had done him and to request forgiveness on his behalf.

ולמי אלה לפניך means and these which are before you whose are they; i.e. to whom is this present being sent? The letter ל is used as a prefix in place of של “belonging to”; e.g., (31:43) “and all that thou seest is mine (לי)” i.e. belongs to me; (Psalms 24:1) “The earth is the Lord’s (לה') and the fullness thereof” i.e. belongs to the Lord.

יפגשך, the letter ג with the vowel kametz is a long drawn out vowel and is weak, does not have a dagesh.

Jacob may also have used the word לאמור to tell his messengers to use exactly this formula even if they would not be asked directly by Esau but by some intermediary. He added the word ושאלך, "and if he will ask you," to indicate that such a question might be addressed to the messenger second hand, not by Esau himself.

אלה לפניך, as if it said אלה אשר לפניך, “these which preceded you?”