Commentary for Genesis 33:13

עלות עלי WITH YOUNG ARE WITH ME — The sheep and the oxen which are giving suck constitute a charge upon me (עלי) to drive them slowly.

AND ALL THE FLOCKS WILL DIE. Jacob said this in a compassionate manner for he should have said, “And they will all die,” but he would not express himself this way about the children. Neither did he wish to say, “and they will die,” with reference to the herds and the flocks, because he had compassion on the children lest they be included by implication. He also did not want to be verbose and say, “and all the flocks and herds will die.” It may be that the explanation of the verse is that “the children are tender — even the youths shall faint and be weary⁹²Isaiah 40:30. — and they will not want to go, and that the flocks and herds giving suck are a care to me, and if they will be overdriven the flocks will die, as they are small cattle, but the herds [signifying larger cattle] will not die although they will be harmed.”

כי הילדים רכים, for it is my task to take care both of the children of tender age and of the sheep and other animals which are sensitive to overexertion.