Midrash su Genesi 32:4

[(Gen. 32:4 [3]:) THEN JACOB SENT MESSENGERS.¹The bracketed portion extends through the first words of the next section. This text is related (to Prov. 25:26): A MUDDY SPRING, A POLLUTED SOURCE, IS A RIGHTEOUS PERSON WHO WAVERS BEFORE SOMEONE WICKED.²Tanh., Gen. 1:3; Gen. R. 75:2. R. Judah b. R. Simon said: Just like a muddy spring and a polluted source, so it is when a righteous person wavers before someone wicked. Another interpretation: < Just as > it is possible for a spring to be muddy and a source to be polluted; < so > it is possible for a righteous person to waver before someone wicked. And who was this < waverer >? This was Jacob when he came from Paddan-aram. What does he < do > ? He sends out and says to Esau (according to Gen. 32:5 [4]): THUS YOU SHALL SAY TO MY LORD ESAU…. Ergo (in vs. 3): THEN JACOB SENT MESSENGERS.

And Jacob sent messengers at the same time to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, and he ‎spoke unto him words of prayer and supplication.‎‏ ‏And he commanded them saying: Thus shall ‎ye speak unto my lord, unto Esau: Thy servant Jacob saith thus: Let not my lord think that the ‎blessings wherewith my father hath blessed me was of any benefit to me. For I have ‎sojourned with Laban these twenty years and he hath deceived me, changing my wages ten ‎times as it hath already been stated unto my lord. And I have served him in his house a very ‎hard servitude until God saw my trouble, my servitude and the work of my hands, and he ‎granted me to find grace and mercy in his eyes, and afterwards I became possessed through ‎God’s kindness and his great mercy, of oxen and of asses, and of men servants and of maid ‎servants. And I am returning now to my land and my native place, to my father and mother ‎who are in the land of Canaan, and I am desirous to impart all these things to my lord in order ‎to find favor in the eyes of my lord, so that he may not think that I have acquired wealth by ‎reason of the blessings by which my father hath blessed me. And the messengers went unto ‎Esau and they met him on the boundary of the land of Edom, marching against Jacob with four ‎hundred men of the sons of Seir the Horite with their drawn swords. And Jacob's messengers ‎spoke unto Esau all that Jacob had told them concerning Esau. And Esau answered them in ‎pride and contempt, saying unto them: Verily I have heard of it and I have been correctly ‎informed of what Jacob hath done unto Laban. For Laban made him great and gave him his ‎daughters to wives; and he begat sons and daughters, and he increased greatly in possession ‎and wealth in Laban’s house. But as soon as he saw the abundance of his possessions and ‎wealth he fled from Laban's house with all that belonged unto him, carrying away Laban's ‎daughters from the presence of their father like captives taken by the sword, without telling ‎Laban a word about it. But Laban is not the only one whom Jacob hath treated in such a way, ‎for he hath done unto me after the same manner, and he hath supplanted me twice. And shall ‎I now be silent? And now behold I have come with my camp to meet him, and I will deal with ‎him according to the best of my mind. And the messengers returned unto Jacob saying: We ‎came to thy brother Esau and we spoke unto him according to all thou hast said, and such was ‎his answer unto us, and also he cometh to meet thee and four hundred men with him. And ‎when he heard the words which Esau had spoken to his messengers, Jacob was greatly afraid ‎and distressed. And Jacob prayed unto the Lord his God saying: Oh Lord, God of my fathers ‎Abraham and Isaac, thou hast said unto me at my departure from my father's house, saying: I ‎am the Lord, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou ‎liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And behold I am with thee and will keep thee in all ‎places whither thou goest, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and I will cause ‎thy enemies to fall down before thee, and when they shall wage war against thee they shall ‎never prevail over thee. And I will bring thee back into this land in joy and gladness, with ‎children and with great wealth. And thou hast fulfilled thy words and thou hast given unto me ‎wealth and children and cattle, whatsoever the heart of thy servant wished for thou hast given ‎unto me, and whatsoever I asked for thou hast granted unto me, so that I was not wanting in ‎the least. And thou hast finally said unto me: Return unto thy country and thy kindred and I will ‎deal well with thee. And now behold I have fol lowed thy words and thou hast delivered me ‎from the hands of Laban, and shall I fall now into the hands of Esau who will smite me and the ‎mothers with the children? Oh deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the ‎hand of Esau, and if there be no merit in me do it for the sake of Abraham and Isaac my father, ‎for I know that simply through grace and mercy have I obtained all this wealth. And behold, I ‎beseech thee now for the same reason to deliver me to day in thy kindness, and to answer ‎unto me.‎

And Jacob sent messengers (Gen. 32:4). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: And the Lord uttereth His voice before His army; for his camp is very great, for He is mighty that executeth His word; for great is the day of the Lord and very terrible; and who can abide it? (Joel 2:11). This verse alludes to the giving of the Torah. When the Holy One, blessed be He, descended to give the Torah to Israel, myriads of chariots accompanied Him, as it is said: The chariots of God are myriads, even thousands upon thousands (Ps. 68:18).