הַצִּילֵ֥נִי נָ֛א מִיַּ֥ד אָחִ֖י מִיַּ֣ד עֵשָׂ֑ו כִּֽי־יָרֵ֤א אָנֹכִי֙ אֹת֔וֹ פֶּן־יָב֣וֹא וְהִכַּ֔נִי אֵ֖ם עַל־בָּנִֽים׃
Избавь меня от руки моего брата, от руки Исава; Я боюсь его, чтобы он не пришел и не поразил меня, мать с детьми.
Rashi
And he counted them with lambs. He told each one to take a lamb4According to Targum this occurred just before Pesach, and the lambs were Pascal sacrifices. from the king's flocks, and afterwards he counted the lambs, because it is forbidden to count Jewish people.5 See Maseches Yoma 22b which states that in order to avoid counting the Bnei Yisroel directly which is forbidden by the Torah, each man took a lamb from the king’s flock and the lambs were then counted. See also Kli Yokor in Bamidbar 1:2 who discusses the exceptions to this rule. for it is stated concerning them, '[which] are too numerous to count.'6Bereishis 32:12.
Rabbeinu Bahya
כי בצלם אלוקים עשה את האדם, “for in the image of G-d did the Maker make man.” [This is obviously not a literal quotation of our verse, as the word העושה, does not appear in the text The author adopted Rashi’s comment that the word העושה is missing in our text and has to be substituted by the reader. Rashi adds that there are numerous other examples of this type throughout the Torah.]
Bereshit Rabbah 34, 14 understands the words אך את דמכם לנפשותיכם אדרוש, as including suicide by means of asphyxiation when no blood has been spilled. To the question if the kind of suicide committed by King Saul who was already in his death throes when he commanded the Amalekite to finish him off so that he would not be captured by the Philistines alive counted as suicide, the answer is that it is not, as the word אך in our verse is an exclusion and exempts such a situation.
The question is also asked if people such as Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah who allowed themselves to be thrown into a fiery furnace (i.e. certain death) had been guilty of a form of suicide, the answer is negative and the reason cited is also the restrictive word אך in our verse (verse 5). The words מיד כל חיה are understood by the Midrash as a reference to the four empires who have hosted Jews in exile as these are referred to as חיות, comparable to beasts in Daniel 7.3.
מיד האדם , this is a reference to Israelites who have been referred to as אדם by Ezekiel 34,31 when he said ואתן צאני צאן מרעיתי אדם אתם, “and you are My flock, sheep of My pasture-you are Adam.” The words מיד איש אחיו refer to the descendants of Esau as Yaakov prayed in Genesis 32,12 “save me please from my brother, from Esau.” The words אדרש את נפש האדם, refer to an accounting to be rendered at a future time.
Bereshit Rabbah 34, 14 understands the words אך את דמכם לנפשותיכם אדרוש, as including suicide by means of asphyxiation when no blood has been spilled. To the question if the kind of suicide committed by King Saul who was already in his death throes when he commanded the Amalekite to finish him off so that he would not be captured by the Philistines alive counted as suicide, the answer is that it is not, as the word אך in our verse is an exclusion and exempts such a situation.
The question is also asked if people such as Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah who allowed themselves to be thrown into a fiery furnace (i.e. certain death) had been guilty of a form of suicide, the answer is negative and the reason cited is also the restrictive word אך in our verse (verse 5). The words מיד כל חיה are understood by the Midrash as a reference to the four empires who have hosted Jews in exile as these are referred to as חיות, comparable to beasts in Daniel 7.3.
מיד האדם , this is a reference to Israelites who have been referred to as אדם by Ezekiel 34,31 when he said ואתן צאני צאן מרעיתי אדם אתם, “and you are My flock, sheep of My pasture-you are Adam.” The words מיד איש אחיו refer to the descendants of Esau as Yaakov prayed in Genesis 32,12 “save me please from my brother, from Esau.” The words אדרש את נפש האדם, refer to an accounting to be rendered at a future time.
Kli Yakar
And the proof of this is that with my staff alone I crossed this Jordan. I was completely empty-handed, having nothing but my staff. And now I have become two camps. By saying and now, it indicates that it was as if he accumulated all this wealth just now, in the blink of an eye. For he worked 14 years for [Laban’s] two daughters and six years for his flocks, and when Laban said to him Name your wages and I will give them, in a short time he amassed great wealth and possessions, which naturally would have been impossible to acquire such enormous wealth in such a brief period, if not for the hand of God doing this. Even though Jacob sent the exact opposite message to Esau, as explained above in the verse I have acquired ox and donkey, he denied [the truth] out of fear, uttering falsehood by telling him that he had labored with his flocks for the full 20 years, but the truth is not so. For heaven forbid to say that Jacob would claim that his own strength and might made him this wealth. This is what is meant by and now I have become two camps — in the blink of an eye. For if he had already possessed flocks and cattle when he crossed the Jordan, I would say that his wealth increased through natural means. But now that he admitted that he crossed the Jordan with only his staff, when then did all this glory come into being from nothing? Surely this was from God. Therefore, he requested: Just as You fulfilled this second promise, so too fulfill the first promise that You made to me regarding protection. Save me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him. The word him [oto] is superfluous, but it alludes to that sin he committed by flattering the wicked and treating the sacred as mundane, and him refers to the sin. Some say that he was not afraid for himself since he was already promised protection, rather he feared lest [Esau] come and strike mothers with children, for they were not promised protection.