⁶ When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”^(A)

⁷ In great fear^(B) and distress^(C) Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups,^[a](D) and the flocks and herds and camels as well. ⁸ He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group,^[b] the group^[c] that is left may escape.”