Genesis 32:20

Summary

Jacob instructs his servants on what to tell Esau: that Jacob himself follows behind them. The verse then shifts to report Jacob's internal reasoning — he plans to send a gift ahead of him to "cover" or appease Esau's panim ("face"), hoping that seeing him afterward, Esau might "lift up" his face toward him.

Key words

• panai / panav — paneh ("face", H6440) appears four times in this verse (vv. 20 lines 13, 20, 26, 30), each time in construct form with a different pronominal suffix (his/my/his/my), creating a repeated motif of "face" that structures Jacob's plan.
• 'akhapperah ("I will cover", H3722A) — piel stem verb, giving an intensive or causative sense to the root kpr ("to cover"); the grammar note marks it as an infinitive form functioning within the clause of Jacob's stated intention.
• minchah ("gift", H4503H) — feminine singular noun with definite article and preposition ba ("in/by the", H9003), naming the concrete object Jacob sends ahead.
• holekhet ("is going", H1980G) — qal participle, feminine singular, agreeing with minchah; the participle presents the gift as continuously "going" ahead of Jacob at the moment of speaking.
• yissa' ("he will lift up", H5375Q) — qal imperfect third person, describing a future/potential action of Esau toward Jacob's "face."

What the text says

The verse divides into two parts. The first (words 1–9) is direct speech Jacob commands his servants to deliver: they are to say "also, behold, your servant Jacob [is] behind us," using the construct chain 'avdekha Ya'aqov ("your servant Jacob") to identify Jacob by relation to Esau. The second part (from ki onward) reports Jacob's own reasoning, introduced by ki ("for/that", H3588A) and the perfect verb 'amar ("he said", H0559), meaning here "he said [to himself]" or "he thought."

The repeated noun paneh ("face") ties the passage together: the gift (minchah) is said to go lefanai ("before me/my face"), Jacob intends to 'akhapperah panav ("cover his face"), and hopes that afterward Esau will yissa' panai ("lift up my face"). This concentration of "face" language, visible in the Hebrew but partly dispersed in translation, frames the entire strategy as one oriented around facial encounter and reception.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders minchah ("gift", singular) as δώροις ("gifts", plural), and translates 'akhapperah ("I will cover") with ἐξιλάσομαι ("I will propitiate/appease"), a more specific ritual-appeasement term than the Hebrew root kpr ("to cover") strictly states. The Vulgate uses placabo ("I will appease"), similarly interpretive. Both LXX and Vulgate render 'eved ("servant") with terms (παῖς, servus) that match the Hebrew sense but lose the construct-chain emphasis on Jacob's subordinate relation to Esau present in 'avdekha Ya'aqov.