And he delivered [them] into the hand of his
servants
To present them to Esau as from him: every drove by
themselves;
there seems to have been three droves, see ( Genesis
32:19 ) ; very probably the two hundred and twenty goats,
male and female, were in the first drove; and the two hundred and
twenty sheep, ewes, and rams, were in the second drove; and the
thirty camels, with their colts, and the fifty cows and bulls,
with the twenty she asses and ten foals, which made in all one
hundred and forty, were in the third drove: though Aben Ezra
thinks there were five droves; nor is it improbable, the goats in
one drove, the sheep in another, the camels and colts in a third,
and the kine and bulls might make a fourth, and the asses with
their foals a fifth: and saith unto his servants, pass over
before me:
over the brook Jabbok, ( Genesis
32:22 ) , a day's journey or less before him, as Jarchi
observes, or rather a night's journey, as seems by the context;
for these were sent out at evening, and Jacob stayed behind all
night, as appears by what follows: and put a space betwixt
drove and drove;
his meaning is, that they should not follow each other closely;
but that there should be a considerable distance between them,
and which he would have them careful to keep: his view in this
was, partly to prolong time, Esau stopping, as he supposed he
would, at each drove, and asking questions of the men; and partly
that he might the better and more distinctly observe the
largeness of his present, and his munificence in it, and so, both
by the present, and by the frequent repetition of his submission
to him as his servant, his wrath, if he came out in it, would be
gradually abated, and before he came to him he would be in a
disposition to receive him with some marks of affection and
kindness, as he did.