Jacob sent messengers, &c.— It was very natural for Jacob to conceive fearful apprehensions of Esau, and very prudential in him to take all proper methods to conciliate his favour; and this consistently with the firmest dependance upon the protection of that God who had so graciously revealed himself to him: for it never has appeared that God's providential care is intended to supersede our own just and proper endeavours. As, therefore, he was about to pass over Jordan, he sent a message to his brother, Genesis 32:4 that, as Dr. Shuckford observes, he might found his inclination to him, mollify his resentment, if any remained, and win his friendship by complaisance and respect. Nor was it only in order to reconcile Esau that he sent these messengers to him, but also to apprize him that he brought his subsistence with him from Haran, and that he was not going into Canaan to do him any injury: whereas, had he returned home without Esau's knowledge, Esau might have thought that Jacob had got the greatest part of his substance from his father; and when he came, at Isaac's death, to take away with him to Edom what his father had to leave him, he might have looked upon Jacob as having defrauded him of his right.
The land of Seir, the country of Edom, was situated on the south of the Dead-Sea, thence extending to the Arabian Gulph, 1 Kings 9:26. It was distant from Galeed, where Jacob now was, about one hundred and twenty miles. It took its name Seir from a considerable person of that name among the Horites, who possessed it before Esau: but Esau, it seems, having conquered it in Jacob's absence, verified his father's prediction, by thy sword shalt thou live, ch. Genesis 27:40. and from him it was called, the country of Edom. See Wells's Geogr. vol. 1: p. 354.