7. And he divided the people. Moses relates that Jacob formed his plans according to the existing state of affairs. He divides his family into two parts, (102) and puts his maids in the foremost place, that they may bear the first assault, if necessary; but he places his free wives further from the danger. Hence indeed we gather, that Jacob was not so overcome with fear as to be unable to arrange his plans. We know that when a panic seizes the mind, it is deprived of discretion; and they who ought to look after their own concerns, become stupid and inanimate. Therefore it proceeded from the spirit of faith that Jacob interposed a certain space between the two parts of his family, in order that if any destruction approached, the whole seed of the Church might not perish. For by this scheme, he offered the half of his family to the slaughter, that, at length, the promised inheritance might come to the remainder who survived.
(102) “Into two bands,” more literally, “into two camps or encampments;” לשני מחנות, ( leshenai machanoth). The word here used is the same in which the host of God is described in the second verse, and from which the name of the city Mahanaim is derived. — Ed