“He said: For whom do you intend this entire camp that I met? He said: To find favor in the eyes of my lord” (Genesis 33:8). “Esau said: I have plenty, my brother. What is yours shall be yours” (Genesis 33:9).
“He said: For whom do you intend this entire camp that I met?” – throughout that night the ministering angels arrayed in groups and companies, and were confronting those of Esau and saying to them: ‘With whom are you affiliated?’ They said: ‘With Esau.’ They said: ‘Strike them, strike them, let them have it.’ ‘With Abraham’s grandson’; but they said: ‘Let them have it.’ ‘With Isaac’s son’; but they said: ‘Let them have it.’
When they said: ‘We are with Jacob’s brother,’ they said: ‘Leave them, as they are from ours.’ In the morning he said to him: “For whom do you intend this entire camp that I met…”? He said to him: ‘Did they say anything to you?’ He said to him: ‘I am broken before them.’
“He said: To find favor…” “Esau said: I have plenty…” – of beatings, “my brother, [what is yours] shall be yours.”25There was a failure to communicate. Jacob thought that Esau was referring to the messengers who brought the gift to Esau. Esau thought that Jacob was referring to the groups of ministering angels that attacked him and his people. Another matter: “Esau said: I have plenty…” – Rabbi Aivu said: It is because the blessings were dubious for him.
Where were they reinforced for him? It is here, from what he said to him: “My brother, what is yours shall be yours.” Rabbi Elazar said: Ratification of a document is only by its signatories. So that you will not say: Had Jacob our patriarch not deceived his father he would not have taken the blessings, the verse states: “My brother, what is yours shall be yours.”26Esau thereby ratified the transaction of the blessings.