Kill or Be Killed

Having sent messengers to Esau to inform him of his return, Jacob was taken aback to hear that his brother was marching to meet him, accompanied by 400 men. Had the time of reckoning arrived?

Jacob was greatly frightened and anguished, he divided the people with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, the other camp may yet escape. (Genesis 32:8-13)

Seizing upon the doubling of the verbs used to describe Jacobs's anxiety. The Rabbis commented:

Rabbi Judah ben Ilai said: Jacob reasoned: if he overpowers me he shall kill me, and if I overpower him, I shall kill him, as it says: And Jacob was fearful - that he not kill, and anguished - that he not be killed. (Genesis Rabbah 76:2)

Not only was Jacob fearful for his own life and that of his family, he dreaded the possibility of killing his own kin. He had reached an impasse. There was little left to do other than prepare himself for the attack, to pray for salvation, and escape to the refuge of sleep. It was there that he encountered an apparition.