He himself went on before the: He may need to be translated as “Jacob.” He went “ahead of them,” or “in front of them.” Some translations include a reference to the direction of movement here: “He went ahead of them toward his brother” or “… to meet his brother.”

In some languages it is more natural to mention Jacob himself before the women and children, seeing that he was walking in front. A translation that follows this order (and takes verses 2-3 together) says “Jacob went ahead of them, and those two other wives came behind with their children. Jacob’s wife Leah came behind them with her children, and Jacob’s other wife Rachel came last with her son Joseph.”

Bowing himself to the ground seven times: according to the Tell El-Amarna tablets (government documents sent from Syria and Palestine to Egypt some thirteen centuries before Christ), local chiefs were required to bow seven times before the kings of Egypt. For bowing see 23.12. In many languages bowing must be described as two actions: kneeling and putting the face or forehead on the ground. This can make the verse a very heavy and long sentence, and it may be necessary to divide it into two or more sentences: “Jacob himself went ahead of his family. He knelt and put his face down on the ground. He did this seven times until….”

Until he came near to his brother: Jacob is pictured as stopping to bow by kneeling and placing his forehead on the ground then getting to his feet and going on before stopping to bow again. By the time he has repeated this gesture of submission seven times, the two men are not far apart. Some versions translate came near as meaning that Jacob came right up to Esau; for example, “until he reached his brother” (New Jerusalem Bible). But this rendering may cause a problem in the translation of the next verse, which pictures Esau running toward Jacob. A translation like that of Good News Translation and New International Version, “as he approached his brother,” avoids the problem.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .