my lord go before his servant, and I shall pursue [or follow] little and little his steps, as I see that my little children be able, till I come to my lord, into Seir.
and he commanded to them, and said, Thus speak ye to my lord Esau, Thy brother Jacob saith these things, I have been a pilgrim at Laban, and I was till into this present day;
And Jacob said, My lord, thou knowest that I have little children tender, and sheep, and kine with calves with me, and if I shall make them for to travail more in going, all the flocks shall die in one day;
Now therefore lo! the sons of Ammon, and of Moab, and the hill of Seir, by whom thou grantedest not to the sons of Israel for to pass through their lands, when they went out of Egypt, but they bowed away from them, and killed not them,
And we went forth from thence, and came into the wilderness that leadeth to the Red Sea, as the Lord said to me; and we compassed the hill of Seir in long time.