³ And Jacob sent^[a] messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of ^(A)Seir, the country of Edom, ⁴ instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. ⁵ I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that ^(B)I may find favor in your sight.’”

⁶ And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and ^(C)he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” ⁷ Then Jacob was ^(D)greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, ⁸ thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”

⁹ And Jacob said, ^(E)“O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who ^(F)said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ ^10 (G)I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. ¹¹ Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for ^(H)I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. ¹² But ^(I)you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

¹³ So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took ^(J)a present for his brother Esau, ¹⁴ two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵ thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶ These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” ¹⁷ He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ ¹⁸ then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’” ¹⁹ He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, ²⁰ and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him^[b] with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”^{[c] 21} So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

^12 (A)Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who ^(B)keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.^[a]

¹³ And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: ^(C)Blessed are the dead ^(D)who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, ^(E)“that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

The Harvest of the Earth

¹⁴ Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one ^(F)like a son of man, ^(G)with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. ¹⁵ And another angel ^(H)came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, ^(I)“Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for ^(J)the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” ¹⁶ So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

¹⁷ Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. ¹⁸ And another angel came out from the altar, ^(K)the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, ^(L)for its grapes are ripe.” ¹⁹ So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great ^(M)winepress of the wrath of God. ²⁰ And ^(N)the winepress was trodden ^(O)outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as ^(P)a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia.^[b]