Let my lord pass on before his servant: Jacob makes his own proposal—he urges Esau not to accompany him but to go ahead and not wait. Doubtless Esau understands that Jacob is determined to go at his own pace and to his own destination. His servant must often be expressed as “your servant” or “before me who serves you.”

Lead on slowly: lead on translates a verb that means to go by stages, to move from one place to the next on a journey. The thought is that Jacob and all his people and animals will move bit by bit (to where there is pasture and water for the animals): “We will come behind slowly” or “… not traveling too fast.”

According to the pace of the … children: that is, “as fast as the livestock and the children are able to walk.” See Good News Translation.

Until I come to my lord in Seir: come to here means “catch up with,” “meet,” “reach.” We may also say, for example, “until we meet up with you again…,” “we will catch up with you…,” or “until we meet again in Seir, my lord.” Good News Translation has “in Edom.” See 32.3 for the relation of Seir to Edom.

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 .