“Then Esau said, ‘Let us journey on our way, and I will go alongside you.’ But Jacob said to him, ‘My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me. If they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”
Esau wanted to stay with Jacob. However, Jacob wanted to move more slowly because of the animals and children. So Esau left first to go to Seir. Jacob continues to refer to his brother, as lord, and himself as your servant.
“Then Esau said, ‘Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.’ But he said, ‘Why should my lord be so kind to me?’ So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. But Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house, and made booths for his cattle. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.”
Instead of going to Seir, Jacob went to Succoth and built a house there with tents for his cattle, refusing the help of Esau. This could be trouble brewing. Succoth is east of the Jordan, north of the Dead Sea, probably not too far from Penuel, while Seir is further south of the Dead Sea.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 