Genesis 33:13,14

‘And he said to him, “My lord knows that the children are of tender age, and that the flocks and herds with me are feeding their young, and that if they overdrive them one day all the flocks will die. Let my lord, I beg you, pass on before his servant, and I will lead on slowly according to the pace of the cattle who are before me, and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord, to Seir.” '

We may gather from this that Esau has invited Jacob to join him in Seir where he is at present residing. This would simply entail continuing South along the east side of the Jordan. But Jacob has no intention of going to Seir immediately. He shudders at the thought of what might happen to him there.

However, there is possibly more to it than this. It is all very well to move around protected by four hundred men, but the four hundred men have to be fed and he could hardly refuse the wherewithal, and besides, he must be aware that they have possibly sullied their reputation before the inhabitants of the land on their journey here. He would not want to be connected in men's eyes with their doings.

Besides such men do not like to remain idle, and Esau least of all. He might soon regret his good intentions, and what then?

So he points out how slow the journey is going to be. (He had been a bit quicker when fleeing from Laban). He will not delay Esau who must surely have something better to do than journey at the pace of shepherds. Let him go on and he will join at some stage him in Seir.