Jacob and Esau finally meet up. As Esau approaches, Leah and Rachel form a protective circle around the children, while the two servants are slightly ahead, protecting more children. It sounds like to me that Leah and Rachel and their children are in the rear while the two servants and their children are slightly ahead. If so, it gives an indication to us of what likely happened every day - Jacob's favoritism and preference for the children of Leah and Rachel (later, we find he has a strong preference for Joseph). This favoritism is so strong that he would use the two servants and their children as human shields to protect the children of Leah and Rachel.
Meanwhile, Jacob is groveling on the ground. After his hip injury, that's probably all he can do anyway.
Fortunately, Esau does not bring violence, but rather brings hugs and kisses. So, why bring 400 men? That's more nebulous. He ends up using some of them to build huts (probably makeshift barns) for Jacob's herds, but that does not explain why Esau brought them to begin with. My guess, is that he was "showing off" to Jacob. The brother who we last saw as a hunter of deer is now a general of men, and he grew into the role that his grandfather, Abraham had at one point.
Jacob and Esau are back together and there was much rejoicing.
Jacob settles down, buys some land from Horam in the land of Sichem. Strangely, Sichem is also the name of Horam's son, who rapes Dina, the only sister of eleven sons, all kids of a super-rich parent This is the Middle East in the bronze age. This is not going to end well.
The boys hatch a revenge plot. They can't just kill Sichem, since he's the son of a local landowner. They can only do it by killing all the people who protect him at one. Sichem is enamored by Dina and wants to marry her. They use this to convince all the men of the area to get circumcised at once. When they're recovering, Simeon and Levi come and kill all the men, while the other boys bring up the year and pillage what's left. They take away everything that's not bolted down, including women and children.
A couple things here:
Simeon and Levi appear to be the ringleaders, but it seems that all the boys are involved. The other boys might not be in fighting age. So, where is Reuben, the eldest? We assume he's pillaging, so this shows his cautious personality as well as that he cannot control his other brothers, particularly Simeon and Levi. Plus, their clan is now getting a lot larger, although we don't quite know what happens with these women and children they bring in.
Jacob understandably gets mad, not that his boys took the vengeance against Sichem out onto the whole town (I call that murder), but that this will bring the wrath of other neighboring clans on his family.
Later, we find Reuben having relations with Bihla, one of Jacob's concubines. Woah! Jacob's children are out of control. It's not surprise - how good of father can Jacob be with 12 sons and 1 daughter from 4 different women, and he shows extreme favoritism to one wife (Rachel) and her sons (Joseph and Benjamin).
God tells Jacob it is time to leave and go to Bethel. As written, it could be immediately after the Dina incident or perhaps could be years later. However, God blinds the local inhabitants from pursuing Jacob, so this might be fairly soon afterward.
Jacob's preparation is intriguing - everyone has to leave behind their idols. Well, if they had just pillaged Sichem, there probably would be idols. We know Rachel brought some from Laban. Somehow, this also includes earrings, so earrings were a part of idol worship. Who knew?
They go to Bethel and Jacob reunites with Isaac, who dies 2 verses later. This probably is one of the most Biblically under-stated events in Jacob's life. It feels like it should be told like the story of the prodigal son in the New Testament. Jacob's reuniting with Esau straddled two chapters, but this is deemphasized.
So we're firmly back in Canaan. According to Biblical maps, Bethel is about 12 miles north of Jerusalem.
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