Jerome : (Verse 6) Hear us, O Lord, you are our king from God, bury your dead in our chosen sepulcher. For a king is called a prince in Hebrew, or a leader. For a leader is called not a king, but a duke. — Hebrew Questions on Genesis John Chrysostom : See how this was sufficient to aggravate the good man's fear. Far from realizing precisely his brother's intent, Jacob was terrified to learn the number of those approaching and suspected that they were bent on hostilities and so wanted to catch up with him. Note the text says, "Jacob was in a state of fear and perplexity." Fear disturbed his thinking, and instead of knowing what to do, he was at a loss; hence Jacob was terrified of almost everything, and, with the prospect of death before him, "he divided all the people with him into two camps." You see, he said, "If he comes upon one camp and attacks it, the other will have the chance of being saved." While it was Jacob's fear and great terror that suggested this, … seeing himself caught in a trap he had recourse to the invincible Lord and invoked the promises made him by the God of all, as if to say to him, "Now the time has come for a good man to enjoy your complete assistance on account of the virtue of his forebears and the promises made by you." — HOMILIES ON Genesis 58.4 Augustine of Hippo : FEAR OF JACOB BEFORE ESAU. — When Jacob received the announcement that his brother was coming to meet him with four hundred men, he was troubled and distressed. Indeed, fear seized him. And as a man might be troubled as he was, he divided his people, dividing them into two camps. When we arrive here we can ask how he could have faith in the promises of God if he said: If Esau should come to one camp, and destroy it, the other camp shall be in safety (Gen. 32:8). But it could also happen that Esau destroyed his camps, and yet, after that affliction, God would help him and deliver him and fulfill what he had promised. This example should serve as a warning to us, so that, even if we believe in God, let us, however, do what men must do to protect their lives, lest by omitting these measures it seems that we tempt God. Finally, after this we must meditate on the words that Jacob himself said: God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you are he that said to me, Depart quickly to the land of your birth, and I will do you good. Let there be to me a sufficiency of all the justice and all the truth which you have wrought with your servant; for with this my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two camps. Deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him, unless he gladly should come and kill me, and the mother upon the children. But you said, I will do you good, and will make your seed as the sand of the sea, which shall not be numbered for multitude (Gen. 32:9-12). In these words appear both and the weakness of man and pious faith. [ — QUESTIONS ON GENESIS, Q. 101 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)