Genesis 33:1

He divided the children. The reason for this measure is not clear. Jacob either put Rachel and Joseph at the rear for reasons of security, or to introduce his favorite wife and her son to Esau last. Again, it may be that social custom prescribed such an arrangement. The previous division of the caravan into two camps (ch. 32:7, 8) may have been abandoned as unnecessary after his experience the preceding night (see on ch. 32:30). Or it may be that the “people” mentioned in ch. 32:7, 8 were the servants and shepherds and not his wives and children, whom he kept with himself. The immediate family would thus be joined to one of the two bands, or may have been separate from both.