Jacob Meets Esau and His 400 Men
And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: “We came to thy brother Esau, and moreover he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.” (Genesis 32:7) Why does the Torah take pains to tell us the exact number of men accompanying Esau? Servants of Esau are of no particular significance. It is apparent that, by specifying the number of men in Esau's entourage, the Torah is trying to tell us something about Esau. It seems to me that Jacob understood the significance of the number 400. This number is a sum of the powers of 7 from 0 to 3: 70+71+72+73=400. These four powers of 7 hint at the lunar month, which has approximately 28 days (4×7). The significance of this will become apparent later. 400 is a repdigit (a portmanteau [...]
