What does Genesis 32:22 mean?

Jacob is afraid and distressed. He has sent out five herds of animals as gifts to his estranged twin brother, Esau, in hopes of appeasing his brother's decades-old anger against him (Genesis 27:41–45; 32:1–6). The prior verse indicated that Jacob stayed in the camp that night, but this verse suggests an additional detail.

Whether it was his plan all along, or Jacob just couldn't stand the suspense, he rises in the night, gathers his family of two wives, two servant wives, and 11 children and crosses the ford of the nearby Jabbok River, which flows into the Jordan River from the east. This makes the stream part of the borders of the Promised Land.

It's key to remember that Scripture was not originally written as a collection of individual verses. Verses 21, 22, and 23 all flow in a continuous description. So, this passage seems to indicate that Jacob sent Esau's gifts ahead, waited to send his family across the stream, and then returned to the original camp site alone. Why, exactly, Jacob felt the need to do this, the Bible does not say.