gifts to Eisav

Before meeting Eisav face to face, Yaakov sent gifts to mollify him.  Eisav at first refused those gifts, and Yaakov responded (33:10):

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יַעֲקֹ֗ב אַל־נָא֙ אִם־נָ֨א מָצָ֤אתִי חֵן֙ בְּעֵינֶ֔יךָ וְלָקַחְתָּ֥ מִנְחָתִ֖י מִיָּדִ֑י כִּ֣י עַל־כֵּ֞ן רָאִ֣יתִי פָנֶ֗יךָ כִּרְאֹ֛ת פְּנֵ֥י אֱלֹהִ֖ים וַתִּרְצֵֽנִי׃

Should that word "Elohim" at the end of the pasuk be translated as Lord with a capital L, or lord with a lowercase l?  

When I bounced this off my wife, she thought the peshuto is lord with a lowercase.  Yaakov was saying that Eisav was someone important, a lord.  Seforno writes כמנהג בפקוד את השרים, or as Netziv puts it, היינו שאתה אדון לי.

However, when I checked some translations, they did not agree.

Artscroll follows the Targum which renders Elohim as angel.  In the previous chapter after the wrestling match, Yaakov says,  כִּֽי־רָאִ֤יתִי אֱלֹהִים֙ פָּנִ֣ים אֶל־פָּנִ֔ים וַתִּנָּצֵ֖ל נַפְשִֽׁ, referring to the malach as Elohim.  Here, he uses the same term, telling Eisav that looks like that same angel that he wrestled with.

This creates an interesting subtext to Yaakov's message.  On the surface, Yaakov is subservient -- he repeatedly bows to Eisav, he sent gifts, he has his wives and children bow.  However, by alluding to the angel Yaakov may be subtly sending at a more aggressive message, that just as he defeated that angel, so too, Eisav should not test the waters or he will find Yaakov to be his equal in a fight.

(The Targum and Ibn Ezra take their queue from the use of the word Elohim in the previous chapter to interpret Elohim here as not strictly chol.  It's worth noting that the Maor vaShemesh works in the opposite direction: ' ויל"ד מה זה כי שרית עם אלקי' היכן מצאנו שירותו עם אלקי' ורש"י פי' עם מלאכי' אך עדיין יש להבין אמאי קרא להמלאך אלקי'   He is bothered by the use of Elohim = Lord with a capital L, in the previous chapter to refer to a mere mundane malach and therefore reinterprets that whole pasuk in a way that fits with it being kodesh, but which is far from the pshat.)

JPS renders Elohim as Lord with a capital L.  This is similar to Abarbanel, in whose footsteps Kli Yakar follows:כמו שהרואה פני אלהים ג״פ בשנה כתיב (שמות כ״ג:ט״ו) ולא יראו פני ריקם, כי צריך להביא עולות ראייה, כך אין אני חפץ לראות פניך ריקם על כן אני מבקש שתקבל מנחתי  Yaakov was telling Eisav that his gifts to him are like the gifts he would being to Hashem.  

Abarbanel explains that there are two types of gifts (a Brisker lomdus!): there are gifts where the goal is to give the recipient something he/she needs or wants, and then there are gifts given for the sender's sake -- the recipient really doesn't need anything -- as a token of his/her commitment.  

When a person gives a gift to Hashem, Hashem doesn't need anything and there is nothing we can provide for him.  It is for our sake, to express our love for Hashem, and/or to not be remiss in giving something when everyone is giving.

Eisav told Yaakov that he does not need the gifts Yaakov sent.  Yaakov responded by saying that the gifts were like gifts to G-d -- they are a token expressing the feelings of the sender, independent from the needs of the recipient.

The Yismach Moshe quotes this Abarbanel back in parshas Braishis to explain why Hashem rejected Kayin's offering but accepted Hevel's.  He posits that Kayin's intent in bringing a gift to Hashem was to meet some need he thought Hashem had, which of course cannot be.  Hevel, the Torah says, "havi gam hu," he also brought a gift, meaning Hevel was not trying to satisfy a need Hashem had, but rather if everyone brings a gift and you show up empty handed it looks like you don't care, so he felt he had to do something -- if Kayin was giving, he also had to give.  It was for his own sake, the second type of gift the Abarbanel speaks of, and therefore it was accepted.