Genesis 46:13 | 87 give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can en joy the fat of the land.’
19
“ You are also di rect ed to tell them,‘ Do this: Take some carts from Egypt for your chil dren and your wives, and get your fa ther and come. 20 Never mind about your be long ings, be cause the best of all Egypt will be yours.’”
21
So the sons of Is ra el did this. Jo seph gave them carts, as Phar aoh had com mand ed, and he also gave them pro vi sions for their jour ney. 22 To each of them he gave new cloth ing, but to Ben ja min he gave three hun dred shek els a of sil ver and five sets of clothes. 23 And this is what he sent to his fa ther: ten don keys load ed with the best things of Egypt, and ten fe male don keys load ed with grain and bread and oth er pro vi sions for his jour ney. 24 Then he sent his broth ers away, and as they were leaving he said to them,“ Don’ t quar rel on the way!”
25
So they went up out of Egypt and came to their fa ther Ja cob in the land of Ca naan. 26 They told him,“ Jo seph is still alive! In fact, he is rul er of all Egypt.” Ja cob was stunned; he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him ev ery thing Jo seph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Jo seph had sent to car ry him back, the spir it of their fa ther Ja cob re vived. 28 And Is ra el said,“ I’ m con vinced! My son Jo seph is still alive. I will go and see him be fore I die.”
Jacob Goes to Egypt
So Is ra el set out with all that was his, and
46 when he reached Be er she ba, he of fered sac ri fic es to the God of his fa ther Isaac.
2
And God spoke to Is ra el in a vi sion at night and said,“ Ja cob! Ja cob!”
“ Here I am,” he re plied.
3
“ I am God, the God of your fa ther,” he said.“ Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great na tion there. 4 I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will sure ly bring you back again. And Jo seph’ s own hand will close your eyes.”
5
Then Ja cob left Be er she ba, and Is ra el’ s sons took their fa ther Ja cob and their chil dren and their wives in the carts that Phar aoh had sent to trans port him. 6 So Ja cob and all his off spring went to Egypt, tak ing with them their live stock and the pos ses sions they had ac quired in Ca naan.
7
Ja cob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grand sons and his daugh ters and grand daughters— all his off spring.
8
These are the names of the sons of Is ra el( Ja cob and his de scen dants) who went to Egypt:
Reu ben the first born of Ja cob.
9
The sons of Reu ben: Ha nok, Pal lu, Hez ron and Kar mi.
10
The sons of Sim e on: Je mu el, Ja min, Ohad, Ja kin, Zo har and Shaul the son of a Ca naan ite wom an.
11
The sons of Levi: Ger shon, Ko hath and Me ra ri.
12
The sons of Ju dah: Er, Onan, She lah, Pe rez and Ze rah( but Er and Onan had died in the land of Ca naan). The sons of Pe rez:
Hez ron and Ha mul.
13
The sons of Is sa char: Tola, Puah, b Ja shub c and Shim ron. a
22 That is, about 7 1 / 2 pounds or about 3.5 kilograms b
13 Samaritan Pentateuch and Syriac( see also 1 Chron. 7:1); Masoretic Text Puvah c
13 Samaritan Pentateuch and some Septuagint manuscripts( see also Num. 26:24 and 1 Chron. 7:1); Masoretic Text Iob
45:25 – 28 Although Jacob would have likely asked, there is no indication here or elsewhere that Joseph or his brothers ever discussed with Jacob the story of how Joseph ended up in Egypt. The depiction here is of a father who thinks only of seeing his son, long presumed dead. Once he recovers from the shock of learning that Joseph is not only alive, but at the apex of power in Egypt, Jacob does not hesitate to make the journey.
46:1 – 27 Jacob gathers the clan and offers sacrifices to God on the way out of Canaan. In a vision, God grants Jacob permission to go to Egypt and promises to make him a great nation there. He also promises to bring Israel back to the land of Canaan— the promised land. This portion of the chapter also catalogues the members of Jacob’ s family that accompany him to Egypt.
46:1 Israel Jacob, father of Joseph and his brothers( see 32:28). The narrative alternates between his given name at birth, Jacob, and the name Yahweh gave him, Israel. Beersheba Jacob’ s reasons for stopping here are unknown, but this location occurs in other patriarchal narratives( see 21:14,31 – 33). 46:2 a vision at night This likely refers to a dream, though the normal Hebrew word for dreaming( chalom, which occurs in 20:3; 28:12; 31:11; 37:5 – 10) is not used here. 46:4 I will go down Though this may seem obvious given God’ s omnipresence, it is noteworthy in light of the notion of sacred geography— the Israelite notion that the God of Israel allowed foreign nations to be under the jurisdiction of other gods after the Babel event( see 11:1 – 9; Dt 4:19 – 20; 32:8 – 9).
46:8 – 27 These genealogies— arranged according to the mother of each brother, in the order of Leah, Zilpah, Rachel and Bilhah— contain numerous inconsistencies with other OT genealogies for the sons of Jacob( compare Nu 26; 1Ch 2 – 8). This could indicate that this genealogy, in parallel with the similar one in Ex 1:1 – 7, focuses on people— and reaching the symbolic number of 70— while others focus on clans. While 70 nations are listed in Ge 10, here 70 people related to Israel( Jacob) are listed, suggesting that the nation of Israel functions as a new beginning for humanity.
46:9 – 25 This section lists the names of Jacob’ s descendants, most of whom accompanied him to Egypt. Joseph and his sons were already there( see 46:19 – 20). Each list begins with one of Jacob’ s sons, grouped according to their mothers( compare note on 46:8 – 27).