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 ).