Genesis 46

This chapter belongs to the Joseph narrative in the latter part of Genesis. In Genesis 45, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and tells them to bring their father down to Egypt; this chapter recounts Jacob's actual migration.

Outline

• Verses 1–4: Israel (Jacob) offers sacrifices at Beersheba. In the night God appears to him in a vision and tells him not to fear going down to Egypt. God promises to make him a great nation there, to go down with him and bring him up again, and that Joseph will close his eyes.
• Verses 5–7: His sons carry their father, their wives, and their children in the wagons Pharaoh had sent, and they go to Egypt with their livestock and goods.
• Verses 8–25: A list of those who went down. The descendants of Leah number 33, including her daughter Dinah; those of Zilpah, 16; those of Rachel, 14; and those of Bilhah, 7.
• Verses 26–27: Excluding his sons' wives, those who came from Jacob's own body number 66. With the two sons born to Joseph in Egypt, the house of Jacob totals 70.
• Verses 28–30: Jacob sends Judah ahead to show the way. In Goshen, Joseph falls on his father's neck and weeps for a long while. Israel says that he can now die, since he has seen Joseph's face.
• Verses 31–34: Joseph instructs his family that if Pharaoh asks their occupation, they should answer that they have been keepers of livestock from generation to generation. Because shepherds are an abomination to the Egyptians, this answer will lead to their being settled in Goshen.

Key Verses

• Genesis 46:3 "Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation": a declaration that the promise given to the patriarchs continues in Egypt.
• Genesis 46:27 "All the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten": the starting point for the account of Israel's multiplication in Exodus 1.
• Genesis 46:30 "Now let me die, since I have seen thy face": portrays the reunion after a long separation.

People and Places

• Jacob: called mainly "Israel" in this chapter.
• Joseph: as governor of Egypt, he receives his father.
• Isaac: mentioned in verse 1 in the phrase "the God of his father Isaac."
• Judah: Jacob's fourth son, who goes ahead to show the way to Goshen.
• Simeon (son of Jacob), Zebulun, and the rest of the twelve sons and their descendants: later the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel.
• Rachel and Leah: Jacob's wives, who, together with their handmaids Zilpah and Bilhah, provide the framework by which the list is organized.
• Potipherah and Asenath: Asenath, the daughter of the Egyptian priest Potipherah, is Joseph's wife and the mother of Manasseh and Ephraim.
• Pharaoh: the king of Egypt.
• Beersheba: a place at the southern edge of Canaan, where Jacob offers sacrifices before departing.
• Goshen: the region of Egypt where Jacob's household settles.
• Egypt, Canaan

Points for Reflection

• Seventy or seventy-five: The Hebrew text, Exodus 1, and Deuteronomy 10 give the number as 70. In Stephen's speech, however, verse 14 of Acts 7 speaks of "threescore and fifteen souls." This is generally understood to follow the same tradition as the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), which gives the figure in Genesis 46:27 as 75.
• How the list is counted: Commentators differ on whether the figures of 66 and 70 include Jacob himself, Joseph, and Er and Onan, who died in Canaan.
• The promise to "bring thee up again": The promise in verse 4 is read in connection with the burial of Jacob's remains in Canaan (Genesis 50) and with the later Exodus.
• Why shepherding was disdained: The text does not state why the Egyptians regarded shepherds as an abomination. The various explanations offered are scholarly theories that go beyond the text.