Genesis 46:5-34 comments: Jacob goes down to Egypt

Genesis 46:5 ¶  And Jacob rose up from Beersheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 6  And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him: 7  His sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt. 8  And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn. 9  And the sons of Reuben; Hanoch, and Phallu, and Hezron, and Carmi. 10  And the sons of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman. 11  And the sons of Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. 12  And the sons of Judah; Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Pharez, and Zerah: but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Pharez were Hezron and Hamul. 13  And the sons of Issachar; Tola, and Phuvah, and Job, and Shimron. 14  And the sons of Zebulun; Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel. 15  These be the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob in Padanaram, with his daughter Dinah: all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three. 16  And the sons of Gad; Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli. 17  And the sons of Asher; Jimnah, and Ishuah, and Isui, and Beriah, and Serah their sister: and the sons of Beriah; Heber, and Malchiel. 18  These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls. 19  The sons of Rachel Jacob’s wife; Joseph, and Benjamin. 20  And unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him. 21  And the sons of Benjamin were Belah, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard. 22  These are the sons of Rachel, which were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen. 23  And the sons of Dan; Hushim. 24  And the sons of Naphtali; Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem. 25  These are the sons of Bilhah, which Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter, and she bare these unto Jacob: all the souls were seven. 26  All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls were threescore and six; 27  And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.

Verse 15 tells us for that either Dinah wasn’t Jacob’s only daughter or, as said earlier, the daughters could logically include daughters-in-law. Arguing about the count becomes nonsensical when we know everyone wasn’t included in the count of those that mattered to God’s ministry of reconciliation. There are obviously servants to consider, as well, which are not mentioned.

We also come to differences in the count given for different reasons at different times.

Exodus 1:5  And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

Deuteronomy 10:22  Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.

Acts 7:14  Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.

Some argue about these differences with fundamentalists trying to gloss over what they fear naggingly in the back of their minds is an error in the text. However, the problem is with the modern reader who is infected with a mental problem I call modernism. You read the Bible like you would read the owner’s manual for your car rather than as you would read a letter sent to you from afar, in this case a distant time, a personal account of something dear to the writer. The Holy Ghost, through the wisdom and understanding, the meaning of Biblical inspiration which is not word-for-word dictation, given to Moses, refers to events from the perspective of their importance to the point He is trying to get across (see Job 32:8; 2Peter 3:15). In one reference He may include wives who are not included in another or He may be referring to an event from another angle and only include specific others. The modern fundamentalist who claims to believe the Bible literally, which they don’t really, in their attempts to explain by juggling numbers what the Bible says, is really expressing their own disbelief and lack of faith by trying to explain a contradiction that isn’t there.

I went over this kind of thinking when I was discussing years, back in my comments on 15:12-16, regarding the length of years that the Hebrews were to be persecuted. The point is all of the number references are correct and any differences can be explained by the Holy Ghost counting people in one who are not counted in another. We will find this again in the numbers who will die in a plague later in another book. Verses 26 and 27 warn us that our calculations may not be based on God’s calculations which will keep the doubter or the skeptic spinning his or her wheels trying to find an equation that will make him or her feel better.

Genesis 46:28 ¶  And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen. 29  And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. 30  And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive. 31  And Joseph said unto his brethren, and unto his father’s house, I will go up, and shew Pharaoh, and say unto him, My brethren, and my father’s house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me; 32  And the men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have. 33  And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation? 34  That ye shall say, Thy servants’ trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.

Chapter 45, verse 10 told us that Goshen was close to where Joseph ruled from. It is commonly understood that the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt, the period of the Egyptian Empire was from around the 16^th century BC to the 11^th century BC. This marked the peak of Egypt’s power. It includes the time that Egypt had hegemony over the land of Canaan which is important to understanding Numbers 14:9 and various extra-Biblical documents from Canaan pleading for help from the Egyptians. It was preceded by the Hyksos invasion and rule. I believe that Joseph’s Pharaoh was from this time, that he was a Hyksos, and that is why he was favorable to Joseph and his family. This is called Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period. Of course, much of this is educated guesswork as the Egyptians did not refer to any of their eras the way we refer to them and no one ever called themselves, “the Hyksos.” These are all made-up terms by scholars.

In any event, Judah went first to meet Joseph and Jacob and the rest followed. Christ is the first to rise from the dead never to physically die again, to be resurrected. Judah is Christ’s physical ancestor. Here is more typology that is great subject material for sermons. Joseph prepared himself to greet his father in Goshen.

Joseph promised to introduce them to Pharaoh. Here is more evidence for my view that the Pharaoh of Joseph’s time was a Hyksos, of the so-called Shepherd-kings. To the leadership Joseph’s family of herders would be welcome but to the Egyptians they were an abomination. The land of Goshen separates their living from the rest of Egypt.

The word cattle includes all herd animals not just beef cows as we use the word today.

Genesis 13:7  And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.

Genesis 30:32  I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.