Genesis 46
1599 Geneva Bible
46 2 God assureth Jacob of his journey into Egypt. 27 The number of his family when he went into Egypt. 29 Joseph meeteth his father. 34 He teacheth his brethren what to answer to Pharaoh.
1 Then Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and [a]offered sacrifice unto the God of his father Isaac.
2 And God spake unto Israel in a vision by night, saying, Jacob, Jacob. Who answered, I am here.
3 Then he said, I am God, the God of thy father, fear not to go down into Egypt: for I will there make of thee a great nation.
4 I will [b]go down with thee into Egypt, and I will also [c]bring thee up again, and Joseph shall [d]put his hand upon thine eyes.
5 Then Jacob rose up from Beersheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their children, and their wives in the chariots, 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, both (A)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, even Jacob and his sons: (B)Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.
9 And the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, and Pallu, and Hezron, and Carmi.
10 ¶ And the sons of (C)Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman.
11 ¶ Also the sons of (D)Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
12 ¶ Also the sons of (E)Judah: Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Perez, and Zerah: (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.) And the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
13 ¶ Also the sons of (F)Issachar: Tola, and Puvah, and Job, and Shimron.
14 ¶ Also the sons of Zebulun: Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel.
15 These be the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob in Padan Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the [e]souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three.
16 Also the sons of Gad: Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli.
17 ¶ Also the sons of (G)Asher: Jimnah, and Ishuah, and Isui, and Beriah, and Serah their sister. And the sons of Beriah: and Heber, Malchiel.
18 These are the children 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 were Joseph, and Benjamin.
20 ¶ And unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh, and Ephraim, which (H)Asenath the daughter of Poti-Pherah prince of On bare unto him.
21 ¶ Also the sons of (I)Benjamin: Belah, and Becher, and Ashbel, and Gera, Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard.
22 These are the sons of Rachel, which were born unto Jacob, fourteen souls in all.
23 ¶ Also the sons of Dan: Hushim.
24 ¶ Also 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, in all seven souls.
26 All the (J)souls, that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his [f]loins (besides Jacob’s sons’ wives) were in the whole, threescore and six souls.
27 Also the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: so that all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, are seventy.
28 ¶ Then he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to [g]direct his way unto Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.
29 Then Joseph [h]made ready his chariot, and went up to Goshen to meet Israel his father, and presented himself unto him, and fell on his neck and wept upon his neck a [i]good while.
30 And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die since I have seen thy face, and that thou art yet alive.
31 Then Joseph said to his brethren, and to his father’s house, I will go up and show Pharaoh, and tell him, My brethren and my father’s house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me.
32 And the men are [j]sheepherders, and because they are sheepherders, they have brought their sheep and their cattle, and all that they have.
33 And if Pharaoh call you, and ask you, What is your trade?
34 That ye shall say, Thy servants are men occupied about cattle, from our childhood even unto this time, both we and our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen: for every sheep keeper is an [k]abomination unto the Egyptians.
Footnotes
- Genesis 46:1 Whereby he both signifieth, that he worshipped the true God, and also that he kept in his heart the possession of that land from whence present necessity drove him.
- Genesis 46:4 Conducting thee by my power.
- Genesis 46:4 In thy posterity.
- Genesis 46:4 Shall shut thine eyes when thou diest: which appertained to him that was most dearest, or chief of the kindred.
- Genesis 46:15 Or, persons.
- Genesis 46:26 Hebrew, thighs.
- Genesis 46:28 Or, to prepare him a place.
- Genesis 46:29 Hebrew, bound his chariot.
- Genesis 46:29 Hebrew, yet, or still.
- Genesis 46:32 He was not ashamed of his father and kindred, though they were of base condition.
- Genesis 46:34 God suffereth the world to hate his, that they may forsake the filth of the world, and cleave to him.
Genesis 46
New English Translation
The Family of Jacob goes to Egypt
46 So Israel began his journey, taking with him all that he had.[a] When he came to Beer Sheba[b] he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 God spoke to Israel in a vision during the night[c] and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” He replied, “Here I am!” 3 He said, “I am God,[d] the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down with you to Egypt and I myself will certainly bring you back from there.[e] Joseph will close your eyes.”[f]
5 Then Jacob started out[g] from Beer Sheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little children, and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent along to transport him. 6 Jacob and all his descendants took their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and they went to Egypt.[h] 7 He brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons,[i] his daughters and granddaughters—all his descendants.
8 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt—Jacob and his sons: Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob.
9 The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
10 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul (the son of a Canaanite woman).
11 The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
12 The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan).
The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
13 The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah,[j] Jashub,[k] and Shimron.
14 The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.
15 These were the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, along with Dinah his daughter. His sons and daughters numbered thirty-three in all.[l]
16 The sons of Gad: Zephon,[m] Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.
17 The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and Serah their sister.
The sons of Beriah were Heber and Malkiel.
18 These were the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, sixteen in all.
19 The sons of Rachel the wife of Jacob: Joseph and Benjamin.
20 Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt. Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On,[n] bore them to him.
21 The sons of Benjamin:[o] Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard.
22 These were the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob, fourteen in all.
23 The son of Dan: Hushim.[p]
24 The sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.
25 These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, seven in all.
26 All the direct descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt with him were sixty-six in number. (This number does not include the wives of Jacob’s sons.)[q] 27 Counting the two sons[r] of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt, all the people of the household of Jacob who were in Egypt numbered seventy.[s]
28 Jacob[t] sent Judah before him to Joseph to accompany him to Goshen.[u] So they came to the land of Goshen. 29 Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to meet his father Israel in Goshen. When he met him,[v] he hugged his neck and wept on his neck for quite some time.
30 Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.”[w] 31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh,[x] ‘My brothers and my father’s household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me. 32 The men are shepherds;[y] they take care of livestock.[z] They have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’ 33 Pharaoh will summon you and say, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 Tell him, ‘Your servants have taken care of cattle[aa] from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of Goshen,[ab] for everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting[ac] to the Egyptians.”
Footnotes
- Genesis 46:1 tn Heb “and Israel journeyed, and all that was his.”
- Genesis 46:1 sn Beer Sheba. See Gen 21:31; 28:10.
- Genesis 46:2 tn Heb “in visions of the night.” The plural form has the singular meaning, probably as a plural of intensity.
- Genesis 46:3 tn Heb “the God.”
- Genesis 46:4 tn Heb “and I, I will bring you up, also bringing up.” The independent personal pronoun before the first person imperfect verbal form draws attention to the speaker/subject, while the infinitive absolute after the imperfect strongly emphasizes the statement: “I myself will certainly bring you up.”
- Genesis 46:4 tn Heb “and Joseph will put his hand upon your eyes.” This is a promise of peaceful death in Egypt with Joseph present to close his eyes.
- Genesis 46:5 tn Heb “arose.”
- Genesis 46:6 tn Heb “and they took their livestock and their possessions which they had acquired in the land of Canaan and they went to Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
- Genesis 46:7 tn The Hebrew text adds “with him” here. This is omitted in the translation because it is redundant in English style (note the same phrase earlier in the verse).
- Genesis 46:13 tc The MT reads “Puvah” (cf. Num 26:23); Smr and Syriac read “Puah” (cf. 1 Chr 7:1).
- Genesis 46:13 tc The MT reads יוֹב (yov, “Job,”) but Smr, supported by the LXX, reads יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “Jashub”) (see Num 26:24; 1 Chr 7:1).
- Genesis 46:15 tn Heb “all the lives of his sons and his daughters, thirty-three.”
- Genesis 46:16 tc The MT reads “Ziphion,” but see Num 26:15, Smr and the LXX, all of which read “Zephon.”
- Genesis 46:20 sn On is another name for the city of Heliopolis.
- Genesis 46:21 sn The sons of Benjamin. It is questionable whether youthful Benjamin had ten sons by the time he went into Egypt, but it is not impossible. If Benjamin was born when Joseph was six or seven, he was ten when Joseph was sold into Egypt, and would have been thirty-two at this point. Some suggest that the list originally served another purpose and included the names of all who were in the immediate family of the sons, whether born in Canaan or later in Egypt.
- Genesis 46:23 tn This name appears as “Shuham” in Num 26:42. The LXX reads “Hashum” here.
- Genesis 46:26 tn Heb “All the people who went with Jacob to Egypt, the ones who came out of his body, apart from the wives of the sons of Jacob, all the people were sixty-six.”sn The number sixty-six includes the seventy-one descendants (including Dinah) listed in vv. 8-25 minus Er and Onan (deceased), and Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim (already in Egypt).
- Genesis 46:27 tn The LXX reads “nine sons,” probably counting the grandsons of Joseph born to Ephraim and Manasseh (cf. 1 Chr 7:14-20).
- Genesis 46:27 tn Heb “And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two people; all the people belonging to the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy.”sn The number seventy includes Jacob himself and the seventy-one descendants (including Dinah, Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim) listed in vv. 8-25, minus Er and Onan (deceased). The LXX gives the number as “seventy-five” (cf. Acts 7:14).
- Genesis 46:28 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Genesis 46:28 tn Heb “to direct before him to Goshen.”
- Genesis 46:29 tn Heb “and he appeared to him.”
- Genesis 46:30 tn Heb “after my seeing your face that you are still alive.”
- Genesis 46:31 tn Heb “tell Pharaoh and say to him.”
- Genesis 46:32 tn Heb “feeders of sheep.”
- Genesis 46:32 tn Heb “for men of livestock they are.”
- Genesis 46:34 tn Heb “your servants are men of cattle.”
- Genesis 46:34 sn So that you may live in the land of Goshen. Joseph is apparently trying to stress to Pharaoh that his family is self-sufficient, that they will not be a drain on the economy of Egypt. But they will need land for their animals and so Goshen, located on the edge of Egypt, would be a suitable place for them to live. The settled Egyptians were uneasy with nomadic people, but if Jacob and his family settled in Goshen they would represent no threat.
- Genesis 46:34 tn Heb “is an abomination.” The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (toʿevah, “abomination”) describes something that is loathsome or off-limits. For other practices the Egyptians considered disgusting, see Gen 43:32 and Exod 8:22.
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