0 - Bible Commentary | Karuna Sadan

So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.”

So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.” (Genesis 46:1-4)

Beersheba was Isaac’s home (Genesis 26:23–25), and Jacob’s sacrifice there to “the God of his father Isaac” (46:1) was spiritually significant.

God appears to Jacob and reassures him that it is His will for his family to move temporarily to Egypt. Interestingly, the Lord calls Jacob’s name twice. (Genesis 46:2).

Jacob’s move to Egypt is vital to the Lord’s plan as this is where Jacob’s family would grow into a great nation that God would later redeem for His glory (Genesis 46:3)

All the persons who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from his body, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, were sixty-six persons in all. And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two persons. All the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy. (Genesis 46:26-27)

Moses numbers Jacob’s family at seventy after telling us that sixty-six descendants traveled with him to the land of the Nile (46:27). This is not a contradiction.

Moses is using two different numbers for two different purposes. Sixty-six persons journeyed with Jacob to Egypt, but seventy of his household settled in that country including Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh. Moses recorded the number seventy, which is often associated with completeness in Scripture, to teach a lesson.

Chapter 46