Commentary
Skeptic's Annotated Bible
46:1 And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.
46:2 And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.
I thought God was only going to call him Israel from now on?
46:3 And 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:
I don't really understand this attitude (fear? hatred?) that people have towards Egypt.
46:4 I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.
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.
46:6 And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan,
I thought Pharaoh told them to leave all that behind?
and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him:
46:7 His sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.
Ugh, more genealogies.
46:8 And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn.
46:9 And the sons of Reuben; Hanoch, and Phallu, and Hezron, and Carmi.
46:10 And the sons of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman.
46:11 And the sons of Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
46:12 And the sons of Judah; Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Pharez, and Zarah: but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Pharez were Hezron and Hamul.
46:13 And the sons of Issachar; Tola, and Phuvah, and Job, and Shimron.
46:14 And the sons of Zebulun; Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel.
46:15 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.
I count 34: (1) Reuben, (2) Hanoch, (3) Phallu, (4) Hezron, (5) Carmi, (6) Simeon, (7) Jemuel, (8) Jamin, (9) Ohad, (10) Jachin, (11) Zohar, (12) Shaul, (13) Levi, (14) Gershon, (15) Kohath, (16) Merari, (17) Judah, (18) Er, (19) Onan, (20) Shelah, (21) Pharez, (22), Hezron, (23) Hamul, (24) Zarah, (25) Issachar, (26) Tola, (27) Phuvah, (28) Job, (29) Shimron, (30) Zebulun, (31) Sered, (32) Elon, (33) Jahleel, (34) Dinah.
Oops.
46:16 And the sons of Gad; Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli.
46:17 And the sons of Asher; Jimnah, and Ishuah, and Isui, and Beriah, and Serah their sister: and the sons of Beriah; Heber, and Malchiel.
46:18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls.
Sixteen if you count the only daughter mentioned, Serah. So 16 includes not just the sons of Zilpah, but the daughter as well. (Well, granddaughter.)
46:19 The sons of Rachel Jacob's wife; Joseph, and Benjamin.
46:20 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.
46:21 And the sons of Benjamin were Belah, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard.
46:22 These are the sons of Rachel, which were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen.
The first accurate count.
46:23 And the sons of Dan; Hushim.
46:24 And the sons of Naphtali; Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem.
46:25 These are the sons of Bilhah, which Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter, and she bare these unto Jacob: all the souls were seven.
Yup.
46:26 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;
46:27 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.
They count 70, but they list 71. You can't exlcude Dinah because she's a female, because then you'd have to exclude Serah as well, leaving 69. At the bottom of this post is a tree of everyone listed here, and I've sequentially numbered each member of the family, not counting Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah or Zilpah, because they didn't count them in the counts provided above. If you count them as members of the house of Jacob, then you get up to 76.
An "inerrantist" is someone who believes that the Bible is infallible, containing no errors. People who adopt this position do so because they believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, and because God is perfect, the Bible, by extension, must be perfect. The problem is that it does contain errors, lots of them. So in order to maintain the inerrant position, you have to do all kinds of linguistic gymnastics (linguastics? gymnistics?). Look, you can believe what you want to believe. If you want to believe that the Bible has no errors, fine. But that doesn't make it true just because you assert it.
46:28 And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen.
46:29 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.
46:30 And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.
46:31 And Joseph said unto his brethren, and unto his father's house, I will go up, and show Pharaoh, and say unto him, My brethren, and my father's house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me;
46:32 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.
46:33 And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation?
46:34 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.
Egyptians hate shepherds, apparently. So when Pharaoh asks you what you do, be sure to lie!
Here's the family tree of Jacob and all of this 71 descendants listed here, numbered for convenience.
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