Free Bible Commentary
“Genesis 46:8-27”
Categories: Genesis“Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn. The sons of Reuben: Hanoch and Pallu and Hezron and Carmi. The sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The sons of 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. The sons of Issachar: Tola and Puvvah and Iob and Shimron. The sons of Zebulun: Sered and Elon and Jahleel. These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, with his daughter Dinah; all his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three. The sons of Gad: Ziphion and Haggi, Shuni and Ezbon, Eri and Arodi and Areli. The sons of Asher: Imnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah and their sister Serah. And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel. These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah; and she bore to Jacob these sixteen persons. The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. Now to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him. The sons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, Muppim and Huppim and Ard. These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob; there were fourteen persons in all. The sons of Dan: Hushim. The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel and Guni and Jezer and Shillem. These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, and she bore these to Jacob; there were seven persons in all. All the persons belonging to Jacob, who came to Egypt, his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob’s sons, were sixty-six persons in all, and the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt were two; all the persons of the house of Jacob, who came to Egypt, were seventy.”
---End of Scripture verses---
“Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt…” (verse 8) I will be quoting James Burton Coffman about the difficulties associated with the numbers of people in today’s passage and the significance of the number “seventy” (verse 27):
“Several things need to be said about this list. It does not include any of the daughters, except Dinah and Serah, despite the mention of Jacob's daughters, and his sons' daughters in Genesis 46:7. The whole list is therefore contrived by the sacred narrator as a round number. It is quite obvious also that some of the names in this list are of persons born AFTER the entry into Egypt, as we may not suppose that Benjamin, described repeatedly as a ‘lad’ at this time, was suddenly a patriarch with ten children before the move to Egypt could be effected. The same appears to be true of Pharez. Thus, this enumeration of ‘The Seventy’ serves the purposes of emphasizing that number considered to be a sacred number by the Jews, and apparently so honored by Jesus himself.
“The number seventy seems to have been associated in a peculiar way with the nation of Israel ever since the time when seventy apparently became the founders of the nation.
I. Seventy nations of the world are listed in Genesis 10.
II. Seventy elders are mentioned in Numbers 11:16.
III. Seventy years of captivity in Babylon were the punishment of Judah (2 Chronicles 36:21).
IV. Seventy weeks were determined for Israel in which to finish the transgression (Daniel 9:24).
V. Seventy translators produced the Septuagint.
VI. The Sanhedrin was composed of seventy members.
VII. Jesus Christ himself sent out the "seventy" witnesses of his kingdom.
VIII. ‘The days of our years are threescore and ten’ (Psalms 90:10).
The great intention, therefore, of this list is to show that there were seventy founders of the nation of Israel who went into Egypt.
“Perhaps we should also notice the quibble often raised regarding the statement of Stephen in Acts 7:14, that ‘Seventy-five souls went down into Egypt.’ As a matter of fact, the total number probably ran well over a hundred or so. Just how Stephen figured it, we do not know, but it is generally thought that he was merely quoting from the LXX, which gives five sons of Joseph not mentioned in our version. He might have been counting the wives, or the wives who consented to go to Egypt, or some of the unmentioned daughters. The quibble is inconsequential. What is intended by the use of the number ‘seventy’ in this passage is to show that, "God had done a complete divine work upon Israel, in taking them down into Egypt.”
Please read Genesis 46:28-34 for tomorrow.
Have a great day!
-Louie Taylor
