Genesis Chapter 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.

Jacob (Israel) stops at Beersheba to seek God’s guidance about this move to Egypt. Here he makes a sacrifice to God and prays.

Click here to learn all about Beersheba from these times in Genesis to modern day

² And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.

God answers Jacob’s prayers.

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:

God answers Jacob and tells him to go on and go to Egypt and again tells him that he will make Jacob a great nation. God sees everything that is going to happen in the future…and he even knows that he will have Moses deliver his people Israel when the time is right. For now there is a famine in the land and Egypt has the food that will keep them alive.

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.

When a person passes away, their eyes are sometimes still open and someone they love will reach over and close their eyes one last time. Jacob is going to see his beloved son Joseph again, and Joseph will be with him when he passes from this life to the next.

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.

After hearing from God, Jacob was ready to take the journey. They loaded the wagons that Pharaoh sent and started heading to Goshen.

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 Zarah: 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.

70 people

²⁸ And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen.

Judah asked Joseph where they should set up their cattle and pitch their tents.

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.

Joseph got his chariot ready to take him to see his father in Goshen. He held his father and wept a long time. I imagine there were times when Joseph thought he would never see his father again… I say this because he asked his brothers early on if he was still alive. Seeing him again had to be a tremendous blessing.

³⁰ And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.

Now that Jacob has seen his son and that he was alive and doing well, he could die in peace.

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.

The reasons the Egyptians views shepherds as an abomination was likely because they took offense to the domestication of cattle. They viewed cattle as gods…so ruling over a flock of them was offensive to the Egyptians.