Chapter 46
Israel agrees to go to Egypt. God speaks to him and tells him He will go also. He tells Israel that Joseph will close his eyes when he dies. So Israel continues to Egypt with all that he has - family and goods, children and grandchildren. Altogether, Israel had 33 children and grands from children born to Leah. He had another 16 from Zilpah, Leah's servant. There were 14 children and grands descended through Rachel. Finally, there were 7 born to Bilhah, Rachel's servant. That is, from one man, Jacob, in two generations, came 70 descendants. The specific names are all given in this chapter. From these 70, in 400 years, came the children of Israel. I have seen estimates as high as 2 million when they leave Egypt. From one man to 70 people basically in 130 years - one lifetime. How long did Adam live? How many could he have "grown to" if we apply this same exponential rate? You can get up to a lot of distant cousins in a 130 year lifetime. Look how old Adam's sons were when they got married. Consider just how many daughters could have been born in that amount of time? There were no genetic diseases in just a few generations, even if you don't consider the claim that there was nothing to cause mutations until after the flood anyway. This is the best explanation for the wives of Cain and Seth and so on.
2024 - Why in the world does God call Israel Jacob in these night visions? Because it was not God, but an angel that changed his name the first time?
2025 - It is interesting. In 46:1 it is Israel that set out for Egypt. In 46:2 God says "Jacob, Jacob.". Perhaps it is here that the name Israel is applied to the coming nation - the coming people of God - and Jacob is still used of the Patriarch of that nation? This makes some sense I think.
2025 - So the sons and grandsons of Jacob through Leah are 32, and Dinah is 33. Only one daughter named. Were daughters truly this rare in this family? From Zilpah, 15 sons and grandsons, and 1 daughter. From Rachel, 14 sons and grandsons. From Bilhah, 7 sons and grandsons. The Bible says 66 "persons" came down. The numbers above, including the two daughters, add up to 70, which is what we see in vs. 27 as the total. But in vs 26, it says the "direct descendants" of Jacob , not including the wives, were 66. Why the difference? Because two of Judah's sons, Onan and Er, died before leaving Canaan, and Joseph's two sons were already in Egypt. So correlating these 70 with the earlier "Table of Nations" hits a hard spot, since technically, while Jacob had 70 descendants, on 68 were in the original group in Egypt.
MSB does not address it. It seems like a big deal to me. Because it is God talking, not Jesus? What, they disagree on this? No way! And in vs 5 Jacob arose, not Israel.
Joseph comes to meet Israel, and they are reunited. Joseph says he will tell Pharoah that they have arrived, and that when Pharoah asks them what they do for a living, they will say that they herd livestock. They are not to say they are shepherds, because shepherds are an abomination to the Egyptians. Hebrews were an abomination, as was mentioned in the previous chapters, and now shepherds. They stop in the land of Goshen.
2023 - No, the above paragraph is just wrong. Joseph says he will tell Pharoah first hand that the Hebrews are all shepherds, in vs 32. I think a better interpretation is like the old west of America. The Egyptians were cattle farmers and disdained sheep. So by setting themselves apart as hated shepherds, the Hebrews in Goshen would be severely avoided by the Egyptians. This was good in that it kept the children of Jacob separate and apart, not intermarrying with the Egyptians. Egyptians apparently hated shepherds even more than cowboys hated them. So today is the eighth time in eight years that I have read these verses, and this is the first time that this obvious thing has "gotten through" to me.
2026 - Definitely Joseph wanted Pharoah to know his kin were shepherds - keepers of livestock. For whatever reason, in Egypt, this was dirty and low class, and no Egyptian would willingly associate with them. We saw earlier that the Egyptians wouldn't eat with Hebrews. So they apparently had a lot of prejudices. This is just one more, and with great foresight, Joseph emphasizes this to Pharoah, which keeps Israel and his descendants a "pure race".