BIBLE CHAPTER STUDY
Genesis 46: Jacob's Journey to Egypt and the Promise of Return
On the way to Egypt, God reassures Jacob in a night vision and the chapter catalogs the 70 descendants who enter Egypt, followed by the reunion of father and son in Goshen.
Scripture
1And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.
2And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.
3And 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:
4I 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.
5And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba: 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.
6And 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:
7his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.
8And these are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob's first-born.
9And the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, and Pallu, and Hezron, and Carmi.
10And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman.
11And the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
12And 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.
13And the sons of Issachar: Tola, and Puvah, and Iob, and Shimron.
14And the sons of Zebulun: Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel.
15These are the sons of Leah, whom she bare unto Jacob in Paddan-aram, with his daughter Dinah: all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three.
16And the sons of Gad: Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli.
17And the sons of Asher: Imnah, and Ishvah, and Ishvi, and Beriah, and Serah their sister; and the sons of Beriah: Heber, and Malchiel.
18These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls.
19The sons of Rachel Jacob's wife: Joseph and Benjamin.
20And unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On, bare unto him.
21And the sons of Benjamin: Bela, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard.
22These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen.
23And the sons of Dan: Hushim.
24And the sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem.
25These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter, and these she bare unto Jacob: all the souls were seven.
26All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, that came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six;
27and the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, that came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.
28And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to show the way before him unto Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen.
29And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen; and he presented himself unto him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.
30And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, that thou art yet alive.
31And Joseph said unto his brethren, and unto his father's house, I will go up, and tell Pharaoh, and will say unto him, My brethren, and my father's house, who were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me;
32and the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of cattle; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.
33And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation?
34that ye shall say, Thy servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.
What this passage means
The chapter opens with Israel pausing at Beer-sheba to offer sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac before undertaking a journey that mirrors but also inverts his grandfather Abraham's departure from Haran. The night vision (v. 2) repeats the patriarchal form of address, and God's self-identification as 'the God of thy father' anchors the journey in a covenant line that extends backward to Abraham and Isaac. The command 'fear not to go down into Egypt' acknowledges the gravity of leaving Canaan, since every earlier promise of land was tied to that soil.
God's threefold promise in verses 3-4 answers three concerns: 'I will there make of thee a great nation' (numerical fruitfulness in a foreign land), 'I will go down with thee into Egypt' (divine presence away from Canaan), and 'I will also surely bring thee up again' (return to the land). The detail 'Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes' specifies the manner of Jacob's death — his son will close his eyelids — binding the promise of return to the concrete hope that reunification with Joseph will be granted before Jacob dies.
Verses 8-27 form a structured genealogy organized by the four mothers (Leah, Zilpah, Rachel, Bilhah) that totals sixty-six who came out of Jacob's loins, plus Joseph's two sons born in Egypt, yielding seventy persons. This number — echoed in Deuteronomy 10:22 and Acts 7:14 — frames the family as the nascent 'nation' God has promised to make. The chapter then shifts to logistics and reunion: Judah is sent ahead to Goshen (v. 28), Joseph meets his father with weeping (v. 29), and Jacob's words 'now let me die' (v. 30) signal that the long hope of Genesis 45:28 has been realized. Verses 31-34 prepare the brothers' introduction to Pharaoh by appealing to the shepherds' abomination in Egyptian eyes, securing Goshen as a separate pastureland.
Context
Genesis 46 sits between Joseph's revelation of himself to his brothers (ch. 45) and the presentation of the family before Pharaoh (ch. 47). The divine speech in verses 2-4 recalls the night visions given to earlier patriarchs, and the genealogical list sets up the later Israelite self-understanding of being 'seventy souls' who descended to Egypt. The Beer-sheba setting ties this departure to Abraham and Isaac, who also sojourned and built altars there.
Key words in the original
- H4759 Hebrew מַרְאָה (mar'eh), 'vision,' used in v. 2 for the form in which God appeared to Israel in the night. The same root is found in Genesis 15:1, where the word of Jehovah comes to Abram in a vision.
- H5265 Hebrew נָסַע (nasa'), 'to set out / pull up (tent pins).' In v. 1 it describes Israel beginning a journey and is the standard verb for patriarchs striking camp.
- H2076 Hebrew זָבַח (zavach), 'to sacrifice / slaughter an animal,' in v. 1 rendered 'offered sacrifices.' The noun זֶבַח (zevach) denotes the slaughter or the victim itself.
Related verses
- Genesis 45:28 Immediately preceding, this verse records Israel's words 'It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die,' which frame the journey that Genesis 46 then narrates.
- Genesis 12:2 God's promise to Jacob in v. 3 — 'I will there make of thee a great nation' — echoes the foundational promise to Abram in 12:2 to make of him a great nation, tying Jacob's descent into Egypt to the original Abrahamic call.
- Genesis 15:1 The 'visions of the night' in which God speaks to Jacob (v. 2) parallel the vision-form speech to Abram in 15:1 ('Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield'), establishing a recurring mode of patriarchal reassurance.
Common questions
Why does God tell Jacob not to fear going down to Egypt?
Going to Egypt represented leaving the land of promise where every prior assurance of land had been made. God reassures Jacob with three guarantees — making him a great nation there, going down with him, and surely bringing him up again — so that the departure from Canaan does not contradict the covenant made with Abraham and Isaac.
How many people from Jacob's household went down to Egypt, and how is that number reached?
Verses 8-25 list sixty-six descendants who came out of Jacob's loins, organized by the four mothers Leah, Zilpah, Rachel, and Bilhah. Adding Joseph's two sons born in Egypt (v. 27) gives seventy. The same total is cited later in Deuteronomy 10:22 and Acts 7:14, framing the family as the embryo of the 'great nation' God promised.
Why does Joseph arrange to tell Pharaoh that his family are shepherds?
In v. 34 Joseph instructs his brothers to identify themselves as keepers of cattle from their youth, noting that 'every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.' This secures their settlement in Goshen, a separate pastureland, keeping the family physically and socially distinct so they can preserve their identity and flocks while depending on Pharaoh's land grant.