Genesis 46 · The Lantern

Jacob’s Journey to Egypt

And Israel set out with all that was his, and he came to Beersheba, and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night, and said, “Jacob! Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.”

And he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I myself will surely bring you up again — and Joseph shall put his hand on your eyes.”

But each one of us also, by the same order and by the same way, enters Egypt and the contests, and, if he merits that God always remain with him, he will make him "into a great nation." For a great nation is the number of the virtues and the multitude of righteousness, in which all the saints are said to be multiplied and to increase.

Our God himself also exhorts that people with his own prophecy and promises them advancement in the faith, the fruit of his gift, for he says to them, "Joseph shall put his hand on your eyes." It was not that the holy patriarch was troubled as to who should close his eyes, although in the clear understanding of it a natural love is also being expressed.

See how whatever the good man longed for the Lord promises him, and in fact much more. That is to say, in his generosity he exceeds our requests out of fidelity to his characteristic love. "Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt," he says.

And Jacob rose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

And they took their livestock and their possessions that they had gathered in the land of Canaan, and they came to Egypt — Jacob and all his seed with him:

Those Who Went to Egypt

his sons and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters and his sons’ daughters — all his seed he brought with him to Egypt.

The Children of Leah

And these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt, Jacob and his sons. Jacob’s firstborn: Reuben.

And the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, and Pallu, and Hezron, and Carmi.

And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of the Canaanite woman.

And the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

And 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.

And the sons of Issachar: Tola, and Puvah, and Iob, and Shimron.

And the sons of Zebulun: Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel.

These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, together with Dinah his daughter. All the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty-three.

The Children of Zilpah

And the sons of Gad: Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli.

And the sons of Asher: Imnah, and Ishvah, and Ishvi, and Beriah, and Serah their sister. And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and she bore these to Jacob — sixteen souls.

The Children of Rachel

The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife: Joseph and Benjamin.

And to Joseph, in the land of Egypt, were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore to him.

And 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 — fourteen souls in all.

The Children of Bilhah

And the sons of Dan: Hushim.

And the sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem.

These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter; and she bore these to Jacob — seven souls in all.

All the souls who came with Jacob to Egypt, who came out of his body — besides the wives of Jacob’s sons — were sixty-six souls in all.

And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy.

Therefore seventy-five souls go down into Egypt, just as it is written, and this in the mystical sense is the number of forgiveness. For after such great hardness, after such great sins, they would be considered unworthy unless there were granted them the forgiveness of sins. Judah—that is, the confession of sin—goes to meet Joseph.

Why did sacred Scripture indicate the number to us precisely? So that we might be in a position to know how God's prediction took effect that said, "I will make you into a great nation there." You see, from those seventy-five persons the people of Israel grew into six hundred thousand.

Therefore Jacob went down to Egypt together with seventy-five people, and his son Joseph came to meet him. After seeing him Jacob said, "I see you, son, now I can die willingly." When Simeon, that venerable old man, called a father because of his age and not because he could father children, saw Christ because of whom he was still kept in this world as in Egypt, even though he…

Jacob Arrives in Egypt

And he sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph, to point the way before him to Goshen. And they came to the land of Goshen.

And Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen. And he appeared to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a long while.

And Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face — that you are still alive.”

And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s house, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

And the men are shepherds of flocks — for they have been men of livestock — and they have brought their sheep and their cattle and all that is theirs.’

And it shall be, when Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your work?’

that you shall say, ‘Your servants have been men of livestock from our youth until now, both we and our fathers’ — so that you may live in the land of Goshen. For every shepherd of flocks is an abomination to Egypt.”