46:4
“I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”
The chapter at a glance
The chapter in brief
Israel sets out with all he has, and at Beersheba he offers sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. God speaks to him in visions of the night, “Jacob, Jacob,” and he answers, “Here I am.” He is not to be afraid to go down to Egypt: there God will make him a great nation, will go down with him and bring him up again, and Joseph’s hand will close his eyes. The family travels in Pharaoh’s wagons, and the chapter lists the sons and grandsons of Israel by their mothers, seventy persons of the house of Jacob in Egypt in all. Judah goes ahead to Goshen. Joseph rides up to meet his father and weeps on his neck “a good while,” and Israel says, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.” Joseph prepares the family to tell Pharaoh they are shepherds, so that they may live apart in Goshen, “for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”
Isaac had been told not to go down to Egypt (Genesis 26:2), and when Abraham went down in a famine he fell into deceit (Genesis 12:10-20). So Jacob stops at Beersheba, at the edge of the land, to worship before he crosses, and God answers him, the last time Genesis records Him speaking: go down, I will go with you, I will bring you up. The descent into Egypt is no accident of famine. It is a stage in the promise of Genesis 15:13-14, and a family of seventy will come out a nation. The God who goes down with His people and brings them up again is the God who in the fullness of time sent His Son into our exile, Immanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Matthew draws the line himself: the child Jesus went down into Egypt and was called out of it, so that “Out of Egypt I called my son” was fulfilled (Matthew 2:15, quoting Hosea 11:1). The true Israel retraced His people’s road in order to bring them home.
Points for discussion
vv. 1–7
At Beersheba
Jacob worships first and travels second. God calls him by name twice, “Jacob, Jacob,” and Jacob answers “Here I am,” as Abraham did at Moriah (Genesis 22:11) and as Moses will at the bush (Exodus 3:4). Why should Jacob fear? He knew, perhaps, of the promise that Abraham’s offspring would be afflicted in a land not their own (Genesis 15:13). God does not cancel the journey or the affliction. He promises the great nation of Genesis 12:2, and He promises Himself: “I myself will go down with you.” The tenderest line is the last: Joseph’s hand will close his eyes.
For discussion
God does not stop Jacob’s journey; He goes with him. How is the promise of God’s presence different from a promise of easy circumstances? Compare Isaiah 43:2 and Matthew 28:20.
vv. 8–27
The seventy
The list is arranged by the four mothers, Leah, Zilpah, Rachel and Bilhah, and its total is reached by a careful reckoning: sixty-six who came, with Jacob himself and Joseph and his two sons already in Egypt, make seventy (vv. 26-27). Stephen gives seventy-five (Acts 7:14), following the Greek translation of Genesis, which counts more of Joseph’s descendants; the two are different ways of counting, not a contradiction. Many readers note that seventy is also roughly the number of the nations in Genesis 10: the family that carries the blessing for the nations goes down as a small nation-in-waiting. In Judah’s line stand Perez and Hezron (v. 12), names that lead to David and to Christ (Matthew 1:3).
vv. 28–30
“Now let me die”
Judah, who once led the brothers in selling Joseph, is now sent ahead to show the way. Joseph rides out to meet his father and weeps on his neck “a good while.” Jacob’s response is not despair but peace: he has seen what he waited for and is ready to go. Many readers hear an echo in old Simeon holding the infant Christ: “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace” (Luke 2:29).
vv. 31–34
Shepherds in Goshen
Joseph tells his family to say plainly what they are, keepers of livestock, knowing that “every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.” Egypt’s contempt becomes God’s protection. In Canaan the family had been drifting into the ways of the land (Genesis 34; 38). In Goshen, kept apart by Egyptian disdain, they will grow into a people without being absorbed (Exodus 1:7).
Threads across the chapter
Down and up. God promises to go down and to bring up (v. 4), the family goes down (vv. 5-7, 27), and Joseph goes up to meet his father (v. 29).
Fear and presence. “Do not be afraid” (v. 3) answers the dread of Egypt, and Joseph’s face answers Jacob’s long grief (v. 30).
A family becoming a nation. The great-nation promise (v. 3), the seventy (v. 27) and Goshen’s separation (v. 34) prepare for Exodus 1:7.
Judah ahead. Judah goes before the family (v. 28) as his leadership grows (Genesis 43:8; 44:18; 49:8).
Key words
- 46:2
- מַרְאֹת הַלַּיְלָה mar'ot hallaylah“Visions of the night”; the last revelation to a patriarch that Genesis records
- 46:3
- גּוֹי גָּדוֹל goy gadol“Great nation”; the promise of Genesis 12:2, renewed for the time in Egypt
- 46:34
- תּוֹעֵבָה to'evah“Abomination”; Egypt’s disdain for shepherds, which kept Israel apart
Cross-references
- Genesis 12:2“I will make of you a great nation”
- Genesis 15:13-14Sojourners afflicted, then brought out with great possessions
- Genesis 26:2Isaac told not to go down to Egypt
- Exodus 1:5-7Seventy persons become a people that fills the land
- Acts 7:14-15Stephen’s count of seventy-five
- Matthew 2:15“Out of Egypt I called my son”
- Luke 2:29-30Simeon ready to depart in peace, having seen God’s salvation
- Isaiah 43:2God with His people through the waters and the fire
- 1
Why does Jacob stop to worship at Beersheba before leaving the land of promise?
- 2
God promises to go down with Jacob and to bring him up again. How does that shape the way we face moves, losses and hard places?
- 3
What might it mean that God grew His people into a nation in a land that despised them?
- 4
Jacob says, “Now let me die.” What had he been waiting to see, and what are we waiting for?
- 5
How does Matthew 2:15 invite us to read Israel’s going down to Egypt in the light of Christ?
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