1Israel traveled with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. 2God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!”
He said, “Here I am.”
3He said, “I am God, the God of your father. Don’t be afraid to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation. 4I will go down with you into Egypt. I will also surely bring you up again. Joseph’s hand will close your eyes.”
5Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 6They took their livestock, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt—Jacob, and all his offspring with him, 7his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters, and he brought all his offspring with him into Egypt.
8These are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn. 9The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. 10The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. 11The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. 12The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. 13The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Iob, and Shimron. 14The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. 15These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty-three. 16The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. 17The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and Serah their sister. The sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel. 18These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob, even sixteen souls. 19The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife: Joseph and Benjamin. 20To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him. 21The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. 22These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen. 23The son of Dan: Hushim. 24The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. 25These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob: all the souls were seven. 26All the souls who came with Jacob into Egypt, who were his direct offspring, in addition to Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls were sixty-six. 27The sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy.
28Jacob sent Judah before him to Joseph, to show the way before him to Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen. 29Joseph prepared his chariot, and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. 30Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive.”
31Joseph said to his brothers, and to his father’s house, “I will go up, and speak with Pharaoh, and will tell him, ‘My brothers, and my father’s house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 32These men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.’ 33It will happen, when Pharaoh summons you, and will say, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34that you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers:’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”
Beersheba (or Beersheva) is a small but important Biblical town, the central town of the southern dry area known as the Negev. The small tel has two small often dry creek beds (nahalim) on either side, and thus afforded a good place for digging wells. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree and called on the name of the LORD (21:33), after having made a pact with Abimelech. Beersheva is understood as meaning either “well of seven” or “well of the oath”, either way referring to the pact with Abimelech (Gen 21:31). Hagar and Ishmael were sent out in the wilderness of Beersheva (Gen 21:14) and Isaac built an altar there (Gen 26:15-33). God was revealed here to Hagar (21:17), Isaac (26:24), Jacob (46:2), and to Elijah (1 Kgs 19:5). Beersheva is the proverbial southern marker of the Land of Israel with the phrase “from Dan to Beersheva” (Judgs 20:1; 1 Sam 3:20, etc.) between which is 150 miles. Samuel’s corrupt sons are known to be judging there (1 Sam 8:2) and Saul fortified it against the Amalekites (1 Sam 14:48 and 15:2-9) which paved the way for David to have it as a central city as seen in the census of Joab (2 Sam 24:2ff.) In the Karnak temple in Egypt, Beersheba is known as the “Fort Abram” probably relating to Shishak’s conquest of Israel in 925 BC. Zibiah, the mother of King Jehoash, was born there (2 Kgs 12:1; 2 Ch 24:1). The archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni and others have excavated Tel Beersheva, finding an ancient Israel gate and well, as well as an impressive water system dated to the eighth century. A broken down horned and hewn altar (the stones were found reused in various walls) may have been that which was criticized by Amos (5:5 and 8:14) and torn down by King Hezekiah (2 Kgs 18:4).