Jacob and His Family Go to Egypt

¹Jacob packed up everything he owned and left for Egypt. On the way he stopped near the town of Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the God his father Isaac had worshiped.

²That night, God spoke to him in a dream and said, “Jacob! Jacob!”

“Here I am,” Jacob answered.

³God said, “I am God, the same God your father worshiped. Don't be afraid to go to Egypt. I will give you so many descendants that one day they will become a nation.

⁴I will go with you to Egypt, and later I will bring your descendants back here. Your son Joseph will be at your side when you die.”

^5-6-7Jacob and his family set out from Beersheba and headed for Egypt. His sons put him in the wagon that the king had sent for him, and they put their small children and their wives in the other wagons. Jacob's whole family went to Egypt, including his sons, his grandsons, his daughters, and his granddaughters. They took along their animals and everything else they owned.[#Ac 7.15.; #46.5-7 See the note at 12.15.]

^{8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15}When Jacob went to Egypt, his children who were born in northern Syria also went along with their families.[#46.8-15 See the note at 24.10.]

Jacob and his wife Leah had a total of 33 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, but two of their grandchildren had died in Canaan.

^16-17-18Jacob and Zilpah, the servant woman Laban had given his daughter Leah, had a total of 16 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

^19-20-21-22Jacob and Rachel had 14 children and grandchildren.[#Gn 41.50-52.]

^23-24-25Jacob and Bilhah, the servant woman Laban had given his daughter Rachel, had seven children and grandchildren.

²⁶Sixty-six members of Jacob's family went to Egypt with him, not counting his daughters-in-law.

²⁷Jacob's two grandsons who were born there made it a total of 70 members of Jacob's family in Egypt.[#Ac 7.14.]

²⁸Jacob had sent his son Judah ahead of him to ask Joseph to meet them in Goshen.

²⁹So Joseph got in his chariot and went to meet his father. When they met, Joseph hugged his father around the neck and cried for a long time.

³⁰Jacob said to Joseph, “Now that I have seen you and know you are still alive, I am ready to die.”

³¹Then Joseph said to his brothers and to everyone who had come with them:

Joseph wanted them to say this to the king, because the Egyptians did not like to be around anyone who raised sheep.