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[a]“Hurry back, then, to my father and tell him: ‘Thus says your son Joseph: God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me without delay.(A) 10 You can settle in the region of Goshen,[b] where you will be near me—you and your children and children’s children, your flocks and herds, and everything that you own. 11 I will provide for you there in the five years of famine that lie ahead, so that you and your household and all that are yours will not suffer want.’

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Footnotes

  1. 45:9–15 In these verses, as in 46:31–47:5a, all from the Yahwist source, Joseph in his own name invites his father and brothers to come to Egypt. Only after their arrival is Pharaoh informed of the fact. On the other hand, in 45:16–20, which scholars have traditionally attributed to the Elohist source, it is Pharaoh himself who invites Joseph’s family to migrate to his domain.
  2. 45:10 The region of Goshen: the meaning of the term is unknown. It is found in no Egyptian source. It is generally thought to be in the modern Wadi Tumilat in the eastern part of the Nile Delta.

18 There get your father and your households, and then come to me; I will assign you the best land in Egypt, where you will live off the fat of the land.’(A) 19 Instruct them further: ‘Do this. Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your children and your wives and bring your father back here.

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27 Together with Joseph’s sons who were born to him in Egypt—two persons—all the people comprising the household of Jacob who had come to Egypt amounted to seventy persons[a] in all.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 46:27 Seventy persons: it is difficult to get this exact number by adding up the persons mentioned in the preceding genealogies. One might assume it refers to Jacob and sixty-nine descendants, excluding Er and Onan but including Dinah. Ex 1:5 repeats the number but excludes Jacob. Dt 10:22 refers to seventy persons descending to Egypt. The best solution is to take the number as expressing totality. Since there are seventy nations in chap. 10, it is likely that the text is drawing a parallel between the two entities and suggesting that Israel “represents” the nations before God.

The total number of Jacob’s direct descendants[a] was seventy.(A) Joseph was already in Egypt.

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Footnotes

  1. 1:5 Direct descendants: lit., “persons coming from Jacob’s loins”; hence, wives of Jacob’s sons and servants are not included. Cf. Gn 46:26. Seventy: Gn 46:26, along with the Septuagint for the verse, agrees on a total of sixty-six coming down to Egypt with Jacob, but in v. 27 the Hebrew text adds the two sons born to Joseph in Egypt and presupposes Jacob himself and Joseph for a total of seventy; the Septuagint adds “nine sons” born to Joseph to get a total of seventy-five. This is the figure the Septuagint and 4QExa have here in Ex 1:5.

22 Seventy strong your ancestors went down to Egypt,(A) and now the Lord, your God, has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

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