Commentaria in Genesim
Chapter Forty-six. Synopsis of the Chapter
Jacob sets out for Egypt with all his family, which is here enumerated. Secondly, verse 29, Joseph meets him and receives him.
1. And Israel taking his journey with all that he had, came to the Well of the oath, and there offering victims to the God of his father Isaac, 2. he heard him by a vision in the night calling him, and saying to him: Jacob, Jacob. And he answered him: Here I am. 3. And God said to him: I am the most mighty God of your father; fear not, go down into Egypt, for I will make a great nation of you there. 4. I will go down with you thither, and I will bring you back again from there: Joseph also shall put his hands upon your eyes. 5. And Jacob rose up from the Well of the oath: and his sons took him up with their children and wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry the old man, 6. and all that he possessed in the land of Canaan: and he came into Egypt with all his seed, 7. his sons and grandsons, his daughters and all his offspring together. 8. And these are the names of the children of Israel that went into Egypt, he and his children. The firstborn Reuben. 9. The sons of Reuben: Henoch and Phallu, and Hesron and Charmi. 10. The sons of Simeon: Jamuel and Jamin and Ahod, and Jachin and Sohar, and Saul the son of a Canaanitess. 11. The sons of Levi: Gerson and Caath and Merari. 12. The sons of Judah: Her and Onan and Sela and Phares and Zara. But Her and Onan died in the land of Canaan: and there were born the sons of Phares, Hesron and Hamul. 13. The sons of Issachar: Thola and Phua and Job and Semron. 14. The sons of Zabulon: Sared and Elon and Jahelel. 15. These are the sons of Lia, whom she bore in Mesopotamia of Syria, with Dina her daughter. All the souls of her sons and daughters were thirty-three. 16. The sons of Gad: Sephion and Haggi and Suni and Esebon and Heri and Arodi and Areli. 17. The sons of Aser: Jamne and Jesua and Jessui and Beria, and Sara their sister. The sons of Beria: Heber and Melchiel. 18. These are the sons of Zelpha, whom Laban gave to Lia his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob, sixteen souls. 19. The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife: Joseph and Benjamin. 20. And there were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt, whom Aseneth, the daughter of Putiphare priest of Heliopolis, bore to him: Manasses and Ephraim. 21. The sons of Benjamin: Bela and Bechor and Asbel and Gera and Naaman and Echi and Ros and Mophim and Ophim and Ared. 22. These are the sons of Rachel, whom she bore to Jacob: all the souls, fourteen. 23. The sons of Dan: Husim. 24. The sons of Nephtali: Jasiel and Guni and Jeser and Sallem. 25. These are the sons of Bala, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob: all the souls, seven. 26. All the souls that went with Jacob into Egypt, and that came out of his thigh, besides the wives of his sons, were sixty-six. 27. And the sons of Joseph that were born to him in the land of Egypt, two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob that came into Egypt were seventy. 28. And he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to tell him, and to meet him in Goshen. 29. And when he was come thither, Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet his father in the same place: and seeing him, he fell upon his neck, and, in the embraces, wept. 30. And Israel said to Joseph: Now shall I die with joy, because I have seen your face, and leave you alive. 31. And he said to his brethren and to all his father’s house: I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and will say to him: My brethren, and my father’s house, who were in the land of Canaan, are come to me: 32. and they are shepherds, and their occupation is to feed cattle: their flocks and herds, and all that they had, they have brought with them. 33. And when he shall call you, and say: What is your occupation? 34. You shall answer: We your servants are shepherds, from our infancy until now, both we and our fathers. And this you shall say, that you may dwell in the land of Goshen: because the Egyptians abhor all shepherds of sheep.
has the Hebrew; for Bersabee in Hebrew signifies the well of the oath, as I said in chapter 21, verse 31.
3. FEAR NOT.—Jacob could fear the journey into Egypt: first, because of the hardships of so long a journey, and lest, being an old man, he should die on the way before he saw Joseph. Second, lest his people should imbibe the vices of the Egyptians. Third, lest his descendants should fix their dwelling in Egypt, to whom Canaan had been promised by God, and so make void the promises of God and offend God. Hence God removes this fear from him, verse 4. This, then, was the ninth tribulation of Jacob, but one which God, as is his custom, soon dispelled by his appearance and consolation.
4. I WILL GO DOWN WITH YOU—I will be your companion on the way, nay your guide; I will lead you and yours into Egypt, and from there in due time I will bring you back, you dead, but your descendants living. Devoutly St. Ambrose, book 2 On Jacob, chapter 9: “What then,” he says, “was wanting to him, to whom God was present? Who is so powerful in his own dwelling as this man in a foreign one? Who is so abundant in plenty as this man in famine? Who is so strong in youth as this man in old age (for in him, as the same says in chapter 8, the unwearied vigour of youth and the tranquillity of old age contended)? Who is so ardent in business as this man in leisure? Who is so swift in the course as this man on his bed? Who is so glad in the flower of youth as this man on the verge of death? Who is so rich in a kingdom as this man in a strange place? Finally, he blessed kings. And who would call him poor, of whose company the world was not worthy? and therefore his conversation was in heaven.” And: “What is more blessed than to have God himself as the companion of one’s journey?” says St. Chrysostom, homily 65.
JOSEPH ALSO SHALL PUT HIS HANDS UPON YOUR EYES—as if to say: Joseph will close your eyes when you die, and consequently you will leave Joseph behind you alive. From this is clear the ancient custom of the Hebrews, by which the dearest closed the eyes of their dearest when dying. The Greeks and Romans afterwards imitated this very thing. Hence the mother of Euryalus complains in Virgil:
Neither did I, mother, bring forth your funeral, nor close your eyes, nor wash your wounds.
Penelope also, writing to Ulysses, asks this of the gods, that Telemachus may close the eyes of both his parents; for so she says in Ovid:
May the gods, I pray, grant this, that when the fates run on in their order, he may close my eyes, he yours.
7. DAUGHTERS.—Jacob had one only daughter, Dina; he calls them daughters here, both Dina and his daughters-in-law, namely the wives of his sons.
They were hidden, that is, in the feet of their parents, in which they still lay concealed. For under the word “entrance” here is contained all the time that runs from the entrance of Jacob to the death of Joseph, as will presently appear.
HE (namely Jacob) WITH HIS CHILDREN.—Supply: went down into Egypt. So the Hebrew.
They are said, however, to have gone down with Jacob into Egypt, not in their own persons, but in the loins of Phares their father, in which they still lay hidden. For, as St. Augustine rightly noted, this descent and entrance of Jacob into Egypt comprehends also the 17 years of his life in Egypt; nay, even the remaining years of the life of Joseph, namely 71, because it was at the calling and by the care of Joseph that Jacob went down into Egypt.
Note: In place of the sons of Zara the sons of Phares are numbered here, because from Phares and Hesron descended the kings of Judah, and Christ the Lord.
ALL THE SOULS OF HIS SONS.—“Souls,” that is, those born, begotten, namely sons and grandsons: for Hesron and Hamul were grandsons, not sons, of Jacob; it is a synecdoche.
15. THIRTY-THREE—counting Lia herself;
21. THE SONS OF BENJAMIN.—Ten sons of Benjamin are numbered here, of whom he himself afterwards begot some in Egypt. For at this time when he went down into Egypt Benjamin was only 24 years old; hence he could not have begotten so many sons. Again, not all these were sons, but some grandsons of Benjamin: for the Septuagint expressly has: Gera begot Arad. Arad therefore was not a son, but a grandson of Benjamin, by his son Gera.
ROS.—Theodoret and Procopius think that the Romans descend from Ros and are named from him; but they err: for the Romans took their name and origin from Romulus.
ARAD.—From him descend the Aradians, says Procopius. But it is truer that the Aradians descend from Aradius, the son of Canaan, as I said in chapter 10, verse 18; for the Aradians were Canaanites, not Jews, like the Sidonians, Tyrians, Byblians and others neighbouring the Aradians.
26. ALL THE SOULS—all men, all offspring; it is a synecdoche. Thus we call base men base souls; on the contrary Lucan calls men who fell valiant in war brave souls, when he says:
You too, brave souls, cut off by war.
Note this, lest anyone gather from this place that the souls of men, like those of brutes, are born by traduction, namely from the seed and soul of the parents, since faith teaches that the soul of man is created by God alone and infused into man; and therefore it is immortal, as I said at chapter 37, verse 35.
WHO CAME OUT OF HIS THIGH—namely from the genitals, which are between the thighs; it is a metonymy. Second, properly “from the thigh,” because, as Franciscus Valesius says, Sacred Philosophy, chapter 3, in the thigh there are truly three seminal veins, which arise from the liver and the veins of the loins before they descend into the legs, and run back in men through the thighs into the scrotum, in women into the womb, and supply the more fertile part of the seed; and hence Numbers 5:21, in the curse of the adulteress, it is said: “With your womb swelling, let your thigh rot,” as if to say: Let the thigh which you abused be punished, so that the thigh with which you were lustful may rot, and you be smitten with barrenness and corruption, you who sought children by adultery.
SIXTY-SIX—in this number Jacob is not included, as being the parent of all, nor Joseph and his sons, as being already in Egypt.
27. SEVENTY.—Here one must count Jacob himself and Joseph with his two sons: for so you will find seventy.
You will say: How then do the Septuagint, and from them St. Luke, Acts 7:14, count 75?
I answer that they add and count among the descendants of Joseph Machir the son of Manasses, and his grandson Galaad.
Again, the sons of Ephraim, Sutalaam and Taam, and the grandson Edem, who was the son of Sutalaam; for with these added, those who entered are 75. These are added because they were born while their grandfather Joseph was still living, as is clear from Genesis chapter 50, verse 22. For this descent and entrance of Jacob into Egypt extends to the death of Jacob and of Joseph, as I said at verse 8. So St. Augustine, book 16 On the City of God, chapter 40.
You will ask, why are these grandsons of Joseph rather than those of the other brothers numbered in this catalogue?
St. Augustine answers first, because Joseph was the cause of the descent of Jacob and his brothers into Egypt.
Second, as Moses counts the grandsons of Judah, so the Septuagint count the grandsons of Joseph, because these two succeeded to the birthright of Reuben; hence their descendants obtained the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. For from Joseph, namely from Ephraim, sprang the kings of Israel, from Judah the kings of Judah.
Third, because Joseph was the prince of his brothers, nay the prince of Egypt.
Fourth, because Jacob adopted the sons of Joseph as his own sons, as we shall see in chapter 47. Moreover, he numbers here the stock of Jacob, to show how it increased in Egypt, and how the promise of God was fulfilled: “I will make a great nation of you there,” verse 3. For only 70 entered Egypt with Jacob, but there went out with Moses almost six hundred thousand footmen, besides children and women, Exodus 12:37. So St. Chrysostom.
34. WE ARE SHEPHERDS.—Note the modesty, prudence and simplicity of Joseph. Modesty, because in the court of Pharaoh he wishes it known that he is the brother of shepherds. Prudence, because he does not strive to have his brothers at court, lest they be corrupted by the manners of courtiers. Simplicity, because he does not raise his brothers to high rank, but keeps them in the shepherd’s art, which they knew well. Far otherwise do those act today who, being of the humblest birth, nevertheless wish to seem noble, and who, raised to high station, likewise raise their own kin, though unfit, to the loss, dishonour and danger of themselves, their family and the commonwealth.
Joseph therefore wished his brothers to dwell alone in Goshen: both that they might be kept apart from the intercourse and vices of the Egyptians, and that from there they might more easily go out of Egypt and return to Canaan under the leadership of Moses.
Like Joseph in this respect was Phocion, who, when he refused gifts of a great sum of money from King Philip, and the envoys urged him to accept, at least to provide for his children, to whom in extreme poverty it would be hard to maintain their father’s glory, answered: “If they are like me, the same little field will feed them which brought me to this dignity; but if they are to be unlike, I do not wish their luxury to be fed and increased at my expense,” as Probus relates in his Life. The same man, when Menyllus, the prefect of Antipater, offered a gift, answered: “I refused the gifts of Alexander the Great; Antipater is not superior to Alexander.”
When Menyllus pressed him to take them at least for his son Phocus, he answered: “If Phocus, his life being changed, returns to a worthy way, his patrimony will suffice; for as he now behaves, nothing is enough for him.”
THE EGYPTIANS ABHOR ALL SHEPHERDS OF SHEEP—because shepherds are accustomed to kill and eat the flesh of their sheep and cattle, which the Egyptians worshipped as gods, as is clear from Exodus 8:26. Yet the Egyptians kept sheep and oxen, as is clear from the next chapter, verse 17, not for eating, but first for wool and milk; second for their own delight; third for manuring the fields; fourth to sell to other nations.