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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 46:1 - 46:7
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The Journey over Beersheba to Egypt
v. 1. And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. From Hebron, Gen_37:14, Jacob, the father of the children of Israel, removed everything that could be transported without difficulty, and journeyed first of all to Beersheba, on the southern border of Canaan. Although the pressure of the famine and the invitation of both Joseph and Pharaoh were apparently hints from God, yet he was not without serious apprehension and anxiety at the greatness of the undertaking and its possible consequences.
v. 2. And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob! And he said, Here am I. So God Himself, whom he had worshiped with his sacrifices, appeared to Jacob at this decisive moment, speaking to him in a dream-vision by night.
v. 3. And he said, I am God, the Powerful, the Mighty One, the God of thy father, the only true God. Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation. What God had said to Abraham in a general way, Gen_15:13-16, he here referred to the sojourn in Egypt. He not only sanctioned the removal of Jacob to Egypt, but promised His blessing also in the strange land.
v. 4. I will go down with thee in to Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again. His protection would attend their removal, their stay, and the eventual return of the children of Israel. This promise, moreover, was to remind Jacob of the greater and more important prophecy, that of the Messiah, who was to be his descendant. And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes; the last service of love when Jacob closed his eyes in death would be performed by the son whom he had so long mourned as dead.
v. 5. And Jacob rose up from Beersheba, he continued his journey cheerfully; and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry them, all the hardships of the journey being thus eliminated.
v. 6. And they took their cattle and their goods which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, surely an immense caravan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him;
v. 7. his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, a general expression, which probably includes not only Dinah and Serah, but also the daughters-in-law, and all his seed brought he with him in to Egypt. No matter how conditions in life may change for believers, the Word of God's mercy remains unchanged, and His goodness and truth is over them forever.