Глава 46

Jacob with his entire camp rises from his place of wandering in Canaan and heads towards Egypt; in Bathsheba receives a vision that finally confirms his intention to go to Egypt Gen.46:1–4. And Israel departed with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God said to Israel in a vision at night: Jacob! Jacob! He said: here I am. God said: I am God, the God of your father; Do not be afraid to go to Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation; I will go with you to Egypt, and I will bring you back. Joseph will close your eyes with his hand. Jacob, prompted by natural love for Joseph, without hesitation decides to follow his offer to move to Egypt. But, as the patriarch of God’s chosen tribe, he must have seen in this resettlement a very decisive step, extremely important for the subsequent fate and history of his descendants: Abraham had a revelation that his descendants would be strangers in a foreign land, would be enslaved and oppressed, but then return to Canaan (Gen. 15:13–16). The events told in chapters 37–45 served as preparation for the relocation of the house of Jacob to Egypt. This resettlement meant, firstly, the separation of the chosen family from the Canaanites, mixing with whom, which had already begun (Gen. 38:2), could be very detrimental to the religious mission of Abraham's descendants; on the other hand, in Egypt, with its disdain for Asians, this isolation of the chosen people was achieved, and the high state of Egyptian culture could fruitfully influence this bearer of true worship of God. Jacob stops in Bathsheba because this place was sanctified by Abraham - by building an altar here and worshiping (Gen. 21:33) and the epiphany to Isaac (Gen. 26:23–24). Instinctively aware of the importance of the moment (the migration), Jacob makes a solemn sacrifice on a site hallowed by historical memories and asks Jehovah's blessing on the journey. Encouraging Jacob, Jehovah calls himself “the God of hosts” (El-Elohei), the God of the covenant, by whose will Jacob is now being resettled in Egypt and who will not leave his descendants there and will transform him into a great nation. The deliverance from Egypt is promised, of course, not to Jacob personally, but to his descendants. Jacob himself is promised at least a peaceful death and the consolation that his beloved son, Joseph, will close his eyes (Gen. 50:1). This ancient custom is spoken of, for example, by Homer (Iliad 11, 453; Odyssey 24, 294). Gen.46:5. Jacob set out from Beersheba; and the children of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their children, and their wives in the chariots which Pharaoh had sent to bring him. Strengthened by the divine promise of gracious protection from above and comforted by the peaceful death announced to him in the arms of his beloved son, Jacob immediately with his entire tribe heads from Beersheba to Egypt. A picture of the migration of a Semitic family to Egypt is presented in one bas-relief in the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep (12th dynasty) and depicts an event very close in character and era to the migration of the Jacob family to Egypt. Gen.46:6. And they took their cattle and their property, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt, Jacob and all his family with him. From the fact that it is said that Jacob and his sons took the livestock and property acquired in Canaan, the rabbis concluded that everything brought by Jacob from Mesopotamia was ceded to Esau. Gen.46:7. He brought his sons and his grandsons with him, his daughters and granddaughters and all his family with him to Egypt. The “daughters” of Jacob, of which only one is known - Dinah (Gen. 34:1), here, perhaps, are Jacob’s daughters-in-law. Genealogy of Jacob's closest descendants who went with him to Egypt Gen.46:8–25. These are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt: Jacob and his sons. Jacob's firstborn son Reuben. The sons of Reuben: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Harmi. The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Saul the son of the Canaanite woman. The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. The sons of Judah: Er and Onan, and Shelah, and Perez, and Zara; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez were: Hezrom and Hamul. The sons of Issachar: Thola and Tuba, Job and Shimron. The sons of Zebulun: Sered and Elon and Jahleel. These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Mesopotamia, and Dinah his daughter. All the souls of his sons and daughters are thirty-three. The sons of Gad: Tsiphion and Haggi, Shuni and Ezbon, Yeri and Arodi and Areli. The sons of Asher: Imna and Ishva, and Ishvi, and Briah, and Serah their sister. Sons of Beria: Heber and Malchiel. These are the sons of Zilpah, which Laban gave to Leah his daughter; she bore them to Jacob, sixteen souls. The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife: Joseph and Benjamin. And Joseph was born in the land of Egypt Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath the daughter of Potiphera the priest of Heliopolis bore to him. The sons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Ashbel; [the sons of Bela were:] Gera and Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, Muppim and Huppim and Ard. These are the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob, fourteen souls in all. The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, and Guni, and Yetzer, and Shillem. These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel; she bore them to Jacob only seven souls. A list is given of Jacob's closest descendants who moved with him to Egypt or, in part, who were already born in Egypt. This genealogy, according to the concepts and customs of the ancient East in general and the ancient Jews in particular, had the meaning of an extremely important document; on the one hand, it shows that the later division of the people into tribes, generations, clans, etc. had roots in the corresponding division of the patriarchal family - it also shows that the subsequent reproduction of the offspring of Jacob into a whole people in Egypt occurred through natural population growth and natural development in the political and ethnographic sense, without violent influence on the part of the Egyptians and their political system; on the other hand, this genealogy could also have legal significance, since it proved the right of each line of Jacob’s descendants to occupy territory in the promised land, due to its well-known origin from one or another son or grandson of Jacob. The number of members of this genealogy, 70, is not without significance, in view of the symbolic meaning of the numbers 7, 10, 70 in the biblical language (as well as in the language of antiquity in general). “The number 70 in all sacred history is especially significant: it appears in the table of nations (Gen. 10), in the 70 elders of Moses, in the Jewish Sanhedrin, in the 70 disciples of the Lord, in the LXX translation, in the Jewish number of the peoples of the world and their definition of 70. 10 is the number of completed human development; 7 is the number of the perfect work of God, and 70, therefore, means the perfect, complete development of the people of God. But full development presupposes a seed, a grain: this is the house of the patriarch of 70 souls. The number 70, thus, in the migrant family foretells the sacred seed of the people of God” (Negelsbach, Delitzsch). The number 70 in the genealogy under consideration is obtained as follows: 1st group - from Leah (vv. 8-15) 33 members (actually, including Dinah, 32, but Jacob is probably also counted), vv. 15; 2nd group – from Zilpah (vv. 16–18) 16 people; 3rd – from Rachel (vv. 19–22) 14 people; 4th – from Valla 7 people. That this calculation is correct, and 70 is not a round number, is evident from the repetition of this date in Ex. 1:5; Deut. 10:22. LXX (Russian and Slavic translation) have a different date: 75, which number is probably obtained from the addition (in v. 20) of the five descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim (75 is indicated, according to volume LXX, and in the speech of Archdeacon Stephen, Acts 7:14). Compared to Number. 26:5–51 and 1 Chron. 4:1–37, which also gives the genealogy of the sons of Jacob and his further descendants, is noted in Gen. 46:8–27 there are many features, such as: different spellings of names (Gen. 46:10 - Jemuel, in Numbers 26:12 and 1 Chronicles 4:24 - Nemuel; Tzohar, Gen. 46:10 - in Numbers 26:13 - Zara, etc.); the mention (in later biblical catalogs of names) of completely new names and, conversely, the omission of entire individual surnames. At the same time, the edition of 1 Chronicles often diverges from both ancient ones, but for the most part it adjoins one (Genesis) and then the other (Numbers). The difficulty of explaining these options is not insurmountable, although sometimes it is quite significant - for example, the fact that the persons (Ard, Naaman), called in the Book of Genesis (v. 21) the sons of Benjamin, in the Book of Numbers are his grandsons. Can recognize the catalog Num. 26 is more accurate compared to Gen. 46; but in general, both genealogies confirm and complement each other. Even the genealogy of 1 Chronicles, despite the difficulty of reconciling its testimony with the Book of Genesis and the Book of Numbers, in turn confirms the continuous and intact existence of genealogies in Israel from ancient times, and speaks strongly against the new biblical-critical school, which pushes back the redaction of the Pentateuch to the time after the Babylonian captivity, at the same time as the writing of the book. Chronicles: the differences in the genealogies of these three editions in this case remain without any explanation. In the entire genealogical table, only two female names are mentioned (except for the 4 wives of Jacob, by which the entire genealogy is grouped): the daughter of Jacob - Dinah (v. 15) and the granddaughter (through Asher) - Serach (v. 17), which, of course, corresponds to the official legal meaning of genealogies among the ancient Jews, in which it was important to list only male offspring, full-fledged in the political and economic sense. Note Art. 10 That Saul, one of the sons of Simeon, was the son of a Canaanite woman, gave reason to Judah. tradition to the already mentioned identification of Dinah with this Canaanite woman. Perhaps this remark can be more easily explained by the unusual nature of the marriages of the sons of Jacob with Canaanite women. Gen.46:27. The sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, are two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob who came [with Jacob] to Egypt were seventy [five]. Regarding the similarity of names, which is observed in the genealogy of the times of Jacob - Joseph (Gen. 46:8-25) and Moses (Num. 26:5-51) and the inclusion in the list of Genesis of persons born in Egypt, M. Philaret thoroughly notes: “The passage of the sons of Israel into Egypt is opposed, on the one hand, by their constant stay in the land of Canaan, and on the other hand by their constant their stay in Egypt. Therefore, the first limit of the transition is the coming of Joseph, the last is the death of Jacob, for when Moses notices that after the death of Jacob Joseph himself and his father’s entire household remained in Egypt (Gen. 50:22), then this is preferable to the fact that the Jews hitherto considered themselves to be short-term visitors only to Egypt, and were thinking about a quick return resettlement. Therefore, the transition to Egypt is understandable; the list of those who passed into it represents the state of Jacob’s tribe after his death, from this it becomes clear how those born in Egypt entered it” (Zap., part II, 246). Joseph meets his father and brothers and instructs them regarding their upcoming audience with Pharaoh Gen.46:28–30. He sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph so that he would show the way to Goshen. And they came to the land of Goshen. Joseph harnessed his chariot and rode out to meet his father Israel in Goshen, and when he saw him, he fell on his neck and wept for a long time on his neck. And Israel said to Joseph, Now that I have seen your face, I will die, for you are still alive. The purpose of the embassy of Judah to Joseph on the part of Jacob was the desire to induce Joseph to leave as soon as possible to meet his father, which Joseph did not hesitate to do. The Hebrew text (lehorot in the sense of leheraot) and the Russian translation: “so that he will show the way to Goshen” - (in the sense of being closer to the Slavic translation) corrected according to the Samaritan and Greek texts by Prof. F.G. Eleonsky, “Histor. isr. adv. in Egypt", attached. I, p. 33–43. Here one can see the preference for reading LXX in Art. 28–29 and, in particular, the actual existence is proven and the location of Heroopolis is determined” (LXX: Ηρώων πόλις; slav.: “Iroysk grad”, art. 28; “Iroon grad”, art. 29). The tender scene of the meeting between Jacob and Joseph defies description. From the fact that only Joseph is said to have wept, the Midrash concludes that Jacob did not weep, but was overcome with prayerful delight. In any case, entering this last period of his life, Jacob was filled with deep thoughts about the ways of providence in his changing fate (cf. Gen. 48:15–16). Now more and more his spirit renounces the world of earthly life and ascends to that state of spiritual contemplation, from the height of which he uttered his inspired prophecy about the fate of his offspring (Gen. 49:1–28). Gen.46:31–34. And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's house, I will go and tell Pharaoh and say to him, My brothers and my father's house, which were in the land of Canaan, have come to me; these people are shepherds of sheep, for they are cattle breeders; they brought their flocks and herds, and all that they had. If Pharaoh calls you and says: What is your occupation? Then you will say: we, your servants, have been herdsmen from our youth until now, both we and our fathers, so that you may be settled in the land of Goshen. For every shepherd of sheep is an abomination to the Egyptians. Preparing his brothers for their upcoming audience with Pharaoh, Joseph persistently advises them to declare to Pharaoh that they are natural nomads, as if warning them against the temptation to become carried away by the benefits of Egyptian cultural life and abandon the shepherd occupations of their fathers; the indication of the occupation of the fathers before the Egyptian pharaoh had particular force, since, given the caste nature of ancient Egyptian life, every occupation here was tribal, passed from father to son. There was also a class of shepherds here, as is known from Herodotus, Strabo and Diodorus (the pharaoh had herds), nevertheless, the Egyptians treated the shepherd tribes with contempt and hatred (shepherds constituted the lowest of the 7 castes of the population, and swineherds were especially despised, Herod. 2, 47, 164), for: • they themselves considered agriculture to be their main occupation, which constituted the highest level of culture in comparison with cattle breeding; • the dominion of the Hykses, a shepherd tribe, hated by the Egyptians, encouraged hatred in general towards the shepherd tribes of Asia and • among the nomads of Asia, those animals that the Egyptians idolized were sacrificed. Joseph in every possible way convinces the brothers not to hide their occupation, so that the land of Goshen (Wadi Tumilat), convenient for pastures, is allotted for them to settle, and they are not resettled in cities. You might be interested in: