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Genesis 46

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1 Israel traveled with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac.

2 God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, "Jacob, Jacob!" He said, "Here I am."

3 He said, "I am God, the God of your father. Don't be afraid to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation.

4 I will go down with you into Egypt. I will also surely bring you up again. Joseph will close your eyes."

5 Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

6 They took their livestock, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt--Jacob, and all his seed with him,

7 his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and he brought all his seed with him into Egypt.

8 These are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn.

9 The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

10 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.

11 The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

12 The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

13 The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Iob, and Shimron.

14 The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

15 These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty-three.

16 The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

17 The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and Serah their sister. The sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob, even sixteen souls.

19 The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife: Joseph and Benjamin.

20 To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.

21 The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

22 These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen.

23 The son of Dan: Hushim.

24 The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

25 These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob: all the souls were seven.

26 All the souls who came with Jacob into Egypt, who were his direct descendants, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were sixty-six.

27 The sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy.

28 He sent Judah before him to Joseph, to show the way before him to Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.

29 Joseph prepared his chariot, and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.

30 Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive."

31 Joseph said to his brothers, and to his father's house, "I will go up, and speak with Pharaoh, and will tell him, 'My brothers, and my father's house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

32 These men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.'

33 It will happen, when Pharaoh summons you, and will say, 'What is your occupation?'

34 that you shall say, 'Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers:' that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians."

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 4316

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4316. In the internal historical sense 'even to this day' means that their nature was perpetually so. This is clear from the meaning of 'even to this day', when used in the Word, as that which is perpetual, dealt with in 2838. The fact that the nature of those descendants was such from earliest times becomes clear from Jacob's sons themselves - from Reuben, in that he lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, Genesis 35:22; from Simeon and Levi, in that they killed Hamor and Shechem and all the men of their city [Genesis 34:25-26]; and from the remaining sons, in that these came on the slain and destroyed the city, Genesis 34:27-29. Because of all this Jacob, who by then was Israel, spoke of them in the following manner before he died: Of Reuben he said,

You shall not be a superior one, for you went up to your father's bed; then you made yourself unworthy. He went up to my couch. Genesis 49:3-4.

And of Simeon and Levi he said,

Into their secret place let my soul not come; with their congregation let not my glory be united; for in their anger they killed a man, and deliberately hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their fury, for it is severe. I will divide them within Jacob, and will scatter them within Israel. Genesis 49:5-7.

[2] What Judah was like becomes additionally clear from his marriage to a Canaanite, Genesis 38:1-2, which was nevertheless contrary to what had been commanded, as may be seen from Abraham's words addressed to the servant who was sent to betroth Rebekah to Isaac his son, Genesis 24:3, 6, and from many places in the Word. A third of that nation belonged to this lineage, that is to say, a third descended from his son Shelah who was born from a Canaanite mother, Genesis 38:11; 46:12. See Numbers 26:20; and 1 Chronicles 4:21-22. Further evidence of what these and the rest of Jacob's sons were like lies in the unspeakable crime which they committed against Joseph, Genesis 37:18-end. What their descendants in Egypt were like is evident from the details which are recorded about them when they were in the desert, where they were rebellious on so many occasions, and after that in the land of Canaan where they became idolaters on so many occasions; and lastly what they were like in the Lord's time is shown just above, in 4314. And what they are like today is well known - they are opposed to the Lord, opposed to the things that constitute the Church, and opposed to charity towards the neighbour, being opposed even to one another. These considerations show that the nature of that nation has been such perpetually. Let no one therefore assume any longer that any Church has existed among them, only that which is a representative of the Church. Still less should anyone assume that they have been chosen in preference to others.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.