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Jubilees

About this book

Jacob and His Family Travel to Egypt

Chapter 44

1 And Israel took his journey from his house in Hebron on the new moon of the third month, and he went on the way of the Well of the Oath, and he offered a sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac on the seventh of this month. 2 And Jacob remembered the dream that he had seen at Bethel, and he feared to go down into Egypt.⁠ 3 And while he was thinking of sending word to Joseph to come to him, and that he would not go down, he remained there seven days, in case he might see a vision as to whether he should remain or go down. 4 And he celebrated the harvest festival of the first-fruits with old grain, for in all the land of Canaan there was not a handful of seed [in the land], for the famine was over all the wild animals and cattle and birds, and also over man. 5 And on the sixteenth the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, 'Jacob, Jacob'; and he said, 'Here I am.' And He said to him: 'I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham and Isaac; do not fear to go down into Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. 6 I will go down with you, and I will bring you up (again), and in this land you shall be buried, and Joseph shall put his hands upon your eyes. 7 Do not fear; go down into Egypt.' And his sons rose up, and his grandsons, and they placed their father and their possessions upon wagons. 8 And Israel rose up from the Well of the Oath on the sixteenth of this third month, and he went to the land of Egypt. 9 And Israel sent Judah ahead of him to his son Joseph to examine the Land of Goshen, for Joseph had told his brothers that they should come and live there so that they might be near him. 10 And this was the finest (land) in the land of Egypt, and near to him, for all (of them) and also for the cattle.

The Family Who Went to Egypt

11 And these are the names of the sons of Jacob who went into Egypt with Jacob their father. 12 Reuben, the Firstborn of Israel; and these are the names of his sons: Enoch, and Pallu, and Hezron and Carmi — five. 13 Simeon and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul, the son of the Zephathite woman — seven. 14 Levi and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari — four. 15 Judah and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Shelah, and Perez, and Zerah — four. 16 Issachar and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Tola, and Puah, and Jashub, and Shimron — five. 17 Zebulun and his sons; and these are the names of his sons: Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel — four. 18 And these are the sons of Jacob and their sons whom Leah bore to Jacob in Mesopotamia, six, and their one sister, Dinah and all the people of the sons of Leah, and their sons, who went with Jacob their father into Egypt, were twenty-nine, and Jacob their father being with them, they were thirty. 19 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's female servant, the wife of Jacob, who bore to Jacob Gad and Asher. 20 And these are the names of their sons who went with him into Egypt. The sons of Gad: Ziphion, and Haggi, and Shuni, and Ezbon, and Eri, and Areli, and Arodi — eight. 21 And the sons of Asher: Imnah, and Ishvah, and Ishvi, and Beriah, and Serah, their one sister — six. 22 All the people were fourteen, and all those of Leah were forty-four. 23 And the sons of Rachel, the wife of Jacob: Joseph and Benjamin. 24 And there were born to Joseph in Egypt before his father came into Egypt, those whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphar, priest of Heliopolis bore to him, Manasseh, and Ephraim — three. 25 And the sons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, and Ehi, and Rosh, and Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard — eleven. 26 And all the people of Rachel were fourteen. 27 And the sons of Bilhah, the female servant of Rachel, the wife of Jacob, whom she bore to Jacob, were Dan and Naphtali. 28 And these are the names of their sons who went with them into Egypt. And the sons of Dan were Hushim, and Samon, and Asudi, and 'Ijaka, and Salomon — six. 29 And they died the year in which they entered into Egypt, and there was left to Dan Hushim alone. 30 And these are the names of the sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, and Guni and Jezer, and Shallum, and 'Iv. 31 And 'Iv, who was born after the years of famine, died in Egypt. 32 And all the people of Rachel were twenty-six. 33 And all the people of Jacob which went into Egypt were seventy people.⁠ These are his children and his children's children, in all seventy, but five died in Egypt before Joseph, and had no children. 34 And in the land of Canaan two sons of Judah died, Er and Onan, and they had no children, and the children of Israel buried those who perished, and they were counted among the seventy nations.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 32:8 and Jubilees 44:34

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

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Summary

Deuteronomy 32 ties the seventy nations to the divine council and the people of Israel. Jubilees makes the parallel explicit, counting seventy descendants of Jacob and setting them among those seventy nations.

Passages

Deuteronomy 32:8

Hebrew Bible
7 Remember the ancient days; bear in mind the years of past generations. Ask your father and he will inform you, your elders, and they will tell you. 8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided up humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the heavenly assembly. 9 For the Lord’s allotment is his people, Jacob is his special possession.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Jubilees 44:34

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
33 And all the people of Jacob which went into Egypt were seventy people. These are his children and his children's children, in all seventy, but five died in Egypt before Joseph, and had no children. 34 And in the land of Canaan two sons of Judah died, Er and Onan, and they had no children, and the children of Israel buried those who perished, and they were counted among the seventy nations.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

References

... In effect, their deaths removed them from the family line that led to Israel so that they were considered like the nations—another group totaling seventy in number: as there were seventy members of Jacob’s family, so there were seventy nations of the world. ...
James C. VanderKam, Jubilees 2: A Commentary on the Book of Jubilees Chapters 22-50 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2018), 1101–1102.
... This reading preserved the numerical aspect of the verse, for according to Deuteronomy 10:22 there were seventy Israelites at a key point in Israel’s history, equal to the number of divine beings and nations. Hence the text still meant that God divided the human race into seventy nations. ...
Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996), 515.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Deuteronomy 32:8 and Jubilees 44:34

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