Genesis 46:27

Hebrew Bible

25 These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, seven in all. 26 All the direct descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt with him were sixty-six in number. (This number does not include the wives of Jacob’s sons.) 27 Counting the two sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt, all the people of the household of Jacob who were in Egypt numbered seventy. 28 Jacob sent Judah before him to Joseph to accompany him to Goshen. So they came to the land of Goshen. 29 Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to meet his father Israel in Goshen. When he met him, he hugged his neck and wept on his neck for quite some time.

LXX Genesis 46:27

Septuagint

25 These are the sons of Balla, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, who bore these to Iakob—all seven persons. 26 And all the persons who came with Iakob into Egypt, who came out from his thighs, not including the wives of Iakob’s sons, all the persons were sixty-six. 27 And the sons of Ioseph who were born to him in the land of Egypt were nine persons. All the persons of Iakob’s house who came into Egypt were seventy-five. 28 And he sent Ioudas ahead of him to Ioseph in order to meet him over against Heroonpolis in the land of Ramesses. 29 And when Ioseph had hitched up his chariots, he went up to meet his fa- ther Israel over against Heroonpolis. And when he appeared to him, he fell upon his neck and wept with much weeping.

 Notes and References

"... After Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, and Jacob’s family heads to Egypt, the text lists Jacob’s family members, ending with a total ... In this case, two Qumran fragments agree with the numbers of the LXX. 4QExodb (4Q13, fragment 2) reads “seventy-five souls.” ... The variation in numbers in the two traditions is connected with the different conception of the listing of Joseph’s descendants in the Genesis chapter. The Masoretic text has only the two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, while the LXX includes five additional descendants in the lines of these two sons, which matches information in the data of the much more extensive list of Joseph’s descendants in Numbers 26:29–37. The inclusion of these five descendants is not the work of a translator; LXX is undoubtedly based on a Hebrew source. Itamar Kislev of Haifa University has argued convincingly that the list of the LXX was original, and that the Masoretic text was shortened. He suggests that the Masoretic scribe wished to harmonize the presentation in Genesis and Exodus with Deuteronomy 10:22, which refers to seventy descendants accompanying Jacob to Egypt: “Seventy persons in all, your ancestors went down to Egypt.” ..."

Tov, Emanuel How Many Descendants of Jacob Came to Egypt? Genesis 46:27/Exodus 1:5 (pp. 1-3) Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2018

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