Bible Strands
Genesis 46:15
These are the sons of Leah born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, in addition to his daughter Dinah. The total number of sons and daughters was thirty-three.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Genesis 46:15 functions as a concluding entry in a structured genealogy Jacob compiles before relocating to Egypt. It follows the list of Zebulun’s sons in Genesis 46:14 and immediately precedes the enumeration of Gad’s sons in Genesis 46:16.
The words — אֵ֣לֶּֽה ('E.leh) means "these," and בְּנֵ֣י (be.Nei) means "sons of." The verse employs these terms to directly introduce the specific count of Leah’s offspring born to Jacob in Paddan-aram.
The thread — The text explicitly locates the birth of these children in Paddan-aram, a region previously named in Genesis 25:20 as the homeland of Rebekah. The genealogical record continues its systematic accounting in Genesis 46:16 with the sons of Gad.
Why it lands — The verse requires a reader to note the exact numerical total and geographic origin of Jacob’s household before migration. It establishes ancestral identity through precise record-keeping rather than narrative expansion.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
These be the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob in Padan–aram, with his daughter Dinah: all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three.
Cross-references
- Genesis 29:32 And Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Reuben, for she said, “The LORD has seen my affliction. Surely my husband will love me now.”
- Genesis 30:17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore a fifth son to Jacob.
- Genesis 25:20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.
- Genesis 34:1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.
- Genesis 35:23 The sons of Leah were Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
- Genesis 49:3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.
- Exodus 1:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
- Numbers 1:1 On the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the Wilderness of Sinai. He said:
- Numbers 26:1 After the plague had ended, the LORD said to Moses and Eleazar son of Aaron the priest,
- 1 Chronicles 2:1 These were the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun,