Bible Strands
Genesis 46:6
They also took the livestock and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Jacob and his household departing Beersheba for Egypt after Pharaoh sends wagons to transport them. This moment captures the final departure of the family from Canaan with their children, wives, and property.
The words — וַיִּקְחוּ (va-yi-khu) means "and they took," and רָכְשׁוּ (ra-kh-shu) translates to "they had accumulated." These verbs specify the active gathering of livestock and wealth before the migration.
The thread — The descent to Egypt is echoed in Joshua 24:4, where Jacob and his sons are noted as going down to Egypt, and Psalms 105:23, which records Israel entering Egypt and Jacob dwelling in the land of Ham.
Why it lands — The text states that the family relocated with their established Canaanite wealth, confirming the historical reality of the migration. It asks the reader to recognize the documented transition from Canaan to Egypt as a concrete event rather than a theological abstraction.
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
And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him:
Cross-references
- Joshua 24:4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau Mount Seir to possess, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
- Psalms 105:23 Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham.
- Isaiah 52:4 For this is what the Lord GOD says: “At first My people went down to Egypt to live, then Assyria oppressed them without cause.
- Acts 7:15 So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died.
- Deuteronomy 26:5 and you are to declare before the LORD your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and numerous.
- Genesis 15:13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
- Numbers 20:15 how our fathers went down to Egypt, where we lived many years. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers,
- Deuteronomy 10:22 Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
- 1 Samuel 12:8 When Jacob went to Egypt, your fathers cried out to the LORD, and He sent them Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and settled them in this place.