World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 46
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Israel traveled with all that he had, and came to , and offered to the of his , . spoke to Israel in the of the night, and said, ", !" He said, "Here I am." He said, "I am , the of your . Don't be afraid to go down into , for there I will make of you a great nation. I will go down with you into . I will also surely bring you up again. hand will close your eyes." rose up from , and the carried , their , their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which had sent to carry him. They took their livestock, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of , and came into —, and all his with him, 7his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and he brought all his with him into . These are the names of the , who came into , and his sons: , . 9The sons of : , , , and . The sons of : Jemuel, , Ohad, , , and the son of a woman. The : , , and . The sons of Judah: , , , , and ; but and in the land of . The sons of were and . The sons of : Tola, , Iob, and . The sons of : Sered, , and Jahleel. These are the sons of , whom she bore to in , with his daughter . All the of his sons and his daughters were thirty-three. The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. The sons of Asher: , Ishvah, , , and their sister. The sons of : and . These are the sons of , whom gave to , his daughter, and these she bore to , even sixteen . The sons of , wife: and . To in the land of were born and , whom , the daughter of , , bore to him. The sons of : , , , , , Ehi, , Muppim, , and Ard. 22These are the sons of , who were born to : all the were fourteen. The son of Dan: . The sons of : , , , and . These are the sons of , whom gave to , his daughter, and these she bore to : all the were seven. All the who came with into , who were his direct , in addition to sons' wives, all the were sixty-six. The , who were born to him in , were two . All the of the house of , who came into , were seventy. sent Judah before him to , to show before him to , and they came into the land of . prepared his chariot, and went up to meet Israel, his , in . He presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. Israel said to , "Now let me , since I have seen your , that you are still alive." said to his brothers, and to his house, "I will go up, and speak with , and will tell him, 'My brothers, and house, who were in the land of , have come to me. These men are , for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.' It will happen, when summons you, and will say, 'What is your occupation?' 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 in the land of ; for every is an to the ."
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The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis