Exodus 1:1-5

The Growth of the People of Israel (Exodus 1:1).

Note the balanced pattern of the section.

a The names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt (Exodus 1:1 a)

b Every man and his household came with Jacob (Exodus 1:1 b).

c Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah (Exodus 1:2).

d Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin (Exodus 1:3).

c Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher (Exodus 1:4).

b All the souls that were come out of the loins of Jacob (Exodus 1:5 a).

a For Joseph was in Egypt already (Exodus 1:5 b).

Note how in ‘a' the sons of Israel in Canaan are paralleled with the son of Israel in Egypt. In ‘b' the households make up the household of Jacob, while in the parallel the major heads of the households all come from the loins of Jacob

Exodus 1:1

‘Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt, every man and his household came with Jacob.'

This verse continues on the narrative of Genesis. It takes up where Genesis left off, summarising what has gone before in a few verses. Those who entered Egypt with Jacob were his eleven sons (excluding Joseph who was already in Egypt) and their ‘households'. The households would include servants and retainers. Thus they may well have numbered in all a few thousand. We can compare how Abraham's household contained 318 fighting men (Genesis 14:14). All would be seen as ‘children of Israel'.

Jacob had come back from Paddan Aram with considerable resources and probably many servants, and these had been joined with the family tribe of Abraham and Isaac. Thus they were at some stage fairly numerous. On the other hand famine may have reduced their numbers somewhat. But they would nevertheless be a strong group, not just a few semi-nomads.

Exodus 1:2

‘Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already.'

The names of Jacob/Israel's sons are now listed. This statement assumes the existence of material such as we find in Genesis 46:1 where the ‘seventy' is explained. We note, however, that here the sons are placed in a different order with the sons of the full wives placed before the sons of the slave wives.

“All that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls.” The number seventy indicates divine completeness, being an intensification of seven (see also Deuteronomy 10:22). But here Jacob, in contrast with Genesis 46, is seemingly not included in the seventy, unless he can be seen as being in his own loins, demonstrating again that ‘the seventy' is an artificially contrived figure intended to denote this divine completeness, as we saw on Genesis 46. It is conveying an idea, and is not intended to be seen as a mathematical calculation. The fact is that neither reader not writer were interested in how many there were. They are interested in the number in view of what it conveyed, the divine completeness of the group. It is saying that Jacob came into Egypt in divine completeness. (It is not to be seen as ‘incorrect'. It is in fact more correct to the ancient innumerate mind than a mathematical figure would be. It certified the divine perfection of the group entering Egypt).

We note also that women, children and servants were mainly ignored. Everything centred on Jacob and his male seed for they were the heads of their households. This was the foundation on which Israel was to be built, but all, males, women, children and servants would be a part of ‘the children of Israel, as they had been of their ‘father' Abraham.