Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Genesis 46:26

All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls [were] threescore and six;

26. souls that came with Jacob ] The rendering of the margin, souls belonging to Jacob that came, is preferable. “With Jacob” (as LXX and Lat.) follows Gen 46:7, but does not translate the Heb.

threescore and six ] These and the words in the following verse before “threescore and ten” have the appearance of a gloss. In the preceding list the sons and daughters of Leah were thirty-three ( Gen 46:15), the sons of Zilpah sixteen ( Gen 46:18), the sons of Rachel fourteen ( Gen 46:22), and the sons of Bilhah seven ( Gen 46:25); the total of these is seventy. The number, therefore, of sixty-six must be regarded as the result of deducting four persons, presumably Er and Onan, and the “two souls born to Joseph in Egypt” ( Gen 46:20).

Note that “sixty-six” is just double that of Leah’s children, thirty-three. Another computation, excluding Er and Onan, and including Dinah, would make Leah’s children “thirty-two,” just double Zilpah’s.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Loins, Heb. thigh, which is here put for the secret parts between the thighs, which are called sometimes the feet, as Gen 49:10; Deu 28:57; Eze 16:25, for the like reason, because they are between the feet. From this eastern manner of speech came that passage in the Greek fables, concerning Bacchus being born out of Jupiters thigh.

Threescore and six; so many they are, excluding Jacob, as the common parent, and Joseph and his two sons, as being in Egypt before Jacobs coming thither; which four being included they make up seventy, as it is Gen 46:27.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt,…. These are in parcels before mentioned, but here they are brought to a sum total; and by this phrase are excluded those that died before, as Er and Onan, and those that were in Egypt before, as Joseph and his two sons; and I should think also all that were born in Egypt afterwards, even while Jacob was living: those reckoned are only such,

which came out of his loins: such as were his seed and offspring. This is observed for the sake of what follows, and to exclude them:

besides Jacob’s sons’ wives; these do not come into the account, because they did not spring from him:

all the souls [were] threescore and six; thirty two of Leah’s, leaving out Er and Onan, sixteen of Zilpah’s, fourteen of Rachel’s, and seven of Bilhah’s, make sixty nine; take out of them Joseph and his two sons, who were in Egypt before, and you have the exact number of sixty six.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Verses 26, 27:

There appears to be a contradiction between Moses’ account (verse 27) and that of Stephen (Ac 7:14). Verse 27 places the number of those accompanying Jacob to Egypt as 70; Stephen gives the number as 75. From Stephen’s account appears that the number of Joseph’s family was nine, instead of four. Three different sets of numbers appear: 66, 70, and 75. There is no contradiction in these numbers, if properly interpreted. 1) The first number, 66, does not include Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh. 2) The second, number, 70 includes these four 3) The third number, which Stephen used, is 75, and it includes the five grandsons of Joseph This demonstrates how the seeming contradictions of Scripture fade away when the facts are properly, understood, in context.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

(26) All the souls were threescore and six.This total is obtained by omitting Jacob, Joseph, and Josephs two sons. If we include these, the whole number becomes threescore and ten, as in Gen. 46:27. In the LXX. the names of five grandsons are added to Gen. 46:20, and thus the total is made seventy-five, as quoted by St. Stephen in Act. 7:14.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Gen 46:26 All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls [were] threescore and six;

Ver. 26. Which came out of his loins. ] Heb., e femore eius. A modest description of generation, by the instrumental and material cause thereof. And because it is said, that so many souls came out of Jacob’s body, Augustine a moves the question here, whether souls also are not begotten, as well as bodies? And when the learned father demurred, and would not presently determine the point, a rash young man, one Vincentius Victor, as Chemnitius relates it, boldly censured the father’s unresolvedness, and vaunted that he would undertake to prove by demonstration that souls are created, de novo, by God; for which peremptory rashness the father returned the young man a sober reprehension. But souls are doubtless here put for persons, which the Latins call capita.

a Annon igitur animae propagentur ex traduce; argumenta post triduum demum solvo. – Melancthon.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)