1 So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to aBeersheba, and offered sacrifices bto the God of his father Isaac.
2 Then God spoke to Israel ain the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.”
3 So He said, “I am God, athe God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will bmake of you a great nation there.
4aI will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bbring you up again; and cJoseph will put his hand on your eyes.”
5 Then aJacob arose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little ones, and their wives, in the1 carts bwhich Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
6 So they took their livestock and their goods, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to Egypt, aJacob and all his descendants with him.
7 His sons and his sons’ sons, his daughters and his sons’ daughters, and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt.
8 Now athese were the names of the children of Israel, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt: bReuben was Jacob’s firstborn.
9 The asons of Reuben were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
10aThe sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman.
11 The sons of aLevi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
12 The sons of aJudah werebEr, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan). cThe sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
13 The sons of Issachar were Tola, Puvah, Job, and Shimron.
14 The asons of Zebulun were Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.
15 These were the asons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Padan Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the persons, his sons and his daughters, were thirty-three.
16 The sons of Gad were1 Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.
17aThe sons of Asher were Jimnah, Ishuah, Isui, Beriah, and Serah, their sister. And the sons of Beriah were Heber and Malchiel.
18aThese were the sons of Zilpah, bwhom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and these she bore to Jacob: sixteen persons.
19 The asons of Rachel, bJacob’s wife, were Joseph and Benjamin.
20aAnd to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him.
21aThe sons of Benjamin were Belah, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, bEhi, Rosh, cMuppim, Huppim, and Ard.
22 These were the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: fourteen persons in all.
Israel's family chose a self-imposed exile from Canaan to Egypt, a sojourn God wanted as part of His plan, though they did not realize it would lead to bitter bondage. Over generations they became so enmeshed in Egyptian culture that they took their place of exile as home, forgetting Canaan. Jacob likely had second thoughts about going, knowing what kind of land Egypt was and how God had stopped Isaac from going there, redirecting him instead to Beersheba, where He appeared to reassure him. Fearful of what lay ahead, Jacob paused at Beersheba, expecting contact with God there. God appeared in a vision, calling, "Jacob! Jacob!" This revelation was all he needed; afterward he went on confidently, never fearful again.
Genesis 46:1-7
By their own choice, the family of Israel went into a self-imposed exile, from Canaan to Egypt. We see in verse 3 that God Himself wanted this to occur. He had plans for Israel, and the Israelites had to go through this period of Egypt as part of that plan. They did not realize at the time that this voluntary sojourn in Egypt would lead to their forced slavery. Several generations would pass until the time they would be put under bitter bondage, when the Pharaoh would go so far as to call for all the sons of Israel to be killed after their birth.
It was only by God's mighty power in the Exodus that they were ever able to leave Egypt; they could not have done it on their own. In their minds, they were half-Egyptian by that time, perhaps even more. They really did not want to leave. Sure, they loved the idea of freedom, but as soon as they left Egypt, they wanted to go back.
It is ironic how hard it was for them to return to Canaan because they had forgotten that their real homeland was in the land of Canaan, not in Egypt. They had taken the place of their exile as home. They had become so enmeshed in the culture of Egypt that they considered it their own. We see this when, only a month out, they forced Aaron to bring some of that culture back into their lives in the form of a Golden Calf.
Israel's family chose a self-imposed exile from Canaan to Egypt, a sojourn God wanted as part of His plan, though they did not realize it would lead to bitter bondage. Over generations they became so enmeshed in Egyptian culture that they took their place of exile as home, forgetting Canaan. Jacob likely had second thoughts about going, knowing what kind of land Egypt was and how God had stopped Isaac from going there, redirecting him instead to Beersheba, where He appeared to reassure him. Fearful of what lay ahead, Jacob paused at Beersheba, expecting contact with God there. God appeared in a vision, calling, "Jacob! Jacob!" This revelation was all he needed; afterward he went on confidently, never fearful again.