Jacob and his family go to Egypt

1Joseph's father's name was Jacob, but God changed his name to Israel. Sometimes he was named Jacob and sometimes he was named Israel. And so, Israel and all the other families took everything they owned and started to go south to Egypt. When they got to Beersheba, Jacob burnt an animal to show respect to God, the God of his father Isaac.

2That night, God spoke to Israel and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And Jacob answered, “Here I am. I am listening.”

3God said, “I am the God of your father Isaac. Do not be frightened to go down to Egypt. Your sons are going to have a lot of children and grandchildren, and I am going to make them into a great nation down there.

4I will go down to Egypt with you, and at the right time, I will bring your family out of that country again. And I promise you, that your son Joseph will be with you when you die.”

5Then Jacob and all his family left Beersheba. Jacob's sons put their wives, children and their father into the wagons that the king of Egypt gave them.

6When they left Canaan they took all their animals and everything they owned with them. And so that is how Jacob took his family to Egypt. He took his sons, grandsons, daughters and granddaughters. Yes, all his family went to Egypt.

Jacob's family

8This is a list of the names of Israel's sons and the families that went to Egypt. And Israel's other name was Jacob. Reuben was Jacob's first son.

9Reuben's sons were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi.

10Simeon's sons were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul, and Shaul's mother was a Canaanite woman.

11Levi's sons were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

12Judah's sons were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah, but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. Perez's sons were Hezron and Hamul.

13Iss-a-car's sons were Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.

14Zeb-you-lun's sons were Sered, Elon, and Jah-leel.

15These sons were born while Jacob worked for Leah's father Laban in Harran. Jacob and Leah had a daughter too. Her name was Dinah. There were 33 people in this part of Jacob's family.

16This is a list of the sons Jacob had with Zilpah. She was the working girl that Laban gave to Leah, and later on, Leah gave Zilpah to Jacob to be another wife. Zilpah had 2 sons with Jacob. Their names were Gad and Asher. Gad's sons were Zefon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. Asher's sons were Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah, and their sister was Serah. Beriah's sons were Heber and Mal-kiel. There were 16 people in this part of the family.

19Jacob and Rachel had 2 sons, Joseph and Benjamin.

20While Joseph was in Egypt, he and his wife, As-en-ath had 2 sons, Manasseh and Efraim. As-en-ath's father was the Egyptian ceremony man named Potifera. He was an Egyptian ceremony man at a place called On.

21Benjamin's sons were Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

22There were 14 people in this part of Jacob's family.

23These are the sons that Jacob had with Bilhah. She was the working girl that Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, and later on Rachel gave Bilhah to be another wife for Jacob. Bilhah had 2 sons with Jacob. Their names were Dan and Naftali. Dan had a son named Hushi. And Naftali had 4 sons, named Jar-ziel, Guni, Jezer and Shillem. There were 7 people in this part of Jacob's family.

26And so, there were 66 people in Jacob's family when he travelled to Egypt. But the wives of Jacob's sons were not counted in that number. Joseph and his wife, As-en-ath had 2 sons when Joseph lived in Egypt. There were 70 people living with Jacob when he was in Egypt.

Jacob and the families in Egypt

28Before Jacob and the family got to Goshen, he sent his son Judah to ask Joseph how to get there. When Jacob and all the families arrived in Goshen,

29Joseph told his workers to get his special wagon ready so that he could go and meet his father Jacob. As soon as Joseph saw his father, he put his arms around him and Joseph cried for a long time.

30Then Israel said to Joseph, “Now that I have seen that you are alive, I can die a happy man.”

31Joseph said to all of his brothers and their families, “I am going to tell the king that you are here. I will say, ‘My brothers and all my father's family have left Canaan and have come to stay with me.

32They look after farm animals, and they have led all their animals here to Egypt. They have taken everything they own from Canaan and carried it here.’

33When the king wants you to go and talk to him, he will ask you, ‘What work do you do?’

34When you answer him, you must show him respect and say, ‘We have always looked after farm animals and our grandfathers from a long time ago did the same.’ If you say that, the king will let you live here in Goshen, away from where the Egyptian people live. You see they do not like to live near people that look after sheep.”