1So Jacob left Canaan, taking with him all his family and possessions. When they arrived at Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to God, the one whom his father Isaac worshiped.
2That night, God called to Jacob in a vision, saying, “Jacob! Jacob!” He replied, “I am here!”
3God said, “I am God, the one your father worshiped. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, because I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation there.
4I will go down to Egypt with you, and later I will bring your descendants back to Canaan again. And Joseph will be with you [MTY] when you die.” [IDM]
5Jacob left Beersheba, and his sons took their father, their wives, and their children, in the carts that the king had sent for them to travel in.
6So Jacob and all his family went to Egypt. They took with them the livestock and all the other possessions that they had acquired in Canaan.
7Jacob went to Egypt with all his sons and his daughters and grandsons and granddaughters—his whole family.
8Altogether there were 66 people who were Jacob’s descendants who went to Egypt with him. That number does not include his sons’ wives.
9Including Jacob and Joseph and Joseph’s two sons who were born in Egypt, there were 70 members of Jacob’s family when they were all there in Egypt.
10Jacob sent Judah to go ahead of the rest of them to talk with Joseph and ask for directions on how to travel to Goshen. Then Judah returned to the rest of his family and they all traveled to the Goshen region. When they arrived there,
11Joseph got his chariot ready and went to Goshen to meet his father. When Joseph arrived, he threw his arms around his father’s neck and cried a long time.
12Jacob said to Joseph, “I have seen you and I know that you are still alive! So now I am ready to die.”
13Then Joseph said to his older brothers and younger brother and to the rest of his father’s family, “I will go to the king and say to him, ‘My older brothers and younger brother and my father and the rest of his family, who were living in Canaan land, have all come to me.
14The men are all shepherds. They take care of their livestock, and they have brought with them their sheep and goats and cattle, and everything else that they own.’
15When the king summons you and asks, ‘What work do you do?’
16answer him by saying, ‘From the time when we were young, we have taken care of livestock, just as our ancestors did.’ If you tell him that, he will let you live in the Goshen region.” Joseph told them to say that because the people of Egypt despised all shepherds.