remove the misgiving natural to an old man called to leave his hearth and his altar. The thought is confined to E (ct. 4528 J).—-for . . . nation] The words, if genuine, should follow the immediate grounds of comfort in v.4. They are probably to be regarded (with KS. Gu. al.) as an expansion of the same character as 1314ff. 2215ff. 2814 etc.—4. I will go down with thee] So in 3113 the 'Ēl of Bethel is with Jacob in Mesopotamia.—bring thee up] The reference must be to the Exodus (Ex. 38 68 etc.), not to Jacob's burial in Canaan (4729f. 505ff.).—lay his hand upon thine eyes] i.e., close them after death; for classical parallels, cf. Hom. Il. xi. 453, Od. xi. 426, xxiv. 296; Eurip. Phœn. 1451 f., Hec. 430; Virg. Aen. ix. 487, etc. (Kn-Di.).—6, 7. P's summary of the migration (v.i.).
8-27. A list of Jacob's immediate descendants.—The
passage professes to give the names of those who went down
with Jacob to Egypt, but is in reality a list of the leading
clans of the Israelite tribes, closely corresponding to Nu. 265ff..
These traditionally numbered seventy (cf. the 70 elders,
Ex. 241. 9, Nu. 1116). Closely connected with this was another
tradition, that the number of the Israelites at the
settlement in Egypt was 70 (Dt. 1022). In the more careful
statement of Ex. 15 (P), this means all the descendants of
Jacob at the time: i.e., it includes Joseph (and presumably
his sons, though they were in Egypt already) and, of course,
excludes Jacob himself. In the mind of the writer of the
present passage these two traditional schemes appear to
have got mixed up and confused. As it stands, it is neither an
accurate enumeration of Jacob's descendants (for the number
70 includes Jacob and excludes Er and Onan), nor a list of
those who accompanied him to Egypt (for it embraces Joseph
and his sons: see on 26f.). When cleared of certain obvious
accretions ((
Hebrew characters) 8; 12bα; 15aγ; (Hebrew characters) 15b; (Hebrew characters)26 and the
whole of 27 except the last word (Hebrew characters)), we find as its nucleus
verbs, peculiar to E: see G-K. § 69 m2; Ho. Hex. 190.—4. (Hebrew characters)] See on
2733 3115. G (Greek characters).—5. (Hebrew characters) 2] G om.—(Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters).—6, 7. Cf. 125
3118 366 (P). Further marks of P: (Hebrew characters), (Hebrew characters), (Hebrew characters) (177. 9f. 3512), and the
redundant phraseology.
