Beyond The Basics

Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation one chapter at a time.

You know, the book of Genesis has been all about a family that was chosen by God to lay claim to a land. And this land would be the home for their descendants where they could worship God and be a blessing to the nations. And this land is where eventually the seed of the woman, the Messiah, would arrive to crush the serpent. But now, in Genesis 46, God is going to exile this family from the land that He gave them. The reason is because this family would not survive if they were to stay in Canaan. God had to remove them from the land that He had given them in order for this family to survive. And we’ll get into why in this chapter, and if you’ve been listening to previous episodes, you maybe already know why.

But this is what we’re going to see happen in this chapter. We’re going to see a family lose or be temporarily removed from what God had given them because they were not being good stewards of that possession, of that inheritance because God had to work in this family. He had to refine this family, and he had a long-term plan for this family. Even though we saw Joseph’s brothers repent in the previous chapter, we see that there’s still consequences for their sin, even though a lot of their sin is now in the past, there’s still consequences. And that consequences are gonna have to be removed from the land for a while to make sure that they survive as a family, as a nation, the nation of Israel. So let’s get into the chapter.

So in verse one, Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba. Now, Beersheba would eventually be the southernmost city in Israel. In Judges chapter 20 and 1 Samuel 30, you see this phrase, “from Dan to Beersheba.” And Dan was in the far north, Beersheba was in the far south, and that phrase essentially meant all Israel. So that’s how we know that Beersheba was in the far south of Israel, in addition to where its physical location is, of course.

The city of Beersheba was actually very important to Jacob’s family. Abraham dug a well there, Isaac dug a well there, Hagar encountered God there. You can see some of the scripture references that I gave you on the study guide if you want to download the study guide from the website, you can have those. But those are various points in the book of Genesis where Jacob’s family has either sacrificed to God or encountered God or dug a well all at the city of Beersheba. So, it’s a very important place to their family.

It says that he came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. So, the reason Jacob did this is because he wasn’t sure if it was God’s will for him to go to Egypt. I mean, Jacob knew that God had given him the land of Canaan, and he knew that if he were to leave his possessions behind, he may not get the land back that God had given him. So, he wasn’t sure.

And so, many times in the past when Jacob wasn’t sure what to do, he would have tried to start manipulating events, taking control of things and trying to control the situation, do things his own way. This is what Jacob would have done in the past when he didn’t know what to do or if he was afraid. But this time, notice, when he doesn’t know what to do, he worships God and seeks the Lord and sacrifices before he goes too far, before he actually leaves the land. That’s what this sacrifice at the city of Beersheba is symbolizing. It’s symbolizing that he’s about to leave the land, but he wants to seek the Lord first before he does.

And in verse 2, God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.”

Now according to Rashi, who is a Jewish rabbi, Jewish teacher, commentator from a long, long time ago, middle ages, he says that this repetition of Jacob’s name is an expression of affection. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, but I thought that was interesting. But either way, the point is that God responded to Jacob’s request for help.

The other thing that’s interesting about this is that God called him Jacob instead of Israel, even though God had given Jacob a new name. He had given him the name of Israel, but the name of Israel indicated that he would prevail. Remember in Genesis 32:28, he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”

So that name Israel indicates that he would prevail. But this time Jacob is not going to prevail, because he’s going to go down to Egypt and eventually he and his descendants are going to be enslaved. They’re not going to prevail. So that’s why God called him Jacob instead of Israel. So God calls “Jacob, Jacob,” and he said, “Here I am,” which means Jacob is ready to hear and obey the Lord’s voice just like Abraham did when God told him to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22. It’s the exact same words.

God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Imagine if we had that type of response to the Lord when he calls us. “Daniel, Daniel!”

“Here I am.”

Whatever your name is, imagine if you were to call your name twice and you were to just say, “Here I am.” Most of us are not going to have that experience. In fact, I don’t know anybody who’s ever had that experience. But we all receive direction and guidance from the Lord if we’re truly submitted to Him. So, is our attitude to His direction, to His wisdom, is it one of, “What do you want Lord? What are you trying to do to me? Fine, I’ll do it. Okay, I guess if you insist.”

Or is our attitude, “Here I am, I’m right here. Whatever you have to say to me, I’ll hear it and obey. Whatever you tell me to do, I will do it immediately. Here I am.”

I think if we were to posture our hearts a little bit more like Jacob here, then we might find ourselves hearing from God a little bit clearer.

Verses 3 through 4, God is going to speak to Jacob in this dream. So let’s break down this dream just a little bit. In verse 3, God says, “I am God, the God of your father.”

Now, Isaac had been dead for probably about 10 years by this point, but the Lord says he is still Isaac’s God. He speaks as if Isaac is still alive. Now, this is similar to Luke 20:37-38, when Jesus says, “But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

This right here, God saying that I am the God of your father, I am the God of your father, is evidence of the resurrection, that Isaac would be resurrected one day. His body might have been dead and gone for 10 years, but one day he’d get his body back because, and it’d be a glorified body, because God is not the God of the dead, but He’s the God of the living.

Not to mention, it’s evidence that the land of Canaan belongs to Israel in the resurrection. There’s so many people that believe that Israel has been forsaken by God, or that Israel is no longer God’s chosen people, that they no longer will inherit the promises that God has made to them, but instead those promises are now transferred to the church. And guess what? Right here, the fact that God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. He is the God of Isaac, who will be resurrected one day and was promised a land to live in, the land of Canaan. That land belongs to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. That land belongs to Israel. God has promised it. God will give it to them forever and ever and ever for all eternity. That land belongs to them. And nobody can take it away from them, not even the church.

I love that there’s subtle hints of the resurrection even in this very first book of the Bible. We’ve seen them scattered here and there. I love that they’re there because the New Testament is very explicit, I think, about the doctrine of the resurrection. The Old Testament, it’s hidden. And so, you wonder as you read the New Testament, how did these people get this doctrine of the resurrection? Where did Jesus get it from? But He was reading the same scriptures that everybody else did, and the Pharisees understood that there was a resurrection, and the apostles understood. Where did they get this doctrine from? It comes from long, long, long hours and many, many years of meditating on the Old Testament and reading it through over and over and over again. But it’s there. The doctrine of the resurrection is there, if you look for it, and if you know what you’re looking for sometimes.

So continuing in verse 3, God says, “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt.”

Now, why would Jacob be afraid to go down to Egypt?

First of all, Abraham got into serious trouble when he went on to Egypt during a famine. In Genesis 12, there was a famine right after God had called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans. And immediately there was a famine in the land of Canaan. And so Abraham went to Egypt and got into trouble because he lied about his wife, said she was his sister, and Pharaoh took her to be his wife. And then there’s all sorts of trouble on Pharaoh and his house and it was a mess.

Isaac also was about to go to Egypt during a famine and God appeared to him and said, “Don’t go, stay right here. I’m going to show you where to go. You stay right where I tell you and do not go down to Egypt.”

Jacob might have thought, in fact, he probably did think that God wouldn’t have wanted him to go because he did not want his father and his grandfather to go during a famine. But as I mentioned, Jacob, instead of trying to take control of his own life and trying to manipulate things for his own gain and seeing that, well, God didn’t want my fathers to go, so I’m going to stay right here. Instead, it’s clear that he’s following God’s plan right now. And God’s plan is not that he didn’t want this family in Egypt, but he wanted them there at a certain time. And that certain time is right now.

So later on in the dream, he says, “I myself will go down with you to Egypt and I will also bring you up again.”

Now this didn’t mean that Jacob would actually return in his lifetime, but it meant that his descendants would return. In Genesis 15:13-16, the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterwards they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

God told Abram, and Jacob certainly knew about this, that God would be removing them from the land of Canaan for several hundred years and that he would bring them back eventually. And this is how Jacob knew that the dream was from the Lord, because it was consistent with what God had told his grandfather. His word is consistent with itself.

If you’ve ever had a dream and you weren’t sure if it was from the Lord, go read the Bible. Find out if it’s consistent with the Scriptures because that’s God’s Word. And if it’s not consistent with Scriptures, then it’s not from the Lord.

I just had a dream that I believe was from the Lord just last weekend. I wrote a blog post about it. If you want to go check it out, read about it. And it took me a few days to post about it. I had told a few people about it in the first day or two, but I didn’t want to post about it online until I knew that it was consistent with what it said in the Word. And so in the blog post, I even gave some scriptures there that I believe is communicating the same thing as the meaning of the dream.

If you’re somebody that has dreams and you’re saying, how am I supposed to know if my dream is from God or if it’s just me and the weird frozen pizza that I had earlier that night? Well, that’s one way to tell.

Now I had mentioned, of course, that Jacob would not return to the land in his lifetime, but God says here, “I will bring you up again.”

So why would God say that I will bring you up again if Jacob isn’t going to return in his lifetime? Again, it’s because Jacob is going to return in the resurrection. This land belongs to Jacob. It was promised to Jacob. God’s going to bring him up. He’s going to go down to Egypt, which is symbolic of going down to the grave. One day he’s going to be brought back up from the grave into the land of Canaan at the resurrection.

And the last thing that God says to Jacob is that, “Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”

Which means Jacob would see Joseph and be with him until he died. In those days when somebody died, the nearest of kin would close the eyes and kiss the one who died. So, this would have actually comforted Jacob. That would be basically God saying, “You’re going to die with your family, you’re going to die around those who are closest to you.”

That would have been a comfort for Jacob considering all the people that he cared about seemed like they kept leaving, kept dying. And of course, we’re told in Genesis chapter 50 that Joseph did kiss Jacob at his death in verses 1 through 2. This word from the Lord was fulfilled in Genesis 50.

So in verse 5, Jacob set out from Beersheba. Jacob had hesitated to leave, but now that he knew it was God’s will, he left immediately.

We might hesitate to act when we’re uncertain of God’s will, but as soon as we determine His will, we must move immediately, just like Jacob did. In addition, we need to be willing to let go of what God has promised us. We need to be okay with letting go of what God has given us, with leaving behind what the Lord has given us so graciously, because we have to remember that all things belong to God and we are merely stewards of the things that He gives us. He will give us things to steward for a time and then that thing may pass on to another person. And we need to be okay with that. We can’t hold on to things too tightly in this life. If we do, we may find ourselves going against God’s will, even when those things seem like they might be good.

So, Jacob provides a good example here of what we should do when we do determine without a doubt what the will of the Lord is.

Down in verse 6, they took their livestock and their goods, even though Pharaoh had told them not to bring anything in the previous chapter. He said, have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. But they didn’t want to abandon their flocks. They didn’t want to abandon what God had provided them in favor of what Pharaoh would provide for them. I just said we got to be willing to let go of what God has given us, but that doesn’t mean that we want to be irresponsible with everything that He has given us. Because if they had just abandoned their flocks, they would have left them to die. And that wouldn’t be responsible. It wouldn’t be showing gratitude for what the Lord had provided for them. So they took their flocks.

And in verse 7, his sons, referring to Jacob, Jacob’s sons and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters and all his sons’ daughters, all his offspring he brought with him to Egypt. That word offspring is literally, it means seed. So literally all his seed went with him. Everybody that would be born to the nation of Israel went with Jacob and his family. Similar to the way Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans with all his seed.

So the entire nation of Israel was called out of Ur of the Chaldeans. The entire nation of Israel was called out of Canaan into Egypt. That’s the concept here. It’s not just the people that we read about in the list of names that’s coming up in this chapter. It’s, this is something that the entire nation of Israel is experiencing by proxy. This is something that the entire nation through the ages was supposed to identify with. That’s why you see the Psalmists centuries later writing about the Exodus. You’ll see them writing about Jacob’s journey into Egypt and you’ll see them write about the Exodus out of Egypt. This was something that they identified with centuries and centuries later, even though they never experienced it.

The other important point here is that it says, all his offspring he brought with him into Egypt, so he didn’t leave anybody behind to protect his territory in Canaan. This was a massive step of faith, because it looked like he was giving up his inheritance that God had given him, but he had heard the word of the Lord, and he trusted the Lord. He’s obeying the word of the Lord, and he will receive it again one day.

So now on verse eight, we’re gonna get to a list of names. It says, now these are the names of the descendants of Israel. So, descendants of Israel who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons. So this is not going to be a comprehensive list of every person that went to Egypt, but only a list of Jacob’s direct descendants that would actually form the tribes of Israel. I’m gonna have a few insights throughout this list of names. Most of us would most likely just kind of skip through this. I know I would unless I was really studying it like I did for this episode, but there’s some interesting stuff in here.

Patreon listeners, I’m going to go through this for you a few points. I’m not going to go through every single name, but I’ll highlight a few things. And if you’re listening to the free show and you want to hear some of the points, the insights into this list of names, go subscribe. You can find the link on the website.

In verse 28, it says, he had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen. So Judah is going to lead Israel into Egypt, just like Moses would lead them out of Egypt. So it’s the opposite of the Exodus. He’s leading them into exile. We continue to see Judah take a greater prominence in this story and his messianic role here is even being highlighted and that’s going to be highlighted even more. That’s going to be taking even greater prominence later on, as we’ll see in future chapters.

And I’ll get to a little bit at the end here when we get to our segment where we point the chapter to Jesus, but it says that he would show the way. This word literally means to teach or instruct. This is a messianic role. This is the role of a messiah of Jesus, eventually. And I’ll get into why that’s a messianic role at the end. So stay tuned.

Verse 28, they came into the land of Goshen, then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father in Goshen. And he presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. This is the fifth time that Joseph wept. He’s going to weep a total of seven times in the book of Genesis or a total of seven scenes where Joseph will weep.

So, like I said, in verse 30, Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.”

Not that Jacob wanted to die right then, but he’s saying that he can die in peace now that he’s seen Joseph.

So now in verse 31, Joseph’s going to give his family instructions and how to talk to Pharaoh when they meet him. He says, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh and I will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household who are in the land of Canaan have come to me, and the men are shepherds for they have been keepers of livestock.’”

So in verse 33, Joseph says, “When Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’ You shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ In order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

Like I mentioned, shepherding was considered to be a highly offensive occupation to the Egyptians because the Egyptians considered sheep to be unclean. It’s also possible that they hated shepherds because they had been invaded by shepherds from Kush, that they may have only been driven out shortly before Joseph arrived. So the memory may be fresh in the minds of the Egyptians that shepherds were bad people and wanted to take them over, and so they didn’t want shepherds anywhere near them.

And in fact, Moses would use this as a reason for them to leave Egypt later on in Exodus 8 verses 25 through 27. Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go sacrifice to your God within the land.”

But Moses said, “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? We must go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as He tells us.”

So Moses used this offense and disgust on the part of the Egyptians to his advantage to try and get the Israelites to be able to leave at the Exodus.

Let’s talk about how this chapter points to Jesus.

First, of course, the line of the Messiah is extended further. I mentioned Judah’s grandsons, if you had been listening to the Patreon episode, you heard that. Judah had two grandsons that were listed in verse 12, Hezron and Hamul. Now Hezron, the son of Perez, would actually continue the Messianic line. In Luke 3 verses 33 through 34, we see that written out for us. It says the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, etc., etc. So, the line of the Messiah is extended further. We now have another name in this line and this Messianic line in this chapter.

Also, Judah is a Messianic figure. I mentioned earlier because he leads them into Egypt and he shows them the way. What this picture is showing here is that he’s rescuing Israel by leading them. Now this is shown in even more detail through Moses. Moses is going to be a very significant figure that points to Jesus, who will eventually be the greater Moses, but Judah is presented as that figure even before Moses by leading Israel out of the land of Canaan, out of this famine. He’s rescuing them. He’s bringing them into a land of abundance.

In Isaiah 11:11-12, it says, In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathos, from Kush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

And the concept being, as you read through the prophets, that he will bring them back into the land of Israel. When Jesus returns, this is what he’s going to do. Have you ever thought about what Jesus would actually do when he comes back? I don’t think we talk about this very much, just in general. We don’t talk about it. We just think, yeah, yeah, Jesus is going to come back and he’s going to make all things right and make all things new and he’s going to rule from the New Jerusalem. But what does that look like? What is he going to do? How is he going to make all things right? When he comes back, where is he going to go?

Well, this is showing us when he comes back, he’s actually going to rescue Israel from all the nations that are coming against them in those days. We see anti-Semitism rising significantly across the earth during this most recent war between Israel and Palestine. It’s going to be even heightened exponentially more when Jesus comes back. The entire world is going to be against Israel. There may be a few exceptions, I don’t know, but a very, very large portion of the world is going to be against Israel to the point where they’re going to be against them militarily. And Jesus is going to come back and He’s going to gather Jewish people from across the earth and He’s going to rescue them from the danger that they’re in, from the oppression that they’re going to be in, and He’s going to bring them back to Israel.

Jesus is Israel’s Messiah. And we Gentiles are privileged to be able to be brought into that family so that we can call him Messiah as well. But we must remember that Jesus is first and foremost Israel’s Messiah. That’s what he’s going to do when he returns. He’s going to rescue Israel. And we as the Church will be able to take part in that as well. There’s going to be a lot of danger for the Church as well. But he’s coming back to rescue Israel. And Judah points to that.

The other thing that Judah does is he teaches and instructs them to follow his way. Isaiah 2 verses 2 through 4 says, it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and the nations shall flow to it, and many people shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and He shall decide disputes for many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

When Jesus comes back, He does not just snap His fingers and everything is suddenly perfect again. There are going to still be people on the earth that were not submitted to Jesus’ leadership, that are not being resurrected at that time, receiving resurrected bodies. And they’re going to need to learn from Jesus, and He’s going to teach them. People are going to go to Jerusalem. They’re going to go there, and they’re going to learn directly from Jesus. He’s going to teach us. He’s going to teach them His ways that they may walk in His paths. Again, we don’t think much about what Jesus is actually going to do when He comes back, but this is what He’s going to do. He’s going to be in Jerusalem and people are going to flow to him like rivers. Many people are going to come to him and say, “Jesus, teach us. Teach us wisdom. Teach us righteous judgment. Teach us how to be at peace with one another.”

And he’s going to teach, and he’s going to train, and he’s going to lead, and people are going to walk in his ways. Personally, I look forward to seeing that process. I look forward to seeing the nations transformed when Jesus himself gives them wisdom and understanding and makes righteous judgments.

The final way that this chapter points to Jesus, at least that I have for you, I’m sure there’s many people that could probably find more ways, but the final way that I have for you is that Joseph was Israel’s advocate before Pharaoh. So Joseph went before Pharaoh and said, “Hey, this is my family. This is what they do. I’m going to advocate for them. I’m going to speak on behalf of them. They’re good people. You don’t have to worry about them. They’re not going to cause you any trouble.”

That’s what Joseph is doing here. And Israel would eventually become enslaved after their advocate died. In Exodus 1 verses 8 through 11, it says: Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply and if war breaks out they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens they built for Pharaoh’s store cities, Pithom and Ramesses.

What this is saying is that we need an eternal advocate because Joseph died. Joseph the advocate died. He points to Jesus in the fact that he is an advocate and he protects his people and he speaks up for his people and he keeps them out of trouble and he keeps them from being in dangerous situations. He keeps them from being oppressed by advocating for them. That’s what Jesus does. That’s what the Holy Spirit does even now. But Joseph, the advocate, died. When Israel’s advocate died, they were enslaved. That shows us that Israel needed an eternal advocate, an advocate that would not die. We need an advocate that will not die. And thankfully, beloved, we have an advocate that died and rose from the dead and ascended to heaven and is now eternally advocating on our behalf.

1 John 2:1 says: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

Jesus is our advocate. He is making intercession for us. He is advocating for us on our behalf to protect us, to keep us, to sustain us in His grace and in His love. We can look to Him. He will never die. He is eternal.

So my question for you this week is related. How have you personally experienced Jesus as your advocate? What has He done for you? How has Jesus advocated for you? What does this mean? How has this been applied in your life? Meditate on that and think about that question. And let’s pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for your Word as always. We love your Word. We love what you have to say to us and what you have to teach to us. And we thank you that one day you will return and you will teach the nations, you will teach us. We will learn from you, but even now, you’ve given us your Holy Spirit so that we can learn your ways. You can teach us about who you are. We can get to know you more and more. So I ask you that you would teach us, reveal yourself to us as our advocate. Help us to understand that we can go to you. When we’re in trouble, when we need somebody to speak on our behalf, we can go to you. You will advocate for us. Pray that even as we encounter difficult situations, as many of us have to make changes in life, as we have to leave things behind, I pray that you would continue to guide us in wisdom and in love. Help us to see you, help us to seek after you, help us to not manipulate circumstances and situations for our own benefit, but help us to seek you for your will and when we receive your will to obey immediately. We love you, Father, and we thank you for your love and your never-ending mercy for us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Thank you for listening to this episode. As always, I mention this every time, please, please, please leave a comment. I always want to know what you think, want to get your feedback on the show. Go ahead and subscribe, click like, leave a five star review, leave a positive review on whatever platform you’re using. I always appreciate it. Don’t forget to click that Patreon button to go subscribe. Only $4 a month and you get quite a lot of extra audio, a lot of extra information each week as I release an episode. Only $4 a month. Thanks once again for listening. Talk to you next week.

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Sources:
Armstrong, S. (2013, June 2). Genesis 2011 – Lesson 46. Verse By Verse Ministry International. Retrieved March 2, 2024, from https://versebyverseministry.org/lessons/genesis_2011_lesson_46
Freeman, J. M. Manners And Customs Of The Bible. BibleTruthPublishers.com.
Sailhamer, J. H. (2008). The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis (T. Longman III & D. E. Garland, Eds.). Zondervan.
Guzik, D. (2018). Genesis 46 – The Family Of Jacob Comes To Egypt. Enduring Word. Retrieved March 2, 2024, from https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/genesis-46/
Chase, M. (2021, February 4). Joseph Wept: 7 Strategically Arranged Scenes in Genesis. The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved March 4, 2024, from https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/joseph-wept/

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