Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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afterwards mentioned as heads of houses in the several tribes. See Nu 26:5-65, &c. Bishop Patrick observes that Issachar called his eldest son Tola, which signifies a worm, probably because when he was born he was a very little weak child, a worm, and no man, not likely to live; and yet there sprang from him a very numerous offspring, 1Ch 7:2. Note, Living and dying do not go by probability. The whole number that went down into Egypt was sixty-six (Ge 46:26), to which add Joseph and his two sons, who were there before, and Jacob himself, the head of the family, and you have the number of seventy, Ge 46:27. The LXX. makes them seventy-five, and Stephen follows them (Ac 7:14), the reason of which we leave to the conjecture of the critics; but let us observe,
[1.] Masters of families ought to take care of all under their charge, and to provide for those of their own house food convenient both for body and soul. When Jacob himself removed to a land of plenty, he would not leave any of his children behind him to starve in a barren land.
[2.] Though the accomplishment of promises is always sure, yet it is often slow. It was now 215 years since God had promised Abraham to make of him a great nation (Ge 12:2); and yet that branch of his seed on which the promise was entailed had increased only to seventy, of which this particular account is kept, that the power of God in multiplying these seventy to so vast a multitude, even in Egypt, may appear the more illustrious. When God pleases, a little one shall become a thousand, Isa 60:22.
7 his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’
daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.
8 And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came
into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.
9 And the sons of Reuben; Hanoch, and Phallu, and Hezron, and
Carmi.
10 And the sons of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin,
and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman.
11 And the sons of Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.