What Does Genesis 46:13 Mean?

The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Jashub, and Shimron. Issachar's four sons are counted in the migration. Tola, Puvah, Jashub, and Shimron are largely unknown in the Genesis narrative itself: none of them appear in the story-line: but they are the progenitors of the Issacharian sub-clans listed in Numbers 26:23 to 25. The genealogy of the migration is the seed document of the tribal sub-structure: Issachar the patriarch-son, his four sons the founders of the sub-clans. The generation that goes down to Egypt as grandsons of Jacob will emerge in Numbers as the names of identifiable tribal divisions.

Issachar and Zebulun (v.14) are the two youngest sons of Leah: the last children before Jacob shifted to the handmaidens and Rachel. In the birth narrative of Genesis 30:14 to 20, Leah bargained mandrakes for the right to sleep with Jacob and conceived Issachar; Zebulun and Dinah followed. In the migration census, Issachar's four sons and Zebulun's three sons are part of Leah's portion of the family descending to Egypt. The genealogical list traces all four of Jacob's wives' contributions to the migration count.

The four sons of Issachar who enter Egypt are the last migration-generation of the Leah line before the list turns to the handmaidens' descendants. In Jacob's final blessing (Genesis 49:14 to 15), Issachar is characterized as "a strong Donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds... a servant at forced labor." The four sons listed here are the beginning of the lineage whose tribal destiny their ancestor's blessing shapes.