What Does Genesis 46:6 Mean?

They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him. The migration inventory: livestock, property, and all offspring. The comprehensive accounting: livestock (the family's wealth in Canaan), goods (their acquired material possessions), and every member of the family: is the text's deliberate record of a complete and irreversible migration. They are not sending scouts ahead or moving in stages; the whole family with all its possessions is moving to Egypt in one migration event.

"Which they had gained in the land of Canaan": the goods are identified as Canaan-acquired, which distinguishes them from the Egyptian goods they will receive in Egypt (Pharaoh's promise of "the good things of Egypt"). The family is bringing Canaan into Egypt: the land of promise's accumulated goods entering the empire that will eventually be the place of their enslavement. Pharaoh told Joseph to tell them not to worry about their goods (Genesis 45:20); they brought them anyway. The practical wisdom of the traveling family preserved what they could rather than abandoning the tangible representation of their life in Canaan.

"Jacob and all his offspring with him": the patriarch is named first; his offspring follow. The organizational principle of the migration is the family structure: Jacob as the head, his offspring as the body of the migration. The "all his offspring with him" is the preparation for the genealogical list of Genesis 46:8 to 27, which accounts for every member of the migrating family by name. The comprehensive "all" is about to be specified in detail: which sons, which grandsons, which daughters. Genesis 46 is the census document of the migration: the record of who went down to Egypt that Israel might remember who came out.