What Does Genesis 46:26 Mean in the King James?
All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls were threescore and six;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The tally makes each counted soul a living person, while “out of his loins” keeps that life within an embodied lineage.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a family as a living household: its total is made of persons carried through bodily lineage. The household enters Egypt together, with every life held within the count.
THE ROOT
נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh
GROWS FROM
נ־פ־שׁ
n-p-sh
The living self or person; the root also forms a verb for resting or being refreshed.
The English “souls” can sound like detachable inner parts, but this Hebrew word names a living person as a whole. The count is therefore made of lives, and “out of his loins” keeps those lives within bodily lineage.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: Living soul; person
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word repeated in the verse, making the 66 a count of living persons.
naphash: To rest or refresh oneself
נָפַשׁ
The related verb keeps the root connected to living vitality, deepening the sense of “souls” as living people.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צָרַר
tsarar
To bind, press in, or constrict; its related form צַר (tsar) means narrow or tight.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitzrayim. The name carries the image of constriction, with the -ayim ending read as a dual form: two narrowings. The counted household enters that narrow place together, so the verse holds both its shared movement and the lineage within it.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow; tight
צַר
This is the narrowness carried in the place-name, casting the family’s entrance as a movement into constriction.
tsarah: Distress; trouble
צָרָה
The related word shows how narrowness can be experienced as distress, giving the place-name a deeper shade than geography alone.
THE PATTERN
Scripture counts a people as living persons moving together, so a number still points to lives rather than an abstraction.
Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.THE THREAD
And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.The same Hebrew word נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh, living soul) recurs, and the next verse gives the household total as seventy while naming Joseph’s two sons. The count widens from the sixty-six descendants who come with Jacob to the whole household, including Jacob and Joseph, while keeping living persons as its unit.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us