⁵ So Jacob departed from Beer-sheba, and the sons of Israel put their father and their wives and children on the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. ⁶ They took with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. So Jacob and all his descendants came to Egypt.^{(A) 7} His sons and his grandsons, his daughters and his granddaughters—all his descendants—he took with him to Egypt.

²⁶ Jacob’s people who came to Egypt—his direct descendants, not counting the wives of Jacob’s sons—numbered sixty-six persons in all.^{(A) 27} Together with Joseph’s sons who were born to him in Egypt—two persons—all the people comprising the household of Jacob who had come to Egypt amounted to seventy persons^[a] in all.^(B)

⁷ But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific. They multiplied and became so very numerous that the land was filled with them.^[a]

⁹ He said to his people, “See! The Israelite people have multiplied and become more numerous than we are!