Genesis46chapter 46

This chapter is a genealogy set inside a journey, and the classical readers work both halves. Rashi takes the sacrifice at Beersheba as a question about which father is named, and answers from a rule of honour: "The duty of honouring one's father is more imperative than that of honouring one's grandfather", on Genesis Rabbah 94:5 (Rashi on Genesis 46:1:2, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain). The doubled name in the night vision he reads as warmth, "The repetition of the name is a mark of affection", citing the Sifra (Rashi on Genesis 46:2:1). The command not to fear he grounds in Jacob's grief at leaving the land, on Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 39, and the promise to bring him up again he reads as a promise of burial: "Here He promised him that he would be buried in the Holy Land", on the Jerusalem Talmud at Sotah 1:10 (Rashi on Genesis 46:3:1 and 46:4:1). In the name lists he supplies the identifications the text leaves out, naming the granddaughters who came down, "these were Serah, the daughter of Asher, and Jochebed, the daughter of Levi" (Rashi on Genesis 46:7:1), and he explains why Rachel alone is called Jacob's wife in the list. At the meeting in Goshen he keeps one detail: "He himself harnessed the horses to the chariot being eager to show honour to his father", on Genesis Rabbah 95 (Rashi on Genesis 46:29:1). Ramban explains the order of the lists as a convention of Scripture, "It is customary for Scripture to first enumerate the sons of the mistresses together" (Ramban on Genesis 46:18:1, the Commentary on the Torah by Ramban, translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo Publishing House, New York, 1971 to 1976, CC-BY), and he reads Joseph's brief to his brothers closely: "Joseph told them that they are shepherds but that they do not tend to the cattle of others" (Ramban on Genesis 46:32:1). Sforno notices that the sons are called the children of Israel here for the first time and reads the change of name as the mark of what they become from this journey on (Sforno on Genesis 46:5:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY). Ibn Ezra comments here at 46:21:1, 46:23:1 and 46:27:1 and Malbim at 46:33:1, and the corpus holds no English of either under a licence permitting quotation, so they stand as citations.