Exodus 1:5

Exo 1:5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt [already].

Ver. 5. And all the souls.] That is, persons; for souls are not begotten, but infused, being divinae particulae aurae. {Ecc 12:7} Aristotle himself saw and acknowledged as much. {a}

Were seventy souls.] More worth than the seventy nations of the whole world, say the Jews: God reckons of men by their righteousness.

{a} λειπεται, τον νουν μονον θυραθεν επειστεναι και θειον ειναι. - De Gene. Ar., lib. ii. cap. 9.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exo 1:5. Seventy souls — Or persons, according to the computation we had, Gen 46:27, including Joseph and his two sons. This was just the number of the nations by which the earth was peopled, (Genesis 10.,) for when “God separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel,”

Deu 32:8.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:5 seventy descendants: The number 75 in the Greek version and the Dead Sea Scrolls might include the five sons of Ephraim and Manasseh (Num 26:29, 35). • Jacob’s eleventh son, Joseph, had been sold into Egyptian slavery by his jealous brothers (Gen 37:18-28). God accomplished good for his people in spite of the brothers’ sin. With Joseph present in Egypt, God could use him to save the lives of the chosen people from the famine that would have destroyed them (Gen 42:1-2; 50:19-20).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, persons.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(5) All the souls . . . were seventy souls. Comp. Gen_46:8-27. The number is made up as follows:—Jacob himself, 1; his sons, 12; his daughter, Dinah, 1; his grandsons, 51; his grand-daughter Serah, 1; his great-grandsons, 4—Total, 70. His daughters, except Dinah, and his sons’ daughters, except Serah, spoken of in Gen_46:7, are not included. If his female descendants were, at the time of his descent into Egypt, as numerous as the males, the entire number of those who “came out of his loins” must have been 132. To form a calculation of the number of persons who entered Egypt with him, we must add the wives of his sons and grandsons, and the husbands of his daughters and granddaughters. A further liberal allowance must be also made for retainers. (See the comment on Exo_1:1.) It is not perhaps surprising that Kurtz, taking all these classes into account, should calculate that those who entered Egypt with Jacob amounted to “several thousands” (History of The Old Covenant, vol. ii. p. 149, E.T.).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. all the souls that came out, &c.] As Gen_46:26 (also P).

seventy souls] The number was traditional: cf. Deu_10:22 (where ‘with’ should be as). This passage shews that P interpreted the tradition in the sense of 70 souls without Jacob: other writers interpreted it in the sense of Deu_10:22, and made the number 70 souls including Jacob (cf. Gen_46:8; Gen_46:27 b). See the writer’s Genesis (in the ‘Westminster Commentaries’), pp. 365, 368. Soul in the sense of ‘person,’ though found occasionally elsewhere (but never in the earlier historical books), is peculiarly frequent in P (nearly 100 times).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Seventy - See Gen 46:27. The object of the writer in this introductory statement is to give a complete list of the heads of separate families at the time of their settlement in Egypt. See the note at Num 26:5.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Seventy: Septuagint, "75," including the offspring of Joseph. See Genesis xlvi. 26.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Seventy souls, including Jacob and Joseph, and his two sons. See Gen 46:26,27; Deu 10:22. Or if they were but sixty-nine, they are called seventy by a round number, of which we shall have many instances. i.e. All that were of the same age with Joseph and his brethren.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

All the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls. This is manifestly intended as a repetition of Gen_46:27, and throws the reader back upon the details there adduced, which make up the exact number of "seventy souls," by the inclusion of Jacob himself, of Joseph, and of Joseph"s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. The inaccuracy by which Jacob is counted among his own descendants, is thoroughly Oriental and Hebraistic, however opposed to Western habits of thought. To stumble at it shows a narrow and carping spirit. (Compare note on Gen_46:15) For Joseph was in Egypt already. Joseph, i.e., has not been mentioned with the other sons of Jacob, since he did not "come into Egypt with Jacob," but was there previously. The transfer of the clause to the commencement of the verse, which is made by the LXX, is unnecessary.

Joseph in Egypt.

Exodus here points back to Genesis. So the present is always pointing back to the past. In the life of an individual, in the life of a family, in the life of a nation, there is a continuity: no past act but affects the present no present act but affects the future. Joseph"s descent into Egypt is at the root of the whole of Exodus, underlies it, forms its substratum. Without an incoming, no outgoing; and it was at Joseph"s instance that his brethren had come into the country. (Gen_45:9-24) Or our thoughts may travel further back. "Joseph in Egypt." How had he come there? Through the envy and jealousy of brethren, provoked by the favouritism of a too fond father. Here are evils to be guarded against; here are sins to be east out. And yet of the evil good had come: "Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good". (Gen_50:20) "The fierceness of men he turns to his praise; and the fierceness of them he doth refrain". (Psa_76:10) The cruel wrong done to Joseph had saved from starvation his father and his father"s house, had preserved the entire people of the Egyptians from extreme suffering, and had brought Joseph himself to the highest honour. "God"s ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts." He is potent to bring good out of evil, and to turn the worst calamity into the choicest blessing.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Seventy souls - According to the computation we had, Gen. xlvi, 27, including Joseph and his two sons. This was just the number of the nations by which the earth was peopled, Gen. x, 1- 32, for when God separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel, Deut. xxxii, 8.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

ויוסף היה במצרים lit., AND JOSEPH WAS IN EGYPT — But were not he and his sons included in the seventy? What, then, is this statement intended to tell us? Do we not know that he was in Egypt? But its purpose is to inform you of Joseph’s righteousness: this is the same Joseph who tended his father’s sheep; this is the same Joseph who was in Egypt and became king there, and yet he remained steadfast in his righteousness, and the change from a humble position to exalted rank in Egypt caused no deterioration in his character (cf. Sifrei האזינו; Exodus Rabbah 1:7).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.