Genesis 46:12

Genesis 46 is simply a record of the immediate descendants of Jacob who were with him in Egypt, giving his family. This twelfth verse is plainly genealogy. It does not say that everyone named in it went down into Egypt. Er and Onan are named because they are sons, though the text states plainly that they did not go down at all.

In verse 12 the word "were" is emphatic, and the phrase, I take it, is clearly meant to be supplementary. The verse does not run, "Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Perez, and Zerah, and the sons of Perez, Hezron and Hamul." That is how it would read if they had all been among those going down into Egypt. The historian stops at Zerah and adds extra information. Er and Onan were on the list of sons, but they did not go down, for they had died before. And Perez's sons were Hezron and Hamul. They are seen as filling up the gap.

This table counts 32 from Leah, 16 from Zilpah, 11 from Rachel and 7 from Bilhah, making 66. But the head also goes with his house, so Jacob himself is counted in with Leah's children. That is why 33 are credited to her, though only 32 are named, counting Dinah and leaving out Er and Onan, who died in Canaan. Objectors have failed to notice the peculiar way verse 12 mentions Hezron and Hamul. The text says only — and says it of them alone — that the sons of Perez "were" Hezron and Hamul. It does not say they were born in Canaan, where the men they replaced had died. There was a weighty reason for picking out these two grandsons of Judah, when no other great-grandson of Jacob appears in the list. They alone stood in the place of others, as the verse itself implies, and one of them, Hezron, stands in the direct line of the Messiah.

Three sons were born to Shuah, the first one killed by the Lord because of wickedness. The second, Onan, agreed to take the widow of Er as his wife to have a child that would officially be his brother's. But he did not carry out his agreement honourably, and the Lord considered this serious enough to kill him also. The reason was his complete selfishness, for the child would not officially be his, though in fact it would. These two cases illustrate the degrading history of the tribe of Judah. Shelah, the youngest son, may mean "sprout," and points to at least a preserved remnant that promises a miraculous revival for the nation Israel.

If we turn to Genesis 46, we find a complete list of those who made up the sixty-six and went with Jacob into Egypt. The account is so accurate that two who had died are named only to show that they were not in the list.

It is God's register of Jacob and his house — "seventy" souls including Jacob, and Joseph with his two sons, "sixty-six" without them... Scripture reveals the interest God took in recording things that are little in man's eyes. Nature revels in what it counts great in its own eyes and before the world.

Shelah is fruitful, but Tamar's seed much more so. From that seed comes Perez, the "breaker forth," who breaks out into abundant fruit that fills all the later history of Judah. From this line come Judah's kings, and her great King. Twin with Perez comes Zerah, or the sunrise, and from him come singers and warriors later on, stout defenders of the throne.

Is it not remarkable that this record should begin with Perez? That the elders and the people should take the house of Perez as a pattern of blessing for the house of Boaz? "May your house be like the house of Perez." Who was Perez? Let Genesis 38 answer. Why not begin with his father, Judah?... God led His line of promise through the base things of the world, and took up those whom man would spurn. This was to magnify His grace and exalt His name.