Tafsiran Kejadian 46:26: Rashi, Chizkuni, Rashbam & Kli Yakar

כל הנפש הבאה ליעקב EVERY SOUL THAT WAS COMING WITH JACOB — every soul that left Canaan to go to Egypt The word הבאה, here, is not a perfect tense, but a participle with a relative present sense — just as (Ester 2:4) “In the evening she (באה) was coming” and (Genesis 29:7) “and, behold, Rachel his daughter is coming (באה)” and therefore the accent is on the last syllable, on the א, because when they left, coming from the land of Canaan, they were only sixty-six. But at the second mention of this word (Genesis 46:27) — “every soul of the house of Jacob, which came (הבאה) into Egypt were seventy” — it is a perfect tense and therefore it is accented on the last but one syllable, on the ב. The reason is, that when they came there, they were seventy, for they found Joseph and his two sons there, and Jochebed was added to their number “between the walls”. According to the view of the Rabbi (i. e. R. Jehudah, cf. Genesis Rabbah 84) who stated that with each of Jacob’s sons a twin-sister was born, we must say that these died before they (Jacob and his family) went down to Egypt, because they are not enumerated here. In Vayikra Rabbah 4:6 I found the following: When he left Canaan (cf. Genesis 36:6) Esau’s family consisted of only six (himself and his five sons), and Scripture calls them “the souls of his house” (in the plural) and this is because they worshipped many gods (each serving a different god and having as it were, a different soul or religious feeling). But the family of Jacob when he came to Egypt consisted of seventy and Scripture calls them “soul”, in the singular, because they all served One God.

כל נפש ששים ושש, “The combined total of souls were 66.” They were made up of 33 children of Leah including Dina, Chetzron, Chamul and Yocheved who was born at the border of Egypt, included. Zilpah had a total of 16, including Chever and Malkiel. Rachel’s descendants at that time were 14, and Bilhah’s were seven. You have to deduct Joseph and his two sons as well as Yocheved, [who did not descend. Ed.], as explained by Rashi. Compare verse 46 according to which the number is made up of people having left the land of Canaan. The words: יוצאי ירך יעקב, “biological offspring of Yaakov,” have been added to tell us that the wives of both Yaakov and his sons were not included. [Our author may have added these words as otherwise we would have to assume that both Bilhah and Zilpah had already died. Ed.]

(1) [ALL THE PERSONS WHO CAME WITH YA'AKOV TO EGYPT] HIS OWN ISSUE. Who are coming to Egypt.