Commento su Deuteronomio 10:22

בשבעים נפש ירדו אבותיך מצרימה, “Your forefathers comprised only 70 people when they descended to Egypt.” Moses enumerates some of the great and wonderful acts performed by G’d for this nation. It is these which entitle G’d to be loved by this people. Although only 70 people emigrated to Egypt, their number by now had increased to be like the stars in heaven. This is why in the next verse Moses demands that the people love “the Lord your G’d and observe His commandments. Here Moses mentions the number of Israelites descending to Egypt as being 70 whereas if you will check the number given in Genesis 46,27 you will find that actually only 69 are listed as leaving. Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 94,9 have already pointed out that the discrepancy is accounted for by Yocheved, who was conceived by her mother on the way but was not born until Yaakov and family arrived in Egypt.
Some sources claim that the discrepancy is accounted for by Serach, daughter of Asher. They base this on Samuel II 20,19: “I am one of those who seek the welfare of the faithful in Israel.” The words שלומי אמוני in that verse are understood as “completed their number.”
I have seen in Pessikta D'Rav Kahane that it was the Lord Himself Who made complete the number 70 as He said (Genesis 46,4) “I am going down with you (Yaakov) to Egypt.” [In other words 69 members of Yaakov’s family as listed in chapter 46 in Genesis plus the Shechinah went down to Egypt. Ed.]. The author of that Midrash cites our verse: “for He is your praise and your G’d,” in the same verse as Moses making reference to this number as proof that it was the fact that G’d personally accompanied the Israelites on their descent to Egypt as the reason that they can use Him as “their praise.” A similar approach is taken by the Midrash in Pirke d'Rabbi Eliezer chapter 39 where the words כשש מאות אלף, “about 600,000 foot soldiers” instead of “600,000 foot soldiers (Exodus 12,37) are also interpreted as the Israelites being 1 shy of that number with G’d Himself making up the number 600,000. If we accept this interpretation G’d made up the requisite number both when the Israelites descended to Egypt and when they ascended from Egypt. This would correspond to precisely what G’d said to Yaakov in Genesis 46,4: “I will go down with you and I will also surely bring you up.”

V. 22. ׳בשבעים וגו׳ ועתה שמך וגו (siehe zu Kap. 1, 10). Dieser unter Gottes Wundermacht geschehene Anwachs der Familie zum Volke lässt dieses Volk sich selbst als Fingerzeig der göttlichen besonderen Fürsorge begreifen und sich schon mit dem bloßen Dasein Gott in Liebe verpflichtet fühlen.