Refs:
Ok, Jacob plus 66 souls plus Joseph and his two sons already then in Egypt, adds up to 70 descendants of Isaac via Jacob in the initial count. Also there were the sons and grandsons' wives. See too the note at bottom about Manasseh and Ephraim.
So, let's count them in Genesis 46
Jacob = 1
Reuben + 4 = 5
Simeon + 5 (from his wife) + 1 (from a Canaanite woman) = 7
Levi + 3 = 4
Judah + 5 sons + 2 grandsons = 8
Isaachar + 4 = 5
Zebulun + 3 = 4
Dinah (his daughter) = 1
This totals up to 35 souls with 34 souls coming through Leah.
Subtract the 2 sons of Judah who died in Canaan, and include Jacob as the first one.
This starts us off with 33 souls.
No record anywhere, incidentally, of Dinah's marriage.
Gad + 7 = 8
Asher + 4 sons + 2 grandsons + 1 daughter = 8
16 from Zilpah.
Joseph + 2 = 3
Benjamin + 10 = 11
14 from Rachel.
Dan + 1 = 2
Naphtali + 4 = 5
7 from Bilhah.
Thus 33 + 16 + 14 + 7 = 70 souls, of whom 66 went down with Jacob.
In Stephen's speech in Acts 7:14, his statement of 75 souls is a quote from the Septuagint, a Greek translation of Genesis (not Hebrew, and quite unacceptable to the Jews in Jerusalem) that included five extra sons and grandsons of Manasseh and Ephraim who had been born later in Egypt. Click here to see this reference in the Septuagint.
And when they came out in 1505BC, not all that long afterwards according to the timeline, 430 years after the initial promise to Abraham and Abraham's initial sojourn there, and 215 years after Jacob joined Joseph there, the number was 600,000 male descendants in Exodus 12:37, plus women and children and a mixed multitude, perhaps over 2 million in total.
Yes, that's a massive 30,000 fold multiplying factor. Like, every 50 years, one male had become 10 males, plus daughters. Almost, but not quite, supernatural.
Definitely with God's hand upon them.
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