Exodus to Goshen

Israel’s exodus involved a move from Goshen to the promised land. But the move into Goshen is curiously similar to the later exodus. Here are some of the similarities:

1) Israel sought to escape Egypt because of the oppression of Pharaoh; they left because of threats to their well-being. Israel entered Egypt in order to escape the famine in the land of Canaan.

2) Israel plundered Egypt in the exodus. When Joseph invited Jacob to come to Goshen, he sent him wagons full of the treasures of Egypt (Gen 45:21-28).

3) Israel entered a land flowing with milk and honey at the conquest. Goshen is described as a “good” land where Israel will eat the fat (Gen 45:18; 47:11).

4) Israel conquered and took possession of Canaan in the conquest. Jacob and his sons moved to Goshen and “took possession of Goshen” (Gen 47:27). (Victor Wilson points out the allusion back to an earlier part of the Jacob narratives: “Jacob settled in the land” [Gen 37:1]; “Israel settled in the land” [Gen 47:27].)

5) When Israel came out of Egypt, Moses counted them (Numbers). There is a mini book of Numbers in Gen 46:8ff.

6) Moses, a prince of Egypt, led Israel out of Egypt to Canaan. Joseph, a prince of Egypt, led Jacob/Israel out of Canaan into Egypt.

7) Israel conquered and enslaved the peoples of the land. Joseph enslaved the Egyptians after Jacob entered Goshen.

8) The blessings of Jacob anticipate the blessings of Moses in Deuteronomy 33. Jacob blesses his sons as they enter Goshen; Moses blesses the tribes as they prepare to enter Canaan.

What does this mean? First, it shows that Jacob, like Abraham before him, is living through a preview of the exodus. Abraham went to Egypt and returned (Gen 12); Jacob went to Haran and returned; and at the end of his life, Jacob or Israel (his corporate name) took an “exodus” out of a cursed land and into a good land, Goshen. Second, this suggests that the notion of an exodus OUT OF Canaan first arises early in biblical history. This notion is developed by Jeremiah, who sees the flight of exiles from Jerusalem as a new exodus, and also in the NT, where Jesus’ flight into Egypt is seen as a fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecies about the exodus.