Queries are raised about the details. Benjamin, for instance, is said to have ten named individuals coming from him, but at the time when Israel went down into Egypt he would have been in his early twenties and it is hard to see how he could have had so many children by that age. Aalders deals with this and other difficulties and concludes that the full list of names includes some who were born in Egypt. In the case of Benjamin the best explanation seems to be that the first three are sons and the remainder grandsons. Why then are these particular names picked out, when many more were born in Egypt who are not mentioned? Aalders and other commentators regard this list as including those who were to become tribal heads, leaders of significant groupings within Israel. Their inclusion also makes up the number seventy. The grandsons did not of course go down with Jacob into Egypt, but they are included in the total, just as Ephraim and Manasseh are included even though they were born in Egypt.
There are also difficulties with the totals given. Leah’s children add up to 34 individuals including Dinah, but two of them were already dead – Er and Onan. The total given by Moses is 33. This could mean that Dinah is excluded – but this is strange since another woman, Serah, is definitely included in the total of Zilpah’s descendants. Another explanation for the 33 is that the two dead sons are excluded, and Dinah and Jacob himself are included (Leupold). Adding up the four subtotals (one for each wife of Jacob) in the text gives 70, but then where does the 66 in verse 26 come from? Verse 26 makes clear the wives of the sons are not included, and the definition of the count is different to that in verse 27. In verse 26 the number includes all the souls which came from Jacob which came with him into Egypt (we have already seen that this may include some grandsons born in Egypt). This apparently does not include Joseph and his two sons, and it does not include Jacob himself, whereas the total given in verse 27 does – ‘all the souls of the house of Jacob.’
A separate problem relates to Acts 7:14: ‘Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls’ (Acts 7:14). Where does the number 75 come from? This is the number in the Septuagint, the commonly available translation of the Old Testament used by the early church. To make up the extra 5, the Septuagint includes 2 sons of Manasseh, 2 sons of Ephraim and a grandson.