All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six;
All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt. The emigration to Egypt, being a new starting-point in the history of Israel, became an epoch from which time was calculated; and in this latitude of meaning, the words "All the souls that came with Jacob," are to be taken just as the accompanying phrase, "which came out of his loins," is also to be taken widely; because it includes in this genealogy not only his sons, but some of his grandsons, as the word "sons" frequently signifies in Scripture.
Another example of such a loose general statement occurs in this same genealogy as here. It is said (Genesis 46:15), "These be the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob in Padan-aram;" - that being the native country of most of Jacob family, though several of the names comprehended in the previous list are those of his grandsons born in Canaan. On the whole, as the numerous retinue of servants and retainers who belonged to the tribe, which, with their immense flocks and herds, required a large tract of country in Egypt to be appropriated to their sole use, are excluded from this catalogue; and as not even the wives of the sons, who were probably of the families of Esau, Ishmael, Keturah, were taken into the enumeration, "All the souls" must be considered as limited to "the house of Jacob" (Genesis 46:27) - for they were the aristocracy of the nation, and they only were considered worthy of distinct record, as the ancestry of Israel-the pure original stock from which, when transplanted into Egypt, it grew into a nation.