And Jacob rose up from Beersheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba - to cross the border, and settle in Egypt. However refreshed and invigorated in spirit by the religious services at Beer-sheba, he was now borne down by the infirmities of advanced age; and therefore his sons undertook all the trouble and toil of the arrangements, while the enfeebled old patriarch, with the wives and children (see the note at Genesis 45:19), was conveyed, by slow and leisurely stages, in the Egyptian vehicles sent for their accommodation.
Wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. An obvious inquiry is, by what way did they come? 'We read nowhere (says Dr. Robinson, 'Biblical Researches,' 1:, p. 317) of wheeled carriages in connection with the country south of Jerusalem, except where Joseph is said to have sent wagons to bring down his father Jacob into Egypt. These came to Hebron; and Jacob traveled thence to Beer-sheba (Genesis 46:1: cf. Genesis 45:19; Genesis 45:21; Genesis 45:27). We had this circumstance in mind on our journey from Beer-sheba to Hebron; and long before reaching Dhoheriyeh, we were convinced that wagons for the patriarch could not have passed by that route. Still, by taking a more circuitous course up the great Wady el Khulil, more to the right, they might probably reach Hebron through the valleys without great difficulty.'