Or HaChaim on Genesis 46:7/אור החיים על בראשית מ״ו:ז׳

1 בניו ובני בניו אתו, his sons and grandchildren with him, etc. Since we have been told in the previous verse that Jacob arrived in Egypt with all his descendants, why did the Torah have to tell us that he took his children and grandchildren with him?

2Why did the Torah interrupt the report by the word אתו at the end of verse six and again mentioned אתו between listing male and female offspring respectively in verse seven? The report could have been considerably condensed without omitting any of the details.

3The Torah tries to tell us that there were ideological differences between the sons of Jacob. Some agreed willingly to migrate to Egypt and to accept the burden of G'd's decree that their children would become slaves in Egypt. Others strove to delay as long as possible the descent to the land which would be known as the "iron crucible" of the Jewish people. The Torah tries to describe who was who by mentioning separately בניו ובני בניו אתו on the one hand, meaning that those did not have to be persuaded to undertake the journey with Jacob. On the other hand, when the verse continues to speak separately about Jacob bringing with him "his daughters, granddaughters and all his descendants," these are the people who did not go down to Egypt voluntarily.

4In this connection it is important to pay attention to the statement in Shemot Rabbah 1,5 that as long as any of the people who descended with Jacob at the time remained alive the Jews lived in Egypt as totally free people. This is based on the Torah telling us in Exodus 1,6 that "Joseph and all that generation died." The words "and all that generation" refer to those who came to Egypt from Canaan. Perhaps the Torah teaches us that the people who had accepted G'd's decree willingly were spared realisation of that decree during their own lifetime. Perhaps the best proof of this is the fact that Yocheved and Serach, daughter of Asher, who both arrived in Egypt with the family of Jacob did experience the enslavement. The reason was that they were not around when a decision had to be made to descend to Egypt. They were still in their mother's wombs (compare Bereshit Rabbah 94,9). It is worth- while to peruse what the Zohar on Vayakhel 198 has to say on the subject. He quotes Psalms 146,5 "hail to him who has the G'd of Jacob for his help, because his hope was in the Lord."