(18) Sixteen souls.--That is, Gad and his seven sons, Asher and his four sons, the two grandsons and Serach.

Verse 18. - These arc the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls.

46:5-27 We have here a particular account of Jacob's family. Though the fulfilling of promises is always sure, yet it is often slow. It was now 215 years since God had promised Abraham to make of him a great nation, ch. 12:2; yet that branch of his seed, to which the promise was made sure, had only increased to seventy, of whom this particular account is kept, to show the power of God in making these seventy become a vast multitude.These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter,.... To be her maid, when she was married to Jacob, by whom he had Gad and Asher:

and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls; not that Zilpah bare sixteen children to Jacob, for she bore but two; but the children and grandchildren of these two with them made sixteen.