What role did the twelve sons in Goshen play in the book of Exodus?
In Goshen, the twelve sons—the eleven brothers plus Joseph—became the setting for the population explosion that emerges when Scripture enters Exodus. Joseph, second in Egypt, provided them fruitful land near the Nile, and their families multiplied there across 215 years, forming the nation God promised to make in Egypt.
Les explains that Joseph, as the second-highest man in Egypt, was able to give the family the fruit of the land around the Nile River, which the Old Testament calls Goshen. There the twelve sons—the eleven brothers plus Joseph, though Joseph was in the high government place—became the setting for the population explosion seen when we come into the book of Exodus. God had told Jacob to go down into Egypt, promising to make of him a great nation there. That multiplication occurred during the next 215 years, part of the 430 years God said to Abraham would transpire from the time He first called Abraham.