Genesis 46:3

Fear not. This divine admonition reveals the fact that Jacob had feared he might be doing wrong in going to Egypt. He yearned to see Joseph, his long-lost son; but he also remembered the evil consequences of Abraham’s journey to Egypt (ch. 12:14-20), and that God had once forbidden Isaac to go there during a famine (ch. 26:2). Whether his journey would meet God’s approval may have been a serious question in the patriarch’s mind. Now God expressed approval of the journey and gave him reassuring promises. As formerly, when setting out for Padan-aram, so now in departing for Egypt, Jacob received the assurance that God would go with him, that the divine promise concerning his posterity was still valid, and that the move into Egypt would not mean the permanent abandonment of the Land of Promise.