Exodus 12:40

Exodus 12:40 . Who dwelt in Egypt — Or sojourned. We must observe, that it is not said, The sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years; but the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt — That is, the sojourning of the Israelitish nation, from the time that Abraham left his native country to sojourn in Canaan, to the release of his posterity, who were long sojourners in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. Therefore, the Samaritan copy hath it, Who dwelt in the land of Canaan and in Egypt. So the Vatican edition of the LXX. It was just four hundred and thirty years from the promise made to Abraham (as the apostle explains it, Galatians 3:17 ) at his first coming into Canaan, during all which time the Hebrews were sojourners in a land that was not theirs, either Canaan or Egypt. So long the promise God made to Abraham lay dormant and unfulfilled, but now it revived, and things began to work toward the accomplishment of it. The first day of the march of Abraham’s seed toward Canaan was four hundred and thirty years (it should seem, to a day) from the promise made to Abraham, Genesis 12:2 , “I will make of thee a great nation.” What reason have we then to admire the exact accomplishment of God’s promise! Notwithstanding the various revolutions and changes of all worldly affairs that must necessarily have happened in the space of four hundred and thirty years, yet God’s promise stands sure amidst them all.

(40) The sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt. —Heb., which they sojourned in Egypt Was four hundred and thirty years.—Comp. the prophecy:—“Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs [Egypt, not Canaan], and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge” (Genesis 15:13-14). The genealogy of Joshua (1Chronicles 7:22-27), which places him in the eleventh generation from Jacob, accords well with this term of years. The other genealogies are more or less abbreviated.

It is plain that those years are to be computed from the first promise made to Abraham, Genesis 12:1,2 , to the giving of the law, from Galatians 3:17 , where this is affirmed. And although it doth not plainly appear when that promise was made, because the Scripture mentions not Abraham’s age, neither when it was made, nor when Abraham came to Haran with his father, Genesis 11:31 , but only when he went out of Haran, being seventy-five years old, Genesis 12:4 ; yet a good while after it was made, and, as it may seem more than probable, thirty years afterward, it is manifest there were only four hundred years of this time to come, Genesis 15:13 . And many more years passed ere there was such a man as Israel or Jacob, and more ere there were any children of Israel , or of Jacob, and yet more ere they came into Egypt. How then can this be true which is here said? Answ . 1. Some affirm that they were in Egypt four hundred and thirty years, which is sooner said than proved. 2. Some ancient Hebrew copies are said to have had more words than ours now have; for the LXX. and Samaritan interpreters after the words in Egypt , read, and in the land of Canaan . And some other copies after the word who , add, together with their fathers , or, and their fathers . And so rite difficulty vanisheth.

And if it should be granted that there were some few such errors in our present copies in matters irately historical or chronological, which God might permit to be there for many wise and holy reasons, yet this is no prejudice to our faith, or to God’s providence, which hath been pleased to have so special a care of those texts which concern the essentials of faith and a good life, that all copies are agreed in them. 3. These four hundred and thirty years are not by the text confined to Egypt, but may be extended to any place where they were sojourners; and the Hebrew word asher is not to be rendered which , as relating to the time of their sojourning, but who , as belonging to the persons sojourning, as our translation well renders it; and the sense is, that they were sojourners, or, which is all one, strangers , or dwellers in a land that was not theirs, as it is said Genesis 15:13 , for four hundred and thirty years. And the emphasis lies in the Hebrew word moshab , which is here fitly rendered sojourning ; as toshab , coming from the same root, is commonly used for a sojourner , or one that lives in a place or land which is not his, as Leviticus 22:10 25:35,40 Num 35:15 Psalm 39:12 . There is now but one difficulty remains, How the children of Israel can be said to be sojourners so long, seeing much of this time passed before they were born? Answ .

Verses 40-42. - The narrative of the departure from Egypt is followed, not unnaturally, by a notification of the length of the sojourn, which is declared to have been a space of four hundred and thirty years. In the "Introduction" to the Book, we have examined the question, which here arises, 1. As to the soundness; and 2. As to the true meaning, of the Hebrew text, and have arrived at the conclusion that it is sound, and that it means what it says, viz., that 430 years elapsed between the arrival of Jacob in Egypt, with his sons, and sons' sons, and their families, as related in Genesis 46:1-27 , and the commencement of the exodus. The time is required by the genealogy of Joshua ( 1 Chronicles 7:22-27 ). It is in remarkable accordance with the traditions that Joseph was the minister of Apspi, and that the Jews went out under Menephthah. If not absolutely required for the multiplication of the race from "seventy souls" to above two millions, it is at any rate more in accord with that fact than the alternative number, 215. It is twice repeated, so that "the mistake of a copyist" is almost impossible. Verse 40. - The sojourning of the children of Israel, which dwelt in Egypt . Rather, "Which they sojourned in Egypt." (Compare the Septuagint - ἡ κατοίκησις η{ν κατῴκησαν .) Four hundred and thirty years. Literally "thirty years and four hundred years." Exodus 12:40

40 . four hundred and thirty years ] cf. the round number 400 in Genesis 15:13 (hence Acts 7:6 , Jos. Ant. ii. 9.1, BJ. v. 9. 4). Whether it is historically correct is more than we can say: not only is Egyptian chronology itself uncertain, but we do not know the Eg. king under whom Jacob went down into Egypt; hence we have no independent data for fixing with precision the interval between Jacob’s migration into Egypt and the Exodus. The chronology of P (from whom all systematic dates in the Pent. are derived) is artificial, and in many of its particulars entirely undeserving of confidence: still this figure may itself be correct. It is however inconsistent with the many passages of P (see on Exodus 6:27 ), which place Moses and his contemporaries in the fourth generation from Jacob’s sons. P himself may have been unconscious of the inconsistency; for he may have reckoned—of course, falsely—a generation at 100 years (cf. Genesis 15:16 , comp. with 13). In a later age it appears to have been noticed; and in all probability the reading of LXX. Sam. here ‘in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan , was 430 years,’ originated in an endeavour to lessen it: for, as the period from Abraham’s migration into Canaan to Jacob’s descent into Egypt was (according to P) 215 years ( Genesis 12:4 ; Genesis 21:5 ; Genesis 25:26 ; Genesis 47:9 ), this reading reduces the period of the sojourn in Egypt to half of that stated in the Heb. text. The reading of Sam.