Acts 7:6 - Exposition

In a strange land ; a land belonging to some one else ( Hebrews 11:9 , γῆ ἀλλοτρία , as here); a land in which he had none inheritance, not yet become the possession of his seed; for as the writer to the Hebrews says, he dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob; not applicable, therefore, in the first instance to Egypt at all. And this sojourning as strangers and pilgrims lasted altogether four hundred and thirty years, vie. two hundred and fifteen years in Canaan, and two hundred and fifteen in Egypt; which agrees exactly with St. Paul's reckoning in round numbers of four hundred years from the giving of the promise to Abraham to the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai ( Galatians 3:17 ). The "four hundred years" must not be taken in connection with the bondage" and the ill treatment which characterized the last half of the period, but as spoken of the whole period during which they had not possession of the promised land. Bring them into bondage . So the LXX .; but the Hebrew, as rendered in the A.V., has "and they shall serve them." But some (see Gesenius, 'Thes.') render the Hebrew as the LXX . Do. Four hundred years . This is a round number, as in Genesis 15:13 . The exact time, as given in Exodus 12:40 , Exodus 12:41 , was four hundred and thirty years.