Acts 7:23 - Exposition

Well-nigh for full , A.V. When he was precisely forty years old (Meyer) The exact meaning seems to be "when he was in the act of completing forty years." The account in Exodus 2:11 only says, "When Moses was grown" ( μέγας γενόμενος , LXX .); the age of forty years, and the number of years, forty, that he sojourned in Midian, as given below, verse 30, are traditional. "There are that say that Moses was forty years in Pharaoh's palace, forty years in Midian, and forty years in the wilderness" (Tauchum, in Exodus it.). "Moses was forty years in Pharaoh's court, and forty years in Midian, and forty years he served Israel" (Beresh. Rabb.), both quoted by Lightfoot ('Comment. and Exercitations upon the Acts'). The sum total of the three periods of forty years is given as the length of Moses' life, viz. a hundred and twenty years ( Deuteronomy 34:7 ). Exodus 2:24 .—Smiting for and smote, A.V.