Exodus 12:40

40. The sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt Or, as in Septuagint, The sojourning which they sojourned . This much-controverted passage forms one of the pivots of biblical chronology. The question is simply as to the point from which the four hundred and thirty years are to be reckoned. The Septuagint (Vatican Codex) has an important addition, and reads, “The sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt and in Canaan;” while in the Alexandrian Codex there is still another addition, making it read, “which they and their fathers sojourned in Egypt and in Canaan.” Thus the Alexandrian translators of this book of Exodus (about 280 B.C.) clearly understood that this “sojourn” dated from Abraham’s call, and included the time when the “fathers” of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “sojourned in the Land of Promise as in a strange country,” as well as the time of the bondage of their children in Egypt. The Samaritan has the same reading. (See Introd., (2,) chap. 11.) But the Hebrew text is without doubt correct, and these additions are to be understood as explanatory emendations by these translators, who wished to show how the three patriarchs might be included with the “children of Israel,” and the sojourn in Canaan be united with that in Egypt. These translations have evidently only the authority of explanatory comments, and the question is, Do they correctly explain our text? Is the sojourning of the “fathers,” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in Canaan, included in the sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt?

The first strong impression clearly is, that the text declares the Egyptian sojourn to have been four hundred and thirty years, for we have the phrase “which they sojourned in Egypt;” and “the children of Israel” only are spoken of. But we are to consider that the Hebrew idiom is much more pliant than ours in the use of terms. Fathers are included in children, as in Matthew xxiii, 35, “Ye slew;” and children in fathers, as in Hebrews 7:9, “Levi paid tithes in Abraham.” The Hebrew race might have been freely styled the “children of Israel” from Abraham downwards, and the whole sojourning period of the race might have been in the writer’s mind, though he specifies the most remarkable part of that period as peculiarly characteristic of it as a whole, which they sojourned in Egypt. That is, although they had also sojourned in Canaan, yet their Egyptian life, having been the epoch of God’s remarkable providences in their behalf, gave the whole period character. This history, thus interpreted, is also well illustrated by the prophecy to Abraham, (Genesis 15:13; Genesis 15:16,) “Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years . ” Now this doubtless refers to the Egyptian bondage, yet, as shown in the notes on Exodus i, the real bondage or affliction did not begin till shortly before the birth of Moses, and so could not have lasted over eighty years . Yet this eighty years gives the character of “affliction” to the whole period . Now it is probable that the historical statement in our text spreads the Egyptian “sojourn” over the four centuries, just as the prophetic statement in Genesis does the Egyptian bondage and affliction. St. Paul expressly declares that the four-hundred-and-thirty years period is to be reckoned from the covenant with Abraham. Galatians 3:17.

If this be the correct view, then just one half of this period, or two hundred and fifteen years, was spent in the Egyptian sojourn. This may be thus seen: Abraham was seventy-five when he left Haran, (Genesis 12:4,) and one hundred when Isaac was born, (Genesis 21:5,) and therefore from the call of Abraham to the birth of Isaac was twenty-five years . From the birth of Isaac to that of Jacob was sixty years, (Genesis 25:26,) and from the birth of Jacob to the descent into Egypt was one hundred and thirty, (Genesis 47:9,) and so from the call of Abraham to the descent into Egypt was two hundred and fifteen years, since 25+60+130=215 . The genealogy of Moses and Aaron, as given in Exodus 6:16-20, points to the short period, or a sojourn of two hundred and fifteen years in Egypt, and we must suppose that several generations are omitted if the long period be taken, since four generations cannot be made to span four hundred and thirty years. This supposition is adopted by many, (Tiele, Kurtz, Keil, Thompson, etc.;) but all the events of the “bondage” can be brought within the short period, or two hundred and fifteen years. See Concluding Note.