Exodus 12:40

Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, х uwmowshab (H4186) bªneey (H1121) Yisraa'eel (H3478) 'ªsher (H834) yaashªbuw (H3427) ... bªMitsraayim (H4713) - the sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt, and so the Septuagint, hee de katoikeesis toon huioon Israeel heen katookeesan en gee Aiguptoo.] The plain import of the present Hebrew text is, that the Israelites remained in Egypt, as a tribe or people, during the period specified. The Septuagint adds the clause: kai en gee Chanaan, and in the land of Canaan, and the Alexandrian Codex, the Samaritan text, and the Targum of Jonathan, have this further insertion [autoi kai hoi pateres autoon]; so that the reading is: 'They and their fathers sojourned in Egypt, and in the land of Canaan 430 years.' Without entering into a critical inquiry whether the text in the Septuagint is more accurate than the Masoretic reading, or the Septuagint has interpolated a clause by way of explanatory gloss, it is obvious that the adoption of the one or the other of these readings must materially affect the view taken of the duration of the sojourn.

Through the indirect influence of the Septuagint, Josephus, and the Rabbis, the truthfulness of whose views has been supposed to be endorsed by Paul (Galatians 3:17), the popular interpretation of this passage is to consider it as embracing the entire period, from the call of Abraham to the exodus:-thus reducing the actual stay of the Israelites in Egypt to 215 years, while the previous half was that passed by the patriarchs in Canaan. The point of commencement in the computation is laid in the prophetic announcement to Abraham.

But such an interpretation is not warranted by the terms of that prophecy, which describes the fortunes of Abraham's posterity during a period of 400 years (cf. Acts 7:6), not those of the patriarch himself, though, if the specified time is to be reckoned from the call at Haran, it must include a portion of his past life; because he had been several years in Canaan before he was favoured with the vision.

Moreover, it speaks of his descendants being "strangers in a strange land" - a description totally inapplicable to Canaan, which was his as well as theirs by divine promise, and in which, although all the three great patriarchs were frequently annoyed by the petty jealousies of surrounding tribes, they could not be said to be afflicted, much less to lose their independence. Above all, it is added, that "in the fourth generation (see the note at Genesis 15:16) they should come hither again" - words which evidently mean that the servitude and affliction were to be endured in another-a foreign land, from which they were to be restored to Canaan.

On these grounds, the old traditionary interpretation, which computes this portion of Israel's early history from the call of Abraham to the exodus, has been abandoned by all the modern commentators of eminence, except Bengel and Baumgarten; and the statement in Exodus 12:40 is taken in its natural acceptation, as referring exclusively to the sojourn in Egypt. The difficulties that were supposed to stand in the way of this explanation have disappeared before the searching scrutiny of criticism. Thus,

(1) The hypothesis that the sojourn in Egypt lasted for 215 years only was based chiefly on the passage in Galatians 3:17, where the apostle alludes to the promise made to Abraham and his seed, which was Christ; a promise which was repeated to Jacob at Beersheba, on the night previous to that patriarch and his household entering within the confines of Egypt. That announcement is related with such solemn particularity, and is so evidently alluded to in the verse under review, that every intelligent and reflecting reader must be persuaded it is from this last repetition of the promise-not the first utterance of it-the 430 years of the apostle must be dated.

(2) Another difficulty that stood in the way of the short chronology was the genealogy of Aaron (Exodus 6:16). But we have shown on that passage (cf. Numbers 26:59) that the genealogical table must have been abridged; because between Joseph and Joshua there were 10 descents-he being the 11th - i:e., the exodus comprised 10 full generations of 30 or 40 years each, with part of an 11th, amounting to 430 years.

Colenso considers the record unhistorical, from the fact that 430 years, which are exactly the double of the 215 years of patriarchal tradition, bear the aspect of an artificial arrangement (see also Bunsen, 'Egypt's Place,' vol. 1:, p. 173; Lepsius' 'Letters,' pp. 403-4). Bunsen rejects it also, on the ground that 430 years make too short a period for the development of a national existence, and in accordance with his views of vital statistics, expands the chronology into 1,430 years as the real length of the interval between the going down of Jacob into Egypt and the exodus under Moses ('Egypt's Place,' vol. 4:, pp. 492-3); while, on the other hand, Lepsius, conformably to his special system of Egyptian chronology, limits the sojourn of the Israelites to 90 years (Lepsius' 'Letters,' Horner's 'Translat.,' p. 475). There can be no doubt that the view given above is the true interpretation of the passage before us.

The round or general number of 400 years, which was appropriate in a prophecy, is exchanged for the precise and definite date of 430, which is more suited to a historical record. And thus the statement in Exodus 12:40 is seen to occupy its natural place as a proper conclusion to the narrative of the exodus. It forms one of two salient points for the chronology of Israel's history in ancient times, and the prophetic type of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 4:5), where the 390 + 40 = 430 days to be reckoned years, is obviously borrowed from the duration of this sojourn.