Exodus 12:40

Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt,.... The Septuagint version adds, "and in the land of Canaan"; and the Samaritan version is, "the sojourning of the children of

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

It is plain that those years are to be computed from the first promise made to Abraham, ,2, to the giving of the law, from , 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, , but only when he went out of Haran, being seventy-five years old, ; 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, . 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 , 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 25:35,40 Numbers 35:15 . 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.

Exodus 12:40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, [was] four hundred and thirty years.Ver. 40. Was four hundred and thirty years,] sc., From the time that Abraham began to sojourn in the land of Canaan, and to pass into Egypt. See Galatians 3:17,

(40) The sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt.—Heb., which they sojourned in EgyptWas 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 (1 Chronicles 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.

Verse 40. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, c.] The statement in this verse is allowed on all hands to be extremely difficult, and therefore the passage stands in especial need of illustration. "That the descendants of Israel did not dwell 430 years in Egypt," says Dr. Kennicott, "may be easily proved, and has often been demonstrated. Some therefore imagine that by Egypt here both it and Canaan are to be understood. But this greater latitude of place will not solve the difficulty, since the Israelites, including Israel their father, did not sojourn 430 years in both countries previous to their departure from Egypt. Others, sensible of the still remaining deficiency, would not only have Egypt in the text to signify it and Canaan, but by a figure more comprehensive would have the children of Israel to mean Israel's children, and Israel their father, and Isaac the father of Israel, and part of the life of Abraham, the father of Isaac. "Thus indeed," says Dr. Kennicott, "we arrive at the exact sum, and by this method of reckoning we might arrive at any thing but truth, which we may presume was never thus conveyed by an inspired writer." But can the difficulty be removed without having recourse to such absurd shifts? Certainly it can. The Samaritan Pentateuch, in all its manuscripts and printed copies, reads the place thus: - [Samaritan] Umoshab beney Yishrael veabotham asher yashebu baarets Cenaan, ubaarets mitsraim sheloshim shanah vearba meoth shanah. "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt, was 430 years." This same sum is given by St. Paul, Galatians 3:17, who reckons from the promise made to Abraham, when God commanded him to go to Canaan, to the giving of the law, which soon followed the departure from Egypt and this chronology of the apostle is concordant with the Samaritan Pentateuch, which, by preserving the two passages, they and their fathers, and in the land of Canaan, which are lost out of the present copies of the Hebrew text, has rescued this passage from all obscurity and contradiction. It may be necessary to observe that the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint has the same reading as that in the Samaritan. The Samaritan Pentateuch is allowed by many learned men to exhibit the most correct copy of the five books of Moses; and the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint must also be allowed to be one of the most authentic as well as most ancient copies of this version which we possess. As to St. Paul, no man will dispute the authenticity of his statement; and thus in the mouth of these three most respectable witnesses the whole account is indubitably established.

37–42. The departure from Egypt.

Who dwelt - Read, which they sojourned. The obvious intention of Moses is to state the duration of the sojourn in Egypt.

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.