And the residence of the children of Israel that they resided in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
This verse puts a number on Israel's stay in Egypt: 430 years. Other passages appear to count differently, yet behind the arithmetic stands a God who fixed a term long in advance and kept it to the day.
Placed beside other verses, the number creates a real difficulty. Commentators say so plainly.
A question not easily answered is, How long were the Israelites in Egypt? Genesis 15:13 and Acts 7:6 seem to state the period as four hundred years. Exodus 12:40 gives four hundred and thirty years for the time the people of Israel lived in Egypt. And Galatians 3:17 declares that God gave the law four hundred and thirty years after the promise to Abraham. But the promise to Abraham came long before Israel went into Egypt, and God gave the law after they came out. So according to this passage, their stay in Egypt must have been much less than four hundred years.
One explanation starts the clock at Abraham's leaving Ur, not at the arrival in Egypt.
Now, from where should we count this period? We know when it ended — at the Exodus — so its beginning is not hard to work out. From the birth of Isaac to the Exodus was to be four hundred years. (Genesis 15:13.) From Abraham's departure out of Haran to the birth of his son was twenty-five years more. (Genesis 12:4; 21:5.) It is likely, then, that he left Ur five years before he left Haran. That accounts for the four hundred and thirty years. They cover the whole time that Israel and the patriarchs lived as strangers in countries they did not own.
Others reach a similar result by treating the 400 years of Genesis 15 as marking where the period ends rather than fencing it at both ends.
It is plain, therefore, that the 430 years are to be taken as from the promise, and that they define the time to which the captivity in Egypt lasted. Thus in Genesis 15 we must read this as meaning that the people should be captives to the Egyptians until 400 years from that time; the captivity is defined by the end of it, instead of what we would at first naturally think, by both ends.
Commentators differ, and some decline to settle it. Darby weighed the same evidence and left the matter open, noting that Paul's aim in Galatians was not to fix a date but to show how long the law came after the promise.
He refers to Exodus 12:40, which was enough for his purpose and is ambiguous. He may refer to patriarchal times as those of promise, and take the Egyptian stay as four hundred and thirty years. The length of the sojourn in Egypt is an unsettled question.
Another approach counts the stay in Egypt itself from the generations listed in Scripture, and reaches a far shorter figure.
A much shorter period is implied in Genesis 15:16, which says of Israel in Egypt that they will come back here in the fourth generation. And if we turn to Exodus 6:16-20 we find exactly four generations: Jacob's son Levi, Levi's son Kohath, Kohath's son Amram, and Amram's son Moses... Israel may have been in Egypt about two hundred and fifteen years, and this is the period now generally supposed.
Some early translations of the Old Testament add extra words here. Others leave them out.
The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek Septuagint add the words "and of their fathers in the land of Canaan." But the Arabic, Syriac and Vulgate versions do not have these words. Someone may therefore have added them to meet the apparent difficulty. It is better to take the four hundred and thirty years as covering the stay of Abraham (after the promise), of Isaac, and of Jacob. Strictly speaking, though, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not "children of Israel."
Whatever the starting point, the passage stresses how exactly the period ended. It also gives the people a new name as they leave.
Verses 40-42 show us the exactness with which God keeps to His own appointed time. He had mentioned 400 years to Abraham, as we see in Genesis 15:13. Scripture does not tell us the exact point from which the 430 years start. But on the very day they ended, the people went out of Egypt. Scripture calls them "the hosts of the Lord," though to all appearance they were only a large crowd of freed slaves.
Egypt had been their home for centuries, yet it was never more than a stay. They saw that on the night they left.
They were now strangers in Egypt — the land that had been their home for so many years... The link with Egypt snapped at once, and that very night they marched from Rameses to Succoth with their wives, their children, their cattle and their goods... Slaves not long before, they were now free: pilgrims and strangers in the only land they had ever known as home.
The sheer length of the stay is itself a lesson for a people still waiting.
Of course this covered many generations. But Israel has now lived scattered among the nations for almost 2000 years, ever since they rejected Christ! Yet God will bring them back in His appointed time.
- Promise — The 430 years are best read as running from God's word to Abraham, not just from the move into Egypt. The clock starts with a promise.
- Puzzle — Genesis 15, Exodus 12 and Galatians 3 count differently. Some trace the stay in Egypt itself to about two hundred and fifteen years. Others call its length an unsettled question.
- Text — The words "and of their fathers in the land of Canaan" appear in some early translations but not others. They may be an effort to ease the difficulty.
- Precision — The period closed on the very day it was due; God keeps exactly to His own appointed time.
- Patience — Centuries in Egypt did not cancel the promise. Israel's long scattering today will not cancel it either.
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, on that same day it came to pass that all the hosts of Jehovah went out from the land of Egypt.
Israel left Egypt on a date God had already fixed. Two questions follow: when did the 430 years start, and why is a crowd of slaves called "the hosts of the LORD"?
The point of the wording is not the length of the wait but its accuracy.
Verses 40-42 show us the exactness with which God keeps to His own appointed time. He had mentioned 400 years to Abraham, as we see in Genesis 15:13. We are not told the exact point from which the 430 years are counted. But on the very day it ended the people went out of Egypt. They are called "the hosts of the Lord," though to all appearance they were only a large crowd of freed slaves. Verse 51 says again that it was the "same day" God had purposed.
The exodus is one of several dates God set long in advance and kept.
If He fixes a time, He keeps to it. He fixed with Himself the limit of His patience with the old world (Gen. 6:3), at the end of which the flood came. He fixed the date of the Exodus long before Jacob entered Egypt (Gen. 15:16), and it took place (Ex. 12:41). He set the length of the captivity in Babylon (Jer. 25:11; 27:7; 29:10), after which Cyrus set them free.
Commentators differ on when the count begins. One reading stretches the period back over the whole family line, since Genesis speaks of a land not theirs, not of Egypt.
Genesis 15:13 and Acts 7:6 say nothing about Egypt: "your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs." God said this to Abraham, and it may cover the whole period from the birth of Isaac to the Exodus... It is better to take the 430 years as covering the stay of Abraham (after the promise), and of Isaac, and of Jacob — though, strictly speaking, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not "children of Israel."
Others leave the question open rather than force the figures.
At first sight Galatians 3:17 appears to settle the question. Looked at closely, though, I do not think it has to. The apostle refers to Exodus 12:40, which was enough for his purpose and is ambiguous. He may refer to the patriarchal times as the times of promise, and take the Egyptian stay as four hundred and thirty years. The length of the stay in Egypt is an unsettled question.
The same 430 years appear again in the New Testament, this time as the gap between God's promise to Abraham and the giving of the law.
God took care that, between the promise given to Abraham and Isaac and the law, a period of more than four centuries should pass. Had He given the law a short time after, they might have said it was all one and the same thing. But how could anyone think that, with 430 years in between? The promise has its own special object, and the law its design also; and we are not to mix the two things together.
The exodus had a shape as well as a date.
And in what way were the slaves to be brought out? As escaped slaves? No, "by their hosts" (Exodus 6:26), with all the dignity of the host of the Lord.
Three things moved the same crowd out of Egypt that night.
In verses 39-42 we have three very striking marks of the truly redeemed... First, as those whom the Egyptians could no longer put up with... so "they were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, we are all dead men." Second, they felt the weight of the cruel slavery they had been in, and now the door of escape lay wide open before them. So they "went out" of their own free will in glad liberty. Third, their hearts were bowed before Jehovah because of this wonderful act of grace on their behalf. On that night "to be much observed to the Lord," they feel His grace and power directly in "bringing them out from the land of Egypt."
One long wait for Israel ended on time. Another is still running.
Of course this covered many generations. But Israel's scattering among the nations since they rejected Christ has now lasted almost 2000 years! Yet God will bring them back at His appointed time.
- Promise. Where the 430 years begin is unsettled — from the promise to Abraham, or from the years in Egypt alone. Either way, God gave His word long before the day arrived.
- Precision. The years ran out and the people walked out on the same day. God keeps every date He fixes — the flood, the exodus, the return from Babylon.
- Distance. The long gap between promise and law was deliberate, so no one could treat promise and law as one and the same thing.
- Dignity. Pharaoh's slaves marched out in ranks as the hosts of the Lord, though they looked like nothing more than freed labourers.
- Pattern. Israel's scattering has already outlasted the years in Egypt. The God who ended that wait on time will end this one too.