CHAPTER XV.

THE SOJOURNING OF THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT.

100. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. E. xii. 40.

The question, which we have here to consider, is this,-To what'sojourning' do the above words refer,

-whether to that of Jacob and his descendants in the land of Egypt only, or to the entire sojourning of them and their forefathers, Abraham and Isaac, 'in a strange land,' both in Canaan and Egypt, from the time when the promise of old was given to Abraham, and he 'sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,' Heb. xi. 9?

The verse above quoted, as it stands in the E. V., does not decide the question.

But there is evidently something unusual and awkward in the manner, in which the phrase, 'who dwelt in Egypt,' enters into the above passage. And, in fact, the original words would be more naturally translated, (as in the Vulgate, Chald., Syr., and Arab. Versions,) 'the sojourning of the children of Israel, which they sojourned in Egypt,' but for the serious difficulties which would thus arise.

101. In the first place, St. PAUL, referring to the covenant, that was confirmed before of God' unto Abraham, says, 'the Law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul it,' Gal. iii. 17. It is plain, then, that St. PAUL dates the beginning of the four hundred and thirty years, not from the going down into Egypt, but from the time of the promise made to Abraham.

102. Again, in E. vi. 16-20, we have given the genealogy of Moses and Aaron, as follows:

'These are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their generations, Gershon, and Kohath, and Me-rari. And the years of the life of Levi were a hundred thirty and seven years.

And the sons of Kohath, Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel. And the years of the life of Kohath were a hundred thirty and three years.

'And Amram took him Jochebed, his father's sister, to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses. And the years of the life of Amram were a hundred thirty and seven years.'

Now supposing that Kohath was only an infant, when brought down by his father to Egypt with Jacob, G. xlvi. 11, and that he begat Amram at the very end of his life, when 133 years old, and that Amram, in like manner, begat Moses, when he was 137 years old, still these two numbers added to 80 years, the age of Moses at the time of the Exodus, E. vii. 7, would only amount to 350 years, instead of 430.

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103. Once more, it is stated in the above passage, that Amram took him Jochebed, his father's sister,' -Kohath's sister, and therefore, Levi's daughter,—' to wife.' And so also we read, N. xxvi. 59. 'The

name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom (her mother) bare to him in Egypt.'

Now Levi was one year older than Judah, and was, therefore, 43 years old (20), when he went down with Jacob into Egypt; and we are told above that he was 137 years old, when he died. Levi, therefore, must have lived, according to the story, 94 years in Egypt. Making here again the extreme supposition of his begetting Jochebed in the last year of his life, she may have been an infant 94 years after the migration of Jacob and his sons into Egypt. Hence it follows that, if the sojourn in Egypt was 430 years, Moses, who was 80 years old at the time of the Exodus, must have been born 350 years after the migration into Egypt, when his mother, even on the above extravagant supposition, must have been at the very least 256 years old.

104. It is plain, then, that the 430 years are meant, as St. PAUL understood, to be reckoned from the time of the call of Abraham, when he yet lived in the land of Haran. Thus, reckoning 25 years from his leaving Haran, G. xii. 4, to the birth of Isaac, xxi. 5, 60 years to the birth of Jacob, xxv. 26, 130 years to the migration into Egypt, xlvii. 9, we have 215 years of sojourning in the land of Canaan, leaving just the same length of time, 215 years, for the sojourn in the land of Egypt.

This will agree better with the statements made above as to the birth of Moses, though even then not without a strain upon one's faith. Thus Moses was born 80 years before the Exodus, or 135 years after the migration into Egypt. And Levi may have had Jochebed born to him, (as Abraham had Isaac,) when 100 years old, that is to say, 57 years after the migration into

Egypt, since he was at that time 43 years old (103); in which case Jochebed would have been 78 years old. when she bare Moses, younger, therefore, by 12 years than Sarah at the birth of Isaac, G. xvii. 17.

105. We must conclude, then, that the translation in the English Bible of E. xii. 40, however awkward it reads, is correct as it stands, if the Hebrew words themselves are correct, as they appear in all manuscript and printed copies of the Pentateuch.

The LXX, however, and the Samaritan Version, insert a few words, which are either a gloss to make the meaning of the passage more plain, or else are a translation of words, which existed in those copies of the Hebrew Bible, which were used for those Versions, though not found in our own. The Vatican copy of the LXX renders the passage thus: 'The sojourning of the children of Israel, which they sojourned in Egypt and in the land of Canaan, was 430 years.' The Alexandrian has, 'The sojourning of the children of Israel, which they and their fathers sojourned in Egypt and in the land of Canaan, was 430 years.' The Samaritan has, '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.'

In fact, during all those 430 years, Abraham and his seed were, according to the story, sojourning as strangers in the land of promise as in a strange land,' -in a land which ' was not their own,' but for the present the possession of the Gentiles.'

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106. And this agrees also substantially with the promise in G. xv. 13-16, which is quoted by St. STEPHEN, Acts vii. 6: Know of a surety that 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. And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterwards they shall come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.'’

At first sight, indeed, it would seem from the above that Abraham's descendants were to be afflicted for 400 years, in one land, such as Egypt, by one nation. But it is certain that they were not afflicted, according to the story, during all the time of their sojourn in Egypt. And hence it appears that the time here specified, 400 years, is meant to refer to the time during which the 'Seed of Abraham' should be sojourners in a strange land, rather than to the oppression, which they were to suffer during some part of that sojourning. They lived as 'pilgrims and strangers' in the land of Canaan; and they were at times, no doubt, much more uncomfortable among the people of that land, G. xxvi. 15-21, xxxiv, than they were in Egypt during the seventy years while Joseph yet lived (110), and, we may suppose, for some time after his death.

107. We conclude, then, that the 400 years in the above passage are meant to date from the birth of Isaac, Abraham's seed,' from which to the Exodus there may be reckoned, as in (104), 405, or, in round numbers, 400, years. If, indeed, we suppose that five years may be considered to have elapsed, after Abram was called in Ur of the Chaldees, before he reached the land of Canaan, during which interval God 'brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees,' G. xv. 7, and he came out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran,