Exodus 12:40
in Exodus 12Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt was 430 years.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
KJV
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
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This verse in Exodus 12
Commentary
6 notes on this verseNow 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 Israel, and of their fathers, in the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt.''Agreeably to which are both the Talmuds: in one (o) of them the words are,"in Egypt and in all lands,''and in the other (p),"in Egypt, and in the rest of the lands;''and in the same way Aben Ezra interprets the words.
This site's exposition
the duration of the Israelites’ stay
on Exodus 12:40-41
The 430 years are stated twice, and the going out is dated to the very day. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint count the 430 across Canaan and Egypt together, while the Masoretic Hebrew counts Egypt alone.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
So long the promise God made to Abraham lay dormant and unfulfilled, but now, it revived, and things began to work towards the accomplishment of it. The first day of the march of Abraham's seed towards Canaan was four hundred and thirty years (it should seem, to a day) from the promise made to Abraham, Gen. xii, 2.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, etc. - 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.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Who dwelt - Read, which they sojourned. The obvious intention of Moses is to state the duration of the sojourn in Egypt.
Modern Voices1 voice
A commentator
John F. Ashton (ed.)Unwrapping the Pharaohs, ch. "A Correct Chronology" (with David Down) (2006)
proposed
From Abraham to the Exodus was 430 years (Exodus 12:40-41).
How the passage was read
On Exodus 12:1-51On Exodus 12:1-51
The night Israel still keeps
This chapter founds Passover, in Hebrew Pesach, the spring feast that remembers the night God struck Egypt's firstborn and passed over the blood-marked houses. Jewish families keep it to this day with a ceremonial meal called the seder (Hebrew for “order”): unleavened flatbread (matzah), bitter herbs, cups of wine, and the retelling of this chapter's story, with the children asking the questions.
Honesty about the timeline helps the reader: in the Bible's own period the center of the feast was the lamb, slain and eaten as this chapter commands. The seder as now practiced took its shape after the Temple fell in AD 70 and the lamb could no longer be offered; its oldest written outline is in the Mishnah, the first code of Jewish oral law (about AD 200), which already includes the four cups and the rule that “in every generation a person must see himself as if he personally came out of Egypt.”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Pesachim 10 (the seder's oldest outline) · Mishnah Pesachim 10:5 (“in every generation”) · The Feasts of the LORD (this site's study)
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וּמוֹשַׁב֙ | umoshav | and [the] dwelling of | H4186 → | 44 times |
| בְּנֵ֣י | benei | [the] people of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| אֲשֶׁ֥ר | ʾasher | which | H834 → | 5497 times |
| יָשְׁב֖וּ | yashevu | they dwelt | H3427 → | 1079 times |
| בְּמִצְרָ֑יִם | bemitzrayim | in Egypt | H4714 → | 641 times |
| שְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים | sheloshim | [was] thirty | H7970 → | 172 times |
| שָׁנָ֔ה | shanah | year[s] | H8141 → | 877 times |
| וְאַרְבַּ֥ע | vearba' | and four | H702 → | 318 times |
| מֵא֖וֹת | meot | hundred<s> | H3967 → | 581 times |
| שָׁנָֽה׃ | shanah | year[s] | H8141 → | 877 times |
וּמוֹשַׁב֙and [the] dwelling of
umoshavH4186 →44 times
בְּנֵ֣י[the] people of
beneiH1121 →4930 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
אֲשֶׁ֥רwhich
ʾasherH834 →5497 times
יָשְׁב֖וּthey dwelt
yashevuH3427 →1079 times
בְּמִצְרָ֑יִםin Egypt
bemitzrayimH4714 →641 times
שְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים[was] thirty
sheloshimH7970 →172 times
שָׁנָ֔הyear[s]
shanahH8141 →877 times
וְאַרְבַּ֥עand four
vearba'H702 →318 times
מֵא֖וֹתhundred<s>
meotH3967 →581 times
שָׁנָֽה׃year[s]
shanahH8141 →877 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 15:13Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
it leads to
- Acts 7:6–7
God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
- Exodus 12:40–41
Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt was 430 years.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Exodus 1:11
So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
- Acts 7:6–7
Through
Hebrews 11:9By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
it leads to
- Genesis 12:8
From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD,…
- Genesis 13:18
So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the Oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.
- Genesis 13:3
From the Negev he journeyed from place to place toward Bethel, until he came to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been pitched,
- Genesis 12:8
Through
Acts 7:6God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
it leads to
- Genesis 15:13
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
- Galatians 3:17
What I mean is this: The law that came 430 years later does not revoke the covenant previously established by God, so as to nullify the promise.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Genesis 15:13
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies14
On this verse
About Exodus
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John F. Ashton (ed.), Unwrapping the Pharaohs, ch. "A Correct Chronology" (with David Down); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch.