Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 12:40

40 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, Gen. 12. 1, 2. to the giving of the law, from Gal. 3. 17. where this is affirmed. And although it doth not plainly appear when that promise was made, because the Scripture mentions not Abrahams age, neither when it was made, nor when Abram came to Haran with his father: Gen. 11. 31. but onely when he went out of Haran being 75 years old, Gen. 12. 4. yet a good while after it was made, and, as it may seem more than probable, 30 years afterward, it is manifest there were onely 400 years of this time to come, Gen. 15. 13. And many more years passed ere there was such a man as Israel or Iacob, and more ere there were any children of Israel, or of Iacob, and yet more ere they came into Egypt. How then can this be true which is here said? Ans. 1. Some affirm that they were in Egypt 430 years, which is sooner said than proved. 2. Some antient 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, adde, together with their fathers, or, and their fathers. And so the difficulty vanisheth. And if it should be granted, that there were some few such errours in our present copies in matters purely historical or chronological, which God might permit to be there for many wise and holy reasons, yet this is no preiudice to our faith, or to Gods 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 430. 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 rendred, 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 sence is, that they were sojourners, or, which is all one, strangers or dwellers in a land that was not theirs, as it is said Gen. 15. 13. for 430 years. And the emphasis lies in the Hebrew word moshab, which is here fitly rendred 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 Levit. 22. 10. and 25. 35, 40. Numb. 35. 15. Psal. 30. 12. 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? Ans. As Levi is said to pay tithes in Abraham, Heb. 7. 9. because he was in the [illegible: 1+ letters]ns of Abraham when Abraham paid tithes, with much more reason might the children of Israel be said to solourn so long, because they sojourned a great part of it in their own persons, and the rest in the loyns of their parents. And as oft times when the parents onely are mentioned, the children are included or intended, as Gen. 12. 3. in [illegible: 1 word], i. e. in thy seed: and Gen. 13. 17. I will give it (the land) unto t[illegible: 1+ letters], i. e. to thy seed: and Iacob is said to be [illegible: 1+ letters]rought to again out of Egypt, Gen. 46. [illegible: 1 word]. to wit [illegible: 1+ letters] hi[illegible: 1+ letters] posterity▪ and David is oft put for his posterity, as 1 King. 12. 16. Ezek. 34. 23. and 37. 24, 25. why may not parents also be understood sometimes, when the children onely are mentioned? But we need not make suppositions, seeing we have examples, the persecution in Egy[illegible: 1+ letters]t and deliverance out of it, which happened to the parents onely, being attributed to their posterity, who neither felt the one, nor saw the other, Deut. 26. 5. &c. Compare Psal. 66. 6. Iudg. 10. 11, 12. And the souls of the house of Iacob (i. e. of the children of Israel, for by house it is evident he means onely children) which came with Iacob into Egypt are said to be threescore and ten souls, Gen. 46. 26, 27. In which number and title Iacob himself is confessedly included. And therefore upon the very same ground, under this title of the children of Israel we must understand Israel himself, who being the chief author and subiect of this sojourning in Egypt, it were unreasonable to exclude him from the number of these sojourners. And this phrase being once extended to their immediate parent, may by a parity of reason be extended to their great grandfather Abraham as being the first Author of that famous peregrination or sojourning which being begun in Canaan ended in Egypt. Add to this, that the word Israel, as it is put for the people or children of Israel, is elsewhere used for the whole Church of God, as Rom. 9. 6. and therefore may well include Abraham as the father, and▪ under God, the founder of it. And the title of the children of Israel might well be given to all that people and to the family from which they descended, because they were now known by that name. And that this indeed was Moses his meaning, which is here produced▪ may be further gathered from hence, that otherwise Moses had contradicted himself: for by the years of the lives of Iacob and Levi and Kohath and Abram and Moses himself, which he precisely sets down, it appears that the sojourning of the children of Israel strictly so called in Egypt was not above 215 years. And it is absurd to think that so wise and learned a man as all acknowledge Moses to have been should commit so gross an errour, especially seeing that generation could easily have confuted him.

Marginal references: Gen. 15. 13. Act. 7. 6. Gal. 3. 17.