The KJV
Exodus 12:40 verse has no problem with it.
It's just one more verse in the Bible that's fine.
The 400 years began
Genesis 21:8-9.
N
NE KNOWS WHAT YEAR ISAAC WAS WEANED.
NOTHING SAYS THE FOUR HUNDRED YEARS STARTED
WHEN ISAAC WAS WEANED, in Genesis 21:8-9,
OR ANYWHERE ELSE, RIGHT?
WHEN DID THEY START THAT?
NOTHING SAYS THE 400 YEARS
STARTS WHEN ISAAC WAS MOCKED, DOES IT?
THIS IS REMARKABLE. WHERE DO YOU
COME UP WITH THIS STUFF???
The 400 years began with Isaac being mocked,
. . . afflicted,
Genesis 21:9.
In Genesis 15:13 we read that the Lord said to Abraham, "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." This text raises the questions whether the 400 years refer to the time of affliction or sojourning, or both, and what the relation of the 400 years is to the 430 years of Exodus 12:40, 41, and Galatians 3:16, 17.
Galatians 3:17 tells us that the full period of 430 years started from the covenant of grace given to Abraham and his seed to inherit the promised land and extended to the time of the giving of the law by Moses to the children of Israel.
Genesis 12 tells us that God had called Abraham to leave his country, kindred, and fathers house to go into a land that God would show him and later give to his seed as their promised inheritance. However Abraham tarried for some time (perhaps 5 years) in Haran before he finally departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him (Gen. 12:1-4).
When God again appears to Abraham in Genesis 15, the sacrifice is offered and the covenant is further developed. God tells Abraham 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.
The solution here is that the period of 400 years affliction does not refer only to the time spent in bondage in Egypt. Abraham's seed could not possibly have been there for 430 nor 400 years as the genealogies tell us.
According to Galatians 3:17, at that time the 430 years began, Abraham was probably about 70 years old when God initially called him go leave his fathers house and go into the promised land. Abraham was 75 when he finally left Haran to enter the land. Ishmael was born to Abraham when he was 86 (Gen. 16:16) and Isaac was born when Abraham is 100 years old (Genesis 17:17).
The affliction that the seed of Abraham endured was to occur over a span of 400 years.
During this time Ishmael, who "was born after the flesh persecuted him [Isaac] that was born after the spirit" (Galatians 4:29; Genesis 21:9-11), Beginning a time of affliction of Abraham's seed which intermittently would be continued until the time of the Exodus.
Isaac had not only troubles with his half brother Ishmael, but also with the Philistines (Genesis 26:15, 20, 21); Jacob fled for his life from Esau (Genesis 27: 41-43), and later from Laban (Genesis 31:21), and then was again in jeopardy from Esau (Genesis 32:
;
Joseph was sold into slavery by his brethren (Genesis 37:2
,
and the children of Israel were oppressed by the Egyptians for many decades (Exodus 1:14).
Acts 7:6-7 tells us - And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
Abraham's seed did sojourn in a strange land because they had not yet received the promised inheritance, and they were eventually brought into bondage in Egypt, but the period of their being evil entreated was not limited only to the time spent in Egypt, as the rest of Scripture tells us.
The time from Abraham's call to Jacob's entry into Egypt was 215 years,
being the total of
(1) thirty years lying between Abraham's call
and the birth of Isaac (Genesis 12:4; 21:5),
(2) sixty years lying between Isaac's birth and Jacob's birth (Genesis 25:26),
and (3) the age of Jacob at the time of his migration into Egypt (Genesis 47:9).
This leaves the remaining 215 years of the 430 as the actual time the Hebrews spent in Egypt. Hence the 430 years of Exodus 12:40 includes the sojourn of the patriarchs in Canaan as well as their stay in Egypt.
The King James Bible properly says
"Now the SOJOURNING
of the children of Israel (comma),
who dwelt in Egypt (at this time, comma),
was 430 years."
The verb to sojourn means to dwell for a time as a temporary resident, or as a stranger, not considering the place a permanent habitation. The noun sojourn is a temporary residence, as if a traveler in a foreign land.
Exodus 12:40 is to be read in the sense that the total time of sojourning of Abraham and his seed was 430 years. This includes all the time Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his family spent wandering around the land that was owned by others until the time came when God gave it to them as their promised inheritance. At the time Exodus 12 describes, the children of Israel were in Egypt, but the text does NOT say that they had been in Egypt for the full 430 years.
King James Bible -
"Now the sojourning
of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt,
was four hundred and thirty years."
Adam Clarke comments:
From Abraham's entry into Canaan to the birth of Isaac was 25 years,
Genesis 12:4; 17:1-21; Isaac was 60 years old at the birth of Jacob, Genesis 25:26; and Jacob was 130 at his going down into Egypt, Genesis 47:9; which three sums make 215 years. And then Jacob and his children having continued in Egypt 215 years more, the whole sum of 430 years is regularly completed.
John Gill Exodus 12:40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And certain it is, that Israel did not dwell in Egypt four hundred and thirty years, and even not much more than two hundred years; but then they and their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, dwelt so long in Mesopotamia, in Canaan, and in Egypt, in foreign countries, in a land not theirs, as the phrase is, (Genesis 15:13) where the place of their sojourning, and the time of it, are given by way of prophecy....
From his coming out of his own native place, Ur of the Chaldeans, to the birth of Isaac, might be so many years, since he was seventy five years of age when he came out of Haran, (Genesis 12:4) and if he stayed at Haran five years, as probably he did,
then there were just thirty from his coming out of Ur of the Chaldees to Isaac's birth, since he was born when he was one hundred years old; and from the birth of Isaac to the birth of Jacob was sixty years, (Genesis 25:26) and from thence to his going down to Egypt was one hundred and thirty, (Genesis 47:9) and from thence to the coming of Israel out of Egypt were two hundred and ten years, as is generally computed, which make the exact sum of four hundred and thirty years.