Genesis 15:13

Know of a surety. This dream — or perhaps it was a vision — clarified for Abram the promises previously made to him. Additional information now revealed made it clear that immediate possession of Canaan could not be expected. But the certainty of the promises is stated in the strongest possible language of which Hebrew is capable. The phrase may be rendered literally, “knowing thou shalt know.” Abram may have wondered many times how much longer he would have to remain a stranger in the Land of Promise, and how he would ever realize the fulfillment of God’s promises. This revelation left no uncertainty as to the fact that he would remain a wanderer as long as he lived, as would his unborn descendants for four generations. The land of their sojourn is not mentioned in the vision, but its fulfillment made clear that both Canaan and Egypt were included. Canaan being economically dependent upon Egypt during the days of Abram and Isaac, and politically dependent as well under the Hyksos kings in Jacob’s and Joseph’s time, it is not strange to find both lands included in the singular “a land.”

Serve them. How strange it must have seemed to Abram that his seed, concerning whom such wonderful promises had been made, were to serve those in whose midst they should live. This prophecy was fulfilled in due time. Jacob, his grandson, became a servant for 20 years to Laban (ch. 31:41). Joseph, his great-grandson, was even sold as a slave, and later imprisoned (chs. 39:1; 40:4). Finally, all the descendants of Israel were made slaves in Egypt (Ex. 1:13, 14).

They shall afflict them. Israel’s sojourn was to include not only servitude but affliction — persecution — as well. The sequence of pronouns seems rather ambiguous to the English reader, but is not so to one acquainted with Hebrew. According to the rule of inverted parallelism, in which the last member of a pair comes first when the parallelism is next mentioned, the pronoun “they” in the expression “they shall afflict them” refers back to the “them” of “shall serve them” (see on Gen. 10:1, 2).

The fulfillment of this prophecy may be traced in practically every generation for four centuries. Abram’s son Isaac was “persecuted” by Ishmael (Gal. 4:29; cf. Gen. 21:9). Jacob fled for his life from Esau (Gen. 27:41-43) and later from Laban (ch. 31:2, 21, 29). Joseph was sold by his own brothers as a slave and later unjustly thrown in jail (chs. 37:28; 39:20). The children of Israel, finally, were sorely “afflicted” by the Egyptians after Joseph’s death (Ex. 1:8, 12).

Four hundred years. The questions to be answered are: (1) Is this the time of affliction or the time of sojourning, or both? (2) How are these 400 years related to the 430 of Ex. 12:40, 41 and Gal. 3:16, 17? The first question hinges upon a solution to the second.

The statement in Ex. 12:40, that “the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years,” seems to imply that the Hebrews actually spent 430 years there, from Jacob’s entry to the Exodus. That this cannot be the meaning is evident from Gal. 3:16, 17, where it is stated that the law was promulgated at Sinai 430 years after the covenant between God and Abram. If Paul refers to the first promise made to Abram in Haran (Gen. 12:1-3), the 430 years began when Abram was 75 years old (ch. 12:4). The 400 years of affliction would then begin 30 years later, when Abram was 105 and his son Isaac 5 years old (ch. 21:5). This would be about the time Ishmael, who “was born after the flesh persecuted him [Isaac] that was born after the Spirit” (Gal. 4:29; Gen. 21:9-11).

The exact time from the call of Abram to Jacob’s entry into Egypt was 215 years (see Gen. 21:5; 25:26; 47:9), which would leave 215 years of the 430 as the actual time the Hebrews spent there. For this reason the 430 years of Ex. 12:40 must include the sojourn in Canaan as well as that in Egypt, from Abram’s call to the Exodus. The LXX renders Ex. 12:40 thus: “And the sojourning of the children of Israel, while they sojourned in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years.” As already pointed out, the land of Canaan was so dependent upon Egypt during the patriarchal period that Egyptian kings actually considered it theirs and referred to it as such. During the Eighteenth Dynasty, whose kings controlled both Palestine and Syria, Moses could appropriately include Canaan in the term Egypt as used in Ex. 12:40.

That nation. Without revealing the name of the nation referred to, the prophecy points to the time of the plagues that came upon Egypt (see Ex. 6:6).

Come out with great substance. This promise was remarkably fulfilled in the miraculous deliverance of the Hebrews from bondage, and in the immense wealth they carried with them (Ex. 12:36).