Genesis 15:16

In the fourth generation. Commentators who apply the 400 years of v. 13 to the actual time the Hebrews spent in Egypt find a grave difficulty here. They must assume that the four generations averaged exactly 100 years each. This is contrary to available evidence. However, since the 400 years of v. 13 must refer to the time from Abram to the Exodus (see on v. 13), and the actual time of Israel’s stay in Egypt was only some 215 years, no discrepancy exists between this prediction and its fulfillment. Caleb belonged to the fourth generation from Judah (1 Chron. 2:3-5, 18), and Moses, from Levi (Ex. 6:16-20). Attempts to determine the length of a “generation” on the basis of Gen. 15:13, 16 are unjustified, and the results quite sure to be misleading. However ever this may be, one “generation,” or group of people, went into Egypt, two dwelt there, and a fourth came out.

The iniquity of the Amorites. There were two fundamental reasons for the apparent delay in the fulfillment of the divine promise. In the first place, it would take time for Abram’s seed to multiply to the point of being able to take over the country. In the second place, divine love and justice claimed for the Amorites an extension of their day of grace, lest they or others should charge God with unfairness and partiality when the time should come to destroy them and take over their country. In other words, the Hebrews were not ready to possess the land, nor was God ready to dispossess the Amorites.

There is a fixed degree of iniquity beyond which nations may not go without incurring the judgments of God. The depth of depravity and moral degeneration to which the peoples of Canaan had sunk by the time of Moses is revealed by their mythological literature, recently discovered. They describe their gods as blood-thirsty and cruel beings, killing and deceiving each other, and immoral beyond imagination. As were the antediluvians and the men of Sodom, the men of Canaan, like their gods, were controlled by the basest passions. We find them sacrificing their children, worshiping serpents, and practicing immoral rituals in their temples. Their sanctuaries housed professional prostitutes of both sexes. The Amorites, most powerful of several Canaanite tribes, here stand for all the inhabitants of Canaan (see Joshua 24:15; Judges 6:10; etc.).