Exodus 12 · a question people ask
Was Israel in Egypt 400 years or 430?
This chapter says, "the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years" (12:40), and they went out "At the end of four hundred thirty years, to the day" (12:41). God had told Abram his offspring would be afflicted "four hundred years" (Genesis 15:13), and Stephen repeats that number (Acts 7:6). Paul says the law "came four hundred thirty years after" a covenant confirmed by God (Galatians 3:17). Everyone agrees that God kept his word to Abram: "Afterward they will come out with great wealth" (Genesis 15:14), and Israel left with silver, gold and clothing (12:35-36). Christians count the years in more than one way.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
About 430 years in Egypt itself
Those who hold this view take 12:40 as it reads: 430 years lived in Egypt. The "four hundred years" of Genesis 15:13 and Acts 7:6 is a round number for the same time. Paul's 430 years, on this view, runs to the law from when the promise was last spoken to the fathers, as God told Jacob on his way down, "I will also surely bring you up again" (Genesis 46:4).
Exodus 12:40 · Genesis 15:13 · Acts 7:6 · Genesis 46:3-4 · Galatians 3:17
430 years counted from Abraham
Those who hold this view read Paul as counting the 430 years from God's covenant with Abraham to the law (Galatians 3:16-17), and read 12:40 as counting the whole time from Abraham too, with a shorter stay in Egypt itself. They point to the family line: Kohath went down to Egypt with Jacob (Genesis 46:8, 46:11), and Moses was the son of Kohath's son Amram (6:18-20), which fits God's word to Abram, "In the fourth generation they will come here again" (Genesis 15:16).
Galatians 3:16-17 · Exodus 12:40 · Genesis 46:8 · Genesis 46:11 · Exodus 6:16-20 · Genesis 15:16
The verses
“The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing. The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. They plundered the Egyptians.”
“Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. At the end of four hundred thirty years, to the day, all of the LORD’s armies went out from the land of Egypt.”
“He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth;”
“God spoke in this way: that his offspring would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.”