Theexodus
Smith's Bible Dictionary [1]
Ex'odus, The. The Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. The common chronology places the date of this event at B.C. 1491, deriving it in this way: - In 1 Kings 6:1, it is stated that the building of the Temple, in the forth year of Solomon, was in the 480th year after the Exodus. The fourth year of Solomon was about B.C. 1012. Add the 480 years (leaving off one years because neither the fourth nor the 480th was a full year), and we have B.C. 1491 as the date of the Exodus. This is probably very nearly correct; but many Egyptologists place it at 215 years later, - about B.C. 1300.
Which date is right depends chiefly on the interpretation of the Scripture period of 430 years, as denoting the duration of the bondage of the Israelites. The period of bondage given in Genesis 15:13-14; Exodus 12:40-41 and Galatians 3:17 as 430 years has been interpreted to cover different periods. The common chronology makes it extend from the call of Abraham to the Exodus, one-half of it, or 215 years, being spend in Egypt. Others make it to cover only the period of bondage spend in Egypt.
St. Paul says in Galatians 3:17 that, from the covenant with (or call of) Abraham, the giving of the law (less than a year after the Exodus) was 430 years. But in Genesis 15:13-14, it is said that they should be strangers in a strange land, and be afflicted 400 years, and nearly the same is said in Exodus 12:40.
But, in very truth, the children of Israel were strangers in a strange land from the time that Abraham left his home for the Promised Land, and during that whole period of 430 years to the Exodus, they were nowhere rulers in the land. So in Exodus 12:40, it is said that the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years. But it does not say that the sojourning was all in Egypt, but this people who lived in Egypt had been sojourners for 430 years.
(a) This is the simplest way of making the various statements harmonize.
(b) The chief difficulty is the great increase of the children of Israel from 70 to 2,000,000 in so short a period as 215 years, while it is very easy in 430 years. But, under the circumstances, it is perfectly possible in the shorter period. See on ver. 7.
(c) If we make the 430 years to include only the bondage in Egypt, we must place the whole chronology of Abraham and the immigration of Jacob into Egypt some 200 years earlier, or else the Exodus 200 years later, or B.C. 1300. In either case, special difficulty is brought into the reckoning.
(d) Therefore, on the whole, it is well to retain the common chronology, though the later dates may yet prove to be correct.
The history of the Exodus itself commences with the close of that of the ten plagues. See Plagues, The Ten . In the night in which, at midnight, the firstborn were slain, Exodus 12:29, Pharaoh urged the departure of the Israelites. Exodus 12:31-32 They at once set forth from Rameses, Exodus 12:37; Exodus 12:39, apparently during the night, Exodus 12:42, but towards morning on the 15th day of the first month. Numbers 33:3. They made three journeys, and encamped by the Red Sea. Here Pharaoh overtook them, and the great miracle occurred by which they were saved, while the pursuer and his army were destroyed. See Red Sea, Passage of .
People's Dictionary of the Bible [2]
Exodus, the. The departure of the Israelites from Egypt. The Exodus was the execution of a divine plan. God sent ten plagues upon Egypt in punishment for enslaving the Israelites. "And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead." Then followed the midnight call of Pharaoh for Moses and Aaron, the command to depart, and the actual leaving of the house of bondage. There are two prominent theories about the locality and mode of the miraculous passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea: 1. The usual theory, which locates the passage several miles south of Suez, where the sea is about ten miles broad. This theory fits in best with the literal meaning of the narrative, for in this case the waters must have been actually divided for several miles, and have flowed back on either hand. But the difficulties the view raises are more numerous than those it solves. 2. The second theory puts the crossing at the head of the gulf, near or some distance north cf Suez. In Moses's time the gulf may have extended as a reedy marsh as far as the Bitter Lakes. The crossing was made possible by a special providence and a miraculous adaptation of the laws of nature. The east or rather northeast wind drove off the waters from the small arm of the sea which runs up by Suez; this would leave the water on the more northern part of the arm, so that there would be water on both sides to serve as an entrenchment. This would meet the exigences of the narrative. Exodus 14:22. But even in this case the passage of two millions of people, with all their cattle, was a great miracle. It has its counterpart in the crossing of the river Jordan at the end of the journey through the wilderness.
