Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

THE PROMISE AND COVENANT 15 : 12- 17
we have already met them at En-gedi and Hebron, and
they dwelt in the mountains of Judah and Ephraim (Num.
13 :29) , whence they seem to have crossed the Jordan for
conquest (Num. 21:26). Thus had they of all the tribes
that overspread the land by far the largest extent of terri-
tory. And they seem to have been extinguished as a na-
tion by the invasion of Israel, as we hear no more of them
in the subsequent history of the country.” No nation is
destroyed until its iniquity becomes intolerable to Absolute
Justice. (Cf. Gen. 18:22-23, 1 Ki. 19:18, Rom. 11:4, Exo.
17:14, Deut. 21:17-19; Matt. 23:37-39; Ezek. 21:27-
I C
I will overturn, overturn, overturn it,” that is, Jeru-
Salem.) History proves that there are times when the
destruction of a iiatiods power, eueiz of the natioiz itself,
becomes a moral necessity. “National sin prevented the
Israelites from possessing the whole country originally
promised to Abraham (Exo. 23:20-33, with Josh. 23:ll-
16, Judg. 2:20-23). The country as promised here to
Abraham was much more extensive than that described
by Moses in Num. 34” (SIBG, 23 8) .
The Tinze-Span Problem: “four hundred years,” “in
the fourth generation” (Gen. 15:13, 16; Acts 7:6), vs.
“four hundred and thirty years” (Exo. 12:40, Gal. 3:17).
These phrases have given rise to much computation and
differences of interpretation. The Septuagint gives Exo.
12:40 as follows: “The sojourning of the children of Israel,
which they sojourned in Egypt and iiz the land of Caiiaan,
was 430 years.” The Samaritan Version reads: “The so-
journing of the children of Israel and of their fatlhm,
which they sojourned iiz the land of Caiiaaiz aiid in the
land of Egypt, was 430 years.’’ Whitelaw (PC, Exodus,
Vol. I, Intro., p. 17): “If the Hebrew text is sound we
must count 430 years from the descent of Jacob into Egypt
to the Exodus; if it is corrupt, and to be corrected from
the two ancient versions, the time of the sojourn will be
reduced one-half, for it was a space of exactly 215 years
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