Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

THE PROMISE AND COVENANT 15:12-17
this ordinary import borne by the word ‘generation,’ a
recent writer has founded an objection to the historical
truth of this history. But he draws an unwarrantable con-
clusion; for, as there are only two modes of computing a
‘generation,’ the original rate of calculating it at from
thirty to forty years, and the patriarchal usage to which,
in accordance with Abram’s habits of thought, the Divine
Revealer accorded his words, it is evident that the ‘fourth
generation’ is to be taken in the latter sense, as is distinctly
intimated in v. 13.’’ Keil and Delitzsch (BCOTP, 216) :
“The calculations are made here on the basis of a hundred
years to a generation: not too much for those times, when
the average duration of life was above 150 years, and Isaac
was born in the hundredth year of Abraham’s life.”
Speiser (ABG, 113): As in Gen. 6:9, “Heb. dor signifies,
‘duration,’ ‘age,’ ‘time span,’ and only secondarily ‘genera-
tion’ in the current use of the term. The context does
not show specifically how the author used the term in this
instance; it could have been any of the several round num-
bers of years. No conclusion can therefore be drawn from
this passage in regard to the date of the Exodus.” Murhpy
(MG, 299: ‘‘In the fourth age. An age here means the
average period from the birth to the death of one man.
This use of the word is proved by Numbers 32:13-‘He
made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all
the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord
was consumed.’ This age or generation ran parallel with
the life of Moses, and therefore consisted of one hundred
and twenty years. Joseph lived one hundred and ten years.
Four such generations amount to four hundred and egihty
or four hundred and forty years. From the birth of Isaac
to the return to the land of promise was an interval of four
hundred and forty years. Isaac, Levi, Amram, and Eleazar
may represent the four ages.” Again, on v. 13, Murphy
(ibid., p. 298) : “Four hundred years are to elapse before
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