Genesis 12:10

The Promised Blessing Jeopardized

12:10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt ¹  to stay for a while ²  because the famine was severe. ³ 

Genesis 15:13

15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ⁴  that your descendants will be strangers ⁵  in a foreign country. ⁶  They will be enslaved and oppressed ⁷  for four hundred years.

Deuteronomy 26:5

26:5 Then you must affirm before the Lord your God, “A wandering ⁸  Aramean ⁹  was my ancestor, ¹⁰  and he went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner with a household few in number, ¹¹  but there he became a great, powerful, and numerous people.

Psalms 105:23

105:23 Israel moved to ¹²  Egypt;

Jacob lived for a time ¹³  in the land of Ham.

Isaiah 52:4

52:4 For this is what the sovereign Lord says:

“In the beginning my people went to live temporarily in Egypt;

Assyria oppressed them for no good reason.

Acts 7:6

7:6 But God spoke as follows: ‘Your ¹⁴  descendants will be foreigners ¹⁵  in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years. ¹⁶ 

[12:10]  ¹ sn Abram went down to Egypt. The Abrahamic narrative foreshadows some of the events in the life of the nation of Israel. This sojourn in Egypt is typological of Israel’s bondage there. In both stories there is a famine that forces the family to Egypt, death is a danger to the males while the females are preserved alive, great plagues bring about their departure, there is a summons to stand before Pharaoh, and there is a return to the land of Canaan with great wealth.

[12:10]  ² tn The Hebrew verb גּוּר (gur), traditionally rendered “to sojourn,” means “to stay for a while.” The “stranger” (traditionally “sojourner”) is one who is a temporary resident, a visitor, one who is passing through. Abram had no intention of settling down in Egypt or owning property. He was only there to wait out the famine.

[12:10]  ³ tn Heb “heavy in the land.” The words “in the land,” which also occur at the beginning of the verse in the Hebrew text, have not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:13]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, with the Qal infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect from יָדַע (yada’, “know”). The imperfect here has an obligatory or imperatival force.

[15:13]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger, “sojourner, stranger”) is related to the verb גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to stay for awhile”). Abram’s descendants will stay in a land as resident aliens without rights of citizenship.

[15:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “in a land not theirs.”

[15:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “and they will serve them and they will oppress them.” The verb עִנּוּ, (’innu, a Piel form from עָנָה, ’anah, “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly”), is used in Exod 1:11 to describe the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt.

[26:5]  ⁸ tn Though the Hebrew term אָבַד (’avad) generally means “to perish” or the like (HALOT 2-3 s.v.; BDB 1-2 s.v.; cf. KJV “a Syrian ready to perish”), a meaning “to go astray” or “to be lost” is also attested. The ambivalence in the Hebrew text is reflected in the versions where LXX Vaticanus reads ἀπέβαλεν (apebalen, “lose”) for a possibly metathesized reading found in Alexandrinus, Ambrosianus, ἀπέλαβεν (apelaben, “receive”); others attest κατέλειπεν (kateleipen, “leave, abandon”). “Wandering” seems to suit best the contrast with the sedentary life Israel would enjoy in Canaan (v. 9) and is the meaning followed by many English versions.

[26:5]  ⁹ sn A wandering Aramean. This is a reference to Jacob whose mother Rebekah was an Aramean (Gen 24:10; 25:20, 26) and who himself lived in Aram for at least twenty years (Gen 31:41-42).

[26:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “father.”

[26:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sojourned there few in number.” The words “with a household” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarity.

[105:23]  ¹² tn Heb “entered.”

[105:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “lived as a resident alien.”

[7:6]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “that his”; the discourse switches from indirect to direct with the following verbs. For consistency the entire quotation is treated as second person direct discourse in the translation.

[7:6]  ¹⁵ tn Or “will be strangers,” that is, one who lives as a noncitizen of a foreign country.

[7:6]  ¹⁶ sn A quotation from Gen 15:13. Exod 12:40 specifies the sojourn as 430 years.