78 
ISRAEL IN EGYPT : THE PERIOD OF THEIR 
SOJOURN AND TEEIR NUMBERS AT THE 
EXODUS AND IN THE WILDERNESS. By the 
Bev. H. Motjle, M.A., A.V.I. 
M Y object in this paper is to show, first, that the text i of 
Scripture, interpreted by itself, states the period of the 
soioum in Egypt to have been no more than 215 years; and 
secondly, that in round numbers 600,000 men, more precisely 
603,550 men, from which the whole population at the Exodus 
and in the wilderness may be estimated at 2,500,000, is the 
number originally given by Moses, and is correct and true 
The proof of the second of these propositions will ot itselt 
show how untenable is the theory laid down m a paper m the 
Journal of our Transactions on “The Numerical System oi 
the Old Testament; ” according to which theory, every one ot 
the fifty or sixty numerical statements with reference to the 
adult male population of the Israelites at the Exodus and in the 
wilderness has, through “ only a few trivial mistakes on the 
part of the scribe, a few slight misapprehensions on the part 
of the reader,” been exaggerated a thousandfold. In the 
course of my argument it will also appear, that the existence ot 
error in the original text to such an extent as m .that paper is 
supposed, materially affects, in this case at least the truth 
and inspiration of a large portion of the narrative. And 
mainly for this reason I propose, if permitted to show m an 
appendix that of the five reasons assigned for this casual 
alteration of numbers— which reasons are, in fact, only con- 
jectures— the first two rest on an error, and the faith rests 
upon another conjecture. .-i t 
2 Taking, for a moment, my two propositions together, l 
point to the fact that the raising up of a nation m the midst 
of another nation and within a given time, was the subject o. 
