back in Rome, for Claudius had died and Nero was then ruling. Many of the other Jews had also moved back to Rome.​—Ac 18:18, 19; Ro 16:3, 7, 11.

In fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy at Luke 21:24, the Roman army under Titus, in 70 C.E., surrounded Jerusalem, which was then crowded with Jews from many lands assembled for the Festival of Unfermented Cakes. The Romans besieged and finally destroyed the city; 1,100,000 Jews perished and 97,000 were taken captive, to be scattered among the nations.

The deliverance of the nation of Israel from bondage to Egypt. Jehovah spoke to Abraham (before 1933 B.C.E.), after promising that Abraham’s seed would inherit the land, and said: “You may know for sure that your seed will become an alien resident in a land not theirs, and they will have to serve them, and these will certainly afflict them for four hundred years. But the nation that they will serve I am judging, and after that they will go out with many goods. . . . But in the fourth generation they will return here, because the error of the Amorites has not yet come to completion.”​—Ge 15:13-16.

It is clear that the beginning of the 400-year period of affliction had to await the appearance of the promised “seed.” While Abraham had earlier visited Egypt during a time of famine in Canaan and had experienced some difficulties with the Pharaoh there, he was then childless. (Ge 12:10-20) Not long after God’s statement about the 400 years of affliction, when Abraham was 86 years old (in the year 1932 B.C.E.), his Egyptian slave girl and concubine bore him a son, Ishmael. But it was 14 years later (1918 B.C.E.) that Abraham’s free wife Sarah bore him a son, Isaac, and God designated this son as the one by means of whom the promised Seed would result. Still, God’s time had not yet arrived for giving Abraham or his seed the land of Canaan, and so they were, as foretold, ‘alien residents in a land not theirs.’​—Ge 16:15, 16; 21:2-5; Heb 11:13.

Time of the Exodus. When, therefore, did the 400 years of affliction begin, and when did it end? Jewish tradition reckons the count from Isaac’s birth. But the actual evidence of affliction first came on the day that Isaac was weaned. Evidence points to 1913 B.C.E., when Isaac was about 5 years old and Ishmael about 19, as the date of the start of affliction. It was then that Ishmael “the one born in the manner of flesh began persecuting the one born in the manner of spirit.” (Ga 4:29) Ishmael, who was part Egyptian, in jealousy and hatred, began “poking fun” at Isaac, the young child, this amounting to much more than a mere children’s quarrel. (Ge 21:9) Other translations describe Ishmael’s action as “mocking.” (Yg; Ro, ftn) The affliction of Abraham’s seed continued on during Isaac’s life. While Jehovah blessed Isaac as a grown man, he was nevertheless persecuted by the inhabitants of Canaan and forced to move from place to place because of the difficulties they brought against him. (Ge 26:19-24, 27) Eventually, during the later years of the life of Isaac’s son Jacob, the foretold “seed” came into Egypt to reside. In time they came into a state of slavery.

By what internal evidence does the Bible fix the date of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt?

The 400-year period of affliction thus ran from 1913 B.C.E. until 1513 B.C.E. It was also a period of grace, or of divine toleration, allowed the Canaanites, a principal tribe of whom were Amorites. By this latter date their error would come to completion; they would clearly merit complete ejection from the land. As the preliminary step toward such ejection, God would turn his attention to his people in Egypt, setting them free from bondage and starting them on the way back to the Promised Land.​—Ge 15:13-16.

The 430-year period. Another line of calculation is provided in the statement at Exodus 12:40, 41: “And the dwelling of the sons of Israel, who had dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came about at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, it even came about on this very day that all the armies of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt.” The footnote on Exodus 12:40 says regarding the expression “who had dwelt”: “In Heb[rew] this verb is pl[ural]. The relative pronoun ʼasherʹ, ‘who,’ can apply to the ‘sons of Israel’ rather than to the ‘dwelling.’” The Greek Septuagint renders verse 40: “But the dwelling of the sons of Israel which they dwelt in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan [was] four hundred and thirty years long.” The Samaritan Pentateuch reads: “. . . in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt.” All these renderings indicate that the 430-year period covers a longer period of time than the dwelling of the Israelites in Egypt.

The apostle Paul shows that this 430-year period (at Ex 12:40) began at the time of the validation