Here for the time being we must stay. The reader would find help on the typical

character of these 40 years, by looking up and carefully reading the other occasions

where 40 is used in a similar way as a period of trial and test. To facilitate this piece of

personal study, we give references to a number of occasions where the number 40 is most

evidently used in a symbolic manner.  Gen. 7: 17; Numb. 14: 33; I Kings 19: 8;

Jonah 3: 4; Ezek. 4: 6; Matt. 4: 2.

Having traced the chronology of the books of Moses, and established that the

entry into the land of Canaan occurred in the year 2553 from Adam, it is evident that

if we assign the year B.C.4004 for the creation of Adam, this will bring us to

(4004 ­ 2553 = 1451) the year B.C.1451 for the entry into the land. The reader will

find that this is the date arrived at in the Appendices of "The Companion Bible", although

the intervening steps may not always coincide with what has been brought forward here.

We must now retrace our steps, for not only is time an important factor in the outworking

of the purpose of the ages, but the place where certain events occurred has often a

contribution to offer. Returning therefore to the opening of the book of Exodus the very

first verse speaks of Egypt, and the place that Egypt occupies in the unfolding of the

purpose of the ages must now be given consideration. The size of the country known as

Egypt has not varied to any appreciable extent since the beginning. The bounds indicated

by Ezek. 29: 10 and 30: 6 are true to-day. For all practical purposes, however,

"Egypt" is the tract of land irrigated by the River Nile. Upon this the very life of Egypt

The Hebrew name for "Egypt" is "Mitzraim" or "the land of Mitzraim". This was the

name of the second son of Ham, and consequently, the Canaanites were closely related to

the Egyptians. Just as the word "Canaan" indicates "the low country", the strip of coast

lying along the Mediterranean, so Mitzraim means "dual" and is used to indicate the

natural division of Egypt into Upper (the South) and Lower (the North). Occasionally the

singular form Matzor occurs, but whether this is a poetic title or is intended to refer to

one half of Egypt only, has never been satisfactorily decided.

We have positive proof that Egypt must be considered as having an allegorical

significance in the one reference that we find in the book of the Revelation. There, in the

eleventh chapter, we have "the two witnesses", even as Egypt had the two witnesses,

Moses and Aaron. These witnesses have power--among other things--"over waters to

turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with plagues" (Rev. 11: 6), closely resembling

the plagues sent upon Egypt. At the end of their appointed time we read that these

two witnesses will be killed: