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Chapter 4. Now I say: just as the three measures converge in this appointed term of our present exile, our Lord similarly made the appointed terms of the two earlier exiles converge.
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This is so we do not imagine that such convergence occurred only in this appointed term — for that would not be accurate. When we see that the two earlier terms, whose correctness we know, also have this feature, doubt departs from our hearts.
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Let me explain this and say: the matter of the Egyptian enslavement is a period of four hundred years of the exile, humiliation, and servitude of Abraham's seed — as it says: "Know well that your seed will be strangers in a land not theirs, and they will serve them and they will oppress them four hundred years."
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This runs from the birth of Isaac. The 430-year figure includes within it thirty years of Abraham's own sojourning — for Abraham's departure from Haran to Canaan is recorded, but his departure from Kutha to Haran is not recorded; so those thirty years are Abraham's account. This is as it says: "And the dwelling of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was thirty years and four hundred years."
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Nevertheless, the total time actually spent in Egypt is 210 years — no one can claim they spent 400 years in Egypt, given the lifespans of Kehat, Amram, and Moses; but this is not the place to explain it. So there are three figures: 400 years, 430 years, and 210 years.
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As for the Babylonian exile — it has two measures. The first is seventy-two years, as it says: "For"
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"For when seventy years are completed for Babylon I will attend to you" — and the second is seventy years, per: "When seventy years are completed for the ruins of Jerusalem."
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Between the first year of Babylon's reign and the destruction of Jerusalem there are eighteen years — as it says: "In the fifth month, on the seventh of the month — that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar" — and the rest of the passage.
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So the measure of 72 years was until Cyrus reigned and permitted them to build the Temple; they began building that year, and were interrupted for seventeen years until the seventy years were complete.
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As it says: "Then the work on the House of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia."
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Just as the first appointed term was not harmed by the divergence of the three figures — 400, 430, and 210 — and the second appointed term was not harmed by the divergence of the two figures — 72 and 70 —
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— so likewise the third appointed term will not be harmed by the divergence of the three figures — 1,150, 1,290, and 1,335 — because the Wise One has given His nation the wisdom by which all of them can be reconciled.