Exodus and Wilderness
Deut 8:2 (KJV)In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb
in the evening, and
at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt
on the morrow after the passover,
about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children
by a strong east wind all that night, and
the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left
twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees
the third monththey come
the same dayto
the wilderness of Sinaiand camp
before the mount
the third day;
be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai
Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights
beneath the mount
And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights
in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month;
the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle
they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai
on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, from
twenty years old and upward
on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, after about eleven months at the mountain
the Lord smote the people with a very great plague
the time of the firstripe grapes; they come back
after forty days
After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years
was thirty and eight years
the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up
died there, and was buried there
ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them
in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month
the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people; Moses
made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole
these three timesand foretells a Star out of Jacob
those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand
after the plaguein the plains of Moab; of those counted at Sinai only Caleb and Joshua remain
in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, after Sihon and Og were slain, Moses begins to declare the law in the land of Moab
Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died; Israel wept for him
thirty days
stood and rose up upon an heap;
the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and camp at Gilgal
their children, whom he raised up in their stead, born in the wilderness;
the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you
the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; the children of Israel
did eat manna forty years
kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho, forty years after the first Passover by Scripture’s own counts
How the dates were worked out
The Bible counts this time from the Exodus itself. The year began with the month of the Passover (Exod 12:2, the first month, Abib or Nisan), and the dates are given as month, day and year from that start — the Exodus on the fifteenth day of the first month (Num 33:3), the Tabernacle set up on the first day of the first month of the second year (Exod 40:17), the departure from Sinai on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year (Num 10:11), Aaron’s death on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year (Num 33:38), Moses speaking on the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year (Deut 1:3) and the crossing of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month (Josh 4:19), which the order of the text puts in year 41. This chart prints those counts as Scripture gives them, and its axis counts the years the same way (Year 1, Year 2 …), each year drawn as one stretch from its first month to its twelfth. No verse names a year of our calendar; the chart puts year 1 in 1446 BC because 1 Kings 6:1 puts the Temple in the 480th year after the Exodus (see the note on the date of the Exodus), so year 40 is 1407 BC and year 41 is 1406 BC. Where Scripture gives no month or day, the label says only what it does give ("year 40") and the dot stands where the order of the text puts it. One chronology for the whole series: the Bible's own numbers with the main ancient records. "c." = about; a range (e.g. 6–4 BC) = some time in that range.
Notes
1Scripture gives no BC year. 1446 BC comes from 1 Kgs 6:1; Ussher has 1491 BC, and many scholars put the Exodus c. 1260 BC. Scripture’s own counts do not change.
2Exod 19:1 says Israel came the same day
in the third month without numbering it, and the days before the Law (Exod 19:10–16) are not numbered in the month either: no day is given.
3Numbers 13–14 give no year. Deut 2:14 counts 38 years from Kadesh to the Zered, crossed in year 40 (Num 33:38; Deut 1:3–4), which puts the spies in year 2.
4Joshua gives no year number. The crossing follows Moses’s death, after month 11 of year 40 (Deut 1:3), so the first month
(Josh 4:19) is the first month of year 41.
5Forty years (Deut 8:2; Josh 5:6) can be counted from the Exodus: month 1, day 15, year 1 to month 1, day 10, year 41 is just under forty years.
6The Masoretic (Hebrew) text of Exod 12:40 gives 430 years in Egypt; the Septuagint says Egypt and Canaan, and Paul counts 430 years from the promise to the Law (Gal 3:17).
7The KJV’s Red sea translates the Hebrew yam suph, literally sea of reeds; where Israel crossed is not known, and several routes have been proposed.
8Numbers 33 lists the camps from Rameses to the plains of Moab (33:5–49): 41 named camps, 42 names with Rameses. It dates only the Exodus (33:3) and Aaron’s death (33:38).
9The lamb is killed in the evening
of day 14 (Exod 12:6); the firstborn die at midnight, in the night that follows (Exod 12:29); Israel leaves on day 15 (Num 33:3).
10None of the first nine plagues (Exod 7:14–10:29) is dated; the tenth struck at midnight on the Passover night itself (Exod 12:29).
11Num 20:1 gives the month (the first) but not the year; the chapter ends with Aaron’s death in the fifth month of year 40 (Num 33:38), so it is placed in year 40.
12Numbers 21–27 and 31–32 date none of these events. Read in order, they fall between Aaron’s death (month 5) and Moses’s death (month 12 at the latest) of year 40.
13Moses began to speak on month 11, day 1 (Deut 1:3); Israel wept thirty days
(Deut 34:8) before the crossing on month 1, day 10 (Josh 4:19): he died in month 11 or 12.
14Moses was eighty when he spoke to Pharaoh (Exod 7:7) and 120 when he died (Deut 34:7): about the forty years of this chart (Acts 7:36 counts forty wilderness years).
15Exod 38:25–26 gives the same total, 603,550 men, for the half-shekel paid before the Tabernacle was set up (Exod 30:11–16); it does not say whether Num 1 is the same counting.
16Josh 5:11 puts the eating of the old corn on the morrow after the passover
(day 15, as in Num 33:3); Josh 5:12 ends the manna on the next morrow, day 16.
Key
dashed = reconstructed date (scholars differ). Certainty: A Stated in Scripture · B Worked out from Scripture · C Ancient record or astronomy · D Scholarly reconstruction · E Tradition / uncertain — scholars differ.
Scripture quotations: King James Version (KJV)