6:1 four hundred and eightieth year. The author’s chronology reflects how momentous the construction of the temple was for Israel’s life under God. The building of the temple under Solomon was the culmination of a long series of events that began with the deliverance out of Egypt.

fourth year of Solomon’s reign. Approximately 966 b.c., placing the Exodus in the year 1446 b.c. Some scholars date the Exodus in the thirteenth century b.c. They understand four hundred eighty years in one of two ways. Some take it as a figurative number representing twelve generations of forty years each. Others, on the basis of ancient Near Eastern custom, argue that the figure is the total of a sequence of periods, some of them overlapping.