38-Year Wandering or 40-Year Wandering of

Creation Date: 8-May-2026
The Nation of Israel during the Exodus

Last updated: 10-May-2026
Four-Hundred or Four-Hundred and Thirty Years in Egypt  
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Sections

1 Is there a Discrepancy in the Years of the Exodus?
2 The 40-Years
3 The 38-Years
4 What Was the Cause of the 38-Years of Wandering?
5 What Happened In the 38-Years before Jesus Christ's Prophecy of Jerusalem Destroyed?
6 Four-Hundred and Four-Hundred and Thirty Years in Egypt

1. Is there a Discrepancy in Years of the Exodus?

There is sometimes heard by Biblical Scholars the mentioning that Israel:

  1. Spent 38-Years in the wandering because of the lack of faith and murmuring against God to go into the Promised-Land.
    (a) The murmuring did not cause a loss of their Salvation for those that chose God after the Golden Calf false god Incident.
    (b) The Golden Calf false god incident was an insurrection while Moses was gone on Mount Sani, and the leaders of the insurrection was Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.
    (c) The children of Korah, Dathan and Abiram did survive, as they were not associated with the insurrection, as recorded by Numbers 26:11
  2. Spent two years wandering in the Promised-Land to give a total of 40-years in the wandering.
    (a) There was one-year after leaving Egypt, Exodus 12:40-42, where they arrived at Kadesh-Barnea.
    (b) There was one-year at the end where they were they were in the journey into Canaan which is the promise-land.

This is a fascinating discovery that shows one of numerous double patterns in the scriptures that helps to confirm the Crucifixion death of Jesus Christ occurred in 0032AD because it coincides with 38-years later that Jesus Christ said the Temple of Jerusalem would be destroyed when speaking before His Crucifixion at two different speaking venues

2. The 40-Years

he Forty-Years is the total amount of years after leaving Egypt, the wandering happened because of the murmuring against God after all of the miracles that were performed by God that gave Egypt their freedom.  There are three parts to the 40-years:

  1. One-year to from the exodus of Egypt to get to Kadesh-barnea.
  2. Thirty-eight years of the wandering to purge the generation that murmured against God.
  3. One-year of entering into Canaan to take and expel the inhabitants that were tribes against God that also include Nephilim. 

In Genesis 15:13, God announces to Abram (before he became Abraham) that his descendents would become a mighty nation and will spend four-hundred years in Egypt, which was necessary to create the nation from the initial family that also would produce an army.  When God announced this to Abram, then Lucifer had all of years between the announcement and the destiny to create peoples and the Nephilim to oppose the future nation of Israel.

There were many tribes in the promised land that were such as offense against God that included the entirety of their families and livestock besides the infiltration of the Nephilim, that God has Joshua the commander of the army of Israel to destroy everything living.  Note that this was also an act of mercy by God:

Numbers 14:33 And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.
Deuteronomy 8:2 And thou shalt remember all the way which Jehovah thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or not.
Samuel 15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

3. The 38-Years

As noted in the previous section of this topic, the 38-years was the time of the wilderness wandering that the reason is described in Numbers 14 as detailed in the next section of this topic.

Deuteronomy 2:14 And the days in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, were thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the midst of the camp, as Jehovah sware unto them.

4. What Was the Cause of the 38-Years of Wandering?

During the march by Israel to Kadesh-barnea that completed after one-year, Moses often spent time with God apart from the nation of Israel as God was preparing Moses and also Israel for the future Laws that included the Ten Commandments, Feast Requirements, and so much more. 

During the times apart from the people, there were instigators against God in the people that caused others to doubt God and being wide-spread murmuring against God and also Moses. 

When reaching the entrance to the promised land of Canaan, Moses sent twelve spies, which were representatives of one per each tribe, into the land of Canaan for the first time.  Ten of the spies, except for Caleb from the tribe of Judah and Hoshea / Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim, brought back a negative report against going into the promised land.  These ten men, that gave a negative report against the promise land were indicting the character of God to lead them as God had done in the leading of Israel out of Egypt against Egypt's superior army. 

The result of the bad report had all of the people in Israel continue to murmur against God and also Moses along with Moses' brother Aaron.  The murmuring also reached the point of despising God and also Moses, Aaron, Caleb and Joshua where they wanted to stone to death each of them.  The stoning was stopped by God and resulted in the 38-year wandering as punishment along with the immediate death for the ten spies that brought back the evil report.

Numbers 13:25-33 25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
Numbers 14:20-35

Notice the "from twenty years old and upward" which is the Age of Accountability.

 20 Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. 21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ 35 I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

5. What Happened In the 38-Years before Jesus Christ's Prophecy of Jerusalem Destroyed?

The consequences of the Exodus generation, that murmured and despised God, had 38-years of wandering with their death in the wanderings.  Is there a  parallel to the people in Israel that did not recognize their Messiah Jesus Christ had come and had the prediction to be killed on a specific day according to the prophecy given in the Book of Daniel?  The answer is yes, and Israel as a nation should have recognized the Messiah and His Mission!

This author has not seen the following parallel described in any Biblical Commentaries but absolutely believe this to TRUE:

  1. The 38-Years absolutely is a double pattern of the Holy Spirit in the time Jesus Christ Spoke of the future destruction of Israel.
  2. The 38-Years period of the people in Jerusalem was like the Exodus Generation in those that were Believers in Jesus Christ were saved that included all of the people that would accept Jesus Christ as their Savior during the period before the destruction.
  3. The 38-Years is not an accident or arbitrary time-period, and God made the 38-Years before the destruction to have the same type of purposes of the Exodus Generation for both the people:
    (a) That recognized God where they would follow Him, and
    (b) Those who murmured or despised Him which had the consequences of the loss of their life.  Just like the Exodus generation that rejected God leading them into the Promise Land, there were people at the time of Jesus Christ presenting Himself as the Lamb and there were people that rejected Jesus Christ.
  4. The 38-Years also pinpoints the exact year, which then also is additional evidence of the exact day of 5-April-0032AD that Jesus Christ died at the Crucifixion as the prophecy in the Book of Daniel gave us with the 69-Weeks Prophecy!  The collaboration is the pattern of 38-years where in 70AD the Temple was destroyed along with Jerusalem.

Many Christians know that the prophecy spoken by Jesus Christ in Matthew 24:1-2 was fulfilled as described in the topic on the Two Temple Events, but do not recognize the pattern that was just described by this author that gives all the Glory To God!  The Glory to God is His use of Patterns that include time periods!

Matthew 23:27-39 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
John 19:37 And again another Scripture says, "THEY SHALL LOOK ON HIM WHOM THEY PIERCED."
(This has dual prophecies.)
Matthew 24:1-2 1. And Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on his way; and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. 2 But he answered and said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Luke 21:20-22 20 But when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that her desolation is at hand. 21 Then let them that are in Judaea flee unto the mountains; and let them that are in the midst of her depart out; and let not them that are in the country enter therein. 22 For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

The purpose of the Tribulation Period is for Israel to recognize their Messiah, and they will recognize Jesus Christ.  This is also the prophecy made by the Disciple Stephen when he was speaking to the Sanhedrin before they stoned him.  Stephen was stating that Israel always makes the mistake on the first attempt and then correctly chose and performs on the second attempt.

6. Four-Hundred and Four-Hundred and Thirty Years in Egypt

Similar to the scriptures that describe the Wilderness Wandering detailed by the scriptures in this topic, the 400-years and 430-years are not a mistake.  When reading about the times of Israel's son Joseph, there was 30-years that the twelve sons (two adopted sons of Joseph added to twelve-tribes) where the Pharaoh treated Joseph's extended family with kindness and gave them the best lands to live.

After Joseph's death, there was a new Pharaoh that the scriptures state did not know of how Joseph had saved the nation of Egypt during the famine times.  This pharaoh is the one that put the large growing family of the family of Israel into slavery that lasted 400-years.

See the full topic on the Egyptian Bondage for 400-years.

Genesis 15:13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
Exodus 12:40-42 40 Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And it came to pass at the end of four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of Jehovah went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It is a night to be much observed unto Jehovah for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of Jehovah, to be much observed of all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

What to read next?

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