400 years slavery -- fact or fiction?

400 Years Slavery in Egypt: Fact or Fiction?


This is a topic that a number of years ago, when someone mentioned it, I knew in the Spirit that it was wrong, even though I had been raised in Christianity to believe it. It is a topic that is frequently mentioned in Christendom, and it was only as I progressed in walking in the Spirit that I came to realize that it was wrong. I had never searched the issue out, but having a strong familiarity with the Word, when it was mentioned I had a problem with it. I couldn't place my mind on any of the Word that stated it to be true, and even though I couldn’t recall any passages that stated that it wasn’t true, I knew that the Word stated that it wasn't true -- I just couldn't recall it and piece it together in my mind right then, probably because I had been raised believing that it was true. He challenged me in it, which is good. Since I hadn't researched it out in the Word, I had nothing to turn to right then for defense of my statement: I just knew that it was wrong. So, I went out on a limb and simply told him that I knew it was wrong, and I would get back to him on it. The following is what I found...

1. Abraham had Isaac when 100 years old. (Gen. 21:5)
2. Abraham died 175 years old. (Gen. 25:7)
3. Sarah died 127 years old. (Gen. 23:1)
4. Ishmael was born when Abraham was 86 years old. (Gen 16:16)
5. Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old. (Gen. 21:5)
6. Sarah was 10 years younger than Abraham. (Gen 17:17)
Therefore:
A. Ishmael was 14 years older than Isaac.
B. Ishmael was 14 when Sarah was 90.
C. Ishmael was 14 when Abraham was 100.
D. Ishmael was born by Hagar when Sarah was 76.
E. Isaac was born when Sarah was 90.
F. Ishmael was 51 when Sarah died.
G. Ishmael was 89 when Abraham died.
H. Sarah died 38 years before Abraham died.
I. Isaac was 37 when Sarah died.
J. Isaac was 75 when Abraham died.
7. Isaac married Rebekah when 40 years old. (Gen. 25:20)
Therefore:
A. Isaac married Rebekah 3 years after Sarah died.
B. Isaac married when Ishmael was 54 years old.
8. Ishmael died 137 years old. (Gen. 25:17)
Therefore:
A. Ishmael died 86 years after Sarah died.
B. Ishmael died 48 years after Abraham died.
8. Isaac was 60 when the twins, Esau and Jacob, were born. (Gen. 25:26)
Therefore:
A. Ishmael was 74 when the twins were born.
B. Abraham was 160 when the twins were born.
C. Sarah was dead 23 years when the twins were born.
9. Esau was 40 by the time he had married two women. (Gen. 26:34)
Therefore:
A. Abraham was dead 25 years when Esau married.
B. Esau and Jacob were 15 when Abraham died.
C. Esau and Jacob were 63 when Ishmael died.
D. Sarah was dead 63 years when Esau married.
E. Isaac was 100 when Esau married.
F. Esau married 80 years before Isaac died.
10. Jacob married after Esau had married the two women. (Gen. 28:1-9)
11. Jacob married after taking the blessing for Esau from Isaac. (Gen. 27:45,46)
12. We do not know when Rebekah died, or how old she lived.
13. Esau married again after Jacob went to Padan-aram. (Gen. 28:7)
14. Isaac died 180 years old. (Gen. 35:28)
Therefore:
A. Isaac died 57 years after Ishmael died.
B. Esau and Jacob were 120 when Isaac died.
C. Isaac lived 120 years after Jacob and Esau were born.
15. Jacob served Laban 7 years, then he received Leah. (Gen. 29:20,21)
16. Jacob started serving Laban 14 years after Ishmael died.
17. Jacob served another 7 years for Rachel, but received her before the 7 years were served, right after receiving Leah. (Gen. 29:27,28,30)
18. The wording of Gen. 29:21 would seem to demand that Jacob served the 7 years for Rachel, then he was given Leah as wife. The wording of Gen. 29:27,28 would seem to demand that Jacob served the additional 7 years for Rachel, then was given Rachel as wife. However, verse 30 states that he slept with Rachel, then served Laban another 7 years. So, we see that Jacob just went ahead and took Rachel as wife, too, then served the 7 years: he didn't wait as was supposed to, but went ahead and slept with her. That would then demand that she become his wife, (they obviously became man and wife at some point), most likely before that physical union happened, scripture indicates. At least he had the integrity to serve the 7 years for her after he had taken her for himself "prematurely". However, the wording could also indicate that he received them both, then served the 7 and 7 years, (14), then worked for Laban for wages, but that isn‘t possible in light of the strong wording of Gen. 29:21.
19. Rachel had Joseph before Jacob started to serve 6 years for livestock. (Gen. 30:25)
Therefore:
A. Leah and Rachel were both received (married to Jacob) after 7 years of service to Laban. (Gen. 29:30)
B. Joseph was born within 7 years of Rachel's marriage, which was within 14 years of Jacob serving for his wives.
20. Here are the births of the 12 patriarchs, but not in order of event -- not in a full chronologic-al order: they are only in order per woman.
Reuben (born by Leah) Gen. 29:32
Simeon (born by Leah) Gen. 29:33
Levi (born by Leah) Gen. 29:34
Judah (born by Leah) Gen. 29:35
Dan (born by Bilhah for Rachel) Gen. 30:6
Naphtali (born by Bilhah for Rachel) Gen. 30:8
Gad (born by Zilpah for Leah) Gen. 30:11
Asher (born by Zilpah for Leah) Gen. 30:13
Issachar (born by Leah) Gen. 30:18
Zebulun (born by Leah) Gen. 30:20
Dinah (born by Leah) Gen. 30:21
Joseph (born by Rachel) Gen. 30:24
Benjamin (born by Rachel) Gen. 35:18
Therefore:
A. Leah had 7 kids (6 sons and 1 daughter). She had 4 of those in 7 years.
B. Rachel had 1 son in 7 years.
C. Bilhah had 2 sons for Rachel in 7 years.
D. Zilpah had 2 sons for Leah in 7 years
E. After just two months, Rachel could have known that she was barren. If Leah conceived right away, she wouldn’t have known for one month. So, let’s give Leah two months, and she could know that she was pregnant. Rachel could have known by then that she was barren. But let’s give her the benefit of the doubt, due to the timing of her cycle being different than Leah’s. Therefore, at the third month she could have missed being pregnant yet again, and considered that she was barren, due to Leah's possible pregnancy by then. This would be proof that it was her, not Jacob, that was infertile. We don't know just how long she waited until she gave Bilhah to Jacob as “wife”.
F. Leah could have had Reuben 10 months into marriage. Three months later she could have conceived. (That happens even now.) So, we could have Leah giving birth once every year. (That happens even now.)
G. That brings us to 4 years, (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah). If she had kids at that frequency, it wouldn’t take rocket science to discover that she was barren, if she wasn’t pregnant 4 months after Judah, her 4th son, was born.
H. It was after the 4 sons were born, that Leah quit bearing. (Gen. 29:35)
I. Meanwhile, Rachel could have easily had her two sons through Bilhah by the time that Leah had her own 4th son.
J. So, 4-1/2 years into marriage, Leah, possibly having been barren for 4 months, could then have given Zilpah to Jacob, and had two sons through her.
K. Zilpah could have been pregnant with the second, Asher, when Leah conceived yet again. This could possibly bring us to 5-1/2 years of marriage, when Leah again conceived.
L. Leah next had two sons and then a daughter, Dinah. That could bring us to 8-1/2 years.
M. Therefore it is possible that Leah had Issachar, (the 5th son of her own), before the 14 years were up, before Joseph was born, before Jacob served Laban for livestock.
N. It is also possible that Leah had Zebulun before the 7 years ended, but that would be really stretching it, I think. If we were to continue on with the baby every 12 months, then Zebulun probably would have been born about 6 months after the 7 years were up, which would be 6 months into the 6 years that Jacob served laban for livestock. Leah could have become pregnant anytime later than the 12 month cycle we are using as a general, flexible parameter, so we don't really know when he was born.
O. Rachel had Joseph before the 14 years were up, (7 of marriage), so that means that Joseph had to be born before both Zebulun and Dinah. How much before, we don't know.
P. Joseph could have been born before Issachar, and possibly even before Gad and Asher by Zilpah, although that would be on the farthest edge of possibility, as there were only 6 years after Joseph was born before Jacob left Laban, and all but Benjamin were born before Jacob left Laban.
Q. Therefore, with the constraint of marrying after 7 years of service, and Joseph being born before the 6 final years of service for livestock, some of Leah’s sons had to be younger than Joseph, and had to be born after the 14 years of wife service -- during the 6 years of livestock service.
R. It would seem to fit the genealogy timeline more according to our Western or "civilized" mindset, if Leah was given to Jacob, he then served the 7 years for her, then was given Rachel, after which he served the additional 7 years for her. Yet that doesn't fit the wordage of the Word. Is the wordage of our translations correct? I would think so. Or, that Jacob received them both, then served the 14 years for them both. That, too, doesn't fit the wordage of the Word, so we must leave it behind, too.
S. Yes, in light of the Word’s information, I think that not only is it technically, physically, and numerically possible for Jacob not to have married Leah and Rachel until after he had served the first 7 years, as Gen. 29:20,21 clearly state, but it is the only way that it all works out correctly, according to the numbers and statements in the Word. We shouldn't be surprised at this. What a time it must have been, though, to our modern way of thinking. This is why most scholars state that Jacob must have served the full 14 years after having received both Leah and Rachel at the same time, before serving any time for either of them: they haven’t accepted all the verses of the Word, and they haven’t done all the math, therefore they conclude that the listing is given in a completely chronological order, which it couldn't have been -- and all this because they attempt to fit the Word to their own presuppositions. Do the math. However, those scholars would also fly in the face of common sense, for who would give something to someone when they haven't paid for it, and then trust them to pay for it (7 years for Leah, and an additional 7 years for Rachel)? One must pay, and then receive that for which they pay, else the seller would get ripped off most frequently! Rachel was given to Jacob before her 7 years, due it would seem, to the deceit that went on and the acrimony that had suddenly arisen between Jacob and Laban. Also, I met a couple who had 19 kids in 21 years, and there weren't any twins or triplets -- she just popped 'em out one per year, for almost 21 years! When one just accepts all the statements in the Word, it all works out. We must leave our pre-programmed values and mindsets behind, else we will miss the truth -- without fail.
T. Levi had to be, using the possible numbers presented in the Word, no more than 3 years older than Joseph. (Gen. 30:25-34)
21. Jacob wanted to leave Laban after Joseph was born. (Gen. 30:25)
22. Jacob became wealthy after Joseph was born, via the flock. (Gen. 30:40 - 31:1)
23. Jacob was with Laban 20 years. (Gen. 31:38)
24 Jacob served 14 years for his wives, and 6 years for his flocks. (Gen. 31:41)
25. The children were weak when Jacob met Esau. (Gen. 33:13) Dinah could have been a maximum of 4 years old at this event.
26. Joseph would have been about 6 years old when Jacob left Laban, for he had Joseph and then served Laban for livestock, (Gen. 30:25-34). Joseph could have been older, but by only 2 years on the very extremity of possibilities. Scripture seems to strongly indicate, if not state, that Joseph was 6, though.
27. Reuben, the firstborn, would have been no older than 12 when Jacob left Laban.
28. Benjamin was born in the Padan-aram region, as were all his sons, but in a different portion of it, and after Jacob had left Laban. (Gen. 35)
29. Benjamin was born before Jacob came back to Isaac at Mamre/Kirjath Arba/Hebron. (Gen. 35:27)
30. Benjamin was born after Jacob left Laban, which was 6 years after Joseph was born, so Benjamin was at least 6 years younger than Joseph.
31. When Jacob left Laban, he came into Canaan at Shechem. (Gen 33:18)
32. Jacob then moved to Luz, (Bethel), which is in Canaan. (Gen. 35:6)
33. Jacob then moved to Ephrath from Bethel, (Luz). (Gen. 35:16)
34. It was here that Benjamin was born, (Ephrath), and Rachel died, which was before Jacob saw Isaac again. (Gen. 35:18,19)
35. After Jacob came back to Isaac at Mamre, Isaac died, and Jacob and Esau buried him. (Gen. 35:27-29) --- Esau and Jacob were 120 when Isaac died. (#14:B)
36. Joseph was 17 when feeding the flocks with his brothers. (Gen. 37:2)
37. Joseph was born 28 years after Ishmael died.
38. Joseph was 30 when lifted up by Pharaoh. (Gen. 41:46)
39. It was two years after the prison dreams interpretations that Pharaoh lifted Joseph up. (Gen. 41:1) (Joseph was 28 when he interpreted the dreams in prison.)
Therefore:
A. If Joseph was sold when 17, then the following numbers apply:
B. Joseph was 11 years in Egypt when he interpreted the dreams in prison.
C. Joseph was 13 years in Egypt when lifted up by Pharaoh.
40. There were 7 years of plenty, then 7 years of famine. (Gen. 41:29,39)
Therefore:
A. Joseph was 37 when the famine started.
B. Joseph was in Egypt 20 years before the famine started.
41. Joseph had 2 sons in Egypt, in the 7 years before the famine came. (Gen. 41:50)
42. There were 2 years of famine before Joseph saw Benjamin. (Gen. 45:6)
Therefore:
A. If Joseph was sold when 17, then the following numbers apply:
B. Benjamin was at least 2 when Joseph was sold into slavery.
C. Benjamin was at least 24 when Joseph saw him, and up to 33 years old by then.
D. Rachel had Benjamin when Jacob was at least 97 years old. (A son of his old age.)
D. This is where the Judah, Onan, and the twins' timeframe fit into the mix.
E. Joseph was a maximum of 15 years older than Benjamin.
43. Benjamin had 10 sons by the time that he moved to Egypt. (Gen 46:21) (It would seem to be at least a year from when the brothers first went to Egypt until their second trip to Egypt.)
Therefore:
A. Benjamin's age was from between 24 and 31 years old when he went to Egypt.
B. Benjamin was most likely closer to 31 years old when he went to Egypt, unless he had multiple wives, which could have him closer to 24, then. Either way, he was between 24 and 31, and in light of what the Word tells us, and doesn't tell us, he was probably very close to 31.
C. *** All the pictures that you see are of Benjamin being a young lad when before Joseph and the "cup in the grain sack" incident, but he had 10 sons by then! Those pictures are completely wrong, propagating a myth. There are reasons why scripture says not to have bible or spiritual pictures/drawings, yet Christendom ignores them. Thus, Christendom believes the pictures, instead of the Word. That is not right. That is sin. It is a state of the heart.
D. There was quite likely 4 years or more between Benjamin and the last of the previous sons, for he was born years after all of them were. Thus, they considered him "young", or the baby of the bunch: the late comer, if you will.
44. Jacob lived in Egypt 17 years. (Gen. 47:28)
45. Jacob died 147 years old. (Gen. 47:28)
Therefore:
A. Jacob was 130 when he came to Egypt.
B. Joseph was 39 when Jacob, his dad, was 130.
C. Joseph was 39 when Jacob came to Egypt. (30 when raised by Pharaoh + 7 years of plenty + 2 years of famine.)
D. Levi was no more than 42 when he moved to Egypt.
E. Jacob was 91 when Joseph was born.
F. Jacob left Laban when 96 or 97 years old.
G. Joseph was probably born 13 or 14 years after Jacob went to Laban.
H. Jacob started to serve Laban for his wives when 76 or 77 years old. (14 years for wives, Joseph born before 14 years were up, and Joseph was born when Jacob was 91)
I. Esau had two wives before Jacob was 76 or 77. (Gen. 28:5-9)
J. Esau added another wife after Jacob went to Padan-aram. (Gen. 28:5-9)
K. Isaac lived 120 years after Jacob was born.
L. Isaac died 10 years before Jacob went to Egypt.
M. Isaac died 23 or 24 years after Jacob left Laban.
N. Isaac died when Joseph was in Egypt.
46. Joseph died 110 years old. (Gen. 50:22,26)
Therefore:
A. Joseph was 56 when Jacob died in Egypt.
B. Joseph died 54 years after Jacob died.
C. Joseph was 56 when his brothers came to him for mercy after Jacob died.
D. Joseph lived 66 years after the famine ended.
47. Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the 3rd generation. (Gen. 50:23)
Therefore:
A. Joseph saw his great, great grandkids.
B. Joseph had Ephraim and Manasseh before Jacob arrived in Egypt, (before he was 39), which means that in the 71 years from Jacob coming to Egypt until Joseph died, Joseph saw three generations after Ephraim. This dictates that they had to start having offspring by the time they were in the mid twenties, if not earlier, since we do not know how old the last generation was that Joseph saw before he died. This fits in with what we have seen previously.
C. Moses being 40 and yet single was the exception, not the rule! He was also raised as an exception, and not the rule. His whole life was the exception, and not the rule. Understand this.
48. Levi died 137 years old. (Ex. 6:16)
Therefore:
A. If Levi was 3 years older than Joseph, the following apply:
B. Joseph died 24 years before Levi died.
C. Joseph died when Levi was 113.
49. Levi had Kohath. (Ex. 6:16)
50. Levi died 137 years old. (Ex. 6:16)
51. Kohath had Amram. (Ex. 6:18)
52. Kohath died 133 years old. (Ex. 6:18)
53. Amram had Moses. (Ex. 6:20)
54. Amram died 137 years old. (Ex. 6:20)
55. Moses was 80 when Israelites left Egypt. (Ex. 7:7)
56. Aaron was 83 when Israelites left Egypt. (Ex. 7:7)
Therefore:
A. Aaron was 3 years older than Moses.
B. Miriam was older than both Aaron and Moses. (Ex. 2:7)
57. The Israelites came to Mt. Sinai/Horeb in the 1st year of leaving Egypt. (Ex. 19:1,2) (Actually, the Word gives it to us. I leave that for you to search out.)
58. There were 430 years between the giving of the promise to Abraham and the Israelites arriving at Mt. Sinai/Horeb. (Gal. 3:16,17)
59. The promise was given to Abraham after he offered Isaac, which is significant. Don't confuse this with the previous promises, which all varied; and the subsequent, which varied from them.

Now for some final math:
· 430 years from when the promise was given to Abraham until the commandments were given at Mt. Sinai.
· 15 years(?) age for Isaac at time of sacrifice and Abraham receiving the promise = 430 years left.
· Isaac was 60 when the twins, Esau and Jacob, were born: 60 - 15 = 45; 430 - 45 = 385 years left.
· Jacob had Joseph when 91 years old: 385 - 91 = 294 years left.
· Joseph was 110 when he died, and all Egypt mourned him, so slavery couldn't start before that: 294 - 110 = 184 years left for slavery. (Joseph died 66 years after the famine ended.)
· Joseph wasn't known of by the Pharaoh when the slavery started, so there had to be some years after Joseph's death before the slavery started. Think about it: the whole Egyptian economic/real estate structure of the nation was severely changed due to Joseph's handling of the great famine. It would seem to be rather hard for a new Pharaoh soon after Joseph's death (all Egypt mourned for him) to not know of him. But again, that is conjecture, and we don't want to get into basing our conclusions upon such. And remember that all Egypt mourned his death, so it had to be after he had died. So pick a number. At best, we have less than 180 years available for slavery. Don't forget that Isaac could have been older or younger at the time of the promise, so the 180 could be from 170 to 190. We don't know, but those parameters are on the extreme edges of possibility, to the extent of being rather problematic. Thus, being almost foolishly generous, we could have up to 180 years of slavery.

OR:
· Joseph died about 24 years before Levi died.
· Kohath lived 133 years: 24 + 133 = 157 years from Joseph's death.
· Amram lived 137 years: 157 + 137 = 294 years. Moses was 80 when he led the Israelites out of Egypt: 294 + 80 = 374 years.
· Even if Levi, Kohath, and Amram died in the act of impregnating their wife, and the next in line was born 9 months later, we could still only have a possible 377 years for slavery, at the very farthest stretch of an overactive imagination -- an imagination that ignores the fact that they came out of Egypt 430 years after God's promise to Abraham. So no matter how it is looked at, whether the 430 years after the promise to Abraham or solely by genealogical timelines, it is fully impossible to have 400 years of slavery.


What passages are used for people to think that there were 400 years of slavery?

1) Exodus 12:40,41 -- "And the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it happened at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even it was on this very day, all the armies of Jehovah went out from the land of Egypt." A number of the major texts state "Egypt and Canaan", not just "Egypt". You don’t even have to be a scholar to know that: there are some bible versions out there that have this mentioned in the footnotes! Having gone through the math, the reason for this is quite obvious: the major texts that state "Egypt and Canaan" would quite obviously seem to be the correct ones in this instance. You have seen the math: there is only one explanation of it which fits the rest of Scripture.
2) Genesis 15:13-16 -- "And He said to Abram, You must surely know that your seed shall be a stranger in a land not theirs, and shall serve them. And they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also I will judge that nation whom they shall serve. And afterward they shall come out with great substance. And you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." God does not state that Abram's seed shall serve them 400 years, (let alone slavery) but that they shall be afflicted 400 years. Affliction is vastly different than slavery or servitude! Hagar afflicted Sarah: was Sarah then Hagar's slave? Lot was afflicted by the homosexuals: was Lot then a slave of the homosexuals of Sodom and Gomorrah? Hardly! David was afflicted by Saul. The N.T. Christians were afflicted by the Jews. Christ was afflicted by the Pharisees. Was He their slave? Christ was afflicted by Satan. I think that you readily see the point here.
Christendom has read into it what it cannot possible state, simply because that's what it was told to believe -- by those who have rightly divided the Word for us. We believed it. Consequently, we couldn't see that it wasn't saying what we believed it to say. When we read Exodus, we see that they indeed went out with great substance, and they indeed came out in the fourth generation, which was Moses’ generation. So we have Moses' generation, Amram's generation, Kohath's generation, and Levi's generation: four generations -- and in the fourth, Moses', they came out with great substance. Levi's generation, (himself), was alive and well when they entered Egypt. (Gen. 46:11)
Look up passages in scripture, and you will see that to "serve" doesn't necessitate slavery, such as in Jeremiah 5:19, 16:13, 25:11, 30:9, 40:9, to list just a few. The same holds true for "afflict", such as in Lam. 3:33, Jer. 31:28, Isa. 64:12, to mention just a few.

Conclusion:
Most likely, at the very extreme end of possibility, there could have been 184 years of slavery, but even that doesn't allow some sort of time after Joseph's death for a later Pharaoh to not know of Joseph, so I see that it was less than 184 years of slavery -- if Isaac was about 15 at the time of the promise to Abraham. I see that 184 years of slavery would be really pushing the limits of the numbers presented in the Scriptures. No matter how some of the numbers are manipulated within the very few unknowns of the Word, there is little probability that there were more than 184 years of slavery in Egypt, let alone the extremely extravagant number of 400 years. Paul clearly understood this. We should too.
For further study, get into the 600,000 males upon leaving Egypt, and figure that one out. I found it to be a fascinating study, too, for it fully substantiates the conclusions presented herein.
And to round it all out, I got into studying the timelines from the exodus until David, the king.
Foundational to the first study on the 400 years of slavery myth, I had already studied out the various promises and covenants between God and Abraham, their differences and progressions and times. I found that the learning done in that study was very advantageous when I embarked on studying the slavery issue. It also comes in handy when studying the N.T., not just the O.T., and I find that many believers have all sorts of skewed teachings regarding the O.T. and the N.T. in relation to the promises and the Messiah, due to not having a proper foundation in the details of the various Abrahamic covenants. May you enjoy studying the Word á duex! (John 16:13, amongst others.)


Another interesting note:
When Jacob moved to Shechem, it was right after leaving Laban. The firstborn, Rueben, could have been 12 years old at the most, with Joseph being six at the most. (Depending on when the birthdays were, how long it took to travel, etc..) We don't know how long they were at Shechem before Hamor, Shechem's son defiled Dinah. It could have been years. However, we do know that the boys waited until the men were weak from circumcision before they attacked them. This fits in quite well with the boys being in their late teens: they needed the men weak in order to kill them. The young age of the boys is significant, for this is how Shechem persuaded the men of the city to be circumcised: our daughters can marry their sons. Hence, we conclude that at least most of the sons had yet to marry, meaning that they were either not yet at that age, or were just getting to that age. Because we have seen that they married by the time they were right around twenty, we see that this all fits together quite nicely. Dinah was younger than the 11 boys, (Benjamin wasn't born yet), and she could have been a minimum of 2 years younger than Joseph, and a maximum of 4 years younger than Joseph. Joseph was 17 when he was sold into slavery, and that happened after this event, so Dinah could have been a maximum of between 12 to 15 years old when she was defiled by Shechem, Hamor's son. Scripture doesn't state that she conceived as a result of this event, so either: 1) she was infertile, 2) Shechem was infertile, 3) it wasn't the right time of the month for her to conceive, 4) she was too young to conceive. Any of these fits the situation and time-line given in the Word. Also, it was Simeon and Levi, who apart from Reuben were the oldest boys of the bunch, who did the killing. It is quite possible that the other boys weren’t up to it physically due to their younger age, for they would have been early teens and younger, with the two others that might have been in their mid teens, not being the full brothers of Dinah, for they were born by Leah’s handmaid, Zilpah. It all works out beautifully.
It was after this event that God told Jacob to move, which he did, to where Abraham and Isaac had stayed previously. Here God changed Jacob's name to Israel. It was here that God told Jacob, (Israel), to be fruitful and multiply. Why would He say that now? Because Rachel hadn't had Benjamin yet! Joseph was 39 when Jacob came to Egypt, and Benjamin had already had 10 sons by then. If he had a son per year, kind of like his dad Jacob had done for a while, and he had married at 18 years old, that would put Benjamin at 10 or 11 years younger than Joseph, which would be 5 years after Jacob left Laban for good. That fits in with the boys being in their older teens when they needed the men of Shechem to be weak in order to kill them. (However, there could have been twins or even triplets in that bunch of boys that Benjamin had.) That age fits in with the time-line which we have seen in the Word already.
It was here that Joseph was sold into slavery at 17 years of age, putting Reuben at a maximum of 23 years old. It was at this time of Joseph being sold, (either shortly before or after), that Judah, being at the very, very most 3 years older than Joseph, went and saw a woman, the daughter of a Canaanite, and had sons by her.
(I think that it could have been right after this event, and Judah had been the one to suggest selling Joseph for a profit. He may very well have gone in to a woman as a solace of some sorts, in order to assuage his conscience. Who knows? It is problematic to get into conjecture, that's for sure, but it all fits together so well. Nevertheless, we must stick to the numbers for the number information, and even though we consider the other information, we are not given enough data to conclude one way or the other on them. It's fine to think them through variously, but it isn't fine to come to conclusions that are not properly supported by the word of God. Thus, some of this is clearly to be taken as merely possibilities, not as fact. There is a reason why God has given this stuff, with the time sensitive phrases, to us: it proves that it all fits together rather perfectly, leaving no doubt as to the relative times and durations and ages when all this stuff happened, including the slavery and exodus.)
This, too, fits in with the ages and time-line given in the Word, for Judah would have been right around 19 years old. This fits in with the time constraint in the Word for those guys getting married and having kids by the time they were right around twenty, as shown by the numbers regarding the 600,000 males that left Egypt.
Interesting, isn't it?