Short answer: In biblical accounts, the Israelites were in Egypt for roughly 210–215 years as a people, with slavery lasting about 210 years in the traditional Masoretic text framework. Different interpretations exist depending on how one counts the sojourn, the exodus, and which textual tradition is used. Details and common scholarly/traditional views

• Masoretic/Exodus chronology: The Israelites’ sojourn in Egypt is often dated to about 430 years in Exodus 12:40, but many scholars reconcile this to a period of about 210–215 years from Jacob’s family’s arrival in Egypt (around the time of Joseph) to the Exodus. The calculation typically notes that Jacob’s son Joseph arrives in Egypt during a first generation, and Moses leads the people out about four generations later; when you subtract the years before the sojourn and add the ages of key patriarchs, a total of approximately 210 years of actual presence in Egypt is commonly cited. This approach is consistent with the ages of Kohath, Amram, and Moses used in traditional exegesis.

• Alternative manuscript traditions: Some sources (including Samaritan Pentateuch readings) and certain interpretations read the 430 years as a broader span from God’s promise to Abraham’s descendants ending with the Exodus, rather than the literal duration of physical sojourn or bondage. These views can yield different counts for “in Egypt” versus “in bondage.”

• Traditional Christian readings: A common teaching in many Christian circles has held the 400 years of oppression or the 430 years of sojourning as a single contiguous period of captivity. Biblically, the Exodus narrative itself specifies 430 years of sojourning in Egypt and Canaan combined, but reconciliation with other chronological details (ages of patriarchs, generations) is debated.

• Jewish and rabbinic perspectives: Jewish tradition often emphasizes the total sojourn length in Egypt as 210 years, aligning with the ages of the Israelites when they left and the chronology drawn from Genesis through Exodus. This aligns with the Masoretic text and Ramifications in classical sources.

Why this matters for interpreting “slavery”

• The period commonly labeled as “slavery” is not uniformly the entirety of the 210-year sojourn. The Exodus narrative describes an initial period of presence in Egypt, followed by escalating oppression culminating in the plagues and departure. The bondage phase is often considered to have intensified under later pharaohs, particularly after Joseph’s era, rather than covering the entire 210-year presence. Estimates of the bondage period range around 200 years in many traditional commentaries, though exact dates vary by methodology.

If you’d like, I can tailor the answer to a specific tradition (Masoretic Hebrew, Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, or a particular scholarly interpretation) and show a step-by-step chronological calculation using that framework.