A strong argument against the accuracy of the present Hebrew text, is derived, as we have seen, from the different accounts of the census of the Hebrew Patriarchs and their families, at the epoch of their migration into Egypt, to be found in the Old and New Testaments. In Acts vii. 14, we find that the martyr Stephen, in his defence before the High Priest of the Jews, gives this census, including the grandsons and great grandsons of Joseph, who, as well as his sons, had previously migrated in their father’s loins, as amounting in all to “threescore and fifteen,” or “75 souls.” On referring to the Mosaic narrative, Gen. xlvi. 27, we find, according to the _Hebrew text_, that this census amounts only to “threescore and ten,” or “70 souls;” but, according to the _Septuagint_, that it amounts to “75 souls.” Here, assuredly, the authority of the Septuagint must be reckoned superior to that of the Hebrew text, inasmuch as that version not only perfectly agrees as to the census with the reckoning of St. Stephen in the place now cited, but in the same chapter, it enumerates the names of the _three_ grandsons and the _two_ great grandsons of Joseph, making up the _five_ persons whose names are totally omitted in the Hebrew. The census of the Septuagint also agrees with that of the New Testament, in other places where Moses has occasion to remind the Israelites of the smallness of their number when their fathers went down into Egypt; see Exodus i. 5; and Deuteronomy x. 22. It is proper to remark, however, that the number in the latter citation agrees with the Hebrew, in the _Vatican edition_ of the Septuagint; but, not in the _Alexandrine codex_, or the Grabian edition, where it is correctly given as in the other places which have been cited. Dr. Hales, in his “Analysis,” vol. ii. p. 159, has grievously mistaken the composition of the census in question; for, he includes in it, the wives of Jacob’s sons, amounting to nine persons in all, according to his account. The Sacred text, however, includes Jacob, and Joseph with his two sons, in the number 70; now if the nine _wives_ were also included, the census would amount to the number 79; because the names of the 70 _men_ are all distinctly enumerated even in the Hebrew text itself. In order, therefore, to get rid of this difficulty, and reduce the number from 79 to 75, the Dr. excludes the _four men_ just mentioned, and includes the _nine women_, whether they are _kindred or not kindred_! His solution, however, does not agree with the express words of Scripture, which, in fact, _excludes the women_, the words being according to the Septuagint, χωρὶς τῶν γυναικῶν, “without the wives;” and _includes the men_, in the number 75, the words of Stephen being “his father Jacob, and all his kindred,” descended, ἐκ τῶν μηρῶν ἀυτοῦ, “out of his loins.”