Parsha BO -- How Many Israelites Fled From Egypt?

[Rebbe]

BRI International Internet Yeshiva Parashah Notes, January 28, 2012

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"I teach nothing new but all things original" -- Rebbe

Parsha Bo (go/enter)
Exodus 10.1-13.6
Haftorah Jeremiah 46.13-28  (Sephardi)

How Many Israelites Left Egypt?

A sound and proper biblical education is sadly lacking in most Christian lives. This is one reason HaShem has raised up this fledgling Work to perform a mighty accomplishment of restoring the Word of God and the lost first century Jewish thoughtform to the biblical revelation before the End of Days come upon us all. Yes, we are living in the end of the age, but we are not yet in the final "End of Days," although we can see it crystallising on the horizon. We are vitally interested therefore in teaching the entire counsel of God -- not just some of it.

God is raising up Jewish teachers for such a time as this -- all over the world. And, each of us has a different perspective in our teaching ministry. I am in this place and in this calling at this time because HaShem wants me here. That's the reason I am here standing before you all, and that is the ONLY reason. This is also the reason why we are here educating tens of thousands of spiritually starved believers who are clamouring for this new thing the Lord is doing primarily through the BRI/IMCF site. Yet this Work of God is just that -- a WORK OF GOD. It is held together by a small group of dedicated disciples of Yeshua who are desirous of seeing people RE-EDUCATED as we CODIFY the biblical revelation.

Remember these three biblical facts:

[1] God is doing a NEW thing. "Remember you not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold! I will do A NEW THING: now it shall spring forth -- shall you not know it?" (Isa 43.18,19).

[2] God is restoring lost knowledge. "This is a people robbed and spoiled; all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivers; for a spoil and none says, RESTORE! Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for THE TIME TO COME?" (Isa 42.22,23).

[3] God is opening hearts and minds to this ministry. "O HaShem, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely OUR FATHERS HAVE INHERITED LIES and useless worthless beliefs wherein there is no profit" (Jer 16.19).

People are discovering that this Work is truly unique and is at the cutting edge of biblical understanding -- and the proof of this assessment is the growing number of incidences of outright plagiarism!

Be this as it may, there are difficulties in the Bible and none of us can run away from them. One of my callings is to raise up holy sparks to God. Another is to restore lost Jewish thoughtform to the biblical revelation, and we find that when this occurs a "new reality shift" ushers forth and a blazing light shines out on some of the most glaring problems and seemingly insurmountable difficulties in the pages of the Bible.

Certainly when we open the Bible we are challenged to expand the parameters of our ignorance. So then for clarity we turn to biblical scholars. But when we turn to some scholars we find out sooner or later that they are oftentimes very economical with the truth. And, there are very difficult passages in the Bible which they (again) more often than not avoid so that the "faith" of those they influence is not undermined. But this is less than an honest approach.

What I attempt to achieve is to educate -- no matter what the personal detrimental cost appears to me in lost students. If people cannot accept the word of God as it is, then they do not belong here. Of course, when students leave it always affects me negatively.

Of course, we all make mistakes -- and I am oftentimes at fault when it comes to errors of judgment. Sometimes I can expect far too much of my students, especially those I love the most and who have been with me the longest. But Yeshua also mentioned that we should all be willing to forgive our brother or sister for their mistakes (errors personally involving us) four hundred and ninety times EACH DAY (Greek).

Some of us can achieve this and others apparently are unable to do so. It's really all about discipleship and Yeshua's expectations of us.

Be all this as it may be, there are problems which exist in Scripture.

A difficult verse in point? The Scripture states explicitly:

"And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children" (Ex 12.37).

Some scholars believe the number of Israelites who departed from Egypt were in the vicinity of 6 million persons (See Finis Dake's Annotated Reference Bible where the following analysis exists):

Men of war  - 600,000
Wives of men of war - 600,000
Wives of others, men not engaged as soldiers, and sisters - 400,000
Children of men of war (estimating 4 to a family) - 2,400,000
Levites a month old and upward - 22,300
Wives of Levites 30 to 50 years old - 8,580
Wives of younger and older Levites, and sisters - 2,000
Children of Levites (estimating 4 each 8,580 families) - 34,320
Total Israelites - 4,067,200
Mixed multitude (estimating one-half as many Israelites) - 2,033,600
Estimated grand total - 6,800,100

Others, more conservative, consider the number of escaped Israelites to be much smaller and place it at around 2.5 million. If you think about it, if 600,000 men above the age of 20 years left Egypt, along with their wives, children, and aged persons (plus a mixed multitude that also exited, along with a host of Levites) certainly the figure of 600,000 would easily swell to at least 2 million people. This is a considerable exodus indeed.
 
This figure of around 600,000 men is mentioned again in Numbers 1.44-47.

"These are those that were numbered, which Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, twelve men: each one was for the house of his fathers. So were all those that were numbered of the children of Israel, by the house of their fathers, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel; even all they that were numbered were six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty. But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them."

The Hollywood movie industry and Sunday School classes have also impregnated within people the idea of a colossal exodus of Israelites escaping the slime pits of Egyptian servitude and making their way through a largely impenetrable wilderness of Sinai. But Hollywood (and Bible picture books) also exaggerate.

STOP AND THINK. David Ben-Gurion once hesitated over the total number of 600,000 (or 2.5 million) Israelites when delivering a speech in the Knesset. His solution was to knock off some zero's and his figure shrank to a mere 600. Scholar F.F. Bruce recognises that Ben-Gurion's solution was "an unsatisfactory way of dealing with the problem" (F.F. Bruce, Answers to Questions, 1972, 9). Bruce mentions that Flinders Petrie "concluded that some 20,000 left Egypt" and gives his source as Petrie's Egypt and Israel (pp. 40ff). Many reputable scholars have been perplexed by the 600,000 figure given in the Torah.

Writes M.A. Beek in his A Journey Through the Old Testament, "If the biblical account were taken literally, and if we assume an army marching in columns of four, one yard between each column, the front line of this army would have reached Damascus by the time the rear was still crossing the Egyptian border. This is clearly an impossible exaggeration" (66).

Many Bible critics and atheists point to this obvious issue and make much of it, usually with the motive of discrediting the biblical revelation.

The solution is quite clear -- if we allow Jewish thoughtform to explain it to us. But before we get to the solution which is plainly stated in the Torah itself let's consider four major points invariably overlooked by laymen and scholars alike. There are many more but these will suffice because of time limits.

POINT ONE: Israel did not walk aimlessly all over a desert avoided by other tribal peoples.

The Bible informs us that Israel followed "a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day." And they did. But they did not do desultory "loop-de-loops" all over the Sinai. Rather, on their journey they took major highways and anciently established roads of commerce. If any of my students have not been aware of this fact, notice the biblical confession now in Torah sequence:

"God led the people about through the highway of the wilderness of the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt" (Ex 13.18).

"Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom... When we cried to the Lord he heard our voice and sent an angel and he has brought us forth out of Egypt: behold we are in Kadesh [possibly Petra], a city in the uttermost area of your border. Let us pass, we request, through your country: we will not pass through your fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of your wells: we will go by the king's highway, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed your borders" (Num 20.14,16-17).

"Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through your land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king's highway, until we pass over your borders" (Num 21.21,22).

"These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and HaZeroth and Dizahab. There are eleven days journey from Horeb by the highway of Mt Seir unto Kadesh Barnea" (Deut 1.1,2).

These were well-established highways and well-travelled roads connecting various cities, towns and villages and oasis. Moses travelled along anciently established trade routes and other roads of tribal communication. He wasn't forging new paths across an unknown Sinai desert! He was travelling along major interconnecting highways where countless trade expeditions had already worn well-directed paths based on their commercial interests.

POINT TWO: There are enormous logistical problems associated with such a magnitude of expatriates as the Bible seems to indicate left Egypt.

A migration of between 2 and 6 million people travelling on major trade routes through the Sinai desert challenges the imagination when we consider that each family would without doubt be pulling horse or mule-drawn carts and wagons loaded with their belongings. And remember that when the Israelites were finally expelled, the Egyptians parted with clothes, victuals and jewellery in abundance. There can be little doubt that carts of some size would be essential for travelling. We can hardly dare to see them as an unwieldy group of sight-seeing backpackers. Put that together with millions of escapees and you realise that their columns would stretch for thousands of miles.

Theoretically, if there were upwards of six million people running for their lives during the night from their Egyptian captors, consider also that countless hundreds of thousands of Israelites would have been thrown off the ice bridge (which stretched across the Red Sea) along with Pharaoh and his legions by the time the sun arose the following morning after their departure. And, that clearly didn't happen! No matter how fast they ran with their wagons and mules and the very aged and with little children in their entourage, it would have taken more than one night to get them all across the Red Sea safely! And, the Egyptians were in hot pursuit. Again, such a nonsense scenario never eventuated.

POINT THREE: Jethro advised Moses to inculcate government to properly administer the people of Israel. But...

Moses' father-in-law didn't advise Moses to appoint leaders over tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands but merely "rulers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens" (Ex 18.21).

According to the late Dr Ernest Martin in his book 101 Bible Secrets That Christians Do Not Know (219) "Jethro was amazed that Moses had yet to establish a chain of command in judging Israel. He hastened him to initiate a rulership of men ... so that Moses would not be worn out by trying to settle all the judicial affairs of 2.5 million people. But this information represents a major problem. Israel had already been on their journey some six weeks and they numbered about the size of Los Angeles on the move ... Would it not be impossible to muster such a prodigious quantity of people into some kind of orderly march without various chains of command already established?"

Fair enough question!

POINT FOUR: It took a miracle to destroy the walls of Jericho -- why?

By the time the city of Jericho was reached a new generation of fighting men existed among the Israelites. They numbered 601,730 (Num 26). Yet according to archeological excavations the entire area of Jericho was no more than ten acres.  Professor Kenyon estimated that the entire population of the city would not have been more than 3000 souls. The city of Jericho is astonishingly small. Yet we are told that Israel numbered over 600,000 warriors and somehow could not overpower such a little army perspiring behind thick walls? What Tom Foolery! Israel's military machine would outnumber the Canaanites by 800 to 1.

SOLUTION: Pedigrees.

Turn with me to Num 1.18 for here we have the crystal clear answer to our problem of the size of Israel's population when they left Egypt and entered into the Land of Canaan. After listing the names of the census takers, it is written:

"They assembled all the congregation together [and please note that this marshaling included ALL the assembly of Israel] on the first day of the second month, AND THEY DECLARED THEIR PEDIGREES AFTER THEIR FAMILIES, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls. As HaShem commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai " (Num 1.18,19).

What does this mean exactly? It means that all Israel INCLUDED those long dead who were slaves in Egypt and who remained BURIED IN EGYPT in the census when the living departed for the land of their inheritance! Israelites scrupulously maintained a genealogical record of their immediate forefathers and their ancestors as they were listed "by their polls" so as to symbolically inherit the Promised Land along with the new generation of living Israelites who took possession of Canaan.

The answer is simple and straightforward, and even though we in this modern world could look upon such a procedure as being odd and even to a degree eccentric, this was the procedure among Jewish families even to the Holocaust of recent days. Genealogy was always of the utmost importance to Jewish people. And so it was in the days of the Exodus from Egypt to the inheritance promised to Abraham and his descendants. A moderate figure of perhaps around 40,000 or more survivors left the concentration camps of Egypt for a new life in Canaan.