Was The
Exodus Smaller Than Originally Thought: 600,000 Men Or 600 Families?
Daniel R. Jennings
Exodus
12:37, as it reads in the King James Version, indicates that 600,000 men (not
counting children) participated in the Hebrew Exodus out of Egypt.
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
have questioned the validity of this statement conjecturing that the Exodus
event did occur, but on a much smaller level than the King James indicates. One
reason for challenging the King James’s translation of this passage is because
of the underlying Hebrew word for “thousand”. That word is eleph[1] and it not only means “thousand” but it
can also mean “family”, “clan” and even “oxen”.
“And he said unto him, Oh
my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family (eleph) is
poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” Jdg 6:15KJV
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans (eleph) of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” Mic 5:2ESV
“All sheep and oxen (eleph),
yea, and the beasts of the field;” Psa
8:7KJV
One
can see the dual meaning of eleph by looking
at the Strong’s Concordance entry for this word. Strong’s includes two entries
for eleph
showing that they can refer to either one of the above three ideas (family,
oxen or the numeral of a thousand):
Thus,
an alternate translation of this passage could be suggested to read as
something like:
And
the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred heads of families on foot, not counting the children. Ex 12:37
Other
details in the Exodus story imply that it was a smaller migration of people,
not a large exodus:
1.) At the time of the birth of Moses,
there were only two midwives serving the Hebrew people.
“And the king of Egypt spake
to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name
of the other Puah:” Ex 1:15KJV
One is left to wonder how many hundreds
of thousands of Hebrew women were attended in childbirth by only two midwives.
2.) Although the Hebrew people were
numerous, Moses listed seven Canaanite nations larger and mightier than they.
“When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into
the land whither thou goest
to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and
the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the
Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven
nations greater and mightier than thou;” Deut. 7:1KJV
3.) Finally, Moses himself referred to
the Israelites as "the fewest of all people."
“The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor
choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the
fewest of all people:” Deut. 7:7KJV
The
evidence would suggest that the Exodus event occurred on a much smaller level
than has previously been thought. Below are screenshots of pages from a 1911
book outlining this idea.
|
Egypt and Israel by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (London: Society For
Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1911), p.40-46. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sources:
Exodus
Numbers by R. Wresch, M.D., http://www.guam.net/home/wresch/stories/R_Wresch/exodus_numbers.htm
(link no longer works)
Egypt and Israel by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (London: Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1911), p.40-46.
The Jewish Teacher, Series 1: Early
Heroes and Heroines by
Eugene Heitler Lehman (New York: Bloch Publishing, 1914), p.96-97.