HOW MANY LEFT EGYPT?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

The festival of Passover recalls a major event in the history of the Jews during the biblical times. The main message of the holiday, which has resonated with our people over the centuries, is that we were slaves in Egypt, and then we became free. Jews have celebrated this special event for a long period of time, through a ritualized family meal, called the Seder, and using a traditional text named “Haggadah,” meaning “the telling (of the story).”

As the historian John Bright already pointed out, “there is no direct witness in Egyptian records to Israel’s presence in Egypt…(however), it is not the sort of tradition any people would invent” (History of Israel, 1981, 121). The details of the slavery in Egypt as well as the liberation from it are buried in many legends that have been transmitted through the ages from generation to generation. One of them is the number of people who actually left Egypt.

According to Ex.12: 37, about 600,000 men, plus women and children as well as a “mixed multitude” departed from Egypt. In the opinion of a medieval rabbinic commentator, Abraham Ibn Ezra (d.1167, Spain), this extra group were some Egyptians who joined them. It could also refer to other enslaved people in Egypt who escaped along the Israelites.

600,000 is a round number (the Hebrew text reads, “about 600,000”) and is not too far from other biblical sources that put it at 600,550 (Num.1:46), 600,000 (Num.11:21) or  at 601,730 (Num.26:51). Many people, therefore, estimated that the total number of Israelites who left Egypt, including women, children and others, would be about two and a half million.

And this is where the problem lies:

1.     According to a biblical text, the Israelites arrived in Egypt with 70 people (Deut. 10:22), and lived in the land 430 years (Ex 12:40).  (By the way, Gen. 15:13 and 15:16 claim 400 years in 4 generations). The defenders of the biblical text point to another biblical verse that states that the Israelites were very prolific and multiplied greatly (Ex.1: 7; see Deut. 1: 10). But even with this exaggerated claim, it is hard to believe that 70 people can generate about two or three million within 400+ years.

2.     According to another biblical text, the Israelites in Egypt had only two mid-wives by the name of Shifra and Puah (Ex.1: 15-21). It is not clear if these were Hebrew mid-wives or Egyptian mid-wives to the Hebrews. The names, however, are Semitic and not Egyptian. Some medieval commentators, like Ibn Ezra, maintain that they were the overseers of the actual mid-wives in the country. The defenders of the biblical text say that the Hebrew wives in Egypt were “vigorous,” and did not wait for the mid-wives to arrive (Ex.1: 19). But, still, it is hard to believe that only two women , even with outside help, could possibly serve all the Israelites living in the country.

3.     Given the climatic conditions of the land, there is no way that the Sinai desert could have sustained such a large group of more than two million.

To solve the problem, many scholars proposed various solutions:

1.     Some argued that the Hebrew word “ELEF,” meaning “thousand” referring to the number of men who left Egypt (in Ex.12:37) should be understood as “clans.” That would bring the number down to a few thousands. Thus, for example, Mendenhall suggested, maybe 5000; Sarna argued in favor of 600 family units and Wenham proposed a total of 72,000 people.. Now, that makes more sense.

2.     Other scholars suggested that not all 12 Israelite tribes left Egypt, and perhaps not all of them together. Already M. Noth had indicated that “the tribes of Israel did not all settle on the soil of Palestine at the same time” (History, 1958, p. 72). Some even suggested that perhaps only 2 or 3 left, and the others escaped before or after the Exodus. In reality, the number 12 is post-Exodus and reflects the reality during the days of the Monarchy, later on.

 These details, however, did not make it into the Hebrew Bible or the Haggadah. Oral tradition embellished the history of the liberation, and human imagination added all sorts of stories to the almost miraculous event in order to highlight the major teaching of the holiday that celebrates the freedom from bondage in the distant past. In fact, according to the Haggadah, “in every generation each person must feel obligated to think that he/she had personally came out of Egypt.” No wonder why so many people still today rejoice in it and proclaim it to the entire world.