And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot [that were] men, besides children.
The day after the Passover, Israel walked out of Egypt as a nation on the move. The verse names a starting point, a first stop, and a number. Each one says something about what God had just done.
Jacob's family arrived in Egypt small enough to list by name. The size of the crowd leaving is the measure of what God had done in between.
We are given a list of sons and grandsons and told their number as 70. Exodus 12:37 shows the great increase that took place while they were in Egypt. It shows how God fulfilled His word about making them a great nation.
The figure here is a round one. A later count is more exact, and gives the size of the whole company.
Exodus 12:37 speaks of there being 600,000 men, besides children, at the exodus. Numbers 1:46 gives the number more exactly as 603,550 from twenty years old and upward who were able to go to war. That works out to a total of about two million men, women, and children, not counting the descendants of Levi.
The two place names are not just map points. Their meanings mark the change of life that redemption brings.
From Rameses (city of the sun), the city of earthly splendour, they went to Succoth, which means "booths." Their character as pilgrims now comes out. The wilderness begins. Redemption by blood makes us pilgrims and strangers, for we are no longer of the world, though we are in it.
Another writer draws out the contrast between the two builders — one a king making a name for himself, the other a people living in tents.
Strikingly the first stage — all that is mentioned yet — is from Rameses to Succoth: from the king's city, built for the glory of his name, to the place of the "booths," or tents, that mark the wilderness.
One line of text covers the emptying of a whole region of Egypt overnight.
An exodus was starting, the like of which had never been known. About 600,000 men, besides women and children, were now on the move. They were leaving the land of Goshen for ever, and changing their condition from slavery to freedom. Then all the flocks and herds of Israel moved too. Not a hoof was left behind. It was a migration unmatched before or since. To the Egyptians, when they woke up to it, what a change had taken place! Goshen was emptied. The taskmaster's job was gone.
The words "on foot" describe people carrying children, not weapons.
As the morning light dawns on Rameses, what do we see? Not a well-disciplined army able to meet its enemies, but six hundred thousand men on foot. They go out with no visible resources, burdened with the care of wives and little ones. May we not say, what a powerless, defenceless, easy prey they are to the wandering tribes of the desert? But no, dear reader; a blood-bought people, truly powerless in themselves, is going out — but not alone. The LORD was among His people.
Moses is named nowhere in this verse, and commentators note that the task was far beyond him.
Picture six hundred thousand men, besides women and children, springing into action to leave the country. The sight must have been astounding! There has been nothing else in all history like it. The responsibility for leading this company of over two million rested on Moses. Did he feel capable of it? Not at all. He felt helpless, but he knew that God's power was enough, and God had spoken clearly: He would deliver Israel.
The same writer, looking back on the full list of Israel's camping places, asks why the crowd held together at all.
It is amazing that God brought so huge a company, with their livestock and other possessions, through that long period of travel by the hand of one chosen leader! Why did they not scatter and go wherever each one pleased, as people normally would? The only answer is the overruling power of God.
- Promise. Seventy people went into Egypt; roughly two million came out. The number in this verse is God keeping His word to make them a great nation.
- Power. Slaves became a moving nation in a single night. Goshen stood empty, and not one animal stayed behind.
- Pilgrimage. They moved from Rameses, a city of earthly splendour, to Succoth, which means "booths." Redemption by blood makes a people strangers in the world they still live in.
- Powerlessness. Six hundred thousand on foot, burdened with wives and children, were an easy target — yet they did not go out alone.
- Preservation. Moses felt helpless before the task. That a company this size held together at all has one explanation — the overruling power of God.
And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks and herds -- very much cattle.
The exodus is a crowd scene: a nation of freed slaves marching out with their animals, and beside them a group who did not belong to the nation at all. That small detail raises a question the Bible keeps asking: who really belongs to the redeemed people, and who is only walking beside them?
The size of the company is itself the proof of God's work over the years of slavery. One writer sets the figures side by side:
Verses 37-39 show us how much God had multiplied the people while they suffered in Egypt. About 600,000 men went out. When Jacob went down to Egypt, the number given in Genesis 46:27 is 70. They went out complete with children, flocks and herds, as verse 38 records. But they also went out with "a mixed multitude," who soon became a source of weakness and trouble.
Commentators differ on where this crowd came from. Some suggest links formed inside Egypt itself:
"A mixed multitude" went with them. Clearly they were not Israelites. They were possibly Egyptians who had married Israelites, or who were linked with them in some other way.
Others picture the plagues loosening Egypt's grip on foreigners it held:
The terrors that came before their departure had broken the chains of many captives from many nations. These people formed the "mixed multitude" that travelled with Israel.
What set this company apart was what they lacked. They shared the road without sharing the redemption:
They had no shelter under the blood, because they did not belong to the nation. They had no real interest in the people themselves, in what Jehovah purposed for them, or in the land the nation was heading for. Their whole position stood in contrast to that of the redeemed company. Yet they threw in their lot among them and "went up with them."
This pattern is not limited to Egypt. It is not only other people's problem:
But right at the start, the "mixed multitude" who go up with them hints at what is coming. Wherever God moves, other motives drive people than the motives the Spirit of God uses to stir a renewed heart. So a crowd attaches itself to those who are led out. The Pharisees and Sadducees come to John's baptism. The flesh and the world will go on pilgrimage too. Here is the seed of much later trouble (see Num. 11:4). Even inside a single believer, other motives can quickly mix in with what is God's work. At first they all seem to join together to carry us forward in the path of faith. Only later do they show their true character.
Nothing showed at first. The damage came later, when this crowd fell into craving and put God's people in danger of tiring of the manna:
"The mixed multitude" is sure to fall into craving, and God's people are in real danger of being pulled away from their proper simplicity, and of growing tired of the heavenly manna — their proper food. What is needed is plain decision for Christ, and wholehearted devotion to Him and to His cause… Satan knew full well what he was doing, when he led the mixed multitude to attach themselves to the congregation of Israel. The effect of this mixture did not show all at once. The people had come out boldly. They had passed through the Red Sea and sung the song of victory on its banks. Everything looked bright and promising. But "the mixed multitude" was still there.
The verse ends with livestock. That detail answers Pharaoh's attempt to keep Israel's cattle in Egypt, and one writer turns the answer into a personal question:
It is a grand truth that when someone is saved, everything that belongs to him comes under a new master. Pharaoh wanted Israel to leave their cattle in Egypt when they left the country, but the magnificent answer is, "Not a hoof shall be left behind." (Ex. 10:26) That is the right way. When you were converted, were your cattle converted, too? Was your business converted, and your bank account?
- Multiplied — Seventy went down into Egypt; about 600,000 men came out. The years of affliction were the years of God's increase.
- Mixed — A crowd travelled with Israel who were not Israelites. Commentators suggest Egyptians linked by marriage, or freed captives of other nations.
- Unsheltered — They went up with the redeemed, but no blood sheltered them. They had no stake in God's purposes and no claim on the land ahead.
- Motives — Every work of God draws people moved by something other than the Spirit. The same mixture can start inside a believer's own heart, and it shows its true character only later.
- Nothing left behind — The livestock came out too. Israel refused to leave one hoof behind: salvation puts everything a person owns under a new master.