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.
And they baked the dough that they brought forth out of Egypt into unleavened cakes, for it was not leavened; for they were driven out of Egypt, and could not wait; neither had they prepared for themselves any food.
Israel's first meal outside Egypt was flat bread, and the verse stops to explain why. That small detail raises two large questions: who was driving events that night, and whether Israel kept God's word about leaven from the heart or only from the clock.
Scripture does not credit Israel's unleavened bread to devotion. It gives a plainer reason: they were pushed. One writer presses the point:
It may be true, as Keil suggests, that the command to eat unleavened bread for seven days had not yet been given to the people. But it is no less full of solemn meaning as a picture that they first came to keep the ordinance only because they "were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait." Had the Egyptians pressed them less urgently, they would undoubtedly have put the leaven into the bread!
Commentators differ on how to read that. Some see only the failure. Others see God's kindness in the timing: He rushed them out so they had no chance to disobey.
There is a wonderful little side-light here. It was not leavened because they were thrust out of Egypt. I think what God gives us here is this: if they had not been in such a hurry, the leaven might have got in. "I will help them to start right," says God. And so they were hurried out so quickly that they had no time to fail in obedience. "I will help them, at least, to keep My word for once in their history," says God.
The phrase "thrust out" marks a full reversal. The nation that had refused to let Israel go now could not get rid of them fast enough, just as God had said.
The Egyptians were at first so eager to keep them. After they had been punished, they were just as anxious to be rid of them. "When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here altogether." "They were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait" (Ex. 11:1; Ex. 12:39). And they did not come out of the land of their bondage empty, but loaded with gifts of gold and jewels from their former captors.
The last clause is the starkest. They left with no food ready for the journey. That left them nothing to fall back on, and it kept them to a timetable they had not set.
Israel left Egypt in such haste that they took no supplies for immediate use. All they had was the dough and the kneading troughs, bound on their shoulders with their clothes. In this way they were, in a special sense, wholly dependent on the Lord's care. Their haste met the urgency of the Egyptians, who were God's agents in the matter. It also made sure they left at the time the Lord had appointed beforehand.
The first keeping of this feast came out of hostility. The same pattern has repeated ever since, and the danger has not been the storm but the calm after it.
Is it not a solemn reminder how little the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth has ever marked any large proportion of the people of God? When the world has forced them out of it, in times of trouble and affliction, how brightly the testimony shone that they were a heavenly people. They kept apart from the world without compromise, passing through it as strangers. But when the storm relaxed, how quickly the leaven came back. What a challenge to the people of God in days of ease and material prosperity.
That first batch of flat bread was the start of something longer. The feast ran seven days, tied to the Passover, and it pictures the believer's whole life.
And let us not forget how long this feast lasts: "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread" (Ex. 12:15-20). This marks a complete period of time and pictures the whole span of our life here as saints. The feast of unleavened bread began as soon as they had eaten the Passover. Indeed Luke 22:1 calls the two by one name. This picture teaches a truth of deep practical importance. Holiness in thought and in walk is the duty of everyone sheltered by the blood of the Passover Lamb. The true character of saints is to be unleavened. Every trace of the corruption and pride that belonged to our old state was judged in the cross of Christ, and all of it is to be shut out.
- Driven — the bread stayed flat because Israel was thrust out and could not wait. The verse names necessity, not devotion.
- Delivered — the rush itself was mercy: hurried out so fast, they had no time to fail in obedience for once.
- Dispossessed — those who once refused to let them go now pushed them out, and sent them away loaded with gold and jewels.
- Dependent — with no food packed, they had only God's care to lean on, and they left at the time He had fixed.
- Durable — what began under pressure was to run seven days. Holiness marks the whole life of everyone sheltered by the blood of the Lamb.
And the residence of the children of Israel that they resided in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
This verse puts a number on Israel's stay in Egypt: 430 years. Other passages appear to count differently, yet behind the arithmetic stands a God who fixed a term long in advance and kept it to the day.
Placed beside other verses, the number creates a real difficulty. Commentators say so plainly.
A question not easily answered is, How long were the Israelites in Egypt? Genesis 15:13 and Acts 7:6 seem to state the period as four hundred years. Exodus 12:40 gives four hundred and thirty years for the time the people of Israel lived in Egypt. And Galatians 3:17 declares that God gave the law four hundred and thirty years after the promise to Abraham. But the promise to Abraham came long before Israel went into Egypt, and God gave the law after they came out. So according to this passage, their stay in Egypt must have been much less than four hundred years.
One explanation starts the clock at Abraham's leaving Ur, not at the arrival in Egypt.
Now, from where should we count this period? We know when it ended — at the Exodus — so its beginning is not hard to work out. From the birth of Isaac to the Exodus was to be four hundred years. (Genesis 15:13.) From Abraham's departure out of Haran to the birth of his son was twenty-five years more. (Genesis 12:4; 21:5.) It is likely, then, that he left Ur five years before he left Haran. That accounts for the four hundred and thirty years. They cover the whole time that Israel and the patriarchs lived as strangers in countries they did not own.
Others reach a similar result by treating the 400 years of Genesis 15 as marking where the period ends rather than fencing it at both ends.
It is plain, therefore, that the 430 years are to be taken as from the promise, and that they define the time to which the captivity in Egypt lasted. Thus in Genesis 15 we must read this as meaning that the people should be captives to the Egyptians until 400 years from that time; the captivity is defined by the end of it, instead of what we would at first naturally think, by both ends.
Commentators differ, and some decline to settle it. Darby weighed the same evidence and left the matter open, noting that Paul's aim in Galatians was not to fix a date but to show how long the law came after the promise.
He refers to Exodus 12:40, which was enough for his purpose and is ambiguous. He may refer to patriarchal times as those of promise, and take the Egyptian stay as four hundred and thirty years. The length of the sojourn in Egypt is an unsettled question.
Another approach counts the stay in Egypt itself from the generations listed in Scripture, and reaches a far shorter figure.
A much shorter period is implied in Genesis 15:16, which says of Israel in Egypt that they will come back here in the fourth generation. And if we turn to Exodus 6:16-20 we find exactly four generations: Jacob's son Levi, Levi's son Kohath, Kohath's son Amram, and Amram's son Moses... Israel may have been in Egypt about two hundred and fifteen years, and this is the period now generally supposed.
Some early translations of the Old Testament add extra words here. Others leave them out.
The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek Septuagint add the words "and of their fathers in the land of Canaan." But the Arabic, Syriac and Vulgate versions do not have these words. Someone may therefore have added them to meet the apparent difficulty. It is better to take the four hundred and thirty years as covering the stay of Abraham (after the promise), of Isaac, and of Jacob. Strictly speaking, though, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not "children of Israel."
Whatever the starting point, the passage stresses how exactly the period ended. It also gives the people a new name as they leave.
Verses 40-42 show us the exactness with which God keeps to His own appointed time. He had mentioned 400 years to Abraham, as we see in Genesis 15:13. Scripture does not tell us the exact point from which the 430 years start. But on the very day they ended, the people went out of Egypt. Scripture calls them "the hosts of the Lord," though to all appearance they were only a large crowd of freed slaves.
Egypt had been their home for centuries, yet it was never more than a stay. They saw that on the night they left.
They were now strangers in Egypt — the land that had been their home for so many years... The link with Egypt snapped at once, and that very night they marched from Rameses to Succoth with their wives, their children, their cattle and their goods... Slaves not long before, they were now free: pilgrims and strangers in the only land they had ever known as home.
The sheer length of the stay is itself a lesson for a people still waiting.
Of course this covered many generations. But Israel has now lived scattered among the nations for almost 2000 years, ever since they rejected Christ! Yet God will bring them back in His appointed time.
- Promise — The 430 years are best read as running from God's word to Abraham, not just from the move into Egypt. The clock starts with a promise.
- Puzzle — Genesis 15, Exodus 12 and Galatians 3 count differently. Some trace the stay in Egypt itself to about two hundred and fifteen years. Others call its length an unsettled question.
- Text — The words "and of their fathers in the land of Canaan" appear in some early translations but not others. They may be an effort to ease the difficulty.
- Precision — The period closed on the very day it was due; God keeps exactly to His own appointed time.
- Patience — Centuries in Egypt did not cancel the promise. Israel's long scattering today will not cancel it either.
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, on that same day it came to pass that all the hosts of Jehovah went out from the land of Egypt.
Israel left Egypt on a date God had already fixed. Two questions follow: when did the 430 years start, and why is a crowd of slaves called "the hosts of the LORD"?
The point of the wording is not the length of the wait but its accuracy.
Verses 40-42 show us the exactness with which God keeps to His own appointed time. He had mentioned 400 years to Abraham, as we see in Genesis 15:13. We are not told the exact point from which the 430 years are counted. But on the very day it ended the people went out of Egypt. They are called "the hosts of the Lord," though to all appearance they were only a large crowd of freed slaves. Verse 51 says again that it was the "same day" God had purposed.
The exodus is one of several dates God set long in advance and kept.
If He fixes a time, He keeps to it. He fixed with Himself the limit of His patience with the old world (Gen. 6:3), at the end of which the flood came. He fixed the date of the Exodus long before Jacob entered Egypt (Gen. 15:16), and it took place (Ex. 12:41). He set the length of the captivity in Babylon (Jer. 25:11; 27:7; 29:10), after which Cyrus set them free.
Commentators differ on when the count begins. One reading stretches the period back over the whole family line, since Genesis speaks of a land not theirs, not of Egypt.
Genesis 15:13 and Acts 7:6 say nothing about Egypt: "your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs." God said this to Abraham, and it may cover the whole period from the birth of Isaac to the Exodus... It is better to take the 430 years as covering the stay of Abraham (after the promise), and of Isaac, and of Jacob — though, strictly speaking, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not "children of Israel."
Others leave the question open rather than force the figures.
At first sight Galatians 3:17 appears to settle the question. Looked at closely, though, I do not think it has to. The apostle refers to Exodus 12:40, which was enough for his purpose and is ambiguous. He may refer to the patriarchal times as the times of promise, and take the Egyptian stay as four hundred and thirty years. The length of the stay in Egypt is an unsettled question.
The same 430 years appear again in the New Testament, this time as the gap between God's promise to Abraham and the giving of the law.
God took care that, between the promise given to Abraham and Isaac and the law, a period of more than four centuries should pass. Had He given the law a short time after, they might have said it was all one and the same thing. But how could anyone think that, with 430 years in between? The promise has its own special object, and the law its design also; and we are not to mix the two things together.
The exodus had a shape as well as a date.
And in what way were the slaves to be brought out? As escaped slaves? No, "by their hosts" (Exodus 6:26), with all the dignity of the host of the Lord.
Three things moved the same crowd out of Egypt that night.
In verses 39-42 we have three very striking marks of the truly redeemed... First, as those whom the Egyptians could no longer put up with... so "they were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, we are all dead men." Second, they felt the weight of the cruel slavery they had been in, and now the door of escape lay wide open before them. So they "went out" of their own free will in glad liberty. Third, their hearts were bowed before Jehovah because of this wonderful act of grace on their behalf. On that night "to be much observed to the Lord," they feel His grace and power directly in "bringing them out from the land of Egypt."
One long wait for Israel ended on time. Another is still running.
Of course this covered many generations. But Israel's scattering among the nations since they rejected Christ has now lasted almost 2000 years! Yet God will bring them back at His appointed time.
- Promise. Where the 430 years begin is unsettled — from the promise to Abraham, or from the years in Egypt alone. Either way, God gave His word long before the day arrived.
- Precision. The years ran out and the people walked out on the same day. God keeps every date He fixes — the flood, the exodus, the return from Babylon.
- Distance. The long gap between promise and law was deliberate, so no one could treat promise and law as one and the same thing.
- Dignity. Pharaoh's slaves marched out in ranks as the hosts of the Lord, though they looked like nothing more than freed labourers.
- Pattern. Israel's scattering has already outlasted the years in Egypt. The God who ended that wait on time will end this one too.
It is a night of observance to Jehovah, because of their being brought out from the land of Egypt that same night is an observance to Jehovah for all the children of Israel in their generations.
The night Israel left Egypt was more than the end of their slavery. God had fixed the date long before, and He told them to keep it forever. So the verse shows one night from two sides: what God did in it, and why every generation after them had to remember it.
God acted in two ways at once that night. One writer names them, and adds what the night settled about Egypt's gods.
God in judgment and God providing deliverance — in these two characters He showed Himself that night; a night never to be forgotten by Israel. … In this, the first open controversy with idols, He showed Himself to be the true God. People in Egypt claimed there were many gods. There can be only one true God. No idol in all the land of Egypt had sheltered its worshippers, or had matched His might.
Just before this verse we read that Israel's stay in Egypt lasted 430 years and ended on that very day. God was working to a schedule He set with Abraham centuries earlier.
Verses 40-42 show us the exactness with which God keeps to His own appointed time. He had mentioned 400 years to Abraham, as we see in Genesis 15:13. We are not told the exact point from which the count of the 430 years starts. But on the very day it ended, the people went out of Egypt. They are called "the hosts of the Lord," though to all appearance they were only a large crowd of freed slaves.
The name "the hosts of the LORD" is new here. One writer traces it to the blood that sheltered them.
The blood that shelters them from God as judge establishes their relationship with God on the ground of accomplished redemption. From that moment they are regarded and called, for the first time, "the hosts of the Lord." How much better to be among His redeemed hosts than to be the slave of sin and Satan!
The verse credits God with bringing them out. One writer finds three marks of the redeemed people in verses 39-42. Here are the second and third.
Secondly, they felt the weight of the cruel slavery they had been in. The door of escape now lay wide open before them, and they "went out" of their own will in glad liberty. Thirdly, their hearts were bowed before the Lord because of this wonderful act of grace on their behalf. On that night "to be much observed to the Lord," they feel His grace and power directly in "bringing them out from the land of Egypt."
The verse says this night was kept to the LORD. It was not kept for its own sake; the Lord Himself was its object. One writer sees the same pattern in the memorial Jesus left His followers. (Older translations read "a night to be much observed unto the LORD" — the wording used in the quotes.)
Notice that they were to keep it to the Lord. It would bring before their minds, again and again, the source of that delivering grace and power which had brought them out of Egypt. It is the same now, in another way. On the night the Lord Jesus was betrayed He took bread and gave thanks. He set up for His people the precious memorial of His death. So as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we might proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
Long after, people back from exile kept the Passover. One writer says nothing showed more clearly where their hearts stood.
Nothing could show more clearly that these people back from captivity had the mind of the Lord at that moment than their keeping of the Passover. Passing by the glories of the kingdom, they travelled back until they reached the charter of all they had, whether in title or in prospect, and there confessed God as the God of their salvation. So they built on what God was for them on the ground of the blood of the Passover Lamb. There they found, as individual souls always find, a rock which is both unchangeable and immovable.
- Two characters. That night God judged Egypt and delivered Israel in the same hours. He also showed Himself the one true God against Egypt's idols.
- Exact timing. The 430 years ended on the very night they marched out. God keeps to the schedule He set with Abraham.
- New name. The blood sheltered them, and that night a crowd of freed slaves first carried the name "the hosts of the LORD." Redemption gives the title, not appearance.
- Kept to Him. The night points away from the people to the source of the grace and power that brought them out. The Lord's Supper does the same now.
- Firm rock. Generations later, exiles came home and reached back past kingdom glories to this night. It was the charter of all they had — a rock that does not move.