Math question

[atwhatcost]

120,000 Israelite men left Egypt. That's not counting women and children. 51% of the world's population is female. (No idea how many children.)

Let us assume within that first year, more boys became men and more girls became women. Let us also assume since they didn't have as many distractions as we have today (TV, the Internet, traditional jobs, etc.) while they stayed in the wilderness, more people were born than died. (I'm not sure of that, but it seems reasonable.)

So, the law comes down, and people are supposed to sacrifice their firstborn animals (of the clean variety, not the unclean) and their first fruits (as much as they can have first fruit out in the wilderness) for all sorts of reasons -- sin offering, wave offerings, thanksgiving offerings, etc.

One tabernacle, and they're supposed to take it there.

120,000 men! Have you ever seen 120,000 people hanging out together? It's crowded. Kind of frightening, because that's a lot of people. There's many more, so I'm guessing some are close to the tabernacle and some are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay over there. More are somewhere in between. (They weren't huddle together in one acre.)

The math problem? How did the priest do that much work? Especially given the big thing that happened in that wilderness was the group grew. What about that old couple waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over there that have trouble walking that far? What about the young couple waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over there with four kids all under the age of four?

Can anyone give me some insight how they pulled that off in the wilderness? And given they were even further away by the time Solomon's temple showed up, that's even more walking. How did that work?

 

[Jon4TheCross]

The priesthood grew as the other tribes did as well...and...

The Bible often speaks of captains of numbers...heads if families...and so on.

The Levites were the head of Israel standing in the gap for other heads of families...and so on.

I do not know exactly what it looked like, but when a group is truly united in an organized way directed by God, then its not hard to believe that such a priesthood could easily perform the services. God set up a way in which they assembled (north tribes,east, west, south). They were being taught concerning intercession...even if they did not realize it. Now Jesus and those who are His adopted family interceed as He does for us.

 

[Viligant_Warrior]

120,000 Israelite men left Egypt.

You want to be really impressed, you're off by a half million people ...

Exodus 12, NASB
37 Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children.

38 A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.​

Now that's a crowd!

 

[Willie-T]

Since you seem to care, and I don't, I've leave you with this site to read.

BTW, I believe it was as much as 12 times the people you stated.... about 2- 3 million.

Logistics of the Exodus

 

[blue_ladybug]

Don't ask me math questions. I suck at math..

 

[psychomom]

Since you seem to care, and I don't, I've leave you with this site to read.

BTW, I believe it was as much as 12 times the people you stated.... about 2- 3 million.

Logistics of the Exodus

fascinating link. thanks!

 

[Willie-T]

Here's the section on sacrifices....

"How did the priests manage all those sin offerings?"
Skeptics who perform calculations to figure out that a mere handful of preists would have to do 58 jillion sacrifices a year or "43 sacrifices an hour, around the clock" and so on are simply failing to read ancient law codes within their didactic context. Just as Hillers says of Deuteronomy and other law codes:

...there is no evidence that any collection of Near Eastern laws functioned as a written code that was applied by a strict method of exegesis to individual cases. As far as we can tell, these bodies of laws served educational purposes and gave expression to what was regarded as just in typical cases, but they left considerable latitude to local courts for determining the right in individual suits. They aided local courts without controlling them.

...it is equally doubtful that the Israelites applied (or had to apply) Leviticus in any such pedantic manner as described, but that "considerable latitude" was given in extraordinary situations. Priests can sanctify helpers; the poverty-stricken can forego the full ritual sacrifice (or other observations) until such time as it can be affored.

Living in the wilderness no doubt meant "considerable latitude" was given as well. Perhaps whole families or clans could bring a single sin offering for a year, for example. The mistake made is turning Yahweh into the fundamentalist that certain critics are.

 

[posthuman]

Since you seem to care, and I don't, I've leave you with this site to read.

BTW, I believe it was as much as 12 times the people you stated.... about 2- 3 million.

Logistics of the Exodus

i was hoping someone wanted to do some calculus or solve a min/max problem with linear constraints =\

thanks for the link Willie! more answers here than we could guess at.

 

[psychomom]

i was hoping someone wanted to do some calculus or solve a min/max problem with linear constraints =\

*narrows eyes*

are you my son-in-law?

 

[oldhermit]

It is more probable that the estimation of people who left Egypt was as many as 3,000,000 Israelites plus all of the enslaved foreigners of untold number that left with them. This does not include the herds and flocks of animals that they took with them in the Exodus.

 

[JesusIsAll]

It is more probable that the estimation of people who left Egypt was as many as 3,000,000 Israelites plus all of the enslaved foreigners of untold number that left with them. This does not include the herds and flocks of animals that they took with them in the Exodus.

First it's the King James and the unattainable what manuscripts had the mojo, now we're moving on to the demographics of sheep and goats of the Exodus? Momma told me not to come.

 

[posthuman]

*narrows eyes*

are you my son-in-law?

. . . yes ?
​

♥​

 

[psychomom]

. . . yes ?
​

♥​

huzzah! ♥

 

[oldhermit]

First it's the King James and the unattainable what manuscripts had the mojo, now we're moving on to the demographics of sheep and goats of the Exodus? Momma told me not to come.

LOL... Yea, and I didn't even mention the families who made up the servants of Jacob's household who also came to Egypt with him, Genesis 30:43. Verse 43 says that he had many servants which were accounted as measure of his wealth. After 430 years in Egypt, these families too would have grown and multiplied as well. These would comprise the foreigner, the sojourner or the stranger class "who dwells among you," 43-49.

 

[oldhermit]

I am certainly not good at math but it would seem there is no way to answer the question of the OP because there is no base line upon which to formulate an equation.

 

[MarcR]

120,000 Israelite men left Egypt. That's not counting women and children. 51% of the world's population is female. (No idea how many children.)

Let us assume within that first year, more boys became men and more girls became women. Let us also assume since they didn't have as many distractions as we have today (TV, the Internet, traditional jobs, etc.) while they stayed in the wilderness, more people were born than died. (I'm not sure of that, but it seems reasonable.)

So, the law comes down, and people are supposed to sacrifice their firstborn animals (of the clean variety, not the unclean) and their first fruits (as much as they can have first fruit out in the wilderness) for all sorts of reasons -- sin offering, wave offerings, thanksgiving offerings, etc.

One tabernacle, and they're supposed to take it there.

120,000 men! Have you ever seen 120,000 people hanging out together? It's crowded. Kind of frightening, because that's a lot of people. There's many more, so I'm guessing some are close to the tabernacle and some are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay over there. More are somewhere in between. (They weren't huddle together in one acre.)

The math problem? How did the priest do that much work? Especially given the big thing that happened in that wilderness was the group grew. What about that old couple waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over there that have trouble walking that far? What about the young couple waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over there with four kids all under the age of four?

Can anyone give me some insight how they pulled that off in the wilderness? And given they were even further away by the time Solomon's temple showed up, that's even more walking. How did that work?

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

In this excerpt from my commentary hyperlinks became disabled in the paste.

This is Zif / Iyar of the second year or 25 months after leaving Egypt. If Mt. Sinai is in the traditional location in the southern Sinai Peninsula, then they have traveled about 150 miles from Goshen; an average of 6 miles per month or 182 feet per day. If Mt. Sinai is in Arabia as recent archeological evidence suggests and as we are told in Ga 1:17, and 4:24-25; then they have traveled about 250 miles averaging about 10 miles / month or about 2 city blocks per day. This means that they must have spent a great deal of time encamped in one place.

Nu 1:45-46 tells us that there were 603,550 men above 20 years old and able to go to war. Though they are not mentioned, there must have been a large number of men too old to fight.

Even if those males under twenty or too old to fight were only 30% of the male population, there would be at least 862,000 men exclusive of the tribe of Levy. Even if the tribe of Levy were a very small tribe, the smallest tribe, other than Levi were 32,000; so Levi probably numbered at least 20,000 men of fighting age and 28,000 total males. That would mean that the male descendants of Israel numbered at least 890,000.

Numbers 4:3 tells us that men over 50 were too old to fight. Since men at that time probably lived to more than 100 years old (See note at Ex 1:7), this is a very conservative estimate. Since we know from Ex 1:22 that for a period of time the male babies were killed, it is almost certain that the females outnumbered the males. That means that there were more than 1.8 million descendants of Israel camped at Sinai. Exodus 12:38 tells us that a “mixed multitude” of non-Israelite people were with them. So there were over 2 million people camped at Sinai. (This is a very conservative estimate. There were more likely over 2.5 million people)

Ex 24:18 tells us that Moses was on the mountain for 40 days before the golden calf; and Ex 34:28 tells us that Moses was on the mountain for 40 days after the golden calf.

In addition, the Tabernacle was constructed after Moses came down the second time. So more than 2 million people camped at Sinai at least 3 months.

To put the problems of having that many people in one place over an extended time in perspective: two million people could be expected to pass enough solid waste each day to fill 5 football stadiums 45 feet deep; and enough urine in a month to cover 1 square mile to a depth of 35 inches; and this does not count the animals’ contribution to the mess.

Exodus 12:38 also tells us that there were flocks and herds and very much cattle with them.

Obviously, they exceeded the carrying capacity of the land for both food and sanitation. God had to provide food and sanitation for all those people and animals; for He was certainly able to do so. People left to their own resources would have been a logistical nightmare and quite impossible.

Effluent estimates are based on Philadelphia Dept of Sanitation estimates of effluent processing. Philadelphia has somewhat less than 2 million people.
(See note at Ex 1:7.) {Return to: Ex 12:2 }

 

[Jeff_56]

......

Can anyone give me some insight how they pulled that off in the wilderness? And given they were even further away by the time Solomon's temple showed up, that's even more walking. How did that work?

they were healthy. except when they sinned, not one of them was ill.

by yahweh's grace and plan and purpose (exactly as it is written in TORAH (which everyone needs to read)).

yahweh fed them all , remember, when there were no stores, no plants growing around them...

yahweh gave them all water, in the desert, out from ROCKS...

yahweh said and it happened that their sandals did not wear out.... and many other miracles he did for them for HIS OWN WORD SAKE.

 

[atwhatcost]

The priesthood grew as the other tribes did as well...and...

The Bible often speaks of captains of numbers...heads if families...and so on.

The Levites were the head of Israel standing in the gap for other heads of families...and so on.

I do not know exactly what it looked like, but when a group is truly united in an organized way directed by God, then its not hard to believe that such a priesthood could easily perform the services. God set up a way in which they assembled (north tribes,east, west, south). They were being taught concerning intercession...even if they did not realize it. Now Jesus and those who are His adopted family interceed as He does for us.

​So, it wasn't just Aaron and his two sons doing all that work at first?

 

[atwhatcost]

You want to be really impressed, you're off by a half million people ...

Exodus 12, NASB
37 Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children.

38 A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.​

Now that's a crowd!

Holy cow! And I'm having trouble imagining a mere 240,000!

 

[posthuman]

​So, it wasn't just Aaron and his two sons doing all that work at first?

*4 sons (Exodus 28:1)

and in Leviticus 1, it reads that the Israelites bringing burnt offerings (except for birds) did much of the work themselves.

right?

still, the Tabernacle kept busy. perhaps that was the point - would you maybe think "i should not sin" if there was a huge line at the altar? shouldn't it have become obvious how much trouble sin brought? especially to the priests.
janitors, in general, are very careful not to make a mess.