The question has come up regarding the size of the multitude in the exodus and I promised Dan I would respond to that question.
There is a prescribed time element already provided in Ex. 12 41, “At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.” Considering only the children of Israel which is represented by twelve and possibly thirteen families how many offspring can be expected to arise from this many families in the course of 430 years. I am not mathematician so perhaps someone more skilled in this are may be more capable of answering this point.
well actually the number who went INTO Egypt were probably about 5000. you are overlooking their 'households' (servants and slaves). Abraham had around 1500 in his household (318 fighting men). It is of course impossible to work out what number they would grow to. We do not know how long all the male children were killed. We do not know what illnesses they suffered. We do not know how many died doing the building work (undoubtedly a good number). So any calculation is pure guesswork.
However, we do learn from Ex. 1:9 "Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we." This statement was made 80 years before the exodus so we are talking about a massive congregation of Israelites.
When Pharaoh took his army to fight the Hittites around that time they consisted of 20,000 men. And the comparison here was only being made in the delta, and was probably an exaggeration. It need not have meant say more than 30,000 men if that.
Ex 12:37 tells us there were ABOUT 6000,000 fighting men.
have you got a nought wrong lol? but it could mean 600 sub-clans or military units (eleph). Eleph (thousand) has a number of meanings, including 'family', 'military unit' and so on..
Numbers chapter one tells us how this number is arrived at by giving us a break down by tribe.
The people of Reuben,...according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: 46,500. (Nobody writes like the Holy Spirit)
true but it says 46 'lph and 500. That could mean 46 captains and 500 men or even 46 captains and 5 smaller military units (a 'hundred' being a military unit). As you say no one writes like the Holy Spirit.
Of the people of Simeon,... were 59,300.
OR 59 captains and 300 men? I will not go through them all. Hebrew numbers are notoriously tricky.[/quote]
Of the people of Gad,... were 45,650. (0r 45 captains and 650 men)
Of the people of Judah,...were 74,600. (Or 74 captains and 600 men)
Of the people of Issachar,...were 54,400. (0r 54 captains and 400 men)
Of the people of Zebulun,...were 57,400. (or 57 captains and 400 men.)
Of the people of Joseph, namely, of the people of Ephraim,...were 40,500. (or 40 captains and 500 men)
Of the people of Manasseh,...were 32,200. (or 32 captains and 200 men)
Of the people of Benjamin,...were 35,400. (or 35 captains and 400 men)
Of the people of Dan,...were 62,700. (or 62 captains and 700 men)
Of the people of Asher,...were 41,500 (or 41 captains and 500 men)
Of the people of Naphtali,...were 53,400. (or 53 captains and 400 men)
T
hese are those who were listed, whom Moses and Aaron listed with the help of the chiefs of Israel, twelve men, each representing his fathers’ house.
45So all those listed of the people of Israel, by their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old and upward,
every man able to go to war in Israel—all those listed were 603,550.
If we understood how Israel used numbers we could be more certain. But we don't. Notice how the 'hundreds' are all in round numbers. It may well be that 'a hundred' is a military unit.
Now, this does not include the tribe of Levi which was not even numbered nor does it include anyone of the respective tribe who did not meet specified requirements. Also, it does not include the women and children NOR does it include the "mixed multitude that went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds," nor does it include the number of the multitude of the descendants of the servants of Jacob's household who also went up with them. Personally, I think 3,000,000 is a very generous number. Truth lies in the grammatical structure of the text.
The only problem with your theory is that in the Hebrew the numbers may not read as you cite them. It would only be true if eleph mean 1000, and not a sub-clan or a military unit.