How millions of Jews left Egypt on the trek home

Aron Ziegler

Indeed, the Scriptural text (Exodus 12:37) states: “Bnei Yisrael journeyed… approximately 600 000 men on foot, besides the children” (Targum Yonatan explicitly puts the total number of people at over three million).

Our Sages point out that the growth in population of the Jews in Egypt was absolutely miraculous and supernatural.

Many scriptural sources, some very explicit, such as Exodus 1:7 “Bnei Yisrael were fruitful and prolific and their population increased … very, very much (they became so numerous) that the land (of Egypt) became filled with them” – illustrate and substantiate our Sages’ claims.

I would like to relate statistical and mathematical proof towards the claim that the Jews in Egypt multiplied at a miraculous rate. This proof was expressed by the Alter Rov of Telshe, Lithuania, Rabbi Eliezer Gordon (1841-1910).

The Midrash (Ex Rab 1) expounding on the above verse claims that the Jewish mothers would each give birth to six children at a time (quoted by Rashi). Rabbi Lazer Gordon showed how this can actually be proven via mathematics and statistics.

In the book of B’Midbar (Numbers 3:40…) a census of the Israelite firstborn males from the age of one month old is taken – which totals 22 273.

The total war-eligible and able-bodied Israelite males above the age of 20 years (until 60) is given as 603 550 (Num 1:46).

The total male population – including males below 20 and over 60, is very plausibly double the 20 to 60-year-old male census – at 1,2 million males.

If there were only 22 273 male firstborn – the ratio of firstborn male to not-firstborn male, is plausibly 1:55 (realising some of the firstborn males were included and some were not included in the overall Israelite adult male count).

If the 22 273 mothers, whose firstborn child was a male, gave birth approximately 10 times during their lifetime, they would have then given birth to about six male children at a time!

(Obviously statistically all these numbers just need to be doubled to account for the female population.)

Cyrildene, Johannesburg