The Israelite population

Exodus 12:37-38 - The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children. Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

On average, a population has as many men as women, so there were likely 600,000 Israelite women who left Egypt too. Large families were common, but not everyone necessarily had one. Let's use what I consider a conservative estimate of one child for every adult. That makes 1,200,000 children. "Many other people went up with them...." How many non-Israelites? It's impossible to say. What if only 1 in 10 families had a slave or friend who went along? That could be 60,000 more people. Grand total: 2,460,000 people.

That's pretty close to the entire population of Chicago. What if everyone in Chicago just up and walked up to Green Bay one night? Oi!

I wonder how the Israelite leaders let everyone know what to do for the Passover. Directions weren't extremely difficult to follow, but they were very specific, and you had to get them just right for it to count. There was no grading on the curve; it was a pass/fail test. Presumably they had a few days to get the message out and make sure everyone got it right.

I wonder how the Israelites knew which way to go when the hour came to actually pick up and move. Perhaps this, among other things, had been pre-arranged to some extent too.

• Which general direction to take
• Which roads to use
• What to do with the animals
• How to handle the sick and dying
• How to care for the pregnant and newborns

Even so, I wonder what it was like to mobilize such an enormous group of people in the middle of the night with nothing like a mass transit system, airports, or other quick means of escape.