Thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens

Exodus 18:24-25 - Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

Assume for now that there were 2,500,000 Israelites in the caravan going from Egypt to Canaan. If the plan implemented by Moses as suggested by his father-in-law Jethro applied to individual people and not to family units, then the number of appointed officials would have been 327,500. It breaks down (roughly) this way:

• Officials over 10s = 250,000
• Officials over 50s = 50,000
• Officials over 100s = 25,000
• Officials over 1000s = 2,500

(I realize the numbers would be slightly different depending on whether the officials themselves are added to the mix or not.)

I wonder how Moses found that many capable leaders to help him settle disputes. Did he start with those who were already known as elders of the tribes and use them (and more, if needed) as the officials over the 1000s? Did they in turn help find officials over the 100s, and so on?

I wonder if there was any lobbying or campaigning for these positions? There probably would have been time for some. This didn't get settled overnight. I wonder how long it did take to get them all appointed to their respective positions.

I wonder how they divided the people into 1000s, 100s, 50s, and 10s. Some families were larger than 10. I wonder if they split them into multiple groups for judicial purposes.

I wonder how long this setup remained in effect. Did it last Moses' entire lifetime? Did it continue after he was gone? Did it carry over into Canaan?

I wonder how often it had to be reorganized as babies were born and as people died. Those events probably happened daily. If this system continued for any significant length of time, it could have been in an almost constant state of flux.