If the Israelites were slaves and being oppressed by the Egyptians where did they get all their camping gear & supplies to wander in the wilderness for 40 years ? (page 3)

mP

King:

A fun thing to do if you're remotely mathematical/logical in nature is to calculate how long it would take a single column of 3 mil people, walking 20 abreast, to pass a single point, just to see how long it would take to enter (not even exit) the parted Red Sea... Assume they walked 3 mph (a fast pace), and walked a distance of 3 ft apart (crowded).

MP->King:

Armies were lucky to walk 10km in a single day in ancent times. There is no way people carrying stuff would walk that fast. If anything it would 1 days for the entire group to pass a point. I think i read somewhere they were lucky to march 10Miles on a good day.

sooner7nc

You'd spend your whole day either poopin' or walkin' to poop or walking back home from poopin'.

Simply spectacular comment.

3,000,000 people walking in the hot desert. Maybe you could get by on a gallon of water a day for drinking.

Olympic swimming pool-660,000 gallons.

That's roughly 4.5 Olympic pools per day. Yeah, that's doable

King Solomon

Imagine the entire population of the city of Madrid deciding to walk on foot to, say Paris. It could happen.... ;)

mP

King:

Well in 2 Chron 14, one million ethiopians walked to battle the israelites, so i guess its possible. Those Ethiopians even walked thru the sahara, unlike the Exodus were they walked an easier route.

http://www.watchtower.org/e/bible/2ch/chapter_014.htm

Later Ze´rah the E·thi·o´pi·an went out against them with a military force of a million men and three hundred chariots, and came as far as Ma·re´shah. 10 Then A´sa went out against him and they drew up in battle formation in the valley of Zeph´a·thah at Ma·re´shah. 11 And A´sa began to call to Jehovah his God and say: “O Jehovah, as to helping, it does not matter with you whether there are many or [those with] no power. Help us, O Jehovah our God, for upon you we do lean, and in your name we have come against this crowd. O Jehovah, you are our God. Do not let mortal man retain strength against you.”

cobaltcupcake

The scripture says the Egyptians gave them all kinds of stuff before they left. It says, "They stripped the Egyptians." I'd guess there was camping gear included.

http://scottleblog.wordpress.com

The Odd Life of Jehovah's Witnesses

kepler

Cobaltcupcake,

You beat me to the punchline. I was just looking the details up.

Notice that the procession passes the administrative center of Ramses on the way out to the desert. Most likely established I'd say by the timeline reckoning in the back of the NWT, they got off to a very late start - a couple hundred years (~1250 BC or later). Hurry up! Judges has been underway for generations. And if generations were as long then as they are now...

Chapter 3:

17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

18 And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.

19 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.

20 And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.

21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty:

22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.

Chapter 12

34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.

35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment:

36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.

38 And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.

39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual.

40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

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King Solomon

Yeah, the Jews "borrowed" all that gold and jewelry on the way out of town.... There's also some mention in some ancient midrash that YWHW softened the hearts of the Egyptians such that they GAVE the Israelites such wealth as a parting/going-away gift, to avoid the image of Jews as being greedy.

None of which explains why the Egyptian Army then chased after them when they left.... An army riding on chariots that were pulled by horses that were already killed twice in the 10 plagues (once, when disease wiped out all livestock, including horses, and then when the firstborn were killed, including livestock).

And can you think of anything MORE PRACTICAL to carry on a desert wilderness adventure in an arid land, besides jewelry and gold? At least you'd have something to trade others for, like for THEIR jewelry....

undercover

3,000,000 people wandering around the wilderness for 40 years. You'd think there'd be some archaeological evidence of such a large nomadic gathering...right?

james_woods

Just as a side point - where do we get the number of 3,000,000?

undercover

where do we get the number of 3,000,000?

Going strictly by memory, so it may be fuzzy, but I think the scriptures mention the number of fighting men in their group at some point. 5 or 600,000 maybe? Don't remember. Estimate the number of non military men, wives, parents, children and the number 3,000,000 was the estimate. Subjective of course. I'm sure the number could be much lower, or even much higher.

Even at a million people wandering around for 40 years, there'd have to be some evidence of their encampments somewhere along the way, I would think.

If the Israelites were slaves and being oppressed by the Egyptians where did they get all their camping gear & supplies to wander in the wilderness for 40 years ?

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