How Moses Moved 603,550 Egyptian Slaves

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Moses was the adopted Prince of Egypt and learned more in royal classes than reading and writing.  He must have learned how to move armies of Egypt from one site to another.  He used these skills on moving the Israelites.  The Exodus may have happened  in 1446 BCE to about 1476 BCE.  Another reference said it happened 480 years before the 1st Temple of Solomon was built.

Moses discovered that he was of the tribe of Levi through Levi's son, Kohath, and that Kohath's son was Amram who was the father of Moses.  He found this out through Aaron, his older brother that he met in Goshen.  By the way, Aaron died at the age of 123.  On the other hand, another reference said:  Joshua lived between 40 and 52 years in Canaan after the Exodus, as he was about 58–70 years old when they entered the land and died at the age of 110. The Bible (Torah)  states Joshua died at age 110, but doesn't give his exact age upon entering Canaan. He was old enough to have fought battles against the Amalekites shortly after leaving Egypt, and the 40 years in the wilderness before entering Canaan can be used to estimate his age at entry.                                          

    Tomb of Joshua (in Judea/Samaria)-now called West Bank by Jordanians and others.  The traditional burial site of Joshua, known as Timnath-heres, is located in Samaria. This location, the Palestinian village of Kifl Hares, is within the geographical region of Samaria. Another archaeological site, Khirbet Tibnah, also identified with the biblical Timnath-serah, is also in the hill country of Ephraim, which is also in Samaria. 

The Book of Joshua states that after a long life of leadership, he died at this age and was buried in his inheritance at Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim. Biblical citation: Joshua 24:29 states, "After all this, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of GOD, died. He was 110 years old".Burial site: He was buried in Timnath-serah.

  We know that king Saul lived or reigned from 1030 to 1010 BCE.  Another reference said that the Exodus started in  1311 and went on to 1271 BCE.  Moses was 80 years old when he left his home, and died at 120 years, just outside of Canaan somewhere.  He didn't want it known where he was buried.  His time on the Exodus lasted 40 years until Joshua took over.  Moses had found out he was of the tribe of Levi, and Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim.  

The Israelites had been living in Goshen, Egypt.  The question remains how they created neighborhoods among their own tribe or not, or did they just live here and there.  It may have been more normal for them to live close to their own tribes if given a choice.  That and taking a spouse must have decided where they lived, just as long as they kept working all the time without any breaks.  

Their job was to build storage cities.  Then they had the jobs involving the care of their own people.  

        How the Israelites were to travel while on the Exodus and camp at night

Numbers 2 consists entirely of God giving commandments as to how the Israelite camp should be arranged when on the Exodus. 

Each person and child were counted.  Each tribe had its own uniqueness to contribute to the national well- being and each individual was precious in his own right.  

G-d commanded Moses and Aaron to take a tribe-by tribe census of all males above the age of 20.  If a Jew with  father from the tribe of Judah and a mother from Asher, he belonged to the tribe of Judah (Rashi).   Moses and Aaron would count each tribe with the participation of its own leader (Rashi) who would be knowledgeable concerning the lineage of his tribe's members (Sforno)

On the east, toward the sunrise, the divisions of the camp of Judah are to encamp under their standard. […]

The tribe of Issachar will camp next to them. […]

The tribe of Zebulun will be next. […]

All the men assigned to the camp of Judah, according to their divisions, number 186,400. They will set out first. […]

[The rest of the tribes are described]

So the Israelites did everything the Lord commanded Moses; that is the way they encamped under their standards, and that is the way they set out, each of them with their clan and family.

According to the Book of Exodus, the Israelites left Egypt in an orderly, military-style formation, marshaled for battle. God organized the massive population into structured divisions, with each tribe marching under its own banner.  

   The camping in the Wilderness

Reuben had 46,500;  Simeon had 59,300;  Judah had 74,600;  Issachar had 54,400;  Zebulun had 57,400;  Dan had 62,700;  Naphtali had 53,400;  Gad had 45,650;  Asher had 41,500;  Ephraim had 40,500;  Manasseh had 32,200-sons of Joseph;  Benjamin had 35,400.  Total was 603,550 to move in over a 40 year period.  The Levites are not listed according to their fathers' tribe or counted among them.  Hashem spoke to Moses saying, "But you shall not count the tribe of Levi, and you shall not take a census of them among the Children of Israel.  Now you, appoint the Levites over the Tabernacle of the Testimony, over all of its utensils and over everything that belongs to it.   They shall carry the Tabernacle and all its utensils and they shall minister to it:  and they shall  encamp around the Tabernacle.  They shall take it down and erect it.  

The children of Israel shall camp, each man by his banner according to the insignias of their fathers' household, at a distance surrounding The Tent of Meeting. etc.    

Exploring the Israelite encampment around the Tabernacle, we delve into the divine instructions that ordered the tribes during their wilderness journey. This arrangement, described in the book of Numbers, is not merely a historical account but also a profound symbol of order, unity, and centrality of worship

Moses and Aaron took the census to make sure how many started on such a venture.  

We are left not knowing how many Levites there were at the time of the 1st or last census., but we know that 40 some years later, the 2nd and last census upon reaching their destination showed  a loss of 1,820 members.  The tribe, Simeon,  with the smallest population, had only 22,200.   

Resource: 

Bible: Torah with Tanakh, the Stone Edition

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Joshua%27s_Tomb_at_Kifl_Hares.jpg/20px-Joshua%27s_Tomb_at_Kifl_Hares.jpg5

https://latterdaysaintmag.com/article-1-786/#:~:text=Indeed%2C%20the%20great%20depth%20of,the%20trail%20of%20the%20Exodus.

Anakim, The Giants of Canaan

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

According to biblical tradition, there were giants living in Canaan long before it was conquered by Joshua and the Israelites.  They were called the Anakim, which today just means in Hebrew: giants.  

They lived in Canaan's mountainous area of Judah.  Also, they were found in the southern coastal zone. These giants  lived in the south,  near Hebron (Gen. 23:2; Josh. 15:13). According to Gen. 14:5-6 they lived in the land of Edom (around Mt. Seir, south of the Dead Sea bordering on the Red Sea at Elath and Ezion Geber, descendants of Esau, and were hunters). 

They also lived in  Moab (country in southern Transjordan bounded by the river Heshbon in the north and the river Zered in the south, the Jordan and Dead Sea to the West and the Syrian Desert on the east.  They were kinfolk to the Israelites, descendants of Lot.  They had settled in their land which had been captured from the Rephaim in the days of Abraham.  Rephaim were an ancient people living in Transjordania in the time of Abraham.  Some of the settled near Jerusalem in the Valley of Rephaim.  
                                                                              

The Israelites seem to have identified them with the Nephilim, the giants (Gen 6:4),  they were a semi-legendary race in the antediluvian era  who sprung from the union of the "sons of G-d" and the "daughters of man." as myths may have taught before Judaism.   This took place before the FLOOD.  "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days--Actually, it referred to  the rulers of the day--and also afterward when  the sons of the rulers (princes and judges) would consort with the daughters of man (of the general populace) , who would bear to them.  They were the mighty who, from old, were men of devastation."   

 ( Numbers 13:33) of the antediluvian age. The Land through which we have passed, to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants!  All the people that we saw in it were huge!  There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of the giant from among the Nephilim;  we were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes!" 
                                                                       

Joshua expelling them from the land

Joshua finally expelled them from the land, excepting a remnant that found a refuge in the cities of Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod (Josh 11:22.)  Young David fought a Philistine giant Goliath  with his slingshot and killed him, saving his people.  
                                                                             
 The Anakim  are said to have come from 3 clans;  Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai, which are Aramaic names of 3 sons.  They were thought to come from a branch of the Rephaim.   The city of Debir, previously called Kiriath-Sepher, was their city.  "Debir has not been discovered with certainty in modern times; but about three miles to the west of Hebron is a deep and secluded valley called the Wady Nunkur , enclosed on the north by hills, of which one bears a name certainly suggestive of Debir--Dewir-ban."  "Judging from the names, it appears to have been some sacred place among the Canaanites, and a repository of their records." 

There are 2 biblical traditions about the Anakim.
  1.  Debir was captured by Joshua, found in Josh. 10:38-39).  He killed almost everyone.  (Josh 15: 13)  

  2. Debir was taken by Othniel, son of Kenaz. (Josh. 15:17). 

 Caleb drove out the 3 sons of Anak from there, Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai, the offspring of the Anak.  He went from there to the people of Debir.  The former name of Debir was Kiriath-sefer.  Caleb said, "Whoever conquers Kiriath-sefer, I shall give him my daughter, Achsah as a wife."  Othniel, son of Kenaz, brother of Caleb, conquered it and won himself a wife.  Caleb and Othniel were half brothers through their mother.  Kenaz was the father of Othniel and the stepfather of Caleb.  .  
                                                                   

Khirbet Rabud today

Debir is included in the list of priestly Levitical cities, and this is found in Josh. 21:15. Today it is commonly identified with Khirbet Rabud, southwest of Hebron.   "Debir has been identified with the modern Edh-Dhaheriyeh, i.e., "the well on the ridge", to the south of Hebron.  "There seems to be several places identified as the site of Debir.  
                                                                              

Og, king of Bashan, was described as being extremely tall.  He was supposed to be the last of the Rephaim (Deut. 3:11). He was an Amorite king of the land of Rephaim in Bashan and Gilead.  He had attempted to interrupt the march of the Israelites but was defeated.  The land of Og was a strongly fortified territory throughout the Middle and late Bronze Ages.   Later giants were Goliath who was 6 cubits and a span tall (I Sam. 17) and  Ishbi-benob was another one 

(II Sam : 21:16). The Philistines again made war with Israel.  David and his servants went down and fought with the Philistines, and David became faint.  Ishbi-benob-who was one of the children of the giant, and whose spear weighed 300 copper weights and who was girded with a new sword-declared that he would strike down David.  Abishai, son of Zeruiah, came to his aid and he struck the Philistine, killing him."  It was customary for a warrior to kill someone on his first day in battle, in order to become fully initiated into the army.  Ishbi-benob chose the exhausted David as his victim.  The giants   (2 Samuel 21:15-22 ) were descendants of the Anakim.

II Sam: 21:19) There was another war with the Philistines in Gob, and Elhanan, son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, struck down the brother of Goliath of Gath, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver's beam. This giant's name was Lahmi.  

 There was another war in Gath.  There was a man of huge dimensions,  whose fingers and toes were 6 each, 24 in number.  He, too, was born to the giant.  He ridiculed Israel, and Jonathan, the son of David's brother, Shimea, struck him down.  

These 4 were born to the giant in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.  

A cubit was the length from the fingertips to the elbow, about 45.72 centimeters or 1 1/2 feet.  A span is 22.86 cm.  Goliath was  9 feet 9 inches tall.  
                                                                         

How tall is tall for a giant?  The tallest known was in  the USA.   There lived a man that was 8'11".  He was Robert Wadlow and was born in 1918 and died 22 years later in 1940.  That's the tallest recorded so far.
                                                                           

Actor Sacha Baron Cohen 6'3" and Isla Fisher 5'3"

A man who is 6'3" tall is a nice tall man these days.  If people are deprived of the right nutrients, they tend to not achieve their full potential height.  The 12 spies that Joshua sent to look into Canaan must have been pretty short, for they reported back that it was populated by giants, for they must have seen the people of the 3 clans.  (Judges 1:10) (Numbers 13:22) and (Numbers 13:33) (Gen. 6:4).

Today Israel's  average height of males at age 20 is 5'8.9" or 175.0cm.
The shortest people today are the Asians, and Indonesia holds the shortest of them at 5'3.6" or 161.5cm.
China's average is 5'6.3" or 168.3cm
                                                                       

Yao Ming, China's 7'6" center for China's basketball team is a giant compared to Nate Robinson 's 5'9" behind him.  Yao is an exception.  Yao Ming (born September 12, 1980 in Shanghai, China) is a retired Chinese professional basketball player who played for the Houston Rocketsof the National Basketball Association (NBA).  Yao is the only child of 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) Yao Zhiyuan and 6 ft 3 in (1.90 m) Fang Fengdi, both of whom were former professional basketball players. At 11 pounds (5.0 kg), Yao weighed more than twice as much as the average Chinese newborn.  He weighed 310 lbs or 141 kg. when he played basketball.  

The tallest people today are the Scandinavians.
Netherlands is the tallest country at 5'11" or 181.0cm.
Iceland is 5'10.8" or 179.8cm
Norway is 5;10.7 or 179.7cm
Sweden is 5'10.6" or 179.3cm
Denmark is 5'10.4" or 178.8cm

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anakim
http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1453-anakim
http://www.bible-history.com/geography/ancient-israel/ot/debir.html  large map of ancient Israel
http://www.interbasket.net/news/4385/2009/09/average-height-by-country-males-20-years/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yao_Ming
http://biblehub.com/topical/d/debir.htm
Tanach, the Stone Edition of ArtScroll series of Mesorah Heritage Foundation
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2015/02/nephilim-and-other-giants-like-og-and.html