Plundering the Egyptians

Not only did Pharaoh want the people of Israel gone from Egypt after the Lord struck dead all the firstborn Egyptians (Ex. 12:29–32), but also the rest of Egypt wanted the Israelites out of their country. We read about this in today’s passage. Having suffered greatly in all the plagues, especially the tenth plague, the Egyptian citizens urged the Israelites to leave. In fact, they demanded it. The language of Exodus 12:33 carries with it the idea of pressure. Egypt’s residents pressured Israel to leave at once, for they knew that as long as the Israelites remained their slaves, their very existence was threatened.

The Israelites would need something to eat on their journey, but there was no time to prepare bread, since they had to get out of Egypt right away. Thus, verse 34 reports that the Israelites grabbed any dough that had not yet been baked into bread, wrapped it with cloth to keep it from going bad, and carried it with them so that they could make bread on their journey. Along with the dough, they were able to take with them other provisions taken from the Egyptians—gold, silver, and clothing (v. 35). As the Lord had promised, He had given His people success when they asked the Egyptians for such goods (see 11:1–3). The money and objects taken would be of great use as the people left Egypt and made their way to Canaan both as income to purchase needed goods from other traders and as some of the raw material for the tabernacle (ch. 35). Note the language of plundering the Egyptians in 12:36, which is the language of war (see Num. 31:1–12). Israel, God’s army, defeated Egypt—thanks to the Lord’s effective judgment on the Egyptians and their gods (Ex. 12:12)—and claimed the spoils of war.

Exodus 12:37 reports that “six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children,” departed Egypt. This amounted to about two million people in total. Some have disputed this figure, but there is no reason to think it impossible given the amount of time Israel had been in Egypt (see v. 40). At the same time, we should note that the Hebrew word translated “thousand” can be translated as “clan” or “family,” which would mean that the total number that left was less than two million. Either way, it was a large company of people indeed.

A mixed multitude went out with the Israelites (v. 38). This would have included other non-Egyptian slaves as well as some Egyptians who had been converted to the God of Israel.