Apologetics: The Logistics of the Exodus

        “Six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.” [Exod.12:37]  Maybe two and a half million total. That’s a lot of people! We often picture them with their robes wrapped around them, possibly hitched up into their belts so they can walk unencumbered, as the great crowd streams off into the distance. What we usually forget is their food, their pots and pans, their bedrolls, their babies in arms, their sheep and cattle; their oxen; the jewellery, gold and silver, and clothing they asked for and got from their Egyptian neighbours [Exod.3:22]; the caskets and bones of Joseph and his brothers [Exod.13:19, Acts 7:16]; their tents; their shovels, ploughs, woodworking equipment, and other tools and weapons; not forgetting changes of clothing, possible litters for aged and handicapped members, possibly some wood for fuel; possibly pots or skins—even small tanks—of water, olive oil and wine; possibly donkeys, and even horses and camels laden down with these goods.

        This is more than individuals or even caravans could carry. It seems like carts and wagons are the only explanation. In Gen.46:5, Jacob and his family came by carts into Egypt. Joseph and his brothers took Jacob’s body back to Canaan with chariots and maybe with carts as well, and buried him “in the cave...which Abraham had bought” [Gen.50:7-14]. Later on, in the wilderness, some of the princes of Israel gave carts as their offerings to the tabernacle. [Num.7:3,6]  

        This is starting to sound like an Old West wagon train so I looked up some details. Between about 1843-1868 the total number of travellers by wagon trains to Oregon, California and Utah, was only about 400,000, and they pretty much had to carry all their food with them. As far as speed goes, covered wagons averaged only two miles per hour and about 10 miles per day. There is no reason to think the Israelites moved any faster.

        If carts were a large part of the procession—and it seems certain they were—this would greatly limit the routes they could have taken from Egypt to Canaan. Some  proposed routes through Sinai would be too steep or too rocky—or even too sandy. How do you get a wagon over a sand dune?

        It would be exciting for the crowds, and especially the children, as they left Pithom and Rameses [Exod.1:11], but it would be as bad as any Indian attack, when the Egyptian army pulled into view. In fact, deaths by “Indian attack” in the Old West numbered 3,000-4,500!

        This leaves us with no final conclusion about the exodus route, but we do hope it spurs some fresh thinking and helps us picture those momentous times. Ì