And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.
38. And a mixed multitude. Although Abraham possessed many servants, yet is it scarcely probable that in the famine Jacob maintained any other persons in his family besides his own children, whom he could hardly so sustain as to preserve them from dying of hunger.
They departed at once without delay, knowing Pharaoh's mind would not hold. From seventy souls in two centuries arose this vast multitude, a blessing from God commanding fruitfulness. The mixed rabble who followed, however, proved a snare to them and likely abandoned Israel when they learned of forty years in the wilderness.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 12:37-42
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt,.... The Septuagint version adds, "and in the land of Canaan"; and the Samaritan version is,"the sojourning of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, in the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt.''Agreeably to which are both the Talmuds: in one (o) of them the words are,"in Egypt and in...