Was the number of Isrealites plausible?

No and yes.

Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as I attempt to read the Bible with fresh eyes, as if I don’t know anything about it, and without consulting experts on what it “really” means.. Let’s see where this takes us!

I’m reading Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Numbers 1

When I read Numbers as a teenager (the only time I have straight through), I believed the Bible was mostly history. But I also thought the number of Isrealites seemed implausible: 600,000+ men. Including women and children, perhaps 2–3 million.

If this is history, this seems like a large number based on what we think was the population of the area in the approximate time period. The world’s population was approximately 50 million in 1,000 BCE, and this story is believed to have taken place hundreds of years before that.

Roughly five percent of the global population gathered around Sinai? Really?

The other question I had involved the growth of Jacob’s family in 400 years, from when he and his sons moved to Egypt to when the Israelites left. But upon checking this is actually plausible.