The registered number of 603,550 males above 20 years would mean a total population of up to 2.5 million. This is congruent with the information provided in Exodus, namely that the Israelites had surpassed the Egyptians in number (see Exodus 1:1–22). Some, however, have objected to the accuracy of the numbers recorded here, noting that the Pharaoh of the Exodus had appointed only two midwives to kill the Hebrew babies, which seems very little to reduce the size of such a nation. It has further been noted that the total number of the firstborn males (i.e., 22,273), if representing the total number of families in Israel, would have meant that the average mother must have had over fifty children to arrive at a population of 2–2.5 million.1 With regard to the number of the midwives, it is possible that the two represented only the beginning of Pharaoh’s execution plan. With regard to the number of the firstborns, Exodus 13:1–16 does seem to require that this number refers only to the firstborns since the event of the exodus, and not the firstborns prior to that event.2 There is thus good reason to believe that the numbers are accurate and that they have been accurately preserved.
20 The people of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: