A: I
do not have anyone else's figures. However, I will make my own for you.
The Romans many years after the flight from Egypt positioned their
soldiers so that they fought and marched in an area six feet across and
six feet deep. This is basically equivalent to putting men side by side
with their arms stretched to their sides and finger tips touching on
either side. If the Roman soldiers could fight this way, then surely
the
Israelites could march this way. They might be carrying more supplies,
but they would have small children among the group as well. Anyway, it
is
a place to start.
If the Israelites moved in a line one mile wide, the six foot calculation
would stretch them out 880 people wide. By computing the same distance
for the depth, you could have 774,400 people in a square mile. Three
square miles would hold 2,323,200 people--very close to the number of
people crossing.
Now, I figure a speed of one mile an hour. Two miles an hour is quite
slow, so one mile an hour is very slow. But this slow speed would
probably be required for such a group.
Having made the above assumptions, we can calculate that the last of
the
Israelites would cross the crest into the basin of the Red Sea about
three hours after the first ones began. If the Red Sea is one mile wide
at the place of crossing, the stragglers would get out about four hours
after the trek began. If the Red Sea was wider at this point, time would
need to be added.
Exodus 14:21 states, "And Moses stretched out his hand over the
sea; and
the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night,
and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided." Verse 24
says,
"And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked
unto the
host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and
troubled the host of the Egyptians."
These verses indicate that the Israelites passed over the Red Sea
throughout the night and the Egyptians gave chase in the morning. The
figures above show that this would have been plenty of time for 2 million
or so people to get across the Red Sea.
Till He comes,
Pastor David Reagan