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    BIBLICAL CRIITCIiSRf.

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    A- Dissertation upon the Number of trie Hebrew People at different Periods ; from the unpublished Manuscripts -of the Rev . Samuel Bourn , of Siririingkam *

    THE number of Hebrews who emigrated frpm E ^ gypt' is said ( Exodus xru 879 ) to be " about six hundred thousand men on foot beside

    children . " In the book ; of .- numbers ( ch * ii . 52 . ) we find a second and more particular accouuttaken in the wildsrnpss of Sinai , in , the second month of the second year after their , departure :

    w ^ h ^ re the , males twenty , years old , a ^ JLfi upAyar ^ all w ^ ip were n able to go oiij ; to war ,, " are said to amout to " s i ^ c hjmdred and three , thousand » five hundred and fifty , " exclusive of the tribe of Levi , which consisted of

    * ' seven thousand and five hundred males from a month old and upward . " In a third numeration ( chap . xxvi . 51 . of the same book ) we find them to be f ' six Jiundred and one thousand , seven , hundred ; and thirty , " and the tribe oflbevi { o be increased to " twenty three thousand ^ all males of a month

    old and upward * " Taking the number of the males then of twenty years old and upward at six . hundred thousand , and adding all the males under twenty years , together with ' all the females of every - age , in the proportion of three to on « , the whole nation must consist of two million four hundred

    thousand souls ? according to the first and lowest account , without including the mixed multitude , mostly Egyptians , as we may reasonably suppose , which is said * to have accompanied them . We may compute the . number then upon an average of the accounts above , including the strangers , at two millions and a half .

    Now iet it not give offence or alarm to any pious reader , if he shall find it clearly proved , that the precediag numerations , and many other contained in the historical parts of k the Old . Testament , are exceedingl y magnified , For those are errors which

    may be most naturally imputed to the negligence or vanity of the transcriber of copies * - Numbers are denoted in Eddborei ^ cbji Jthe ^ fetteita , ami it might easily happen that the transcriber mistook one letter for another ; or if he was doubtful , that he would be inclined to prefer that number

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    which seemed , to do honour to his nation * by displaying its ancient greatness . The following arguments may probably , suffice to satisfy the inquisitive Reader , I . There is a passage in Exodus ( xii . 40 , ) whichJias been mistaken , as if it asserted the residence of the

    Hebrews ifi Egypt , to have lasted " four hundred and . thirty years *' wheras it includes the whole time from Abraham ' s removal from Chaldea into Canaan , till the departure of th&

    Israelites from Egypt ; during which long period neither he , nor his . de * scendants by his Grandson Jacob , wei * e ever settled in a country or land , which they might call their own ; and therefore the whole is stiled the

    sojourning of that people . This period of time is properly divided into two equal parts , the first preceding , and the latter following , the descent of Jacob aiid his family into Egypt . This construction is supported by the authority of St . Paul , Gal , iii . 17 . At his descent his whole

    family , it is said , consisted of" seventy souls ; " and it is added * " -that they were fruitful , and increased abundantly and multiplied , and waxed exceedfrig mighty ; and the land was filled with them . " Let us examine what the

    number might probably be at their departure , according to the natural increase of mankind . The greatest multiplication w ^ are informed of , from , proper evidence , hath been in the temperate climates of . North America ; in some , parts of , which ,

    according to accounts received from thence , the number ; of inhabitants hath been doubled Ju , the * shwt space of twenty-five yearst by births only-This increase hath bepi > thought surprizingly grjeiat , , an , d imputable to their rural .. situa ^ ipn ^ anicjl eiuplpyments ^; or . their freedom , from large

    cities , anq unhealthy , occupations ; both which , are kapwu to be , great checks to the , nxultipliciitiom ... of , the human species ,. Allowing then ,-the , Hebrew * to multiply ii ^ th ^ same proportion i during , the whole turn ot tbeic . dweHiiig in Egypt ,, which was two hundred and fift ^ e ^ yearti # the account will be this : the whole

    number of souls at the descent of Jacob and his family into Egypt , we are informed by the text , was

    Biblical Criitciisrf.

    BIBLICAL CRIITCIiSRf .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1815, page 42, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1756/page/42/