The Exodus (Genesis 12:33-42)

33 The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” [God used the Egyptians to get his people to leave the land of their birth where their ancestors had lived for 430 years.] 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. 35 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians [God caused the Egyptians to fear the Israelites], so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. [How could thousands of people survive in the wilderness? They would need money to buy supplies from traders, caravans, and local settlements.]

37 And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. [We do not know the exact locations of Rameses and Succoth. Succoth was east of Rameses, which may have been some kind of Egyptian delta capital city. The ESV translation that gives us 600,000 men is deeply disputed among scholars. Stuart believes the total number of people leaving Egypt to be in the 20-30,000 range, including women and children.] 38 A mixed multitude [an ethnically diverse group, not purely Israelites] also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. [Moses later marries a Cushite, suggesting that Cushites are among them.] 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

40 The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It was a night of watching [vigil] by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations. [The vigil God first did for Israel is to be remembered by a vigil on the part of his people for him—not because people can watch over God in a way comparable to his watching over them, but because they can stay on duty during the night as a token of their appreciation for his original dutiful watch over them.]