12:37-51

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The Israelites leave Egypt

(Ex 12:37-51)

Approximately 430 years after Jacob entered Egypt with his family, his nation of descendants departed (cf. Gen 15:13; 46:6-7).

A sizable group of non-Israelite people, including Egyptians and others who had intermarried or mingled with the Israelites, went with them (Ex 12:37-42).

The Israelites were not to send these people back, but neither were they to lessen God’s requirements for joining in religious festivals simply to suit these foreigners.

Rather they were to encourage the foreigners to carry out the covenant requirements and join with them as worshippers of Yahweh, the only true God (Ex 12:43-51).