Bible Discussion Thread

 
  • Navitalai Masinivuya on Joshua 4 - 1 year ago
    My question is how many Israelites crossed the River Jordan and how long did it take to complete the crossing?
  • Chris - In Reply on Joshua 4 - 1 year ago
    Hello Navitalai. To be able to give you an exact number of the children of Israel who crossed the Jordan River into the Land of Canaan, would be impossible, as that total figure is not given, especially when we consider including the women as well.

    So, to give you my guesstimate: the total number of Israelite men twenty years of age & older, who were able to go to war were registered by tribe, (excluding the tribe of Levi), was 601,730 ( Numbers 26:2,51). The tribe of Levi was excluded from this number because the land was divided among the other tribes as part of their heritage entitlement. The Levites were registered separately since no land was given them.

    Then in Numbers 26:62 the total number of male Levites one month of age & older is given as 23,000 males. Now assuming there were approximately as many women among this tribe, the number of the tribe of Levi would rise to about 46,000. Therefore, adding up the 601,730 and the 46,000, I estimate there were about 648,000 people of twenty years or more.

    Now keeping in mind that the Israelites of twenty years of age & under were not registered (except for the male Levites), one can estimate that at least a third of the total amount (approx. 224,000) should be added to the eleven tribes. And then we add another half of the 601,730 for the women of the eleven tribes might come to 300,000 women.

    Therefore, we get a rough total of 1.2 million people who crossed over to the Promised Land. Though, I've seen figures upto 2 million quoted - but all these numbers are only approximate from the information we have in the Bible.

    I couldn't answer the second part of your question as there are too many unknowns & variables involved. The crossing of the Jordan River could have been done in a few days or up to a month, depending on the river's width at point of crossing towards Jericho, the marching formation of the people, times of rest, etc.



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