How many days did it take the Israelites to leave Egypt?

Answer 1

They left on the 15th of Nisan (April), after weeks of preparation (as implied in Exodus ch.12). The speed with which they were able to leave indicated that they enjoyed Divine assistance, as alluded in Exodus 19:4 (Rashi commentary, ibid). See also:

Evidence of the Exodus

Answer 2

If we take The Bible literally, there were 600,000 fighting men, which scholars have estimated to be equivalent to at least 2.5 million people, including priests, women, children and the elderly. This is equivalent to a major city, even today, but they would have to have been spread throughout the land of Egypt, not just in one sector of one city. Moving that many people is a major project of serious proportions, especially if the Egyptians are not to be alerted in advance: it can not be achieved just by waking up in the night, taking some Egyptian jewellery and running down the road.

Moses would have had to get word to the Israelites in the most distant parts of southern Egypt, along with detailed plans, dates and information on what to bring. Moses would have needed to know how many Israelites were located in each town, village and district, so that he could plan the logistics and food supplies. Exodus says that the Israelites took their livestock and all their possessions, so their would have been cattle, sheep and wagons on the move. Inevitably, with 600,000 women of childbearing age, some women would have been in their late stages of pregnancy or even in labour. Medical and midwifery services would have to be planned for the expectant mothers, sick, injured and eldery.

A bottleneck would have been the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. Even in the absence of wagons and livestock, all the Israelites could cross in one 24-hour day only if 30 crossed every second - in practice an impossible feat. And people have to sleep. If the crossing of the Red Sea really occurred, this many people and their livestock and possessions would have taken many days to cross any such waterway.

A project of this size and complexity would take months of planning. From the time the first Israelites were on the move in southern and eastern Egypt, until the last Israelite crossed the Red Sea would have taken many more weeks. After they crossed this barrier, another surprise would have been in store for them. All of Palestine was under Egyptian military control throughout the period the Exodus is said to have taken place (c. 1440 BCE). Effectively, they were still in Egypt.

Based on archaeological evidence and biblical hermeneutics, nearly all scholars now say that the Exodus from Egypt did not occur as described in the Bible.

Answer 3

It took the Israelites a total of 40 years of wandering to reach Canaan.