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Exodus 12:38, did the non-Israelite multitude (עֵ֥רֶב) cross the sea without the blood applied? Did this rabble (אֲסְפְּסֻף) in Numbers 11:14 instigate the unbelief in God's provision?

Exodus 12:38 A rabble of non-Israelites went with them, along with great flocks and herds of livestock.

Numbers 11:14 Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed

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  • I am not sure I understand the import of your question.
    – Dottard
    Feb 16, 2020 at 21:42
  • I am wondering if indeed a group of people cross the Red Sea with Moses but were not those who applied the blood of the Lamb to their door post.
    – Jeffrey Fisher
    Feb 17, 2020 at 22:55
  • The only "applied blood" recorded in the Bible is in Lev 8:15, 23, 24, 9:9. On these occasions it was applied to either priests (very sparingly) and altars, never people. I am unsure what you mean by blood applied to the people.
    – Dottard
    Feb 18, 2020 at 2:08
  • Wow, I'm Just Simply highlighting that the blood of the Lamb was applied to the doorposts before they exited and yet there was a group of people that apparently joined them, a mixed multitude and this group of people crossed the Red Sea when it miraculously parted having not experienced the protection from the death angel when the blood was applied to the doorways
    – Jeffrey Fisher
    Feb 19, 2020 at 12:53
  • OK, that clarifies part of the problem. I suspect your reference of Num 11:14 is not correct because it does not refer to unbelief
    – Dottard
    Feb 19, 2020 at 21:03

2 Answers 2

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Please see the link for a possible answer to your question.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27913875?seq=1

  1. These mixed-multitudes could be people that were in inter-marriages with the israelites.
  2. Since they were part of the Israelite community they would have got the command and would have put the blood on the post
  3. The link says these could be mercenaries and hence their unrest in the wilderness could be understood.
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Ellicott:

A mixed multitude went up also with them.—Nothing is told us of the component elements of this “mixed multitude.” We hear of them as “murmuring” in Numbers 11:4, so that they seem to have remained with Israel. Some may have been Egyptians, impressed by the recent miracles; some foreigners held to servitude, like the Israelites, and glad to escape from their masters. It is noticeable that the Egyptian writers, in their perverted accounts of the Exodus, made a multitude of foreigners (Hyksôs) take part with the Hebrews.

Exodus 12:38, did the non-Israelite multitude (עֵ֥רֶב) cross the sea without the blood applied?

Some probably did.

Did this rabble (אֲסְפְּסֻף) in Numbers 11:14 instigate the unbelief in God's provision?

Not necessarily. These are two different Hebrew words, Cambridge:

a great mixed multitude] cf. Numbers 11:4 (the Heb. word different). Non-Israelites (cf. the same word in Nehemiah 13:3) of various kinds are meant: e.g. Egyptians who had intermarried with Israelites (cf. Leviticus 24:10), other Semites who had found their way into Egypt, and prisoners taken in war who had been employed in the corvée (Exodus 1:9).

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