MIXED COMPANY

A group of people who departed from Egypt with the nation of Israel. (Ex. 12:37, 38) Since they were prepared to leave Egypt with the Israelites, this suggests that they had not lost any of their firstborn. Otherwise they would have been occupied in burying their dead, as were the Egyptians. (Num. 33:3, 4) The mixed company must therefore have been in a fit condition to celebrate the Passover. (Compare Exodus 12:43-49; see ALIEN RESIDENT.) Some of these people may have been Egyptians or other foreigners who chose to follow the God and nation of Israel after witnessing a number of Jehovah’s blows against Egypt. Others of this group were likely Egyptians who had married Israelites also the offspring of such unions. The Israelitess Shelomith of the tribe of Dan, for example, had an Egyptian husband and at least one son by him.—Lev. 24:10, 11.

Doubtless both the non-Israelite background of the “mixed company” or “mixed crowd” and the rigors of the wilderness trek prompted a complaining spirit among them that became a source of contention. Their expression of selfish longing spread to the Israelites, so that they too began to weep and say: “How we remember the fish that we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers and the watermelons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic! But now our soul is dried away. Our eyes are on nothing at all except the manna.”—Num. 11:4-6.

At Nehemiah 13:3 and Jeremiah 25:20 the expression “mixed company” denotes non-Israelites. The Nehemiah reference pertains to such foreigners as Moabites and Ammonites. (Neh. 13:1) That the sons of these foreigners (half-Israelites) may also have been included is suggested by the fact that earlier the Israelites dismissed both their foreign wives and sons.—Ezra 10:44.