MIXED COMPANY

A group of aliens (strangers) who departed from Egypt with the nation of Israel. (Ex 12:37, 38, ftn; compare Ex 12:43-49.) Some of these people may have been Egyptians or other foreigners who chose to follow the true God and the nation of Israel after witnessing a number of Jehovah’s blows against Egypt. Others of this group were likely Egyptians who had married Israelites as well as 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.​—Le 24:10, 11.

This same group is also called “the mixed crowd [or, the cluster (of people); the rabble]” in Numbers 11:4. Doubtless both their non-Israelite background 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.”​—Nu 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. (Ne 13:1) That the sons of these foreigners (half-Israelite) may also have been included is suggested by the fact that earlier the Israelites dismissed both their foreign wives and sons.​—Ezr 10:44.