King James Bible Dictionary

MIX'ED, participle passive United in a promiscuous mass or compound; blended; joined; mingled; associated.

1. adjective Promiscuous; consisting of various kinds or different things; as a mixed multitude.

(Exodus 12:38), a class who accompanied the Israelites as they journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, the first stage of the Exodus. These were probably miscellaneous hangers-on to the Hebrews, whether Egyptians of the lower orders, or the remains of the Hyksos (see EGYPT; MOSES), as some think. The same thing happened on the return of the Jews from Babylon (Nehemiah 13:3), a "mixed multitude" accompanied them so far.

When the Isr'lites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, the first stage of the exodus from Egypt, there were up with them "a mixed multitude." (Exodus 12:38; Numbers 11:4) They were probably the offspring of marriages contracted between the Isr'lites and the Egyptians; and the term may also include all those who were not of pure Isr'lite blood. In Exodus and Numbers it probably denoted the miscellaneous hangers-on of the Hebrew camp, whether they were the issue of spurious marriages with Egyptians or were themselves Egyptians, or belonging to other nations. The same happened on the return from Babylon, and in (Nehemiah 13:3) (comp. vs Nehemiah 13:23-30) a slight clue is given by which the meaning of the "mixed multitude" may be more definitely ascertained.