The Protestant Interpreter’s Bible agrees with this Catholic position: “It is plausible that this impossible number rests on a numerical interpretation of the Hebrew letters in the phrase ‘sons of Israel.’ . . . That the figure has no basis in fact is clear from almost every point of view. Such a large number could not have lived in Egypt or survived in the desert. Nor could they have found room in Canaan.”—Vol. I, page 925.
The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom. August 1, 1963 p. 478