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
In his book History of Cyrus the Great (1878), Jacob Abbott wrote: “[Babylon] was the capital of a large and very fertile region, which extended on both sides of the Euphrates toward the Persian Gulf. . . . The River Euphrates was the great source of fertility for the whole region through which it flowed.” Yes, Babylon’s prosperity stemmed from the Euphrates River. It is, therefore, all the more significant that the city’s fall should also be linked to that river.
The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom. July 1, 1983 p. 6
Surely, the meaning cannot be that we are exhorted to take heed to the prophetic word until Christ is revealed in our hearts! No; but we are to take heed in our hearts to this prophetic word, until the fulfillment comes in the appearing of Christ—the rising of Him who is called ‘the Morning Star.’”—Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, 1898.
The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom. February 1, 1991 p. 29
