The interpretation timeline

Exod 12:37

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Exod 12:37 · Douay-Rheims
“And the children of Israel set forward from Ramesse to Socoth, being about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside children.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
389
A.D.
Gregory of Nazianzus Patristic
A.D. 329–390
“Joseph came into Egypt alone, and soon thereafter six hundred thousand depart from Egypt. What is more marvelous than this? What greater proof of the generosity of God, when from persons without means he wills to supply the means for public affairs?”
430
A.D.
Augustine of Hippo Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“From their single ancestor, in not much more than four hundred years, the Hebrew people became so numerous that at the time of the exodus from Egypt there were, we are told, six hundred thousand men of military age. This number does not include the Idumeans, who were not reckoned with the people of Israel, although they were descended from Israel's brother Esau, who was a grandson of Abraham. Nor does it include those other descendants of Abraham who were not of the line of his wife Sarah.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.