Who Became the Nation of Israel?
The people who came out of Egypt with Moses and entered into a covenant relationship with God were considered Israelites. These people were the thirteen tribes of Israel (Joseph had two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh) plus a mixed multitude of other races (Exodus 12:38; Numbers 11:4). Among these aliens were Moses Ethiopian wife (Numbers 12:115) whom Aaron and Miriam were angry with Moses for marrying and also Moses other wife Zipporah who was of foreign extraction from Midian (Exodus 2:1522; 18:26). In the covenant God made with Israel, Israelite men were also allowed to take Gentile women to be their spouses as booty in war if they were not Canaanites (Deuteronomy 21:1014). The captive Gentile women, however, were expected to become thorough-going Israelites in all aspects of their lives (like Ruth did, Ruth 1:16). They were not to be like Solomons wives who continued to act like their Gentile ancestors (1 Kings 11:110), and not like later Jewish men with Gentile wives who did similar
