(The history of Ancient Israel)
While being punished for all the rebelling and complain to their God on the year and a half journey from Egypt to Canaan, it seems their might have been another mini-exodus from the main camp of Israel during these 40 years of punishment in the wildness. That is, much like the Zerahite migration, if this ‘mini-exodus’ did happen it’s not directly mentioned; but there is a small hint during this time that their might have been a migration from them main camp; specifically, the tribe that seemed to have migrated in large numbers from the main camp seems to be the tribe of Simeon.
The only evidence for such a migration out of the main camp of Israel is the massive change in the population of tribe of Simeon between the two censuses in Numbers 1 and Numbers 26:
Originally when God commanded Moses to take the first census of Israelite men; they had been in the Siani desert for about a year now learning God’s laws (and being punished for breaking them), making a special covenant with him, and making Aaron priest and building God’s holy temple:
Moses took the census right before they would leave Siani to go back to Canaan.
However, the next census in Numbers 26 was 40 years after they left Siani right before the next generation of Israelite men would go and conquer Canaan:
It’s during this second census that we see some pretty significant changes in some of the tribes, especially in the tribe of Simeon:
In the first census, the population of the men in tribe of Simeon was 59,300:
Numbers 1:22-23
"All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were...from the tribe of Simeon was 59,300."
but in the second census it was down to 22,200:
Numbers 26:4
"...of Simeon; those numbered were 22,200."
that’s a drop of 37,100 men: this means well over half of the total men in the tribe of Simeon were gone [1]! That quite a drop!
And while these censuses only counted the men of these tribes (that is, adult Israelite males 20 years and older) this does not just mean only half of the Simeonite men were gone from Israel: because the entire tribe of Simeon was also composed of the Simeonite women/those married to Simeonite men and Simeonite children under 20 years old that were not counted in the census:
It's very unlikely that only just the Semonite men in the tribe of Simeon just vanished; very likely if half the men were gone so were half the women and children as well!
So, the question is what exactly happened to all these Simeonites?
At first it might be reasonable to assume The many plagues killed off all these Simeonites along with other Israelites at this time;
It’s true between theses censuses there were several plagues/curses that greatly put a blunt in the population of Israel:
The fire from of God caused by complaining killed some
The plague caused by craving meat killed a lot
The conquering of Israel in war by Canaanite nations killed some fighting men
The 250 Israelite men killed in Korah’s rebellion
The disease caused by Israel rebelling against Moses and Aaron killed more
The possible snake bites that killed a good bit of Israelites (many more would have died if God would not have healed them by the bronze snake)
And the plague that killed 24,000 Israelites because of the sexual immorality with Midianite women that led to idolatry
While it's true all these curses would have definitely affected the population of Israel, notice many of the tribes had significant growth despite all this (for example, the tribe of Manasseh had a growth of over 20,000 men [2]!) And even if the tribe of Simeon was somehow affected all of the curses the most over half the Israelite men is a very significant drop in population: because no other tribe in the second census had such a massive drop in population! Thus, all the curses alone cannot properly explain such a massive drop alone: if this were true just from the curses it would mean the tribe of Simeon would have to have taken the majority of the Israelite deaths from all the curses, but the text does not indicate this; it indicates the plague did not discriminate against the tribes but affected all Israelites the same; regardless of tribe!
The curses by plagues might have killed a lot of Simeonites off (including women and children), why that might have had something to do with this drop of some Simeonites (as well as other tribes) there are somethings to consider:
Why is it that some tribes grew despite these curses while others decreased? these curses probably also killed many Manassehites and Judahites, yet their population of men (and most likely along with women and children) only continued to grow; and even when some tribes had a drop in number it was nowhere near half the population! This evidence points to another reason in the massive drop in the Simeonite population:
It points to a possible Simeonite migration out of the main camp of Israel around this time!
But if this did happen (like the deep drop in the population would suggest), where did over half of the tribe of Simeon go?
It’s not unthinkable that they left in the direction of their Zerahite cousins once they left the camp in Greece/Anatolia to join them: possibly they heard about how they too left the main group of Israel a while ago and decided they might welcome them as their Israelite brethren. If this is the case, they might have found a port nearby and took off by ship to join them and also joined the Zerahites to settle in/near Greece: however, unlike Zerah’s migration there are no real traces in the historical record of (or if) these Simeonites settled anywhere in the Mediterranean.
So ultimately if there was a mass migration of Simeonites where they went is ultimately unknown.
But if there was a mass migration of Simeonites from the main camp of Israel then that means then at this time (including all the Zerahites that seem to also have left eventually) that mean now (and possibly a couple of centuries later) roughly 6.1% of Israel seems to be missing from the main group that means roughly 94% of Israel is only accounted for [3].
and over 1/2 of the tribe of Simeon is now gone!
(The history of Ancient Israel)
Sources:
[1]
The population of Simeonite men in the first census=59,300
The population of Simeonite men in the second census=22,200
So:
22,200-59,300=-37,100
That a drop of -37,100 men
So, dividing the original population by 2 (half):
59,300/2=29,650
So, 29,650 is half so 37,100 is more than half of the original population (but about half) !
[2]
In the first census the population of Manassehite men was 32,200
(Numbers 1:35
“The number from the tribe of Manasseh was 32,200.”)
But in the second census the population was 52,700
(Numbers 26:34
“These were the clans of Manasseh; those numbered were 52,700.”)
So 32,200-52,700=20,500 so there were over 20,000 new men
[3]
There are 12 tribes if roughly 1/2 of them is missing (the tribe of Simeon) then that means:
12/100=0.5(1/2)/X; 12X/12=50/12; X=4.16 (round to 4.2) so roughly 4.2% of Israel is missing due to a little over half of the tribe of Simeon leaving, but 1/3 of the tribe of Judah also eventually leaves (or is somewhat gone at this point anyway) so:
4.2+1.9=6.1
so, by this time (and possibly a couple of centuries afterwards) roughly 6.1% of Israel seems to be missing from the main group that means:
6.1-100=93.9 (round to 94) so roughly 94% of Israel is now only accounted for in the main group