The number 600 is associated with God's judgment and the end of a period of preparation, most notably Noah's age when the flood came.
In Genesis 7:6, Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth. This marks the culmination of a long period of preparation – Noah had faithfully built the ark according to God's command – and the beginning of God's judgment on sinful humanity. The 600 years thus represent both the patience of God's time of grace and the final turning point when judgment fell. The number 600 also appears in connection with Egypt's military power, where Pharaoh sent 600 chosen chariots to pursue the Israelites at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:7), a force that was ultimately overcome by God's intervention. In this way, the number is linked to human power standing against God's sovereign judgment. In later kabbalistic literature, some scholars have proposed an alternative division of the 613 commandments (taryag mitzvot) where 600 represents the general commandments and the remaining 13 are linked to God's attributes of mercy. This interpretation differs from the standard rabbinic explanation in the Talmud (Makkot 23b-24a), which divides the 613 into 611 commandments delivered through Moses and 2 heard directly from God. The 600 chariots mentioned in Exodus 14:7 represented a significant military force in the late Bronze Age. Archaeological findings from Egypt confirm that chariots were a central part of the Egyptian military apparatus during this period.*