1These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who went out of the land of Egypt by their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. 2And Moses wrote down the starting places of their journeys at the mouth of Jehovah. And these are their journeys according to their starting places: 3They set out from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out with a high hand before the eyes of all the Egyptians. 4For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom Jehovah had struck among them. Also upon their gods Jehovah had executed judgments. 5And the children of Israel set out from Rameses and camped at Succoth. 6They set out from Succoth and camped at Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness. 7They set out from Etham and turned back to Pi Hahiroth, which faces Baal Zephon; and they camped before Migdol. 8They set out from before Hahiroth and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, went three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and camped at Marah. 9They set out from Marah and came to Elim. At Elim were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they camped there. 10They set out from Elim and camped by the Red Sea. 11They set out from the Red Sea and camped in the wilderness of Sin. 12They set out from the wilderness of Sin and camped at Dophkah. 13They set out from Dophkah and camped at Alush. 14They set out from Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink. 15They set out from Rephidim and camped in the wilderness of Sinai. 16They set out from the wilderness of Sinai and camped at Kibroth Hattaavah. 17They set out from Kibroth Hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth. 18They set out from Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah. 19They set out from Rithmah and camped at Rimmon Perez. 20They set out from Rimmon Perez and camped at Libnah. 21They set out from Libnah and camped at Rissah. 22They set out from Rissah and camped at Kehelathah. 23They set out from Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher. 24They set out from Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah. 25They set out from Haradah and camped at Makheloth. 26They set out from Makheloth and camped at Tahath. 27They set out from Tahath and camped at Terah. 28They set out from Terah and camped at Mithkah. 29They set out from Mithkah and camped at Hashmonah. 30They set out from Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth. 31They set out from Moseroth and camped at Bene Jaakan. 32They set out from Bene Jaakan and camped at Hor Hagidgad. 33They set out from Hor Hagidgad and camped at Jotbathah. 34They set out from Jotbathah and camped at Abronah. 35They set out from Abronah and camped at Ezion Geber. 36They set out from Ezion Geber and camped in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh. 37They set out from Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom. 38And Aaron the priest went up to Mount Hor at the mouth of Jehovah, and died there in the fortieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month. 39Aaron was one hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor. 40And the king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the south in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel. 41And they set out from Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah. 42They set out from Zalmonah and camped at Punon. 43They set out from Punon and camped at Oboth. 44They set out from Oboth and camped at Ije Abarim, at the border of Moab. 45They set out from Ijim and camped at Dibon Gad. 46They set out from Dibon Gad and camped at Almon Diblathaim. 47They set out from Almon Diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. 48They set out from the mountains of Abarim and camped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho. 49They camped by the Jordan, from Beth Jesimoth as far as Abel Shittim in the plains of Moab. 50And Jehovah spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, saying, 51Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you, destroy all their carved figures, destroy all their images, and annihilate all their high places; 53you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess. 54And you shall divide the land by lot as an inheritance among your families; to the larger you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance; there everyone's inheritance shall be whatever falls to him by lot. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers. 55But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be thorns in your eyes and pricks in your sides, and they shall distress you in the land where you dwell. 56Moreover it shall be that I will do to you as I had thought to do to them.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 TWO AND FORTY JOURNEYS OF THE ISRAELITES--FROM EGYPT TO SINAI. (
Num 33:1-
Num 33:15)
These are the journeys of the children of Israel--This chapter may be said to form the winding up of the history of the travels of the Israelites through the wilderness; for the three following chapters relate to matters connected with the occupation and division of the promised land. As several apparent discrepancies will be discovered on comparing the records here given of the journeyings from Sinai with the detailed accounts of the events narrated in the Book of Exodus and the occasional notices of places that are found in that of Deuteronomy, it is probable that this itinerary comprises a list of only the most important stations in their journeys--those where they formed prolonged encampments, and whence they dispersed their flocks and herds to pasture on the adjacent plains till the surrounding herbage was exhausted. The catalogue extends from their departure out of Egypt to their arrival on the plains of Moab.
went forth . . . with their armies--that is, a vast multitude marshalled in separate companies, but regular order.
2 Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the Lord--The wisdom of this divine order is seen in the importance of the end to which it was subservient--namely, partly to establish the truth of the history, partly to preserve a memorial of God's marvellous interpositions on behalf of Israel, and partly to confirm their faith in the prospect of the difficult enterprise on which they were entering, the invasion of Canaan.
3 Rameses--generally identified with Heroopoils, now the modern Abu-Keisheid (see on
Exod 12:37), which was probably the capital of Goshen, and, by direction of Moses, the place of general rendezvous previous to their departure.
4 upon their gods--used either according to Scripture phraseology to denote their rulers (the first-born of the king and his princes) or the idolatrous objects of Egyptian worship.
5 pitched in Succoth--that is, "booths"--a place of no note except as a temporary halting place, at Birketel-Hadji, the Pilgrim's Pool [CALMET].
6 Etham--edge, or border of all that part of Arabia-Petrća which lay contiguous to Egypt and was known by the general name of Shur.
7 Pi-hahiroth, Baal-zephon . . . Migdol--(See on
Exod 14:2).
8 Marah--thought to be Ain Howarah, both from its position and the time (three days) it would take them with their children and flocks to march from the water of Ayun Musa to that spot.
9 Elim--supposed to be Wady Ghurundel (see on
Exod 15:27).
10 encamped by the Red Sea--The road from Wady Ghurundel leads into the interior, in consequence of a high continuous ridge which excludes all view of the sea. At the mouth of Wady-et-Tayibeh, after about three days' march, it opens again on a plain along the margin of the Red Sea. The minute accuracy of the Scripture narrative, in corresponding so exactly with the geographical features of this region, is remarkably shown in describing the Israelites as proceeding by the only practicable route that could be taken. This plain, where they encamped, was the Desert of Sin (see on
Exod 16:1).
12 Dophkah . . . Alush . . . Rephidim--These three stations, in the great valleys of El Sheikh and Feiran, would be equivalent to four days' journey for such a host. Rephidim (
Exod 17:6) was in Horeb, the burnt region--a generic name for a hot, mountainous country. [See on
Exod 17:1.]
15 wilderness of Sinai--the Wady Er-Raheh.
16 FROM SINAI TO KADESH AND PLAINS OF MOAB. (Num. 33:16-56)
Kibroth-Hattaavah ("the graves of lust," see on
Num 11:34) --The route, on breaking up the encampment at Sinai, led down Wady Sheikh; then crossing Jebel-et-Tih, which intersected the peninsula, they descended into Wady Zalaka, pitching successively at two brief, though memorable, stations (
Deut 9:22); then they encamped at Hazeroth ("unwalled villages"), supposed to be at Ain-Hadera (see on
Num 11:35). Kadesh, or Kadesh-barnea, is supposed to be the great valley of the Ghor, and the city Kadesh to have been situated on the border of this valley [BURCKHARDT; ROBINSON]. But as there are no less than eighteen stations inserted between Hazeroth and Kadesh, and only eleven days were spent in performing that journey (
Deut 1:2), it is evident that the intermediate stations here recorded belong to another and totally different visit to Kadesh. The first was when they left Sinai in the second month (
Num 1:11;
Num 13:20), and were in Kadesh in August (
Deut 1:45), and "abode many days" in it. Then, murmuring at the report of the spies, they were commanded to return into the desert "by the way of the Red Sea." The arrival at Kadesh, mentioned in this catalogue, corresponds to the second sojourn at that place, being the first month, or April (
Num 20:1). Between the two visits there intervened a period of thirty-eight years, during which they wandered hither and thither through all the region of El-Tih ("wanderings"), often returning to the same spots as the pastoral necessities of their flocks required; and there is the strongest reason for believing that the stations named between Hazeroth (
Num 33:8) and Kadesh (
Num 33:36) belong to the long interval of wandering. No certainty has yet been attained in ascertaining the locale of many of these stations. There must have been more than are recorded; for it is probable that those only are noted where they remained some time, where the tabernacle was pitched, and where Moses and the elders encamped, the people being scattered for pasture in various directions. From Ezion-geber, for instance, which stood at the head of the gulf of Akaba, to Kadesh, could not be much less than the whole length of the great valley of the Ghor, a distance of not less than a hundred miles, whatever might be the exact situation of Kadesh; and, of course, there must have been several intervening stations, though none are mentioned. The incidents and stages of the rest of the journey to the plains of Moab are sufficiently explicit from the preceding chapters.
18 Rithmah ("the place of the broom")--a station possibly in some wady extending westward of the Ghor.
19 Rimmon-parez, or Rimmon--a city of Judah and Simeon (
Josh 15:32); Libnah, so called from its white poplars (
Josh 10:29), or, as some think, a white hill between Kadesh and Gaza (
Josh 10:29); Rissah (El-arish); mount Shapher (Cassius); Moseroth, adjacent to mount Hor, in Wady Mousa. Ezion-geber, near Akaba, a seaport on the western shore of the Elanitic gulf; Wilderness of Zin, on the east side of the peninsula of Sinai; Punon, in the rocky ravines of mount Hor and famous for the mines and quarries in its vicinity as well as for its fruit trees, now Tafyle, on the border of Edom; Abarim, a ridge of rugged hills northwest of the Arnon--the part called Nebo was one of its highest peaks--opposite Jericho. (See on
Deut 10:6).
50 ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you--not, however, by expulsion, but extermination (
Deut 7:1).
and destroy all their pictures--obelisks for idolatrous worship (see on
Lev 26:1).
and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places--by metonymy for all their groves and altars, and materials of worship on the tops of hills.
54 ye shall divide the land by lot--The particular locality of each tribe was to be determined in this manner while a line was to be used in measuring the proportion (
Josh 18:10;
Ps 16:5-
Ps 16:6).
55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you--No associations were to be formed with the inhabitants; otherwise, "if ye let remain, they will be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides"--that is, they would prove troublesome and dangerous neighbors, enticing to idolatry, and consequently depriving you of the divine favor and blessing. The neglect of the counsel against union with the idolatrous inhabitants became fatal to them. This earnest admonition given to the Israelites in their peculiar circumstances conveys a salutary lesson to us to allow no lurking habits of sin to remain in us. That spiritual enemy must be eradicated from our nature; otherwise it will be ruinous to our present peace and future salvation.
