1These are the journeys of the sons of Israel who went out from the land of Egypt according to their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. 2And Moses wrote their departures according to their journeys by the mouth of Jehovah. And these are their journeys, according to their departures: 3And they pulled up stakes from Rameses in the first month on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the next day after the Passover the sons of Israel went out with a high hand, before the eyes of all the Egyptians. 4And the Egyptians were burying those whom Jehovah had smitten among them, every first-born, and Jehovah had executed judgments on their gods. 5And the sons of Israel pulled up stakes from Rameses and camped in Succoth. 6And they pulled up stakes from Succoth and camped at Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness. 7And they pulled up stakes from Etham and turned back to Pihahiroth, which is before Baal-zephon; and they camped before Migdol. 8And they pulled up stakes from Pihahiroth and passed over through the midst of the Sea, into the wilderness, and went a journey of three days in the wilderness of Etham, and camped at Marah. 9And they pulled up stakes from Marah and came to Elim. And in Elim were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. And they camped there. 10And they pulled up stakes from Elim and camped by the Sea of Reeds. 11And they pulled up stakes from the Sea of Reeds and camped in the wilderness of Sin. 12And they pulled up stakes from the wilderness of Sin and camped in Dophkah. 13And they pulled up stakes from Dophkah and camped in Alush. 14And they pulled up stakes from Alush and camped in Rephidim; and no water was there for the people to drink. 15And they pulled up stakes from Rephidim and camped in the wilderness of Sinai. 16And they pulled up stakes from the wilderness of Sinai and camped in The Graves of Lust. 17And they pulled up stakes from The Graves of Lust and camped in Hazeroth. 18And they pulled up stakes from Hazeroth and camped in Rithmah. 19And they pulled up stakes from Rithmah and camped in The Pomegranate Breach. 20And they pulled up stakes from The Pomegranate Breach and camped in Libnah. 21And they pulled up stakes from Libnah and camped in Rissah. 22And they pulled up stakes from Rissah and camped in the Meeting Place. 23And they pulled up stakes from the Meeting Place and camped in Mount Shapher. 24And they pulled up stakes from Mount Shapher and camped in Haradah. 25And they pulled up stakes from Haradah and encamped in Makheloth. 26And they pulled up stakes from Makheloth and camped in Tahath. 27And they pulled up stakes from Tahath and camped in Tarah. 28And they pulled up stakes from Tarah and camped in Mithcah. 29And they pulled up stakes from Mithcah and camped in Hashmonah. 30And they pulled up stakes from Hashmonah and camped in Moseroth. 31And they pulled up stakes from Moseroth and camped in Bene-jaakan. 32And they pulled up stakes from Bene-jaakan and camped in The Hole in the Cleft. 33And they pulled up stakes from The Hole in the Cleft and camped in Jotbathah. 34And they pulled up stakes from Jotbathah and camped in Ebronah. 35And they pulled up stakes from Ebronah and camped in Ezion-geber. 36And they pulled up stakes from Ezion-geber and camped in the wilderness of Zin; it is Kadesh. 37And they pulled up stakes from Kadesh and camped in Mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom. 38And Aaron the priest went up into Mount Hor at the mouth of Jehovah; and he died there in the fortieth year after the sons of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first of the month. 39And Aaron was a hundred and twenty three years old at his death in Mount Hor. 40And King Arad the Canaanite, who lived in the Negeb, in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the sons of Israel. 41And they pulled up stakes from Mount Hor and camped in Zalmonah. 42And they pulled up stakes from Zalmonah and camped in Punon. 43And they pulled up stakes from Punon and camped in Oboth. 44And they pulled up stakes from Oboth and camped in Ije-abarim, in the border of Moab. 45And they pulled up stakes from Ije-abarim and camped in Dibon-gad. 46And they pulled up stakes from Dibon-gad and camped in Almon-diblathaim. 47And they pulled up stakes from Almon-diblathaim and camped in the Abarim mountains, by Nebo. 48And they pulled up stakes from the Abarim mountains and camped in the plains of Moab beside Jordan, near Jericho. 49And they camped by the Jordan, from The House of Deserts even to The Meadow of Acacias in the plains of Moab. 50And Jehovah spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab, beside Jordan, near Jericho, saying, 51Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52then you shall dispossess all the ones living in the land from before you, and destroy all their engraved images; yea, you shall destroy all their casted images, and demolish all their high places. 53And you shall possess the land, and live in it, for I have given you the land, to possess it. 54And you shall inherit the land by lot, by your families. You shall increase the inheritance to the many, and you shall diminish the inheritance to the few; wherever the lot falls out to him, it is his. You shall inherit by the tribes of your fathers. 55And if you will not dispossess the ones living in the land from before you, then it shall be, those whom you let remain of them shall be thorns in your eyes, and as goads in your sides. And they will vex you on the land in which you are living. 56And it shall be, as I thought to do to them, so I shall do to you.
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.