1[1] Estas son las jornadas de los hijos de Israel que salieron de la tierra de Egipto, según el orden de sus ejércitos, bajo el mando de Moisés y Aarón. 2Moisés escribió sobre el punto de partida de sus jornadas por mandato de Jehová. Estas, pues, son sus jornadas con arreglo al punto de partida. 3De Ramesés salieron el mes primero, el día quince del mes primero. El segundo día de la Pascua[2] salieron los hijos de Israel con mano poderosa,[3] a la vista de todos los egipcios, 4mientras enterraban los egipcios a los que Jehová había herido de muerte,[4] a todos sus primogénitos; Jehová había hecho justicia también a sus dioses. 5Salieron, pues, los hijos de Israel de Ramesés[5] y acamparon en Sucot. 6Salieron de Sucot y acamparon en Etam, que está en los límites del desierto. 7Salieron de Etam y fueron hacia Pi-hahirot, que está delante de Baal-zefón, y acamparon delante de Migdol. 8Salieron de Pi-hahirot, atravesaron el mar y llegaron al desierto. Anduvieron tres días de camino por el desierto de Etam y acamparon en Mara. 9Salieron de Mara y llegaron a Elim, donde había doce fuentes de aguas y setenta palmeras; allí acamparon. 10Salieron de Elim y acamparon junto al Mar Rojo. 11Salieron del Mar Rojo y acamparon en el desierto de Sin. 12Salieron del desierto de Sin y acamparon en Dofca. 13Salieron de Dofca y acamparon en Alús. 14Salieron de Alús y acamparon en Refidim, donde el pueblo no tuvo aguas para beber. 15Salieron de Refidim y acamparon en el desierto de Sinaí. 16Salieron del desierto de Sinaí[6] y acamparon en Kibrot-hataava. 17Salieron de Kibrot-hataava y acamparon en Hazerot. 18Salieron de Hazerot y acamparon en Ritma. 19Salieron de Ritma y acamparon en Rimón-peres. 20Salieron de Rimón-peres y acamparon en Libna. 21Salieron de Libna y acamparon en Rissa. 22Salieron de Rissa y acamparon en Ceelata. 23Salieron de Ceelata y acamparon en el monte Sefer. 24Salieron del monte Sefer y acamparon en Harada. 25Salieron de Harada y acamparon en Macelot. 26Salieron de Macelot y acamparon en Tahat. 27Salieron de Tahat y acamparon en Tara. 28Salieron de Tara y acamparon en Mitca. 29Salieron de Mitca y acamparon en Hasmona. 30Salieron de Hasmona y acamparon en Moserot. 31Salieron de Moserot y acamparon en Bene-jaacán. 32Salieron de Bene-jaacán y acamparon en el monte Gidgad. 33Salieron del monte Gidgad y acamparon en Jotbata. 34Salieron de Jotbata y acamparon en Abrona. 35Salieron de Abrona y acamparon en Ezión-geber. 36Salieron de Ezión-geber y acamparon en el desierto de Zin, que es Cades. 37Salieron de Cades[7] y acamparon en el monte Hor, en la frontera del país de Edom. 38El sacerdote Aarón subió al monte Hor, conforme al dicho de Jehová, y allí murió[8] a los cuarenta años de la salida de los hijos de Israel de la tierra de Egipto, en el quinto mes, el primero del mes. 39Aarón tenía ciento veintitrés años de edad cuando murió en el monte Hor. 40El cananeo, rey de Arad, que habitaba en el Neguev, en la tierra de Canaán, oyó entonces que habían llegado los hijos de Israel.[9] 41Salieron del monte Hor y acamparon en Zalmona. 42Salieron de Zalmona y acamparon en Punón. 43Salieron de Punón y acamparon en Obot. 44Salieron de Obot y acamparon en Ije-abarim, en la frontera de Moab. 45Salieron de Ije-abarim y acamparon en Dibón-gad. 46Salieron de Dibón-gad y acamparon en Almón-diblataim. 47Salieron de Almón-diblataim y acamparon en los montes de Abarim, delante de Nebo. 48Salieron de los montes de Abarim y acamparon en los campos de Moab, junto al Jordán, frente a Jericó. 49Finalmente acamparon junto al Jordán, desde Bet-jesimot hasta Abel-sitim, en los campos de Moab. 50[10] Habló Jehová a Moisés en los campos de Moab, junto al Jordán, frente a Jericó, y le dijo: 51"Habla a los hijos de Israel y diles: Cuando hayáis pasado el Jordán y entréis en la tierra de Canaán, 52echaréis de delante de vosotros a todos los habitantes del país, destruiréis todos sus ídolos de piedra y todas sus imágenes de fundición, y destruiréis todos sus lugares altos. 53Echaréis a los habitantes de la tierra y habitaréis en ella, pues yo os la he dado para que sea vuestra propiedad. 54Heredaréis la tierra por sorteo, según vuestras familias. A las más numerosas daréis mucho como herencia, y a las menos numerosas daréis menos como herencia; donde le caiga la suerte, allí la tendrá cada uno. Por las tribus de vuestros padres heredaréis.[11] 55Pero si no echáis a los habitantes del país de delante de vosotros, sucederá que los que de ellos dejéis serán como aguijones en vuestros ojos y como espinas en vuestros costados, y os afligirán en la tierra sobre la que vais a habitar.[12] 56Además, haré con vosotros como pensaba hacer con ellos".
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 This is a review and brief rehearsal of the travels of the children of Israel through the wilderness. It was a memorable history and well worthy to be thus abridged, and the abridgment thus preserved, to the honour of God that led them and for the encouragement of the generations that followed. Observe here,
I. How the account was kept:
Moses wrote their goings out, Num 33:2. When they began this tedious march, God ordered him to keep a journal or diary, and to insert in it all the remarkable occurrences of their way, that it might be a satisfaction to himself in the review and an instruction to others when it should be published. It may be of good use to private Christians, but especially to those in public stations, to preserve in writing an account of the providences of God concerning them, the constant series of mercies they have experienced, especially those turns and changes which have made some days of their lives more remarkable. Our memories are deceitful and need this help, that we may
remember all the way which the Lord our God has led us in this wilderness, Deut 8:2.
II. What the account itself was. It began with their departure out of Egypt, continued with their march through the wilderness, and ended in the plains of Moab, where they now lay encamped.
1. Some things are observed here concerning their departure out of Egypt, which they are reminded of upon all occasions, as a work of wonder never to be forgotten. (1.) That they
went forth with their armies (
Num 33:1), rank and file, as an army with banners. (2.) Under the hand of Moses and Aaron, their guides, overseers, and rulers, under God. (3.)
With a high hand, because God's hand was high that wrought for them,
and in the sight of all the Egyptians, Num 33:3. They did not steal away clandestinely (
Isa 52:12), but in defiance of their enemies, to whom God had made them such a burdensome stone that they neither could, nor would, nor durst, oppose them. (4.) They went forth while the Egyptians were burying, or at least preparing to bury, their first-born,
Num 33:4. They had a mind good enough, or rather bad enough, still to have detained the Israelites their prisoners, but God found them other work to do. They would have God's first-born buried alive, but God set them a burying their own first-born. (5.) To all the plagues of Egypt it is added here that
on their gods also the Lord executed judgments. Their idols which they worshipped, it is probable, were broken down, as Dagon afterwards before the ark, so that they could not consult them about this great affair. To this perhaps there is reference,
Isa 19:1,
The idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence. 2. Concerning their travels towards Canaan. Observe, (1.) They were continually upon the remove. When they had pitched a little while in one place they departed from that to another. Such is our state in this world; we have here no continuing city. (2.) Most of their way lay through a wilderness, uninhabited, untracked, unfurnished even with the necessaries of human life, which magnifies the wisdom and power of God, by whose wonderful conduct and bounty the thousands of Israel not only subsisted for forty years in that desolate place, but came out at least as numerous and vigorous as they went in. At first they pitched
in the edge of the wilderness (
Num 33:6), but afterwards in the heart of it; by less difficulties God prepares his people for greater. We find them in the wilderness of Etham (
Num 33:8), of Sin (
Num 33:11), of Sinai,
Num 33:15. Our removals in this world are but from one wilderness to another. (3.) They were led to and fro, forward and backward, as in a maze or labyrinth, and yet were all the while under the direction of the pillar of cloud and fire. He led them about (
Deut 32:10), and yet led them the right way,
Pss 107:7. The way which God takes in bringing his people to himself is always the best way, though it does not always seem to us the nearest way. (4.) Some events are mentioned in this journal, as their want of water at Rephidim (
Num 33:14), the death of Aaron (
Num 33:38,
Num 33:39), the insult of Arad (
Num 33:40); and the very name of
Kibroth-hattaavah -
the graves of lusts (
Num 33:16), has a story depending upon it. Thus we ought to keep in mind the providences of God concerning us and our families, us and our land, and the many instances of that divine care which has led us, and fed us, and kept us, all our days hitherto. Shittim, the place where the people sinned in the matter of Peor (
Num 25:1), is here called
Abel-shittim. Abel signifies
mourning (as
Gen 50:11), and probably this place was so called from the mourning of the good people of Israel on account of that sin and of God's wrath against them for it. It was so great a mourning that it gave a name to the place.
50 While the children of Israel were in the wilderness their total separation from all other people kept them out of the way of temptation to idolatry, and perhaps this was one thing intended by their long confinement in the wilderness, that thereby the idols of Egypt might be forgotten, and the people aired (as it were) and purified from that infection, and the generation that entered Canaan might be such as never knew those depths of Satan. But now that they were to pass over Jordan they were entering again into that temptation, and therefore, 1. They are here strictly charged utterly to destroy all remnants of idolatry. They must not only
drive out the inhabitants of the land, that they may possess their country, but they must deface all their idolatrous pictures and images, and
pull down all their high places, Num 33:52. They must not preserve any of them, no, not as monuments of antiquity to gratify the curious, nor as ornaments of their houses, nor toys for their children to play with, but they must destroy all, both in token of their abhorrence and detestation of idolatry and to prevent their being tempted to worship those images, and the false gods represented by them, or to worship the God of Israel by such images or representations. 2. They were assured that, if they did so, God would by degrees put them in full possession of the land of promise,
Num 33:53,
Num 33:54. If they would keep themselves pure from the idols of Canaan, God would enrich them with the wealth of Canaan. Learn not their way, and then fear not their power. 3. They were threatened that, if they spared either the idols or the idolaters, they should be beaten with their own rod and their sin would certainly be their punishment. (1.) They would foster snakes in their own bosoms,
Num 33:55. The remnant of the Canaanites, if they made any league with them, though it were but a cessation of arms, would be
pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides, that is, they would be upon all occasions vexatious to them, insulting them, robbing them, and, to the utmost of their power, making mischief among them. We must expect trouble and affliction from that, whatever it is, which we sinfully indulge; that which we are willing should tempt us we shall find will vex us. (2.) The righteous God would turn that wheel upon the Israelites which was to have crushed the Canaanites:
I shall do to you as I thought to do unto them, Num 33:56. It was intended that the Canaanites should be dispossessed; but if the Israelites fell in with them, and learned their way, they should be dispossessed, for God's displeasure would justly be greater against them than against the Canaanites themselves. Let us hear this, and fear. If we do not drive sin out, sin will drive us out; if we be not the death of our lusts, our lusts will be the death of our souls.