1And these are the places where the children of Israel and their army stayed (under the direction of Moses and Aaron) after they left the land of Egypt. 2For, following the instructions of Jehovah, Moses wrote down the places that they moved to and where they stayed. So, here are the stages of their journey: 3They left Ramses on the fifteenth day of the first month. Then after the Passover, the children of Israel proudly walked away from the Egyptians, 4since the Egyptians were burying all the dead that Jehovah had struck down – all the firstborn in the land of Egypt – and He also brought vengeance on their gods. 5The children of Israel left Ramses and camped in SocChoth, 6then they left SocChoth and camped in BuThan, near the desert. 7They left BuThan and camped at the mouth of the IrOth, which is across from Beel SepPhon and opposite MagDol. 8Then, it was when they left IrOth that they crossed through the middle of the sea and into the desert. Thereafter, they traveled through the desert for three days and camped in PicriAe. 9When they left PicriAe they went to AiLim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped next to the water. 10When they left AiLim, they camped next to the Red Sea. 11And when they left the Red Sea, they camped in the Sin Desert. 12After they left the Sin Desert, they camped in Raphaca. 13And when they left Raphaca, they camped in AiLus. 14When they left AiLus, they camped in RaphiDin (where there was no water for the people to drink). 15Then they left RaphiDin and camped in the Sinai Desert. 16When they left the Sinai Desert, they camped at the Graves of Greed. 17Then they left the Graves of Greed and camped in AsherOth, 18and after AsherOth, they camped in RathAma. 19When they left RathAma, they camped in Remmon Phares. 20And when they left Remmon Phares, they camped in Lebona. 21After leaving Lebona, they camped in Ressan. 22Then they left Ressan and camped in MakelLath. 23After MakelLath, they camped in Saphar. 24When they left Saphar, they camped in CharaDath. 25Then they left CharaDath and camped in MakelOth. 26And they left MakelOth, and camped in KataAth. 27Then they left KataAth and camped in TarAth. 28After leaving TarAth, they camped in MathecCa. 29Then they left MathecCa and camped in Selmona. 30After Selmona, they camped in MasurUth. 31And from MasurUth they went to BanaYa. 32And after leaving BanaYa, they camped at Mount GadGad. 33After leaving Mount GadGad, they camped in EteBatha. 34When they left EteBatha, they camped in Ebrona. 35After Ebrona, they camped in Gesion Gaber. 36Then they left Gesion Gaber and camped in the Sin Desert. Thereafter, they left the Sin Desert and camped in the Pharan Desert at Cades. 37And when they left Cades, they camped at Mount Or, near the land of Edom. 38It was there at Mount Or that Aaron the Priest climbed the mountain, following Jehovah’s instructions, and died there on the first day of the fifth month, forty years after they left the land of Egypt. 39Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Or. 40And after Arad (who was the CanaAnite king) heard that the children of Israel were in the land, 41they left Mount Or and camped in Selmona. 42From Selmona they went to Phino, 43and after leaving Phino, they camped in ObOth. 44When they left ObOth, they camped in Gai at the border of Moab. 45Then they left Gai and camped in DaEbon Gad. 46When they left DaEbon Gad, they camped in Gelmon Deblathaim. 47After leaving Gelmon Deblathaim, they camped on the Mountains of Abarim, which border Nabau. 48Then, when they left the Mountains of Abarim, they camped on the west side [of the land] of Moab, by the Jordan River near Jericho. 49So they stayed camped there by the Jordan from AiSimOth to Belsa, west of Moab. 50And it was there that Jehovah spoke to Moses (west of Moab by the Jordan River, close to Jericho) and said, 51‘Now tell the children of Israel that they are to cross the Jordan into the land of CanaAn, 52and they must destroy everyone who lives in that land. They must tear down their altars, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their [sacred] columns. 53All the inhabitants of the land must be destroyed so they can live there; for I have given this land as their inheritance. 54‘The land that each tribe inherits must be divided in a lottery. And the more people there are in each tribe, the larger their inheritance must be; and the smaller the tribe, the smaller its inheritance… the inheritance must be divided by their tribes and families. 55‘Now, if you don’t destroy the people who live in that land; those who are left will eventually become thorns in your eyes and darts in your sides. They will always be your enemies in this land, 56and the things that I had planned to do to them I’ll do to you.’
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.