NUMBERS 33 COMMENTARYEDITED BY GLENN PEASE

Stages in Israel’s Journey1 Here are the stages in the journey of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt by divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.

BARNES, "This list was written out by Moses at God’s command Num_33:2, doubtless as a memorial of God’s providential care for His people throughout this long and trying period.

Num_33:3-6. For these places, see the marginal reference.GILL, "These are the journeys of the children of Israel,.... Which are related in this chapter following: which went forth out of the land of Egypt: whither their fathers went and stayed, and were kept in hard bondage, but in due time were delivered from it, and came out from thence: with their armies; in great numbers, and in an orderly manner, in rank and file, and like so many squadrons, see Exo_7:4, under the hand of Moses and Aaron: who were sent to the king of Egypt to require their dismission, and who were the instruments under God of their deliverance, and were the leaders of them; as of them out of Egypt, so through the wilderness, in their, several journeys here recorded.HENRY, "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,

JAMISON, "Num_33:1-15. Two and forty journeys of the Israelites - From Egypt to Sinai.

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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.

K&D 1-15, "As the Israelites had ended their wanderings through the desert, when they arrived in the steppes of Moab by the Jordan opposite to Jericho (Num_22:1), and as they began to take possession when the conquered land beyond Jordan was portioned out (ch. 32), the history of the desert wandering closes with a list of the stations which they had left behind them. This list was written out by Moses “at the command of Jehovah” (Num_33:2), as a permanent memorial for after ages, as every station which Israel left behind on the journey from Egypt to Canaan “through the great and terrible desert,” was a memorial of the grace and faithfulness with which the Lord led His people safely “in the desert land and in the waste howling wilderness, and kept him as the apple of His eye, as an eagle fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings” (Exo_19:4; Deu_32:10.).Num_33:1-15

The first and second verses form the heading: “These are the marches of the children of Israel, which they marched out,” i.e., the marches which they made from one place to another, on going out of Egypt. ַמַּסע does not mean a station, but the breaking up of a camp, and then a train, or march (see at Exo_12:37, and Gen_13:3). ְלִצְבֹאָתם (see Exo_7:4). ְּבָיד, under the guidance, as in Num_4:28, and Exo_38:21. ְלַמְסֵעיֶהם ָצֵאיֶהם their goings“ ,מout (properly, their places of departure) according to their marches,” is really equivalent to the clause which follows: “their marches according to their places of departure.” The march of the people is not described by the stations, or places of encampment, but by the particular spots from which they set out. Hence the constant repetition of the word ַוִּיְסעּו, “and they broke up.” In Num_33:3-5, the departure is described according to Exo_12:17, Exo_12:37-41. On the judgments of Jehovah upon the gods of Egypt, see at Exo_12:12. “With an high hand:” as in Exo_14:8. - The places of encampment from Succoth to the desert of Sinai (Num_33:5-15) agree with those in the historical account, except that the stations at the Red Sea

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(Num_33:10) and those at Dophkah and Alush (Num_33:13 and Num_33:14) are passed over there. For Raemses, see at Exo_12:37. Succoth and Etham (Exo_13:20). Pihahiroth (Exo_14:2). “The wilderness” (Num_33:8) is the desert of Shur, according to Exo_15:22. Marah, see Exo_15:23. Elim(Exo_15:27). For the Red Sea and the wilderness of Sin, see Exo_16:1. For Dophkah, Alush, and Rephidim, see Exo_17:1; and for the wilderness of Sinai, Exo_19:2.CALVIN, "1.These are the journeys of the children of Israel. Moses had not previously enumerated all the stations in which the people had encamped, but scarcely more than those in which something memorable had occurred, especially after the passage of the Red Sea; because it was of great importance that the actual localities should be set, as it were, before their eyes, until they were not only rescued from impending death by God’s amazing power, but a way unto life was opened to them through death and the lowest deep. In fact, in one passage he has as good as told us that he omitted certain stations, where he records that the people “journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord,” to Rephidim, (Exodus 17:1) here, however, he more accurately states every place at which they stopped, as if he were painting a picture of their journey of forty years. His object in this is, first, that the remembrance of their deliverance, and so many accompanying blessings, might be more deeply impressed upon them, since local descriptions have no little effect in giving certainty to history; and, secondly, that they might be reminded by the names of the places, how often and in how many ways they had provoked God’s anger against them; but especially that, now they were on the very threshold of the promised land, they might acknowledge that they had been kept back from it, and had been wandering by various tortuous routes, in consequence of their own depravity and stubbornness, until they had received the reward of their vile ingratitude. Whilst, at the same time, they might reflect that God had so tempered the severity of their punishment, that He still preserved and sustained the despisers of his grace, notwithstanding their iniquity and unworthiness; and also that He carried on to the children (of the transgressors) the covenant which He had made with Abraham.It is not without reason that Moses premises that “these were the journeys of the children of Israel;” for, at the period when they came out of the land of Goshen, they were affected with no ordinary fear and anxiety, when they saw themselves buried, as it were, in the grave; for they were shut in on every side either by the sea or the defiles of two mountains, or by the army of Pharaoh. Having entered the desert, they had seven stations before they arrived at Mount Sinai, in which they must have perished a hundred times over by hunger and thirst, and a dearth of everything, unless God had marvellously succoured them. And although they might have completed their whole journey in so many days, even then their obstinate perversity began to subject them to delay. If the lack of bread and water beset them, they ought to have been more effectually stirred up by it to have recourse humbly to God. So little disposed, however, were they to that humility, which might have taught them to ask of God by prayer and supplication a remedy for their need, that

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they rather rebelled against Moses: and not only so, but they petulantly assailed God Himself with their impious taunts, as if He were a cruel executioner instead of their Redeemer. Hence, therefore, it came to pass that it was not before the fortieth day that they were at length brought to Mount Sinai. Scarcely had the Law been promulgated, and whilst the awful voice of God was still ringing in their ears, whereby He had bound them to Himself as His people, when, behold, suddenly a base, nay, a monstrous falling away into idolatry, whence it was not their own fault that, having rejected God’s grace, and as far as depended upon themselves having annulled the promise, they did not perisist miserably as they deserved. By this impediment they were again withheld from further progress. With the same obstinacy they constantly raged against God, and, though warned by many instances of punishment, never returned to a sound mind. The climax of their insane contumacy was, that when arrived at the borders of the promised land, they repudiated God’s kindness, and exhorted each other to return, as if God were adverse to them, and His inestimable deliverance, which ought to have been a perpetual obligation to obedience, were utterly distasteful to them. The stations, which then follow, express in a more, lively manner how, — like a ship which is driven away from its port by a tempest, and whirled round by various currents, — they were carried away from approaching the land, and wandered by circuitous courses: as if they deserved that God should thus lead them about in mockery. It will be well for us to keep our eyes on this design of Moses, in order that we may read the chapter with profit.He calls the order of their marches journeys (profectiones,) in contradistinction to their stations: for they did not strike their camp unless the signal were given, i.e., when the cloud left the sanctuary, and moved to another spot, as if God stretched forth His hand from heaven to direct their way: and hence it was more clearly apparent, that they were retained in the desert by this power.

COFFMAN, "This remarkable chapter details the so-called "stations" of the children of Israel during the approximately forty years that elapsed between their exodus and their entry into Canaan. Practically nothing is known about most of the places mentioned here, although, here and there, one of the names corresponds with the location of events related in Exodus. "Twelve of the places mentioned are mentioned nowhere else in the Bible."[1] "Of all the seventeen places listed between Numbers 33:19-36, not a single one is known or can be pointed out with certainty (with the possible exception of Ezion-geber)."[2] Many other scholars might be cited in agreement with the mystery that lies around these remarkable names.Although these places are called "stations", that is not the way God counted them. Keil pointed out that "The key Hebrew word here does not mean `station' at all, but the `breaking of camp', that is, the `marching out'."[3] Gray also observed this and translated as follows: "And Moses wrote down their starting-places on their several stages, according to

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Yahweh's commandment; and these are their stages defined by their several starting places."[4]Gray stated that there are 41 of these,[5] but his failure to get this accurate was due to his not counting the very first of the starting-places namely, Rameses. Dummelow thought there are "forty of these stations."[6] For centuries, there has been little divergence from the obvious truth that there are EXACTLY FORTY-TWO of these. W. Gunther Plaut, a very recent Jewish commentator declared emphatically that, "Forty-two way stations are listed in the recapitulation of the forty years wandering."[7]It is most likely that it is in this number that we should seek the principal significance of the whole chapter. The very fact that so LITTLE is known about most of these places forces the conclusion that God Almighty had some other weighty reason for commanding the great Lawgiver to write these down. Our own conviction is that God does not have any worthless material in his Book (the Bible), and therefore we conclude that some very great significance lies in the very number FORTY-TWO itself.Sure enough, when we pursue this, we can only be astounded at the ramifications of it. In the intricate correspondence between the number given in this chapter and the events and conditions identified with that same number subsequently in the Sacred Scriptures, we find overwhelming proof of God's authorship of the words here given and of the inspiration of this section of the Holy Bible (as is the case, of course, with all of it).In both the O.T. and the N.T., the grand analogy between the Two Israels of God is an ever-present, recurring phenomenon. Whole sections of the N.T. are based upon it, as in 1 Corinthians 10, and the Book of Hebrews. It is an axiom known to every true preacher of the Word that the wilderness wanderings of Israel are typical of the current Christian dispensation. Their baptism in the Red Sea is typical of Christian baptism. Their passage over the Jordan into Canaan typifies the entry of the Christian into heaven, after death (the Jordan), etc., etc.Just as Israel was led through FORTY-TWO stations to the brink of entry into Canaan, into which promised land they were led by Joshua, a remarkable type of Jesus Christ in name and function; just so, the redemption of all men was accomplished through FORTY-TWO generations from Abraham to Jesus Christ as stressed in the very first chapter of the N.T.There can hardly be any doubt whatever that "the forty-two months" of the Apocalypse is an anti-typical reference to these FORTY-TWO stations of the wandering Israel. The further such a premise is explored the more compelling is the evidence of its validity.THE WHOLE CURRENT DISPENSATION OF GOD'S GRACE IS CALLED

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FORTY-TWO MONTHSGod nourishes his church during her probation (present dispensation) for "a thousand two hundred and three-score days" (exactly forty-two months). (See Revelation 12:6.)The persecuted church is protected for "time, and times, and half a time" (Revelation 12:14). This means 3 1/2 years, that is, forty-two months!The great scarlet Sea-Beast of Revelation 13, one of the three great enemies of God throughout this whole dispensation will continue "forty and two months" (the whole dispensation). Revelation 13:5.God's two witnesses (His Word and the Word-indwelt Church) will prophecy "a thousand two hundred and three score days" (forty-two months ... the whole dispensation). Revelation 11:3.The Holy City (Jerusalem) shall be trodden under foot "forty and two months" (Revelation 11:2). Jesus gave the same prophecy in these words: "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles (nations), until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (identified as this whole dispensation). (Compare Revelation 11:2 and Luke 21:24.)In the era of the "ten horns" (ten kings), during the days of the governmental hatred of "The Most High" and his "Saints," all the time until the eternal judgment is depicted as "a time, and times and half a time." Daniel 7:25.During the final era of the fourth judicial hardening of Adam's race and very near the judgment when evil shall almost totally prevail ... that whole era was mentioned by Daniel thus: "It shall be for a time, times, and a half; when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." (Daniel 12:7)There could hardly be any other source of all these repeated instances of the FORTY-TWO months theme (or equivalent) than that found here in the exact number of these FORTY-TWO stations of the wilderness wanderings. Here is the list:RAMESES (Numbers 33:5);SUCCOTH (Numbers 33:6);ETHAM (Numbers 33:7);PI-HAHIROTH (Numbers 33:8);

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MARAH (Numbers 33:9);ELIM (Numbers 33:10);THE RED SEA (Numbers 33:11);WILDERNESS OF SIN (Numbers 33:12);DOPHKAH (Numbers 33:13);ALUSH (Numbers 33:14);REPHIDIM (Numbers 33:15);SINAI (Numbers 33:16);KIBROTH-HATTAAVAH (Numbers 33:17);HAZEROTH (Numbers 33:18);RITHMAH (Numbers 33:19);RIMMON-PEREZ (Numbers 33:20);LIBNAH (Numbers 33:21);RISSAH (Numbers 33:22);KEHELATHAH (Numbers 33:23);MOUNT SHEPHER (Numbers 33:24);HARADAH (Numbers 33:25);MAKHELOTH (Numbers 33:26);TAHATH (Numbers 33:27);TERAH (Numbers 33:28);MITHKAH (Numbers 33:29);HASHMONAH (Numbers 33:30);MOSEROTH (Numbers 33:31);

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BENE-JAAKAN (Numbers 33:32);HOR-HAGGIDGAD (Numbers 33:33);JOTBATHAH (Numbers 33:34);ABRONAH (Numbers 33:35);EZION-GEBER (Numbers 33:36);WILDERNESS OF ZIN (Numbers 33:36);HOR (Numbers 33:41);ZALMONAH (Numbers 33:42);PUNON (Numbers 33:43);OBOTH (Numbers 33:44);IYE-ABARIM (Numbers 33:45);DIBON-GAD (Numbers 33:46);ALMON-DIBLATHAIM (Numbers 33:47);ABARIM MOUNTAINS (Numbers 33:48);PLAINS OF MOAB (Numbers 33:49).We have provided this simplified summary of most of the chapter (through Numbers 33:49) rather than give the full text of the chapter. The pattern followed throughout is:They journeyed from and encamped in . And they journeyed from and encamped in .There are many very interesting things about this chapter, as pointed out by various scholars.Gray noted that there are only two dates available for these journeys. There is the date of the start (given in Exodus), "the 15th day of the first month of the first year; and the date of Aaron's death (at Hor) on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year (at the 34th station)."[8]

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In Numbers 33:3,4, Moses explained the departure of Israel from Rameses with the note, "while the Egyptians were burying all their first-born," thus giving an explanation found nowhere else of why the Israelites got such a head start on their Exodus. The Egyptians were busy with the funerals for their first-born! "This is in perfect accordance with what we know of the Egyptians, who held that all other passions and interests should give place for the time to the necessary care for the departed."[9] Also, it should not be lost on the believing student that Numbers thus accords with the rest of the Pentateuch in that every previous line of the Books of Moses is assumed and recognized by many such inadvertent, off-hand references to things already related. It is impossible to suppose that previously unrelated fragments of "various sources" could have been combined with the synchronized results we have here.In this chapter, "Moses is recorded as having kept a log book of the various stages."[10] Adam Clarke called it "a diary." "We may consider the whole Book of Numbers as a diary, and indeed the first book of travels ever published."[11] This understanding also gives us the ideal explanation of the near-total lack of any logical outline. Numbers is not that kind of book. It is an account in the order of their happening of many of the strange things that befell Israel in the wilderness.Despite the fact of many of the place-names in this chapter being absolutely unknown, Rameses in Egypt, the first point of their "starting out," has been identified as "the metropolis of Goshen, the rallying place from which Israel began their excursion to the Holy Land."[12] He also identified it with the modern Cairo; but Thompson recently identified it as the ancient Tanis, the modern name of which is Qantir.[13]As already suggested, however, it is not in the information that we may garner here and there about any of those ancient places which carries any great significance for believers. It is the number of the stations, the constant protection and blessing of God bestowed upon his people in all kinds of circumstances, and God's unyielding purpose of saving Adam's race through Israel - these are the areas where we find the greatest inspiration of our faith.Very little is known about what happened to Israel during most of the forty years wandering. Outside of the sabbath-breaker's execution and Korah's rebellion (Num. 15; Numbers 16) what is written in this chapter just about sums up the record. What a comment this is on the deeds of men who have already rebelled against God! Nothing whatever that they do is of any consequence whatever! With their rebellion against God that "Lost Generation" terminated utterly their significance upon earth. It is the same today for any man who rejects the service of God!

COKE, "Numbers 33:1. These are the journeys of the children of Israel—with their armies— As the journey of the Israelites, from their departure out of Egypt to their arrival in Canaan, was a continued succession of miracles, in which the interposition

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of Providence was most wonderfully displayed, God thought it proper that Moses should transmit to posterity a journal of their extraordinary travels: in executing which commission, he here recapitulates the principal stages of this long journey, and sets them all before the reader in one view, that those who will take the pains to examine things may be satisfied by what a train of miracles such a multitude of people were fed, supported, and defended for forty years, amidst a barren and inhospitable desart. Jeremiah 2:6. Deuteronomy 29:6. There is no event more memorable, and we may safely say, that, after the history of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is nothing which gives us higher ideas of the Divine Providence, and of its care and dominion over second causes, than this. Dr. Beaumont observes, that "these journeys or removings figured the unstayed state of the church under Moses law otherwise than under the gospel of Christ, where we which have believed do enter into rest; Hebrews 4:3 by which our immoveable state is prophesied, Isaiah 33:20 and the accomplishment thereof is shewed by the apostle. Hebrews 12:27-28. Compare with these forty-two stations the forty-two generations from Abraham to Jesus, by whom we have entrance into the kingdom of God; as Joshua carried the people over Jordan into Canaan after these forty-two removings."

BENSON, "Verse 1-2Numbers 33:1-2. These are the journeys of Israel — As the peculiar providence of God remarkably appeared in the protection and miraculous preservation of the Israelites, from the time they left Egypt till they came to the borders of Canaan, so Moses was particularly commissioned to preserve a history of them for the benefit of posterity. In execution of this commission, he wrote their goings out — Kept an account of their journeys, and of all the remarkable occurrences in the way, for his own satisfaction and the instruction of others. And he here recapitulates the principal stages of their long journey, and sets them all before the reader in one view, that those who would take the pains to examine might be satisfied that it was only by a train of unprecedented miracles that such a multitude of people had been fed and preserved every day, for forty years together, in a barren and unhospitable desert, Jeremiah 2:6; Deuteronomy 29:6. These are their journeys — It is to be observed that Moses only mentions those places where they encamped for some time, passing by others where they only halted for a little refreshment.

ELLICOTT, "(1) These are the journeys of the children of Israel . . . —The word which is rendered journey appears to denote primarily the breaking up of the encampments, which lasted for very different periods, and which, during the protracted wanderings in the wilderness, may have been of the average duration of a twelvemonth. The list of the encampments is expressly said to have been written by Moses, and it served as a permanent memorial, on the one hand, of the sin and rebellion of the nation, and, on the other hand, of the faithfulness and long-suffering of God in leading and sustaining His people throughout their sojourn in the

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wilderness.

POOLE, "A relation of the marches and campings of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan, Numbers 33:1-49. They are commanded to drive out the Canaanites, and destroy their pictures, molten images, and high places, and to divide the land by lot, Numbers 33:50-54. The Canaanites, if not dispossessed, should trouble and vex them; and God would do to them as he thought to do to the others, Numbers 33:55-56.With their armies, i.e. in great number and exact order, as armies march, and they did, Exodus 12:37,38 13:18.

WHEDON, " THE ITINERARY OF THE ISRAELITES, Numbers 33:1-49.Having reached the Land of Promise, and taken possession of its eastern portion, it is proper that the history of the desert wandering should close with a list of encampments as a permanent memorial for after ages of the grace and faithfulness of Jehovah, who led his people safely “in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord did lead him.”

EBC, "THE WAY AND THE LOTNumbers 33:1-56; Numbers 34:1-291. THE itinerary of Numbers 33:1-49 is one of the passages definitely ascribed to Moses. It opens with the departure from Rameses in Egypt on the morrow after the passover, when the children of Israel "went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians." The exodus is made singularly impressive in this narrative by the addition that it took place "while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, which the Lord had smitten among them." The Divine salvation of Israel begins when the dark shadow of loss and judgment rests on their oppressors. The gods of Egypt are discredited by the triumph of Jehovah’s people. They can neither save their own worshippers nor prevent the servants of another from obtaining liberty.From Rameses, the place of departure, to Abel-shittim, in the plains of Moab, forty-two stations in all are given at which the Israelites pitched. Of these about twenty-four are named either in Exodus, in other parts of the Book of Numbers, or in Deuteronomy. Some eighteen, therefore, are mentioned in this passage and nowhere else. Of the whole number, comparatively few have as yet been identified. The Egyptian localities, at least Rameses and Succoth, are known. With the exit from Egypt, at the crossing of the Red Sea difficulty begins. Our passage says that the

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Israelites went three days’ journey into the wilderness of Etham; Exodus calls it the wilderness of Shur. Then Marah and Elim bring the travellers, according to chapter 33, to the Red Sea, the Yam S’uph. Ordinarily, this is supposed to be the Gulf of Suez, alongside which the route would have lain from the day it was crossed. There are, however, the best reasons for believing that this "Red Sea" is the eastern gulf, the Elanitic, as it must be Numbers 14:25, where, after the evil report of the spies, the Divine command is given: "Tomorrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea." From this identification of the Yam Suph many things follow. And one is the rejection of the ordinary opinion regarding the position of Sinai. The mountain of the law-giving is always described as situated in Midian. Now, Midian is beyond Elath, on the eastern side of the Yam Suph, not in the peninsula between the Gulfs of Suez and Akabah. Elim and Elath, or Eloth, appear to be names for the same place, at the head of the Gulf of Akabah. We have therefore to look for Sinai either among the southern hills of Seir or those lying more southward still, towards the desert. In Deborah’s song ( 5:4-5) occur the following verses:"Lord, when Thou wentest out of Seir, When Thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, Yea, the clouds dropped water; The mountains flowed down at the presence of the Lord, Even yon Sinai at the presence of the Lord. the God of Israel."In the same direction the "Prayer of Habbakkuk" points: {Habakkuk 3:3; Habakkuk 3:7}"God came from Teman, And the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens, And the earth was full of His light… I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction, The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble."The tradition which places Sinai in the south of the peninsula between the two gulfs "is of later origin than the lifetime of St. Paul, and can claim no higher authority than the interested fancies of ignorant cenobites. It throws into confusion both the geography and the history of the Pentateuch, and contradicts the definite statements of the Old Testament." So the most recent inquiry.If Mount Sinai was somewhere to the south of Edom, the journey thence to Kadesh by way of Kibroth-hattaavah and Hazeroth, localities mentioned both in Numbers 11:11 ;, Numbers 11:33, may have had other stations; and these may be named in Numbers 33:19 of our passage and onward. But identification of the places is exceedingly doubtful till we come to Ezion-geber, in the Arabah, and Mount Hor. Deuteronomy 10:1-22 places the scene of Aaron’s death at Mosera, which seems to be the same as Moseroth, and is there given along with other stations named in the itinerary-Bene-jaakan, Gudgodah (Hor-haggidgad), Jot-bathah. And this seems to prove that these localities were in or near the Arabah, Moseroth being in the region of Mount Hor. But where Kadesh is to be found between Rithmah and Moseroth, and under what name, it is impossible to say. Keil argues for Rithmah itself. Palmer

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reckons twenty stations to the first arrival at Kadesh. His map, however, shows a Mount Sheraif, which may be the same as Shepher, not far from Gadis, which he identifies with Kadesh. For the rest we are left in great ignorance, relieved only by this, that at the most there are but eighteen stations given, more probably thirteen, for the whole thirty-seven years between the first arrival at Kadesh and the death of Aaron at Mount Hor; and five or six of these were on the Arabah. During the whole of that long period there were only a few removals of the tabernacle, and those apparently within a limited area near Kadesh.A list of names with only three historical notes appears a singular memorial of the forty years. Time was, no doubt, when the places named were all well known, and any Israelite desiring to satisfy himself as to the route by which his forefathers went could make it out by help of this passage. To us the interest of the subject is partly the same as that which might have been found by a Hebrew, say, of the time of Hezekiah, for whom the verification of the wilderness journey might be a help to faith. But the impossibility of identifying the localities shows that there are matters in the history of Israel which are of no particular importance now. There is more danger in seeking to gratify mere curiosity, than profit in any possible discoveries. Why should not the mountain of the law-giving be hid in the shadows as well as the grave in which Moses was laid? Why should not the places at which Israel encamped be to us mere names, since, if we could identify them, it might only be to add fresh difficulties instead of clearing away those that exist? The Israelites who entered Canaan had not seen all the way by which Jehovah led His people. When they crossed the Jordan, present duty was to engage them, not the mere names that belonged to the past. They were to forget the things behind, and stretch forward to the things which were before. And duty is the same still. Our backward glance, especially on the actual path from one spot of earth to another by which men have gone in trial and anticipation, must not hinder the efforts called for by the circumstances of our own time. The way of the desert, especially, may well lie half obliterated in the distance, since we know the spiritual fruit of the dealings of God with Israel, and can bear it with us as we follow our own road.The ideas of change and urgency are in our passage. The wilderness journey was taken by a people on whom Divine influences had laid hold, who of themselves would have remained content in Egypt, but were not suffered, because God had some greater thing in store for them. The urgency throughout was His. And so is that which we ourselves feel hurrying us from change to change, from place to place. We may not be in the wilderness, but in a spot of shelter and comfort; and it may be no house of bondage, but a vantage-ground for generous effort. Even when we are thus happily settled, as we imagine, the call comes, and we must strike our tents. At other times our own anxiety anticipates the command. But we know that always, whether we pass into sterner conditions of life or escape to more pleasant circumstances, the times and changes that happen to us are of God’s appointing, that His providence urges us toward a goal. And this means that our reaching the goal must be by His way, although properly we endeavour to find it for ourselves.

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The number of the stations at which Israel encamped in the course of forty years can scarcely be taken as representing the number of changes from dwelling to dwelling any pilgrim through this world shall have to make. But if we think of halting-places and movements of thought, we shall have a fruitful parallel. From the twentieth to the sixtieth year-may we not say?-is the time of journeying that takes the mind from its first freedom to comparative rest. Not far on the Divine law-giving impresses itself on the conscience; and hence a direct road may appear to lead into the peace of obedience. But the stations successively reached, Kibroth-hattaavah, Hazeroth, Rithmah, and the rest, represent each a peculiar difficulty encountered, a barrier to our steady progress towards the settled mind. St. Paul indicates one he found when he says: "I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Another halt is imposed when it is found that the law appears to forbid what is according to nature; still another when obedience requires separation from those who have been valued friends and pleasant companions. These hindrances left behind as the soul, still confiding and hopeful, is urged on towards the goal, a great trial like that of Kadesh follows. We are not far from the frontier of promise; and anticipations are formed of many delights for heart and life. Is not obedience to bring felicity, an easy salvation from doubt and fear? But it becomes plain that there are enemies to faith and peace beyond the border as well as in the region already crossed. Complete conformity to the Divine will has not been achieved. Will it ever be achieved? We begin to doubt the result of law-keeping. There is perhaps a backward look to Sinai, implying a question whether God spoke there, or beyond Sinai, to the old traditional way of life. And so another term of difficult inquiry begins.In this way many find themselves held for a long period of middle life. Their minds move from one point to another without seeming to make any progress. But neither does rest come. It is seen that partial obedience, a measure of nearness to the perfection once dreamed of, will not suffice. Then arises the question whether obedience can ever save. There is return almost to Sinai itself, at least to a place from which its peak is seen and the mind is confirmed as to the inexorability of law. So the urgency of the Divine will is felt, and the way is fixed. If the soul would make its own way into peace, it is driven back. For, perhaps, it would have the difficulty solved by taking the way of a Church, accepting a creed-as Israel would have passed through the territory of Edom. This also is forbidden. Trusted helpers fall by the way, as Aaron died at Hor, and there is sorrowful delay. But movement is enforced; and, finally, it is by a road that reveals Sinai and the law in quite another aspect, showing vital faith, not mere obedience, to be the means of salvation, our progress is made. Round the borders of Edom, not by trust in creed or Church, but by confidence in God Himself, the soul must advance. Then strength comes. Point after point is reached and passed. Self-righteousness, pride, and Phatisaism-Amorites of the mountain land-are overcome. At length through the faith of Christ peace is found, the peace that is possible on this side of the river.It is our high privilege to be urged and led on thus by Him who knows the way we should take, who tries us that we may come forth purified as gold. Without Divine

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pressure we should content ourselves in the desert and never see the real good of life. So many lose themselves because they will not admit that to be of the truth is necessary to salvation. There is a way of thinking, or rather refusing to think, of spiritual verities which keeps the soul unaware of the purpose God would carry into effect, or indifferent to it. The mind refuses its duty; and in the midway of life the spiritual goal fades from view. To guard against this taking place in the case of any one is the office of the Gospel ministry. If evangelical preaching does not keep thought awake and attentive to Divine inspirations, if it does not speak to those who are in every stage of perplexity, at every possible camping-ground, it fails of its high purpose.2. Commandment is given that when the Israelites pass over Jordan they shall use effectual means for establishing themselves as the people of Jehovah in Canaan. They are, for one thing, to drive out before them all the inhabitants of the land. Nothing is here said of putting them all to the sword; only they are not to be left even in partial occupation. The plan of Israel’s settlement in its new territory requires that it shall be subject to no alien influence, and shall have the field entirely to itself for the development of customs, civilisation, and religion. And in this there is nothing either impossible or, as the ideas of the time went, strange and cruel. We do not need to take refuge in the command of God and defend it by saying that He had absolute right over the lives of the Canaanites. The tides of war and population were continually flowing and receding. When the Israelites reached Canaan, they had the same right as others to occupy it, provided they could make their right good at the point of the sword. Yet for their own special consciousness the command given by Moses in Jehovah’s name was most important. It was only as His people they were to advance, and as His people they were to dwell separate in Canaan.To drive out all the inhabitants of the land was, however, a difficult task; and even Moses might not intend the order to be literally obeyed. We have seen that he did not require the destruction of the Midianites to be absolute. In the wars of conquest in Canaan cases of a similar kind would necessarily arise. When a tribe was driven out of its cities many would be left behind, some of whom would conceal themselves and gradually venture from their hiding-places. The command was general, and could scarcely be supposed to require the putting to death of all children. And again, as we know, there were fortresses which for a long time defied attempts to reduce them. The Israelites were not so faithful to God that Moses could expect their success to be insured by supernatural aid. It is the constant purpose they are to have in view, to sweep the land clear of those presently in occupation. As they establish themselves, this will be carried out; and if they fail, allowing any of the tribes to remain, these will be as pricks in their eyes and as thorns in their sides:The will of God that Israel, called to special duty in the world, was to keep itself separate, is here strongly emphasised. It was the only way by which faith could be preserved and made fruitful. For the Canaanites, already civilised and in many of the arts superior to the Hebrews, had gross polytheistic beliefs imbedded in their customs, and a somewhat elaborate cultus which was observed throughout the

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whole land. "Figured stones," which by their shape or incised emblems conveyed religious ideas; molten images, probably of bronze, like those found at Tel el Hesy, which were for household use, or of a larger size for tribal adoration; "high places" crowned by altars and sacrificial stones, were especially to be destroyed. The tendency to polytheism required to be carefully guarded against, for the gods of Canaan represented the powers of nature, and their rites celebrated the fruitfulness of earth under the lordship of Baal or Bel, and the mysterious processes of life associated with the influence of Astarte, the moon. The divinities of Egypt also appear to have had their worshippers; and, indeed, the mixed population of the land had drawn from every neighbouring region symbols, rites, and practices supposed to propitiate the unseen powers on whose favour human life must depend. Israel could prosper only by rejecting and extirpating this idolatry. Allowed to survive in any degree, it would be the cause of physical suffering and spiritual decay.The command thus ascribed to Moses was again one which he must have known the Israelites would find difficult to carry out, even if they were cordially disposed to obey it. The sacred places of a country like Canaan tend to retain their reputation even when the rites fall into disuse; and however expeditiously the work of sweeping away the original inhabitants might be done, there was no small danger that knowledge of the cult as well as veneration for the high places would be learned by the Hebrews. The command was made clear and uncompromising so that every Israelite might know his duty; but the difficulty and the peril remained. And as we know from the Book of Judges and subsequent history, the law, especially in regard to the demolition of high places, became practically a dead letter. Jehovah was worshipped at the ancient places of sacrifice; and so far were even pious Israelites of the next few centuries from thinking they did wrong in using those old altars, that Samuel fell in with the custom. It was true in regard to this commandment as it is with regard to many others, -the high mark of duty is presented, but few aim at it. Expediency rules, the possible is made to suffice instead of the ideal. There is reason to believe, not only that the images and stone symbols of Canaan were venerated, but that Jehovah Himself was worshipped by many of the Hebrews under the form of some animal. And the Canaanites became to those who fraternised with them as pricks in their eyes. Spiritual vision failed; faith fell back on the coarse emblems used by the old inhabitants of the land. Then the vigour of the tribes decayed and they were judged and punished.3. The boundaries of the land in which the Israelites were to dwell are laid down in chapter 34; but, as elsewhere, there is difficulty in following the geography and identifying the old names. The south quarter is to be "from the wilderness of Zin along by the side of Edom"-that is to say, it is to include the region of Zin near Kadesh and extend to the mountains of Seir. The "ascent of Akrabbim" is apparently the Ghor rising southwards from the Dead Sea. The line then runs along the Arabah for some distance, say fifty miles, across by the south of the Azazimeh hills and of Kadesh Barnea towards the stream called the river or brook of Egypt, which it followed to its debouchment in the Mediterranean. The western boundary was the Mediterranean or Great Sea for a distance of perhaps one hundred and

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sixty miles. The northern boundary is exceedingly obscure. They were to keep in view a "mount Hor" as a landmark; but no two geographers can be said to agree where it was. The "entering in of Hamath" is also a locality greatly disputed. Most likely it was some well-known part of the road leading along the Leontes valley to that of the Orontes. If we take the mount Hor here indicated to be Hermon, a line running west and striking the Mediterranean somewhere north of Tyre would be a natural boundary, and would correspond fairly with the actual partition and occupation of the country. It is certain, however, that both the Philistines and Phoenicians, especially the latter, were so strongly established in the southern and northern parts of the seaboard that any attempt to dispossess them was soon discovered to be futile. And even in the limited central range from Kedesh Naphtali to Beersheba the settlement was only effected gradually.The Canaan of the Divine promise marked out, yet never fully possessed, is a symbol of the region of this life which those who believe in God have assigned to them, but never entirely enjoy. There are boundaries within which there is abundant room for the development of the life of faith. It is not, as the world reckons, a district of great resources. As Canaan had neither gold nor silver, neither coal nor iron mines, as its seaboard was not well supplied with harbours, nor its rivers and lakes of great use for inland navigation, so we may say the life open to the Christian has its limitations and disabilities. It does not invite those who seek pleasure, wealth, or dazzling exploits. Within it, discipline is to be found rather than enjoyment of earthly good. The "milk and honey" of this land are spiritual symbols, Divine sacraments. There is room for the development of life in every branch of study and culture, but in subordination to the glory of God, and for the testimony that should be borne to His majesty and truth.Many of us affect to despise so narrow a range of thought and endeavour, and persist in believing that something more than discipline may be looked for in this world. Is there not a proper kingdom of humanity better than any kingdom of Cod? May not the race of men, apart from any service paid to an Unseen God, attain dignity of its own, power, gladness, magnificence? It is supposed that by rejecting all the limitations of religion and refusing the outlook to another life the united labour of men will make this life free and this earth a paradise. But it remains true that men must limit their hopes with regard to their own future here as individuals and the future of the race. We must accept the boundaries God has fixed, on one side the swift Jordan, on the other the Great Sea. There are seemingly rich fields beyond, wide regions that invite the tastes and senses, but these are no part of the soul’s inheritance; to explore and reduce them would bring no real gain.The range that lies open to us as servants of God, and affords ample space for the discipline of life, is often not used and therefore not enjoyed. When people will not accept the inevitable fixed limits within which their time and vigour can be occupied to the best advantage, when they look covetously to districts of experience not meant for them, as Israel did at certain periods of her history, their life is spoiled. Discontent begins, envy follows. Where in seeking and reaching moral gains, purity,

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courage, love, there would have been a continual sense of adequate result and encouraging prospect, there is now no gain, no pleasure. The appointed lot is despised, and all it can yield held in contempt. How many there are who, with a full river of Divine bounty on one side their life, and the great ocean of the Divine faithfulness ebbing and flowing on the other, with the pastures and olive-groves of the Word of God to nourish their soul, with access to His city and sanctuary, and an outlook from summits like Tabor and Hermon to a transfigured life in the new heavens and earth, speak nevertheless with scorn and bitterness of their heritage! They might be reaching "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," but they remain graceless and discontented to the end. Israel, understanding its destiny and using its opportunities aright, might well say-and so may every one who knows the truth as it is in Jesus Christ-"the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." But this gladness of heart has its root in believing content. The restricted land is full of God’s promise: "Thou maintainest my lot." The security of Jehovah’s word encompasses the man of faith.

PARKER, " The Journeys of IsraelNumbers 33:1-49This chapter gives a very graphic and instructive picture of a much larger scheme of journeying. The local names may mean nothing to us now, but the words "departed," "removed," "encamped," have meanings that abide for ever. We are doing in our way, and according to the measure of our opportunity, exactly what Israel did in this chapter of hard names and places mostly now forgotten. Observe, this is a written account:—"And Moses wrote their goings out." The life is all written. It is not a sentiment spoken without consideration and forgotten without regret: it is a record—a detailed and critical writing, condescending to geography, locality, daily movement, position in society and in the world. It Isaiah , therefore, to be regarded as a story that has been proved, and that will bear to be written and rewritten. Who would write again a mere dream? Who would spend ink upon so vapoury a thing as a nightmare? If Israel had passed through the Red Sea in some distorted dream, would Moses have cared to make actual history of it—at least, in form and expression, for there is no hint in all the story that the man is parabolising or drawing upon a vivid and masterful imagination? The whole experience has been long past, and here it is recalled and set down with a firm hand, without hesitancy or staggering. Here it stands like stern history, plain fact,—something that did actually and positively occur. Men may write about miracles so frequently as to divest them of the element which first touched surprise and awakened suspicion through the medium of the imagination. We may read of miracles until we lose their pomp and their meaning. But life is a miracle: every day is a sign from heaven. We have outgrown the infantile mind which could only see miracles in form and hear them in noise and be amazed at them in tumult and earthquake and varied violence, and now we see the meant-miracle, the ever-intended wonder, of life coming out of death, light springing upon darkness and chasing it away with victorious power, as

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if one bright beam could slay a million nights. So now, in the absence of startling phenomenon and tumult and vision apocalyptic, we see in quietness itself a miracle, in light a token, in summer the wonderworking power of the loving God. Life is twice written. We have amongst us what are termed, by some stretch of imagination occasionally encroaching upon the impossible, "biographers." It is a complimentary term. Biography Isaiah , in the deepest and truest sense, impossible. A man cannot write his own life: he can but hint at it, and the only surprise he can feel, when he has finished the page, is amazement at its emptiness. Yet it is good for a man to put down the facts of his life. His birthplace should be dear to him, as also the place where he fought his early battles, and won his first victories, and opened his first gates, and saw his first chances, and struggled in the agony of his first prayers, and seized with the hand of faith the first blessings of heaven meant for his soul"s nurture and strengthening; and it is good to continue the page, fill it up, turn it over, and to go on to the new page, and charge the whole book with memories intended to express amazement and thankfulness. The one perfect Biographer is God. Every life is written in the book that is kept in the secret places of the heavens. All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Nothing is omitted. The writing is plain—so plain that the blind man may read the story which God has written for his perusal. Who would like to see the book? Who could not write a book about his brother that would please that brother? Without being false, it might yet be highly eulogistic and comforting. But who would like to see his life as sketched by the hand of God? "Enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions."What a monotony there is in this thirty-third chapter. This will be evident to the eye. The reader sees but two words or three, and all the rest are difficult terms or polysyllables unrelated to his life. The terms are "departed," "removed," "went." It is almost pathetic to see how the writer tries to vary his expressions and cannot. Verse after verse he uses the word "departed;" then verse after verse he uses the word "removed;" here and there he said "they went," but back again he comes to "departed," and then to "removed," and back to "went." "They removed... and pitched,"—that is the little story. Is it not so with us too? How dull the days are. How full of tedious similitude is the succession of events. We want variety; we cry for amusement; we sigh for change; we propose rearrangements and Revelation -combinations that we may at least please the eye with what seems to be a varying picture. Very few words are needed for the record of most lives; as to outward and actual event, very few words are needed at all. If you have in any language, say, five thousand words, you can really conduct the business of life upon about five hundred of them. There are great stores of words that are locked up in the prisons of lexicons: they are only wanted now and then, and they are, therefore, but occasionally liberated. The language of actual life is a narrow language which may be learned in a very brief time. So with our daily life: we rise, we sit, we retire; we eat and drink, and bless one another in the name of God; and go round the little circle, until sometimes we say,—Can we not vary all that—and add to it some more

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vivid line? Has no friend of ours the power of flushing this pale monotony into some tint of blood? Then we fall back into the old lines: we "depart" and "remove" and "pitch;" we "pitch" and "depart" and "remove;"—we come and go and settle and return; until there comes almost unconsciously into the strain of our speech some expressive and mournful sigh. "Few and evil have been the days of thy servant."Yet, not to dwell too much upon this well-ascertained fact, we may regard the record of the journeys of Israel as showing somewhat of the variety of life. Here and there a new departure sets in, or some new circumstance brightens the history. For example, in the ninth verse we read—"And they removed from Marah, and came unto Elim: and in Elim were twelve fountains of water, and threescore and ten palm trees." Sweet entry is that! It occurs in our own secret diaries. Do we not dwell with thankfulness upon the places where we find the waters, the wells, the running streams, the beautiful trees, and the trees beautiful with luscious fruitage? It is a dull life that has nothing in it about the fountain, and the palm tree, and the beautiful day that seemed to throw its radiance upon a hundred other days and give them some glint of celestial beauty. The pleasant lines are not many, but when they do come they are the more pleasant because of their infrequency. We all remember the beautiful garden in the May-time, when the whole scene was one blossom. How we hastened home to write the story of the garden-day, when everything seemed to be in vernal glee, in high spirits,—bird outvying bird in sparkles of music,—note after note shot out like star after star into the willing and hospitable space;—and the birthday and the wedding-day, and some holy time, quiet like an anticipated Sabbath; and the time of victory in prayer, when we received the answers in the very act of offering the supplications,—times of enlargement and vital communion with God. Then comes the fourteenth verse:—"And they removed from Alush, and encamped at Rephidim, where was no water." Such are the changes in life. We have passed through precisely the transitions here indicated. No water; nothing to satisfy even the best appetences of the mind and spirit; all heaven one sheet of darkness, and the night so black upon the earth that even the altar-stairs could not be found in the horrid gloom; if there was water, it had no effect upon the thirst; if there was bread, it was bitter; if there was a pillow, it was filled with pricking thorn. When we were at Elim, we said we should always be glad: the plash of the fountain and the shade of the palm tree would accompany us evermore; and yet, behold, at Rephidim there "was no water for the people to drink." How singular is Providence!—apparently, so contradictory; apparently, so wanting in consistency. Why is there not one great deep river flowing all the globe around—a belt of blessing?" Why these arid places—the wildernesses without fountains, these deserts unblest with a flower?—Why? In that "Why" there is no suspicion, nor is there one accent of distrust, but there certainly is an expression of wonder. It is so in all departments of life—say, even, in life intellectual. Sometimes the mind has it all its own way; it can see heaven opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God; as for language, it knows all the languages of the earth—claims them, absorbs them, repeats them so as to astound every man with the music of the tongue in which he was born. At other times, that same life seems nothing, has no language, no vision, no touch of God"s presence or hint of God"s blessing. We go from Elim to

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Rephidim in that department of life. There is another variety of the story; the thirty-eighth verse presents it:—"And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of the Lord, and died there." Is that line wanting in our story? All men do not die on mountains. Would God we may die upon some high hill! It seems to our imagination nearer heaven to die away up on the mountain peaks than to die in the low damp valleys. Granted, that it is but an imagination. We need such helps: we are so made that symbol and hint and parable assist the soul in its sublimest realisation of things divine and of things to come. There is a black margin upon every man"s diary,—here a child died, there a sweet mother said good-bye, there a strong father—the man who was never tired, the tower of strength—said he must go home.This, also, presents a focalised life: all the lines are tending to one point. So it is in our own story. What is that point? the modern teacher might say. It is a grave. That is only intermediately so; that is but atheistically so. We are moving to the tomb—to the one black gate that keeps us out of the city of light; and we will, in God"s strength, unlock it, break it, triumph over it and all the strength it represents, and join the blood-washed throng of holy victors on the other side. We will not finish the song with the word "tomb," it is no poetry whose ultimate syllable is in the grave. We are moving—if in Christ, washed by his blood, pardoned through his propitiation, to the land of light and summer and blissful immortality. "Every beating pulse we tell leaves the number less;" every night we "pitch our moving tent a day"s march nearer home." Whilst we look at the various localities and their relation to one another upon the map—now moving north, now south, now east, now west, we say,—What is the meaning of this tumultuous movement? It is only so broken up within a small compass, measured by heaven"s meridian, the direction is in one line, at the end of which burns all the warmth and light of heaven.And yet, there is an unwritten life. This cannot be all: there must be some reading between the lines. Life was never an affair of such grim and unfamiliar polysyllables: between the lines, there must have been loving, praying, weeping, suffering, rejoicing, wedding, dying, fierce word, and word of benediction. This is but a river-map: all the cities have to be filled in and all the city-life to be created. Still, wherein it is but an outline it is like our own story as we ought to tell it or represent it to others. No man knoweth the spirit of a man but the spirit itself that is within the Prayer of Manasseh , and that spirit has revelations for which there is no language—visions that cannot be syllabled and printed to the eye and apprehension of outside observers and critics.Selected NoteA visit to Mount Hor (Jebel Harùn, "Mount of Aaron"), or at least a distant view of its wild precipices and ravines, helps to make the visit to Petra memorable. Here it was that Aaron, the priest laden with years and weary with the toil of the desert-wandering, was "gathered to his people." Even Scripture has few more solemn and majestic pictures than this of the two aged men—brothers in heart and sacred

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service—ascending with the youthful Eleazar to this wild mountain-top. "In his full priestly dress" walked Aaron to his burial. He knew it; and so did all in that camp, who now, for the last time, reverently and silently looked upon the venerable figure of him who these forty years had ministered unto them in holy things. There were no farewells. In that typical priesthood, all depended on the unbroken continuance of the office, not of the person. And hence on the mountain-top, Aaron was first unclothed of his priestly robes, and Eleazar his son formally invested with them. Thus the priesthood had not for a moment ceased when Aaron died. Then, not as a priest, but simply as one of God"s Israel, was he "gathered unto his people." But over that which passed between the three on the mount has the hand of God drawn the veil of silence. And so the new priest Eleazar came down from the solemn scene on Mount Hor to minister amidst a hushed and awe-stricken congregation. "And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel." The traditionary tomb of the high-priest is shown to visitors in a vault below a small chapel, which evidently occupies the place of a more imposing structure, and is built out of its ruins. The Bedawin still holds the name of Aaron in great veneration. A singular custom of theirs is to sacrifice a kid or sheep to his memory, in sight of Mount Hor, raising a heap of stones where the blood of the animal has fallen. These heaps are seen all through the neighbouring valley.—Pictures from Bible Lands, by Samuel G. Green, D.D.

PETT, "Verse 1-21). Summary Of The Journey From Egypt To The Plains of Moab.Numbers 33:1-2‘These are the journeys of the children of Israel, when they went forth out of the land of Egypt by their hosts under the hand of Moses and Aaron. And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of Yahweh, and these are their journeys according to their goings out.’We are informed here what the list of place names is all about. They describe the journey of the children of Israel who left Egypt in their hosts, under the hand of Moses and Aaron (note the attempt to rehabilitate Aaron), travelling from Egypt to the plains of Moab, and they were written down by Moses. ‘Their goings out’ signifies where they broke camp. Each place was to be seen as a temporary stopping point where the Dwellingplace was set up and from which they then set out on their journey towards the land promised to their forefathers.As Christians we must never settle down comfortably anywhere. This world is not our home. We are just passing through. Each stage in our lives, especially those of our spiritual blessings, is a place from which we are to set out for the next thing that

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God has for us. That does not mean that we should be restless, but rather simply ready to be obedient, fulfilling His will at each place, but always ready to move on when commanded to further and further blessings.

PULPIT, "Numbers 33:1These are the journeys. The Hebrew word ַמְסֵעי is rendered σταθμοί by the Septuagint, which means "stages" or "stations." It is, however, quite rightly translated "journeys," for it is the act of setting out and marching from such a place to such another which the word properly denotes (cf. Genesis 13:3; Deuteronomy 10:11).

2 At the Lord’s command Moses recorded the stages in their journey. This is their journey by stages:

CLARKE, "And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys -We may consider the whole book of Numbers as a diary, and indeed the first book of travels ever published. Dr. Shaw, Dr. Pococke, and several others, have endeavored to mark out the route of the Israelites, through this great, dreary, and trackless desert, and have ascertained many of the stages here described. Indeed there are sufficient evidences of this important journey still remaining, for the descriptions of many are so particular that the places are readily ascertained by them; but this is not the case with all. Israel was the Church of God in the wilderness, and its unsettled, wandering state under Moses may point out the unsettled state of religion under the law. Their being brought, after the death of Moses, into the promised rest by Joshua, may point out the establishment, fixedness, and certainty of that salvation provided by Jesus Christ, of whom Joshua, in name and conduct, was a remarkable type. Mr. Ainsworth imagines that the forty-two stations here enumerated, through which the Israelites were brought to the verge of the promised land, and afterwards taken over Jordan into the rest which God had promised, point out the forty-two generations from Abraham unto Christ, through whom the Savior of the world came, by whose blood we have an entrance into the holiest, and enjoy the inheritance among the saints in light. And Mr. Bromley, in his Way to the Sabbath of Rest, considers each

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name and place as descriptive of the spiritual state through which a soul passes in its way to the kingdom of God. But in cases of this kind fancy has much more to do than judgment.

GILL, "And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys, by the commandment of the Lord,.... Which may be understood, either that their journeys were by the commandment of the Lord; so Aben Ezra takes the connection to be, and which is undoubtedly true, and which is expressed plainly elsewhere; for so it was, that when the cloud abode on the tabernacle they rested, and had their stations, and continued as long as the cloud tarried on it, and when that was taken up, then they marched; and thus at the commandment of the Lord they rested, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed, see Num_9:17 or that Moses wrote the account of their journeys, and several stations, at the commandment of the Lord, that it might be on record, and be read in future ages, and appear to be a fact, that they were led about in a wilderness, in places which were unknown to others, and had no names but what they gave them: and these are their journeys according to their goings out; from place to place; some of the ancients, as Jerom (z) particularly, and some modern writers, have allegorized these journeys of the children of Israel, and have fancied that there is something in the signification of the names of the places they came to, and abode in, suitable to the cases and circumstances of the people of God in their passage through this world; but though the travels of the children of Israel in the wilderness may in general be an emblem of the case and condition of the people of God in this world, and there are many things in them, and which they met with, and befell them, that may be accommodated to them; yet the particulars will never hold good of individual saints, since they are not all led exactly in the same path of difficulties and troubles, but each have something peculiar to themselves; and it will be difficult to apply these things to the church of God in general, in the several stages and periods of time, and which I do not know that any have attempted; and yet, if there is anything pointed out by the travels, one would think it should be that.

HENRY, ". 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, Deu_8:2.

II. What the account itself was. It began with their departure out of Egypt, 24

continued with their march through the wilderness, and ended in the plains of Moab, where they now lay encamped.JAMISON, "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.

COKE, "Numbers 33:2. Moses wrote their goings out, according to their journeys—and these are their journeys, &c.— Houbigant renders the verse, For Moses wrote, at the command of the Lord, their journeys, according to their several stages; and hence he thinks it may plainly be collected, that a daily journal of their occurrences was written, which was kept as a public deposit, and that the sacred writers (under Divine inspiration) drew their materials principally from these annals. See his note on Deuteronomy 4:34. Bishop Kidder thinks, that the words, by the command of the Lord, may well refer both to their journeyings, which were directed by God, Exodus 13:21; Exodus 14:2 and to Moses's description of them in this place, which tended to render the history more credible, and to perpetuate the memory of God's miraculous and special providence. Moses mentions but forty-two encampments in this chapter; not that the Israelites pitched their tents in no other places, but because these were most remarkable. Observe further, that almost all these places received from God himself, or the Israelites, the names which they bear in this journal; probably they had none before, these vast desarts being too little frequented for the different places to be exactly marked out before the departure from Egypt. We find some here of which Moses makes no mention in Exodus; others are named there in another manner, as will appear in the course of this chapter. But to convince the reader that he would be greatly mistaken if he took the stations, of which Moses speaks, for journeys made from one place to another without stopping, we only beg him to look at the 9th verse, where it is said, that from Morah the children of Israel came to Elim. It is farther from one of these places to the other than from Cairo to the Red Sea, which, says Dr. Shaw, is more than thirty hours journey; or, according to the accounts followed by Vignoles, from twenty-five to twenty-six hours.

ELLICOTT, "(2) By the commandment of the Lord.—It does not clearly appear whether these words should be understood of the record of the journeys of the Israelites as being made by Moses in obedience to a Divine command, or whether they should be understood of the journeys themselves as being taken in obedience to the Divine command.POOLE, "Moses would have this done, partly to evince the truth of the history,

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partly to preserve the remembrance of God’s glorious and miraculous works both of judgment and mercy towards his people, and thereby to confirm their faith in their present difficult undertaking.

WHEDON, " 2. Moses wrote their goings — This is a proof of the Mosaic authorship of this book. See Introduction, (2.)By the commandment of the Lord — While all Scripture is given by inspiration in some degree, this important record is written by commandment, implying the highest degree of inspiration.PULPIT, "Numbers 33:2And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the Lord. The latter clause ( ַעל־ִפי ְיֹהָוה) may be taken as equivalent to an adjective qualifying the noun "goings out," signifying only that their marches were made under the orders of God himself. It is more natural to read it with the verb "wrote;" and in that case we have a direct assertion that Moses wrote this list of marches himself by command of God, doubtless as a memorial not only of historical interest, but of deep religious significance, as showing how Israel had been led by him who is faithful and true faithful in keeping his promise, true in fulfilling his word for good or for evil. The direct statement that Moses wrote this list himself is strongly corroborated by internal evidence, and has been accepted as substantially true by the most destructive critics. No conceivable inducement could have existed to invent a list of marches which only partially corresponds with the historical account, and can only with difficulty be reconciled with it—a list which contains many names nowhere else occurring, and having no associations for the later Israelites. Whether the statement thus introduced tells in favour of the Mosaic authorship (as usually accepted) of the rest of the Book is a very different matter, on which see the Introduction.

3 The Israelites set out from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, the day after the Passover. They marched out defiantly in full view of all the Egyptians,

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CLARKE, "From Rameses - This appears to have been the metropolis of the land of Goshen, and the place of rendezvous whence the whole Israelitish nation set out on their journey to the promised land; and is supposed to be the same as Cairo. See the notes on Exo_12:37.

Here Follow the Forty-Two StationsStation 1.

GILL, "And they departed from Rameses,.... A city in Egypt, where the children of Israel, a little before their departure, seem to have been gathered together in a body, in order to march out all together, as they did. This place the Targum of Jonathan calls Pelusium. Dr. Shaw (a) thinks it might be Cairo, from whence they set forward; see Exo_12:37 and it was in the first month; in the month Nisan, as the same Targum, or Abib, which was appointed the first month on this account, and answers to part of our March and April: on the fifteenth of the first month, on the morrow after the passover; that was kept on the fourteenth, when the Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites, and slew all the firstborn in Egypt, which made way for their departure the next morning; the Egyptians being urgent upon them to be gone: the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians; openly and publicly, with great courage and boldness, without any fear of their enemies; who seeing them march out, had no power to stop them, or to move their lips at them, nay, were willing to be rid of them; see Exo_11:7.

HENRY, "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

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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.JAMISON, "Rameses — generally identified with Heroopoils, now the

modern Abu-Keisheid (see on Exo_12:37), which was probably the capital of Goshen, and, by direction of Moses, the place of general rendezvous previous to their departure.CALVIN, "3And they departed from Rameses. I do not approve of their opinion, who think that the name of this city is used for the whole land of Goshen: since it is not reasonable that they should have set forth at the same time from various distant and remote places. And this would still less accord with what presently follows, (222) that they went forth in orderly array; though it might not be the case that they all mustered together in the city, because it is hardly credible that so great a multitude could be received within its walls, but that by the order of Moses and Aaron, they were all assembled in the neighborhood of the city, so that they might be organized, lest in the confusion of their hurried march they should impede each other.After having stated that they went out by “the high hand” of God, for the purpose of extolling still more His wonderful power, he adds that the Egyptians were witnesses and spectators of it: whence we conclude that they had at last yielded to God, (223) or were so thoroughly subdued, as not to dare to lift up a finger. Another circumstance is also added, viz., that the Egyptians were then burying all their first-born; by which words Moses does not mean to indicate that they forbore from hindering the departure of the Israelites, (224) because they were occupied with another matter; but rather signifies that, although they were exasperated by grief at the loss of their sons, still they lay stupified, as it were, since the power of God had enfeebled them, so that they had lost the ability to offer resistance.When Moses says, that God “executed judgments” upon the gods of the Egyptians, it is with the object of recommending the true faith, lest the children of Israel should ever turn aside to the superstitions of the Gentiles, which, at the time of the deliverance, they had found to be mere delusions. For not only were Pharaoh and his troops overthrown, but their gods also put to shame, when they pretended to be the protectors of their land: and thus were all their superstitions refuted and convicted of error and folly. It is a silly imagination, that all the idols of Egypt fell down of themselves, (225) in order that the God of Israel might claim the glory of Deity for Himself alone. It is enough that God triumphed over the idols, when He effectively shewed that they had no power to aid their worshippers, and, at the same time, discovered the trickeries of the magicians. To this Isaiah appears to allude, when he says,“Behold, the Lord shall come into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at

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His presence,” (Isaiah 19:1)for he signifies that God will give such proofs of His power in Egypt, as shall demonstrate the vanity of all their errors, and overthrow all the superstitious fictions whereby the Israelites had been deceived.

COKE, "Numbers 33:3. And they departed from Rameses— Dr. Shaw, in his Travels, vol. 2: chap. 5 has given an accurate account of these several encampments; and in our notes upon the places where they are first mentioned, we have spoken fully concerning them. We shall, therefore, without troubling the reader any further, refer him to such passages.

BENSON, "Numbers 33:3-4. They departed from Rameses — Whither they repaired, by order of Moses, from all parts of the land. Upon their gods — Either their princes and rulers, who are sometimes called gods in Scripture; for God slew the firstborn, not only of the meaner sort, but even of their king and princes: or, their false gods, those beasts which the Egyptians worshipped as gods; for the firstborn of men and beasts were then killed. Probably their images also were thrown down, as Dagon afterward before the ark.

ELLICOTT, "Verses 3-5(3-5) And they departed . . . —In these verses the departure from Rameses, at which place the Israelites seem to have been gathered together previously to the exodus, is related as in Exodus 12:37. The places of encampment from Succoth to the wilderness of Sinai (Numbers 33:6-15) agree with those which are recorded in Exodus 13:20 (Succoth and Etham), 14:2 (Pi-hahiroth and Migdol), 15:22 (the wilderness, i.e., of Shur), 15:23-27 (Marah and Elim), 16:1 (wilderness of Sin), 17:1 (Rephidim), except that there is no mention in Exodus of the station at the Red Sea (Numbers 33:10), and of the stations at Dophkah and Alush (Numbers 33:12-13). The first two stations named after the departure from Sinai, viz., Kibroth-hattaavah, or the graves of lust, and Hazeroth, enclosures, agree with those which are found in Numbers 11:34-35. The next station named in this list is Rithmah. Now, according to Numbers 12:16, the next encampment after Hazeroth was in the wilderness of Paran, from whence Moses, in obedience to the Divine command, sent the spies to search out the land of Canaan (Numbers 13:3). If, then, we compare these two accounts, and take into further consideration the fact that the Wady Abu Retemat is not far distant from Kadesh, and that, according to Robinson (I., p. 279), it abounds with the retem, or broom, and that near it there is a copious spring of water called Ain el Kudeirât, it seems reasonable to infer that the encampment at Rithmah which is recorded in this chapter is the same as that at Kadesh, “in the wilderness of Paran,” as recorded in Numbers 12:16. If this inference be admitted, it is reasonable to conclude further that the seventeen places of encampment which

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are mentioned in Numbers 33:19-36 between Rithmah and Kadesh are those at which the Israelites pitched their camps during the thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness. An apparent difficulty, however, arises on this supposition out of a comparison of Numbers 33:30-33 of this chapter with Deuteronomy 10:6-7, where we find mention made of four places which appear to be identical with those named in this chapter, viz., Beeroth of the children of Jaakan, Mosera, Gudgodah, and Jotbath, which correspond to Bene-jaakan, i.e., the children of Jaakan (an abbreviation, probably, of Beeroth-bene-Jaakan, i.e., the wells of the sons of Jaakan), Moseroth, the plural form of Mosera, Hor-hagidgad, i.e., the cave of Gidgad or Gudgodah, and Jotbathah, an alternative form of Jotbath. The apparent difficulty, however, of the identification arises out of the fact that whereas in this chapter the Israelites are said to have journeyed from Moseroth to Bene-jaakan, they are represented in Deuteronomy 10:6 to have journeyed “from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera.” It is evident, however, that in Deuteronomy 10, where the account is manifestly parenthetical, the reference is to the journeys of the Israelites after the final breaking up of the encampment at Kadesh, at the expiration of the thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness; whereas, if the supposition stated above is correct, the reference in this chapter is to the period of the wanderings in the wilderness after the first departure from Kadesh. In this case a change in the order of encampments presents no difficulty, inasmuch as whilst the Israelites, at the later period, must, in all probability, have taken the most direct course open to them from Kadesh to Ezion-geber, there is no improbability involved in the supposition that at the earlier period, whilst wandering about in the wilderness, their places of encampment should have been determined not so much by geographical considerations as by the particular advantages which each spot presented in regard to pasturage and water. It may be observed, further that if the supposition above stated is correct, it will account for the fact that, whereas seventeen places of encampment between Rithmah and Ezion-geber are named in Numbers 33:19-35, no intermediate stations between Ezion-geber and Kadesh are mentioned in Numbers 33:36, the same places of encampment, as may reasonably be inferred, being selected (if, indeed, any formal encampments were made during so hasty a journey) on the return to Kadesh as had been previously occupied on the journey from Kadesh to Ezion-geber, which is at the northern extremity of the Elanitic Gulf.

WHEDON, " 3. Rameses — Exodus 12:37, note.First month — The event was so important that it became the beginning of a new era. Exodus 12:2, note.With a high hand — Not the armed hand of the Israelites, but the hand of the omnipotent Jehovah. The high hand of man denotes defiant sin. Chap. Numbers 15:30, note.PETT, "Verses 3-15

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The Journey From Egypt To Sinai (Numbers 33:3-15).The first station from which Israel set out was Rameses, the twelfth was the wilderness of Sinai. This may be totally coincidental, or it may have been deliberate in order to tie in with the twelve tribes of Israel. During that time they moved from being a loose association of tribes to being the covenant people of Yahweh.Numbers 33:3‘And they journeyed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the morrow after the passover, the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians,’The commencement of the journey is precisely dated, tying in with Exodus 12. It started on the fifteenth day of the first month, the first day of Unleavened Bread after the Passover night, when the children of Israel went out in triumph in the sight of the Egyptians. It began in triumph. The Egyptians did nothing to stop them. It was a reminder that now as they approached Canaan they could also go ‘with a high hand’, that is, confidently and courageously.

PULPIT, "Numbers 33:3They departed from Rameses. Hebrew, Raemses. See on Exodus 1:11; Exodus 12:1-51 :87. The brief description here given of the departure from Egypt touches upon every material circumstance as related at large in Exodus 11:1-10 :41. In the sight of all the Egyptians. The journey was begun by night (Exodus 12:42), but was of course con-tinned on the following day.

4 who were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had struck down among them; for the Lord had brought judgment on their gods.

GILL, "For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the Lord had 31

smitten among them,.... Which contributed much to the more easy and safe deliverance of the children of Israel; for their hearts were heavy with sorrow, and their hands were full, and they had other work to do, namely, to bury their dead, than to molest Israel; and besides, they knew it was for detaining them this stroke came upon them: upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments; they were moved at the presence, and by the power of God, and fell and were dashed to pieces, as the idols of the same land were in later times, see Isa_19:1 and this still the more intimidated and frightened the Egyptians, that they dared not attempt to hinder the departure of the Israelites from them. The Targum of Jonathan says, the Word of the Lord did this; and adds, their molten idols became soft, their strong idols were mutilated, their earthen idols were diminished, their wooden idols became ashes, and those of beasts died.

JAMISON, "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.COKE, "Numbers 33:4. The Egyptians buried all their first-born— They were so terrified by the sudden death of these their firstborn, that they pressed the Israelites to be gone; and they were so engaged in mourning for them, and giving them decent burial, that they thought not of pursuing the Israelites till some days after.

TRAPP, "Numbers 33:4 For the Egyptians buried all [their] firstborn, which the LORD had smitten among them: upon their gods also the LORD executed judgments.Ver. 4. For the Egyptians buried.] As iron is very soft and malleable while in the fire, but soon after returns to its former hardness, so was it with these Egyptians. Affliction meekeneth men: hence affliction and meekness grow upon the same Hebrew root.POOLE, " Upon their gods; either,1. Their princes and rulers, who are sometimes called gods in Scripture; and so this is added by way of amplification, God slew their first-born; not only of the meaner sort, but even of their king and princes. Or,2. Their false gods, to wit, those beasts which the brutish Egyptians worshipped as gods, which were killed with the rest, for the first-born both of men and beasts were then killed, Exodus 13:5. See Poole "Exodus 12:12"; See Poole "Exodus 18:11".

PETT, "Numbers 33:432

‘While the Egyptians were burying all their first-born, whom Yahweh had smitten among them. On their gods also Yahweh executed judgments.’For it was while the Egyptians were burying their firstborn whom Yahweh had smitten. And He had not only smitten the firstborn, He had revealed His judgments against all the gods of Egypt. Here we have a direct reference to Exodus 12:12. In the Exodus little is actually said about the gods of Egypt, but here it is emphasised so that Israel might recognise that the Canaanite gods would also be able to do nothing against them and that Yahweh would smite them too. It was also to bring out that against Yahweh even the most powerful of gods, the gods of Egypt, could do little. They were as putty in His hands.

PULPIT, "Buried all their first-born, which the Lord had smitten among them. Literally, "were burying those whom the Lord had smitten among them, viz; all the first-born." The fact that the Egyptians were so universally employed about the funeral rites of their first-born—rites to which they paid such extreme attention—seems to be mentioned here as supplying one reason at least why the Israelites began their outward march without opposition. It is in perfect accordance with what we know of the Egyptians, that all other passions and interests should give place for the time to the necessary care for the departed. Upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments. See on Exodus 12:12, and cf. Isaiah 19:1. The false deities of Egypt, having no existence except in the imaginations of men, could only be affected within the sphere of those imaginations, i.e; by being made contemptible in the eyes of those who feared them.

5 The Israelites left Rameses and camped at Sukkoth.

CLARKE, "And pitched in Succoth - This name signifies booths or tents, and probably refers to no town or village, but simply designates the place where they pitched their tents for the first time after their departure from Rameses.

Stat. 2.GILL, "And the children of Israel removed from Rameses,.... Or Pelusium, as the same Targum again:

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and pitched in Succoth: where, as the same paraphrase says, they were covered with the clouds of glory, suggesting that to be the reason of its name; but that was rather because of the booths or tents the Israelites erected, pitched, and dwelt in, during their abode there: this, according to Bunting (b), was eight miles from Rameses; according to whose computation, for want of a better guide, the distances of the several stations from each other will be given.

JAMISON, "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].PETT, "Numbers 33:5‘And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses, and encamped in Succoth.’Then the children of Israel had journeyed from Rameses, where they had been toiling on the rebuilding of the city, to Succoth (Exodus 12:37), with all their herds and flocks. They had arrived in a hurry and not fully prepared for travel, for they had been thrust out (Exodus 12:39). They had rejoiced in that they were on their way to freedom. Succoth may well have been ‘tkw’ (near Pithom), which was on the regular way out of Egypt for those who were seeking to escape, and was where refugees from the wilderness were processed as they entered Egypt. It is mentioned in the Tale of Sinuhe, and in Papyri Anastasi V and VI.The problem for us is that none of these places have been definitely identified. It is rare for a site to divulge its name (as in fact the site at Gibeon in Canaan did, but it is a rare exception), and identifications thus for a large part remain tenuous, something which must ever be remembered before too much is built on them.

6 They left Sukkoth and camped at Etham, on the edge of the desert.

CLARKE, "Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness - This place is not 34

well known; Dr. Shaw supposes it to have been one mile from Cairo. Calmet thinks it is the city of Buthum mentioned by Herodotus, which he places in Arabia, on the frontiers of Egypt.Stat. 3.

GILL, "And they departed from Succoth, and pitched in Etham,.... Which was eight miles from Succoth: which is in the edge of the wilderness; of the name, see Exo_13:20 but Dr. Shaw (c) makes this particular portion of the wilderness to be fifty miles from Cairo or Rameses.

HENRY 6-39, " 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 (Deu_32:10), and yet led them the right way, Psa_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.

JAMISON, "Etham — edge, or border of all that part of Arabia-Petraea 35

which lay contiguous to Egypt and was known by the general name of Shur.PETT, "Numbers 33:6‘And they journeyed from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness.’And from Succoth they had travelled to Etham on the edge of the wilderness (Exodus 13:20), where they encamped. This is an unidentified site on the way to the sea crossing. By this time the pillar of cloud led them by day and the pillar of fire watched over them by night.

7 They left Etham, turned back to Pi Hahiroth, to the east of Baal Zephon, and camped near Migdol.

CLARKE, "Pi-hahiroth - See on Exo_14:1 (note), and Exo_14:2 (note). Baal-zephon Calmet supposes to be the Clysma of the Greeks, and the Kolzum of the Arabians.

Stat. 4.GILL, "And they removed from Etham, and turned again to Pihahiroth,.... Which was sixteen miles from Etham. This turning, Aben Ezra says, respects the cloud, or Israel; and indeed it may respect both, for, as the cloud turned, Israel turned, being directed by it; and this does not mean that they had been at Pihahiroth before, and now returned to it again; but that they by direction turned out of the straight way in which they were to go to Pihahiroth; for the word "again" may as well, or better, be left out; see Gill on Exo_14:2, which is before Baalzephon; the name of an idol, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, supposed to be placed here, to watch and guard the passage, as Zephon signifies: and they pitched before Migdol: which was either the name of a city, the same with Migdol, Jer_44:1 or it was a tower, as the word signifies, placed here on the borders of the land, for the defence of it.

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JAMISON, "Pi-hahiroth, Baal-zephon ... Migdol — (See on Exo_14:2).PETT, "Numbers 33:7‘And they journeyed from Etham, and turned back unto Pi-hahiroth, which is before Baal-zephon: and they encamped before Migdol.’From Etham they did a detour to Pi-hahiroth which was by Baalzephon and encamped before Migdol (tower). See Exodus 14:2. Note the name of Baalzephon which confirms the worship of Baal in that area. Migdol would be a border post and was ‘by the sea’ (Exodus 14:2), that is near to an inner waterway which helped to form the borders of Egypt. Both Baalzephon and Midgdol are mentioned in Egyptian texts as being near Wadi Tumilat.But the sea appeared to have them entrapped. We do not know where this ‘sea’ was. It probably no longer exists. It would be a continuation of the Gulf of Suez, but may not have been directly connected with it. There were probably a number of such seas or lakes. And they were probably all called ‘the Reed Sea’.

8 They left Pi Hahiroth[a] and passed through the sea into the desert, and when they had traveled for three days in the Desert of Etham, they camped at Marah.

BARNES, "Num_33:8Pi-hahiroth - Hebrew “Hahiroth,” but perhaps only by an error of transcription. However, the omitted “pi” is only a common Egyptian prefix.Wilderness of Etham - i. e., that part of the great wilderness of Shur which adjoined Etham; compare Exo_15:22 note.The list of stations up to that at Sinai agrees with the narrative of Exodus except that we have here mentioned Num_33:10 an encampment by the Red Sea, and two others, Dophkah and Alush Num_33:12-14, which are there omitted. On these places see Exo_17:1 note.CLARKE, "And went three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham -

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Called the wilderness of Shur, Exo_15:22.And pitched in Marah - Dr. Shaw supposes this place to be at Sedur, over against the valley of Baideah, on the opposite side of the Red Sea.

Stat. 5.GILL, "And they departed from before Pihahiroth,.... Being forced by Pharaoh's army pressing upon them: and passed through the midst of the sea; from shore to shore, as on dry laud: into the wilderness: that part of it which lay on the other side, for still it was the wilderness of Etham they went into, as follows: and went three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched in Marah; so called from the bitterness of the waters there, and which is computed to be forty miles from Pihahiroth.

JAMISON, "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.CALVIN, "8.And they departed from before Pi-hahiroth. He relates how the people marched forwards for three days; not so much in praise of their endurance, as in celebration of God’s wonderful power, who sustained so great a multitude without water. For we must bear in mind, what I have elsewhere shewn, that from the passage of the Red Sea to Marah there was no water found; whence the impiety of the people was the more detestable, since they there burst forth into rebellion on account of the bitter taste of the water. On the other side, the incomparable mercy of God shone forth, in that He condescended to refresh these churlish and provoking men in a pleasant and delightful station; for from their first encampment they were led on to Elim, where they found twelve fountains and seventy palm-trees. Moses passes briefly over the wilderness of Sin, as if nothing worthy of being recorded had occurred there; whereas the vile impiety of the people there betrayed itself, and the place was ennobled by a signal miracle, since the manna rained from heaven for the nourishment of the people, so that, the windows of heaven being opened, mortal man “did eat angels’ food.” He also briefly adverts to the want of water to drink at Rephidim: but he deemed it sufficient here to enumerate the stations, which might recall the various occurrences to the memory of the people. On the Graves of Concupiscence a memorial of God’s punishment was inscribed; but since he simply gives a list of other places, without any record of events, we may gather, as I have above stated, that he had no other design than to set before the eyes of the people the peregrination in which they had been engaged for forty years. He, however, cursorily mentions the death of Aaron; because his life had been prolonged, by God’s special blessing, for the good of the people, until the time approached when they were about to enter the promised land; since his authority

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was a useful and necessary restraint upon the ungovernable character of this headstrong people. At the same time the punishment inflicted upon the holy man should have reminded posterity that it was not without reason that their fathers had been so severely chastised, since they had not ceased to add sin to sin, when God had not spared even His own servant on account of a single transgression.When he adds just afterwards, that the Canaanite then first heard of the coming the children of Israel, he indicates that God had put a veil over the eyes of their enemies, lest they should oppose them at an earlier period. For God so mitigated the severity of His judgment, that the exile of the Israelites was, at any rate, undisturbed, and free from outward molestation, as long as they had to wander in the desert.

COKE, "Numbers 33:8. And passed through the midst of the sea— We cannot but recommend our readers to what M. Vignoles has written upon the event; he has given to the sentiment of M. Le Clerc all the evidence of which it is capable, and to the grandeur of the miracle all the light that can be desired. See his Chronol. tom. 1: p. 643, &c.In the wilderness of Etham— Etham was the second station; the geography of which, says Dr. Shaw, is not much better circumstanced than that of the first. If it appertained to the wilderness of the same name, which spread itself round the Heroopolitic gulph, and made after wards the Saracene of the old geography; then the edge of it (Numbers 33:6.) may be well taken for the most advanced part of it towards Egypt, and consequently to lie contiguous with some portion or other of the mountains of the lower Thebais, or of Mocatte or Mocattem, as they are called, near Kairo. The particular spot of it likewise may probably be determined, by what is recorded afterwards of the Israelites, Exodus 14:2 that upon their removing from the edge of this wilderness, they are immediately ordered to turn [to the south-east] from the course, as we may imagine, of their former marches, which was hitherto in an easterly direction, and to encamp beforePi-hahiroth. As Pi-hahiroth, therefore, must lie to the right-hand of the wilderness of Etham, within, or on the other side of these mountains; so the second station, or the particular portion of this wilderness of Etham, may be fixed about fifty miles from Kairo. Travels, p. 308. M. de Monconys, in his Travels, speaking of this country, says, "At the end of these mountains (the same as described by Dr. Shaw) is a very wide tract of country, which extends to the Red Sea; the view of which is prodigiously fine for three hundred paces within the mountains; from whence you begin to discern it, and see this admirable natural perspective. We travelled in this plain from two in the afternoon till eight in the evening; and a day or two after we walked again for an hour in the plain, which winds about betwixt the high mountains all the way to the sea, and makes the plain look like an artificial canal, excepting its breadth, which is little less than two leagues." See Travels, in 12mo. Paris, 1695. It is evident, says, M. Vignoles, from what this author has observed, that the city of Etham was but a little way from the Red Sea, and in that wide

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champaign of which he here speaks. The sacred historian remarks, that Etham was on the edge of the wilderness, because there, indeed, the wilderness of Egypt, now in question, and which begins very near to Kairo, terminates, as M. Monconys and other travellers testify; the desart, which lies beyond the Red Sea, making part of Arabia. On this edge of the wilderness of Egypt, then, the Israelites encamped on the second day of their march. See Vignoles's Chronolog. lib. iii. c. 1. sect. 9.

WHEDON, " 8. The wilderness,… three days — The wilderness of Shur. Exodus 15:22, note.Marah — The modern ‘Aryun Hawwara. Dr. Strong and his party rode their dromedaries up to the mouth of one of the wells, and found it dry and nearly filled with sand. The ground is slightly elevated and crowned with a few stunted palm trees. Exodus 15:23, note.

PETT, "Numbers 33:8‘And they journeyed from before Hahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and they went three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham, and encamped in Marah.’From there they went to Hahiroth (Pi-hahiroth - Exodus 14:9). It was there that Pharaoh thought that he had them cornered, and where they panicked as they realised that the Egyptians were hard on their tail. And that was where the miracle happened and they passed through the sea, into the wilderness where they could disappear from view, leaving a broken Egyptian army behind them.From there they travelled on a ‘three days journey’ through the Wilderness of Shur to Marah where they found no water (Exodus 15:22-23). This caused their first ‘murmuring’ in the wilderness, until Moses was guided by Yahweh to a tree which could turn the bitter waters sweet. And there he formulated basic ‘statutes and ordinances’ which would guide their lives as they moved on. His law-giving had begun. With a mixed multitude among them from many nations (Exodus 12:38) it was necessary, with Egypt behind them, for some basic rules to be laid down.And there, where they had seen the waters healed, Yahweh promised them freedom from diseases if only they would hear His voice and obey Him.

PULPIT, "In the wilderness of Etham. This is called the wilderness of Shur in Exodus 15:22, nor is it easy to explain the occurrence of the name Etham in this connection, for the Etham mentioned in Exodus 15:6 lay on the other side of the Red Sea. We do not, however, know what physical changes have taken place since that time, and it is quite possible that at Etham there may have been a ford, or some

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other easy means of communication, so that the strip of desert along the opposite shore came to be known as the wilderness of Etham.

9 They left Marah and went to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.

CLARKE, "And came unto Elim - A place on the skirts of the deserts of Sin, two leagues from Tor, and nearly thirty from Corondel, a large bay on the east side of the Red Sea. Dr. Shaw, when he visited this place, found but nine of the twelve wells mentioned in the text, and instead of 70 palm trees, he found upwards of 2,000. See on Exo_15:27 (note).

Stat. 6.

GILL, "And they removed from Marah, and came unto Elim,.... Which was eight miles from Marah: and in Elim were twelve fountains of water, and three score and ten palm trees, and they pitched there; being a convenient place of water for them,

JAMISON, "And they removed from Marah, and came unto Elim,.... Which was eight miles from Marah: and in Elim were twelve fountains of water, and three score and ten palm trees, and they pitched there; being a convenient place of water for them,

WHEDON, "9. Elim — Trees. Says Dr. Ridgaway, “There are two or three streams of water running through the valley, though nothing in the shape of wells, and I counted forty-six palm trees, and did not go down far below our camp. The precision with which this spot is identified is a helpful key to the journeyings of Israel as marking an important step, and so indicating unquestionably the direction they took after leaving the Red Sea.” See Exodus 15:27, note. For the route from Elim to Sinai, see Exodus xvi, Introductory.

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PETT, "Numbers 33:9‘And they journeyed from Marah, and came to Elim, and in Elim were twelve springs of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees; and they encamped there.’From Marah they came to Elim (Exodus 15:27) where there were ‘twelve springs of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees’. And there too they encamped. It is clear that the traditions of Exodus were burned into Moses’ mind.Note too that while we have been briefly remembering all that happened, all that Moses has brought out is their coming out of Egypt with a high hand, the smiting of the gods of Egypt, and this water with its palm trees. He wants one or two lessons to come home as an introduction to this section, but this is not the main point of the exercise. The point was that eventually they could always be sure that Yahweh would always be with them and bring them to a place of fruitfulness. ‘Twelve springs’ would indicate sufficiency of water for all the twelve tribes, and ‘seventy’ (seven intensified) palm trees indicated the divine perfection of the food supply.

10 They left Elim and camped by the Red Sea.[b]

CLARKE, "Encamped by the Red Sea - It is difficult to assign the place of this encampment, as the Israelites were now on their way to Mount Sinai, which lay considerably to the east of Elim, and consequently farther from the sea than the former station. It might be called by the Red Sea, as the Israelites had it, as the principal object, still in view. This station however is mentioned nowhere else. By the Red Sea we are not to understand a sea, the waters of which are red, or the sand red, or any thing else about or in it red; for nothing of this kind appears. It is called in Hebrew ים סוף yam suph, which signifies the weedy sea. The Septuagint rendered the original by θαλασσα εραθρα, and the Vulgate after it by mare rubrum, and the European versions followed these, and, in opposition to etymology and reason, translated it the Red Sea. See the note on Exo_10:19.

Stat. 7.

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GILL, "And they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red sea. This encampment, is omitted in the book of Exodus, see Exo_16:1 this part or arm of the Red sea, whither they came, was six miles from Elim.

JAMISON, "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 Exo_16:1).BENSON, "Verse 10-11Numbers 33:10-11. By the Red sea — Not by that part of it where they had lately passed over, but more southerly, toward the Arabian desert. This station is omitted in Exodus. The wilderness of Sin — Where the manna first began to fall, Exodus 16:1.

WHEDON, " 10. Encamped by the Red Sea — Probably at Ras Abu Zenimeh, a flat, sandy strip of ground. “This is not given in Exodus as a station, but its distance from Elim, sixteen miles, indicates it as a fair day’s march from that point. I could imagine how the tired multitude felt, as, after a toilsome march through a net of low, barren hills and dry wadies, the sight of a broad, level beach and of the soft, quiet sea unexpectedly opened before them.” — Dr. Ridgaway.

PETT, "Numbers 33:10‘And they journeyed from Elim, and encamped by the Reed Sea.’The seventh encampment was by the Reed Sea. This would be on the Gulf of Suez. Up to this point, then, we have a general idea of the route that they were taking. It was avoiding the routes where they might meet up with those who would betray them to the Egyptians, and moving towards the territory in which Moses had spent many years during his time among the Midianites. PULPIT, "Encamped by the Red Sea. This encampment, like those at Dophkah and at Alush (Numbers 33:13), is not mentioned in the narrative of Exodus. The phraseology, however, used in Exodus 16:1; Exodus 17:1 leaves abundant room for intermediate halting-places, at which it is to be presumed that nothing very noteworthy happened Nothing whatever is known of these three stations.

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11 They left the Red Sea and camped in the Desert of Sin.

CLARKE, "The wilderness of Sin - This lies between Elim and Mount Sinai. Dr. Shaw and his companions traversed these plains in nine hours.

Stat. 8.

GILL, "And they removed from the Red sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin. Sixteen miles from the Red sea, where they were last; see Exo_16:1.WHEDON, "11. The wilderness of Sin — This name applies to the whole sandy plain which runs along the shore of the Red Sea from Elim to the southern end of the Sinaitic peninsula. It is the modern El Markha. Exodus 16:1, note.

PETT, "Numbers 33:11‘And they journeyed from the Reed Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.’From there they made their way into the wilderness of Sin, ‘which is between Elim and Sinai’ (Exodus 16:1). This was on the fifteenth day of the second month. They had now been journeying exactly a moon period (roughly four weeks). It was around this time that the manna began.

12 They left the Desert of Sin and camped at Dophkah.44

CLARKE, "Dophkah - This place is not mentioned in Exodus and its situation is not known.

Stat. 9.

GILL, "And they took their journey out of the wilderness of Sin,.... According to the account in Exodus, this was after they had the manna given them, see Exo_17:1. and encamped at Dophkah; twelve miles from the wilderness of Sin; and of this, and the next encampment, no mention is made in Exodus.

JAMISON 12-14, "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 (Exo_17:6) was in Horeb, the burnt region - a generic name for a hot, mountainous country. [See on Exo_17:1.]WHEDON, "Verses 12-1412-14. Dophkah… Alush… Rephidim — Exodus 17:1, note.No water for the people — Exodus 17:1-8, notes.

PETT, :Numbers 33:12-14‘And they journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah. And they journeyed from Dophkah, and encamped in Alush. And they journeyed from Alush, and encamped in Rephidim, where was no water for the people to drink.’Travelling through the wilderness of Sin they came to Dophkah. Dophkah may mean ‘smeltery’ and indicate the presence of copper mining, but there was much copper mining in the area. It cannot be identified with any confidence. From there they moved to Alush and then to Rephidim. Note that these are the names of where they encamped. The aim would always be to find water, but at Rephidim there was no water. Neither Dophkah or Alush are mentioned in Exodus, but Rephidim is mentioned in Exodus 17. It was there that water was brought from a rock when Moses smote it, and that they had their first encounter with the Amalekites. The Amalekites probably saw them as trespassing on their grazing lands and rallied in order to oppose them.“Where was no water for the people to drink.” This is the last comment made until

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they reach Mount Hor in Numbers 33:37. Given what occurred over that period this is quite remarkable. It may suggest that Moses saw the whole period from this point on as a ‘dry period’. Yahweh had intended plenty for them (Numbers 33:9), but because of their faithlessness and unbelief it was to be a period of spiritual dryness. Even Sinai resulted in the worship of the molten calf.Incidentally these small comments added to lists are typical of many ancient lists. We can compare for example the Sumerian king lists where similar small comments occur now and again. It is modern man who likes his lists to be stark and barren.

13 They left Dophkah and camped at Alush.

CLARKE, "Alush - Neither is this mentioned in Exodus and its situation is equally unknown.

Stat. 10.

GILL, "And they departed from Dophkah, and encamped in Alush. The strong fort, as the Targum of Jonathan calls it; this was twelve miles from Dophkah: according to the Jewish chronology (d), this Alush is the wilderness of Sin, where the Israelites came on the fifteenth day of the seventh month from their going out of Egypt; and they say, that in Alush the sabbath was given them, and that there they kept the first sabbath, as it is said: and the people rested on the seventh day, Exo_16:30. JAMISON, "K&D, "CALVIN, "

14 They left Alush and camped at Rephidim, 46

where there was no water for the people to drink.

CLARKE, "Rephidim - Remarkable for the rebellion of the Israelites against Moses, because of the want of water, Exodus 17.

Stat. 11.

GILL, "And they removed from Alush, and encamped at Rephidim,.... Eight miles from Alush: where was no water for the people to drink; and they murmured, and a rock here was smitten by Moses at the command of God, and waters gushed out sufficient for them and their flocks, Exo_17:1.

15 They left Rephidim and camped in the Desert of Sinai.

CLARKE, "The wilderness of Sinai - Somewhere northward of Mount Sinai, on the straight road to the promised land, to which they now directed their course.

Stat. 12.GILL, "And they departed from Rephidim, and pitched in the wilderness of Sinai. Eight miles from Rephidim; and from a mount of this name here were given the decalogue, with all other statutes and ordinances, judicial and ceremonial, and orders and directions for building the tabernacle, and making all the vessels appertaining to it, and which were all made during their stay here.

JAMISON, "wilderness of Sinai — the Wady Er-Raheh.

BENSON "Verse 15-16Numbers 33:15-16. The wilderness of Sinai — Here they arrived about forty- seven

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days after they left Egypt, and stayed almost a year, receiving the laws contained in Exodus and Leviticus, and the first twelve chapters of this book. Kibroth-hattaavah — Where such numbers were destroyed for despising the manna, and lusting after flesh, Numbers 11:33.

PETT, "Numbers 33:15‘And they journeyed from Rephidim, and encamped in the wilderness of Sinai.’Their twelfth listed encampment was in the wilderness of Sinai. They arrived at this in the third month (Exodus 19:1). But we do not know where Sinai was. The earliest traditions are at least 1500 years after the event. This is no grounds for confidence. All we can probably safely say is that it was in the gulf of Suez, simply because of distance travelled. (Jebel Musa is the traditional site, but a number of others such as Jebel Sin Bisher, are variously supported).Their time spent there is covered from Exodus 19 onwards. There they received the covenant, and made and erected God’s new Dwellingplace. They arrived as a conglomeration of people, they left it as a covenant nation. The mixed multitude had mainly now become one with Israel, by being absorbed into the tribes.From that point on every place where they set up a proper encampment would also be the place where the Dwellingplace of Yahweh was set up. Thus it obtained a kind of sacredness. Possibly one reason for the list was so that they might be specifically remembered.

16 They left the Desert of Sinai and camped at Kibroth Hattaavah.

BARNES, "Num_33:16, Num_33:17See the Num_11:35 note.CLARKE, "Kibroth-hattaavah - No city, village, etc., but a place in the

open desert, which had its name from the plague that fell upon the Israelites, through their murmuring against God, and their inordinate desire of flesh. See on Numbers 11 (note). But it appears that the Israelites 48

had traveled three days’ journey in order to reach this place, Num_10:33, and commentators suppose there must have been other stations which are not laid down here, probably because the places were not remarkable.Stat. 13.

GILL, "And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibrothhattaavah. Eight miles from the desert of Sinai; here the people lusted after flesh, and murmured, which, though given them, a pestilence came and destroyed many of them, and here they were buried, whence the place was so called, which signifies the "graves of lust", i.e. of those that lusted: no mention is made of Taberah, either because it was the same with Kibroth, or near it; or, as Aben Ezra on Deu_9:22 says, they encamped there but one day, and so is not mentioned in the journeys, though it was one of the three they journeyed from Mount Sinai to Kibrothhattaavah, see Num_11:1.

JAMISON 16-37, "Num_33:16-56. From Sinai to Kadesh and Plains of Moab.

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 (Deu_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 (Deu_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 (Deu_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 49

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.

K&D 16-35, "Numbers 33:16-35In vv. 16-36 there follow twenty-one names of places where the Israelites encamped from the time that they left the wilderness of Sinai till they encamped in the wilderness of Zin, i.e., Kadesh. The description of the latter as “the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh,” which agrees almost word for word with Num_20:1, and still more the agreement of the places mentioned in Num_33:37-49, as the encampments of Israel after leaving Kadesh till their arrival in the steppes of Moab, with the march of the people in the fortieth year as described in Num 20:22-22:1, put it beyond all doubt that the encampment in the wilderness of Zin, i.e., Kadesh (Num_33:36), is to be understood as referring to the second arrival in Kadesh after the expiration of the thirty-eight years of wandering in the desert to which the congregation had been condemned. Consequently the twenty-one names in vv. 16-36 contain not only the places of encampment at which the Israelites encamped in the second year of their march from Sinai to the desert of Paran at Kadesh, whence the spies were despatched into Canaan, but also those in which they encamped for a longer period during the thirty-eight years of punishment in the wilderness. This view is still further confirmed by the fact that the two first of the stations named after the departure from the wilderness of Sinai, viz., Kibroth-hattaavah and Hazeroth, agree with those named in the historical account in Num_11:34and Num_11:35. Now if, according to Num_12:16, when the people left Hazeroth, they encamped in the desert of Paran, and despatched the spies thence out of the desert of Zin (Num_13:21), who returned to the congregation after forty days “into the desert of Paran to Kadesh” (Num_13:26), it is as natural as it well can be to seek for this place of encampment in the desert of Paran or Zin at Kadesh under the name of Rithmah, which follows Hazeroth in the present list (Num_33:18). This natural supposition reaches the highest degree of probability, from the fact that, in the historical account, the place of encampment, from which the sending out of the spies took place, is described in so indefinite a manner as the “desert of Paran,” since this name does not belong to a small desert, just capable of holding the camp of the Israelites, but embraces the whole of the large desert plateau which stretches from the central mountains of Horeb in the south to the mountains of the Amorites, which really form part of Canaan, and contains no less than 400 (? 10,000 English) square miles. In this desert the Israelites could only pitch their camp in one particular spot, which is called Rithmah in the list before us; whereas in the historical account the passage is described, according to what the Israelites performed and experienced in this encampment, as near to the southern border of Canaan, and is thus pointed out with sufficient clearness for the

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purpose of the historical account. To this we may add the coincidence of the name Rithmah with the Wady Abu Retemat, which is not very far to the south of Kadesh, “a wide plain with shrubs and retem,” i.e., broom (Robinson, i. p. 279), in the neighbourhood of which, and behind the chalk formation which bounds it towards the east, there is a copious spring of sweet water called Ain el Kudeirât. This spot was well adapted for a place of encampment for Israel, which was so numerous that it might easily stretch into the desert of Zin, and as far as Kadesh.

The seventeen places of encampment, therefore, that are mentioned in vv. 19-36 between Rithmah and Kadesh, are the places at which Israel set up in the desert, from their return from Kadesh into the “desert of the way to the Red Sea” (Num_14:25), till the reassembling of the whole congregation in the desert of Zin at Kadesh (Num_20:1).(Note: The different hypotheses for reducing the journey of the Israelites to a few years, have been refuted by Kurtz (iii. §41) in the most conclusive manner possible, and in some respects more elaborately than was actually necessary. Nevertheless Knobel has made a fresh attempt, in the interest of his fragmentary hypothesis, to explain the twenty-one places of encampment given in vv. 16-37 as twenty-one marches made by Israel from Sinai till their first arrival at Kadesh. As the whole distance from Sinai to Kadesh by the straight road through the desert consists of only an eleven days' journey, Knobel endeavours to bring his twenty-one marches into harmony with this statement, by reckoning only five hours to each march, and postulating a few detours in addition, in which the people occupied about a hundred hours or more. The objection which might be raised to this, namely, that the Israelites made much longer marches than these on their way from Egypt to Sinai, he tries to set aside by supposing that the Israelites left their flocks behind them in Egypt, and procured fresh ones from the Bedouins at Sinai. But this assertion is so arbitrary and baseless an idea, that it is not worth while to waste a single word upon the subject (see Exo_12:38). The reduction of the places of encampment to simple marches is proved to be at variance with the text by the express statement in Num_10:33, that when the Israelites left the wilderness of Sinai they went a three days' journey, until the cloud showed them a resting-place. For it is perfectly evydent from this, that the march from one place to another cannot be understood without further ground as being simply a day's march of five hours.)

Of all the seventeen places not a single one is known, or can be pointed out with certainty, except Eziongeber. Only the four mentioned in Num_33:30-33, Moseroth, Bene-Jaakan, Hor-hagidgad, and Jotbathah, are referred to again, viz., in Deu_10:6-7, where Moses refers to the divine protection enjoyed by the Israelites in their wandering in the desert, in these words: “And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth-bene-Jaakan to Mosera; there Aaron died, and there he was buried.... From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of water-brooks.” Of the identity of the places mentioned in the two passages there can be no doubt whatever. Bene Jaakan is simply an abbreviation of Beeroth-bene-Jaakan, wells of the children of Jaakan. Now 51

if the children of Jaakan were the same as the Horite family of Kananmentioned in Gen_36:27, - and the reading ַיֲעָקן for ַוֲעָקן in 1Ch_1:42 seems to favour this-the wells of Jaakan would have to be sought for on the mountains that bound the Arabah on either the east or west.

Gudgodah is only a slightly altered and abbreviated form of Hor-hagidgad, the cave of Gidgad or Gudgodah; and lastly, Moseroth is simply the plural form of Mosera. But notwithstanding the identity of these four places, the two passages relate to different journeys. Deu_10:6 and Deu_10:7 refers to the march in the fortieth year, when the Israelites went from Kadesh through the Wady Murreh into the Arabah to Mount Hor, and encamped in the Arabah first of all at the wells of the children, and then at Mosera, where Aaron died upon Mount Hor, which was in the neighbourhood, and whence they travelled still farther southwards to Gudgodah and Jotbathah. In the historical account in Num 20 and 21 the three places of encampment, Bene-Jaakan, Gudgodah, and Jotbathah, are not mentioned, because nothing worthy of note occurred there. Gudgodahwas perhaps the place of encampment mentioned in Num_21:4, the name of which is not given, where the people were punished with fiery serpents; and Jotbathah is probably to be placed before Zalmonah (Num_33:41). The clause, “a land of water-brooks” (Deu_10:7), points to a spot in or near the southern part of the Arabah, where some wady, or valley with a stream flowing through it, opened into the Arabah from either the eastern or western mountains, and formed a green oasis through its copious supply of water in the midst of the arid steppe. But the Israelites had encamped at the very same places once before, namely, during their thirty-seven years of wandering, in which the people, after returning from Kadesh to the Red Sea through the centre of the great desert of et Tih, after wandering about for some time in the broad desert plateau, went through the Wady el Jerafehinto the Arabah as far as the eastern border of it on the slopes of Mount Hor, and there encamped at Mosera (Moseroth) somewhere near Ain et Taiyibeh (on Robinson's map), and then crossed over to Bene-Jaakan, which was probably on the western border of the Arabah, somewhere near Ain el Ghamr (Robinson), and then turning southwards passed along the Wady el Jeib by Hor-gidgad (Gudgodah), Jotbathah, and Abronah to Eziongeber on the Red Sea; for there can be no doubt whatever that the Eziongeber in Num_33:35, Num_33:36, and that in Deu_2:8, are one and the same town, viz., the well-known port at the northern extremity of the Elanitic Gulf, where the Israelites in the time of Solomon and Jehoshaphat built a fleet to sail to Ophir (1Ki_9:26; 1Ki_22:49). It was not far from Elath(i.e., Akaba), and is supposed to have been “the large and beautiful town of Asziun,” which formerly stood, according to Makrizi, near to Aila, where there were many dates, fields, and fruit-trees, though it has now long since entirely disappeared.Consequently the Israelites passed twice through a portion of the Arabah in a southerly direction towards the Red Sea, the second time from Wady Murreh by Mount Hor, to go round the land of Edom, not quite to the head of the gulf, but only to the Wady el Ithm, through which they crossed to the eastern side of Edomitis; the first time during the thirty-seven years of wandering from Wady el Jerafeh to Moseroth and Bene Jaakan, and thence

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to Eziongeber.WHEDON, "16. Kibroth-hattaavah — Also called Taberah. Numbers 11:3; Numbers 11:34, notes. A glance at Kiepert’s or any good map will show that from Sinai to Canaan there was a choice between two main routes, namely, that on the west of the high plateau called the Tih region, and that on the east going up the ‘Arabah or desert valley west of Mount Seir. There are good reasons for supposing that Moses took the eastern route, and that Kibroth-hattaavah is to be sought for in this direction.

PETT, " ‘And they journeyed from the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped in Kibroth-hattaavah.’Kibroth-hattaavah was where they buried those whose desires for fresh meat got the better of them (12:34). The journey from Sinai to Kadesh was one of eleven days for the normal traveller (Deuteronomy 1:2). This and Hazeroth are the only two encampments mentioned on that journey.

17 They left Kibroth Hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth.

CLARKE, "Hazeroth - This place Dr. Shaw computes to have been about thirty miles distant from Mount Sinai.

Stat. 14.

GILL, "And they departed from Kibrothhattaavah, and encamped at Hazeroth. Eight miles from Kibrothhattaavah, where Miriam was smote with leprosy, Num_12:1.WHEDON, "17. Hazeroth — Enclosure. The meaning of Hazeroth “is one of the strongest arguments for identifying it with Hudhera. It lies on the most natural route from Sinai to the great valley of the ‘Arabah. It is evident, also, that tradition has long regarded this site as Hazeroth, from the indications that it was once

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occupied by a colony of monks.” — Dr. Ridgaway. See Numbers 11:35, note.

PETT, " ‘And they journeyed from Kibroth-hattaavah, and encamped in Hazeroth.’Hazeroth was the last stop before Kadesh. At Hazeroth Miriam and Aaron confronted Moses on the question of status and were confounded (Numbers 12:1-16). It will be noted that the first arrival at Kadesh (13:26) is passed over here. Because of the disobedience of Israel it was deliberately ‘blotted out’. Their journey, which should have been almost over, would continue for another thirty eight years ‘in the wilderness’.Thus Hazeroth is made the fourteenth stop (twice seven) on the journey. This was the journey as Yahweh had meant it to be, the divinely perfect one. What followed was outside what God had purposed, although He did not desert His people (Deuteronomy 2:7).

18 They left Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah.

BARNES, "Num_33:18Rithmah - The name of this station is derived from retem, the broom-plant, the “juniper” of the King James Version. This must be the same encampment as that which is said in Num_13:26 to have been at Kadesh.CLARKE, "Rithmah - This place lay somewhere in the wilderness of

Paran, through which the Israelites were now passing. See Num_13:1, Num_13:3. The name signifies the juniper tree; and the place probably had its name from the great number of those trees growing in that district.Stat. 15.

GILL, "And they departed from Hazeroth, and pitched at Rithmah. Eight miles from Hazeroth: Rethem, from whence this place seems to have had its name, is generally rendered by "juniper", 1Ki_19:4 and the Targum of Jonathan here adds, where the juniper trees grew; and, perhaps, it is the same with the valley of Retheme, of which some travellers (e) thus write,

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"this valley", called in the Hebrew Retheme, and commonly Ritma, derives its name from a yellow flower, with which the valley is covered; we found here, on the left hand, two cisterns of excellent water; and water being to be had here, might be the reason of the Israelites pitching in this place. Some learned men (f) think it is the same with Kadeshbarnea, from whence the spies were sent, that being the next remove from Hazeroth, as this was; see Num_12:16, with which agrees the remark of Jarchi, that this place was so called, because of the evil tongue of the spies, as it is said, Psa_120:3 "what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper"; alluding to the signification of Rithmah; perhaps this is the same place, which by Josephus (g) is called Dathema, and so in the Apocrypha:"Then the heathen that were at Galaad assembled themselves together against the Israelites that were in their quarters, to destroy them; but they fled to the fortress of Dathema.'' (1 Maccabees 5:9) JAMISON, "Rithmah (“the place of the broom”) - a station possibly in

some wady extending westward of the Ghor.WHEDON, " 18. Rithmah has not been identified. The name is kindred to the word rendered “juniper,” but more correctly “broom.” “It may therefore signify the valley of the broom-bushes.” — Edersheim.

PETT, "Verse 18‘And they journeyed from Hazeroth, and encamped in Rithmah.’Some seek to associate Rithmah with Kadesh in some way, but the only ground for doing so is that it follows Hazeroth, and we know that Kadesh followed Hazeroth (Numbers 11:35; Numbers 12:16). It is, however, quite possible. The tribes would probably divide over a number of oases. But it could equally have been the next stage after leaving Kadesh for the wandering in the wilderness, for the whole point of not mentioning Kadesh was that the first visit to Kadesh was deliberately blotted out. We have seen how the writer did this with the forty years in the wilderness (chapters 15-19), and how he did it with Korah’s death (Numbers 16:32-35 where Korah’s death is remarkably not mentioned). Now he does the same thing for Kadesh (he will do the same thing for Simeon in Deuteronomy 33 because of their sin at the plains of Moab). How long Israel remained at Kadesh after their failure to enter the land we do not know (some would see them as remaining there for a good part of the thirty eight years). In Deuteronomy we learn that they remained there ‘many days’ (Numbers 1:46). However, that could be anything from a few months upwards. But eventually their journeys recommenced, and the itinerary that now follows is the record of that wandering in the wilderness, Numbers 33:19-36 covering the scantily covered period in Numbers 14:25 to Numbers 20:1. It is a reminder that it was a long and weary period of wandering.

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PULPIT, "Rithmah. Comparing this verso with Numbers 12:16 and Numbers 13:26, it would appear as if Rithmah were the station "in the wilderness of Paran" from which the spies went up, and to which they returned—a station subsequently known by the name of Kadesh. There are two difficulties in the way of this identification. In the first place we should then only have three names of stations between Sinai and the southern border of Palestine, on what is at least eleven days' journey. This is, however, confessedly the case in the historical narrative, and it admits of explanation. We know that the first journey was a three days' journey (Numbers 10:33), and the others may have been longer still, through a country which presented no facilities for encamping, and possessed no variety of natural features. In the second place, Rithmah is not Kadesh, and cannot be connected with Kadesh except through a doubtful identification with the Wady Retemat in the neighbourhood of Ain Kudes (see note at end of Numbers 13:1-33). It is, however, evident from Numbers 12:16, as compared with Numbers 13:26, that Kadesh was not the name originally given to the encampment "in the wilderness of Paran." It seems to have got that name—perhaps owing to some popular feeling with respect to an ancient sanctuary, perhaps owing to some partial shifting of the camp—during the absence of the spies. Rithmah, therefore, may well have been the official name (so to speak) originally given to the encampment, but subsequently superseded by the more famous name of Kadesh; this would explain both its non-appearance in the narrative of Numbers, and its appearance in the Itinerary here.

19 They left Rithmah and camped at Rimmon Perez.

BARNES, "Num_33:19Rimmon-parez - Or rather Rimmon-perez, i. e., “Rimmon (i. e., the Pomegranate) of the Breach.” It may have been here that the sedition of Korah occurred.

Verse 19-36The stations named are those visited during the years of penal wandering. The determination of their positions is, in many cases, difficult, because during this period there was no definite line of march pursued. But it is probable that the Israelites during this period did not overstep the boundaries of the wilderness of Paran (as defined in Num_10:12), except to pass along the adjoining valley of the Arabah; while the tabernacle and organized camp moved about from place to place among them (compare

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Num_20:1).Rissah, Haradah, and Tahath are probably the same as Rasa, Aradeh, and Elthi of the Roman tables. The position of Hashmonah (Heshmon in Jos_15:27) in the Azazimeh mountains points out the road followed by the children of Israel to be that which skirts the southwestern extremity of Jebel Magrah.

CLARKE, "Rimmon-parez - Unknown.Stat. 16.

GILL 19-29, "And they departed from Rithmah, and pitched at Rimmonparez. Six miles from Rithmah, and then from Rimmon to Libnah, which was six miles also; and from thence to Rissah, which was six miles more; and from Rissah to, Kehelathah, which was the same number of miles; and from thence to Shapher, which was six miles also; and then they came to Haradah, which was four miles from thence; the next remove was to Makheloth, which was four miles and a half from the last place; then they went to Tahath, which was four miles more; and from thence to Tarah, which also was four miles; the next place they came to was Mithcah, four miles from Tarah; and then to Hashmonah, which was eight miles more.

JAMISON, "Rimmon-parez, or Rimmon - a city of Judah and Simeon (Jos_15:32); Libnah, so called from its white poplars (Jos_10:29), or, as some think, a white hill between Kadesh and Gaza (Jos_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 Deu_10:6).WHEDON, "Verse 19-2019, 20. Rimmon-parez has not yet been found. Parez signifies a breach or cleft. Some scholars identify Libnah with Laban in Deuteronomy 1:1. Its location is unknown.

PETT, "Verses 19-30‘And they journeyed from Rithmah, and encamped in Rimmon-perez. And they journeyed from Rimmon-perez, and encamped in Libnah. And they journeyed from Libnah, and encamped in Rissah. And they journeyed from Rissah, and encamped

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in Kehelathah. And they journeyed from Kehelathah, and encamped in mount Shepher. And they journeyed from mount Shepher, and encamped in Haradah. And they journeyed from Haradah, and encamped in Makheloth. And they journeyed from Makheloth, and encamped in Tahath. And they journeyed from Tahath, and encamped in Terah. And they journeyed from Terah, and encamped in Mithkah. And they journeyed from Mithkah, and encamped in Hashmonah. And they journeyed from Hashmonah, and encamped in Moseroth.’This list of unknown names speaks volumes to us. Most of the first part of the list of names from Rameses to Hazeroth were well recorded in the history in Exodus, and in 11:35. Some of the final names will be recorded in the history. But the middle section are totally unmentioned. This is confirmation that the middle period was deliberately blanked out as far as the history was concerned. Moses had a record of the names of the places visited, where the Dwellingplace had been set up. He knew what had happened at each of them. But all that was to be ignored. Indeed as far as the rest of Numbers was concerned, apart from the incidents of Korah and the rod that budded which illustrate the rebellion at Kadesh, the whole period between the first leaving of Hazeroth and the second arrival at Kadesh, is as though it had not been. It was a blot on the name of Israel.It may, however, be that we have reference to Moseroth (plural of Moserah) in the reference to Moserah (‘chastisement’) in Deuteronomy 10:6. But it is equally possible that each name was allocated to a different place and a different incident, with Moseroth (the plural) stressing a deeper level of chastisement than Moserah.

PULPIT, "Rimmon-parez. The latter part of the name is the same as parats or perets, which commonly signifies a breaking out of Divine anger. This place may possibly have been the scene of the events related in Numbers 16:1-50, Numbers 17:1-13, but the Targum of Palestine connects them with Kehelathah.

20 They left Rimmon Perez and camped at Libnah.

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CLARKE, "Libnah - The situation of this place is uncertain. A city of this name is mentioned Jos_10:29, as situated between Kadesh-barnea and Gaza.

Stat. 17.

PULPIT, "Libnah. Hebrew ִלְבָנה ("whiteness") may perhaps be the same as the Laban ( ָלָבן, "white") mentioned in Deuteronomy 1:1. So many places, however, in that region are distinguished by the dazzling whiteness of their limestone cliffs that the identification is quite uncertain. The site of this, as of the next eight stations, is indeed utterly unknown; and the guesses which are founded on the partial and probably accidental similarity of some modern names (themselves differently pronounced by different travelers) are utterly worthless. Of these eight names, Kehelathah and Makheloth seem to be derived from ָקָהל, "an assembling," and thus give some slight support to the supposition that during the thirty-eight years the people were scattered abroad, and only assembled from time to time in one place. Rissah is variously interpreted "heap of ruins," or "dew;" Shapher means "fair," or "splendid;" Haradah, or Charadah, is "terror," or "trembling" (cf. 1 Samuel 14:15 ); ,Tahath is a "going down," or "depression;" Tarah is "turning," or "delay;" Mithcah signifies "sweetness," and may be compared (in an opposite sense) to Marah.

21 They left Libnah and camped at Rissah.

CLARKE, "Bissah - A place mentioned nowhere else in the sacred writings. Its situation utterly uncertain.

Stat. 18.

22 They left Rissah and camped at Kehelathah.

CLARKE, "Kehelathah - Utterly unknown; though some conjecture that it 59

might have been the place called Keilah, 1Sa_23:1, etc., but this is unlikely.Stat. 19.

23 They left Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher.CLARKE, "Shapher - Where this mountain lay cannot be determined.

Stat. 20.

24 They left Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah.

CLARKE, "Haradah - Unknown, Calmet supposes that it may be the place called Bered, Gen_16:14, which was in the vicinity of Kadesh.

Stat. 21.

25 They left Haradah and camped at Makheloth.CLARKE, "Makheloth - A name found nowhere else in Scripture.

Stat. 22.

26 They left Makheloth and camped at Tahath.60

CLARKE, "Tahath - Unknown.Stat. 23.

27 They left Tahath and camped at Terah.CLARKE, "Tarah - Also unknown.

Stat. 24.

28 They left Terah and camped at Mithkah.CLARKE, "Mithcah - Calmet conjectures that this may be Mocha, a city in

Arabia Petraea.Stat. 25.

29 They left Mithkah and camped at Hashmonah.

CLARKE, "Hashmonah - Supposed by some to be the same as Azmon, Num_34:4.

Stat. 26.

TRAPP, "Numbers 33:29 And they went from Mithcah, and pitched in Hashmonah.Ver. 29. From Mitheah.] Which signifies sweetness.And pitched in Chasmonah.] Which signifies swiftness. We must also, when we have tasted of God’s sweetness, use all possible swiftness in the ways of holiness; as Jacob,

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when he had seen visions of God at Bethel, "lifted up his feet," [Genesis 29:1, marg.} and went on his way lustily, like a generous horse after a bait, or a giant after his wine. "The joy of the Lord is your strength." {Nehemiah 8:10]

30 They left Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth.

CLARKE, "Moseroth - Situation unknown. In Deu_10:6 it is said that the Israelites took their journey from Beeroth, the wells of the children of Jaakan, to Mosera, and there Aaron died. If so, Mosera, Moseroth, and Hor, must be different names of the same place; or Moseroth, or Mosera, must have been some town or village near Mount Hor, for there Aaron died. See Num_33:38.

Stat. 27.GILL 31-32, "And they departed from Hashmonah, and encamped at Moseroth. Thirty two miles from Hashmonah. In Deu_10:6 it is called Mosera; and according to the account there, they came hither from the following place, Benejaakan; probably they went first thither from Hashmonah, and then from Mosera or Moserot, and so to Benejaakan again, going backwards and forwards, so Jarchi; the distance of the two places was twenty four miles; for the further reconciliation this; see Gill on Deu_10:6 and the Samaritan version there.

WHEDON, "Verses 30-3330-33. Moseroth is the Hebrew plural of Mosera in Deuteronomy 10:6. Hengstenberg thinks it lay in the ‘Arabah where Mount Hor overhangs it. Burckhardt suggests that Wady Mousa, near Petra and this mountain, is a corruption of Moseroth.Bene-jaakan — Sons of Jaakan. In the Hebrew of Deuteronomy 10:6-7, the full name is given — Beeroth Bene-Jaakan, wells of the sons of Jaakan. There are trivial variations of names, such as Hor-hagidgad and Gudgodah, in the two passages. The account in Deuteronomy, which puts Bene-jaakan before Mosera, probably refers to a second visit, in the fortieth year of the wandering, in the reverse order of the two places named.

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PULPIT, "Hashmonah. This is possibly the Heshmon of Joshua 15:27, since this was one of the "uttermost cities … toward the coast of Edom, southward." The name, however ("fruitfulness"), was probably common on the edge of the desert. Moseroth. This is simply the plural form of Moserah ("chastisement"), and is no doubt the place so called in Deuteronomy 10:6 (see note at end of chapter).

31 They left Moseroth and camped at Bene Jaakan.

CLARKE, "Bene-jaakan - Unknown. The sons of Jaakan. See the preceding verse, Num_33:30 (note).

Stat. 28.

COKE, "Numbers 33:31. And they departed from Moseroth, and pitched, &c.— Moses says the contrary in Deuteronomy 10:6 that they took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan, to Mosera. Drusius is of opinion, that there were two places of the name of Mosera; but, as all the encampments, from Numbers 33:16 to Numbers 33:35 were wanderings back again towards the Red Sea, for thirty-eight years together, it can be no wonder, if, in this tedious wilderness, they wandered backward and forward from Bene-jaakan to Moseroth, and from Moseroth to Bene-jaakan. PETT, "Verses 31-33‘And they journeyed from Moseroth, and encamped in Bene-jaakan. And they journeyed from Bene-jaakan, and encamped in Hor-haggidgad. And they journeyed from Hor-haggidgad, and encamped in Jotbathah.’This can be compared with Deuteronomy 10:6-7 where we read, ‘And the children of Israel journeyed from Beeroth (the wells of) Bene-jaakan to Moserah (chastisement). There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his stead. From there they journeyed to Gudgodah (similar to ‘the caves (hor) of ha-gidgad’); and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water.’ But this latter description is a passing of this way a second time, for it refers to the time when Aaron died (compare Numbers 33:38), while Numbers refers to a time prior to the second arrival at Kadesh (33:37), well before the death of Aaron. It is not an unlikely event that they at some stage covered the same ground twice in view of the circumstances, especially as they knew

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that there was water there, and they were avoiding Edom. Either they visited Moserah in a different order the second time, or Moserah is different from Moseroth.From Deuteronomy we gather that both Bene-jaaken and Jotbathah were selected out the second time precisely because they were sources of abundant water, and that would no doubt be why they were chosen as camp sites the first time. Thus a visit, and possibly a long stay, on the way from Kadesh to Ezion-geber, and a further visit on the way from Kadesh to Edom, at a time of such shortage that even Kadesh was lacking in water (Numbers 20:2), is not to be ruled out. During the wilderness wandering they would necessarily seek out abundant water supplies, and stay at such places as long as possible (they were not going anywhere). PULPIT, "Bene-Jaakan. The full name is given in Deuteronomy 10:6 as Beeroth-beni-Jaakan, "the wells of the children of Jaakan." Jaakan, or Akan, was a grandson of Seir, the legendary tribe father of the Horites of Mount Seir (Genesis 36:20, Genesis 36:27; 1 Chronicles 1:42). The wells of the Beni-Jaakan may well have retained their name long after their original owners had been dispossessed; or a remnant of the tribe may have held together until this time.

32 They left Bene Jaakan and camped at Hor Haggidgad.

CLARKE, "Hor-hagidgad - The hole or pit of Gidgad. Unknown. It was a place perhaps remarkable for some vast pit or cavern, from which it took its name.

Stat. 29.GILL 32-37, "And they removed from Benejaakan, and encamped at Horhagidgad. In the Targum Jonathan called Gudgod, as it is Gudgodah in Deu_10:7, where the remove to this place is said to be from Mosera; it was twenty miles from Benejaaken; from thence they went to Jotbathah, twenty four miles from Horhagidgad; and from thence to Ebronah, twenty miles more; and so to Eziongeber, of which see 1Ki_9:26 which was twenty eight miles from Ebrorah; and their next remove was to the wilderness of Zin, which was Kadesh, forty eight miles from Eziongeber; and from Kadesh they went to Mount Hor, forty eight miles more: which was in the edge of the land of Edom; as Kadesh also was; see Num_20:16.

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PULPIT, "Hor-ha-gidgad. The MSS. and Versions are divided between Chor. (:cave.") and Her ("summit," or "mountain"). Gid-gad is no doubt the Gudgodah of Deuteronomy 10:7.

33 They left Hor Haggidgad and camped at Jotbathah.

CLARKE, "Jotrathah - Situation unknown. It is said in Deu_10:7 to be a land of rivers of waters.

Stat. 30.

PULPIT, "Jotbathah. The meaning of this name, which is apparently "excellent," is explained by the note in Deuteronomy 10:7 "Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters." It would be difficult to find such a land now in the neighbourhood of the Arabah, but there are still running streams in some of the wadys which open into the Arabah towards its southern end.

34 They left Jotbathah and camped at Abronah.

BARNES, "Num_33:34Ebronah - i. e, “passage.” This station apparently lay on the shore of the Elanitic gulf, at a point where the ebb of the tide left a ford across. Hence, the later Targum renders the word as “fords.”CLARKE, "Ebronah - Nowhere else mentioned. Stat. 31.

PETT, "Verse 34-35‘And they journeyed from Jotbathah, and encamped in Abronah. And they journeyed from Abronah, and encamped in Ezion-geber. And they journeyed from Ezion-geber, and encamped in the wilderness of Zin (the same is Kadesh).’

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Note that the journey from Jotbathah to Eziongeber took place with only one encampment mentioned, and then from Ezion-geber to Kadesh in one long march. The intervening land was clearly very inhospitable so that they did not tarry anywhere but made their way as quickly as possible, simply bedding down for the night and not setting up an encampment.For we do know that Ezion-geber was on the gulf of Aqabah (1 Kings 9:26; 1 Kings 22:48) and was thus a good long march from Kadesh, and presumably, in view of what the second visit there tells us about its placement, from Jotbathah. PULPIT, "Ebronah, or "Abronah," a "beach," or "passage," called "the Fords" by the Targum of Palestine. It is conjectured that it lay below Ezion-geber, just opposite to Elath, with which place it may have been connected by a ford at low tide, but this is quite uncertain.

35 They left Abronah and camped at Ezion Geber.

BARNES, "Num_33:35Ezion-gaber - “Giant’s backbone.” The Wady Ghadhyan, a valley running eastward into the Arabah some miles north of the present head of the Elanitic gulf. A salt marsh which here overspreads a portion of the Arabah may be taken as indicating the limit to which the sea anciently reached; and we may thus infer the existence here in former times of an extensive tidal haven, at the head of which the city of Ezion-geber stood. Here it was that from the time of Solomon onward the Jewish navy was constructed 1Ki_9:26; 1Ki_22:49.CLARKE, "Ezion-gaber - Dr. Shaw places this port on the western coast of the Elantic gulf of the Red Sea. It is now called Meenah el Dsahab, or the golden port, by the Arabs; because it was from this place that Solomon sent his ships for gold to Ophir, 1Ki_9:26. He supposes it to be about sixty miles distant from Mount Sinai - Travels, p. 322, 4th. edition.

Stat. 32.

COKE, "Numbers 33:35. And encamped at Ezion-gaber— "Ezion-gaber," says Dr. Shaw, "being the place from whence Solomon's navy went for gold to Ophir, 1 Kings 9:26. 2 Chronicles 8:17 we may be induced to take it for the present Meenah

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el Dsahab; i.e. the port of gold. According to the account I had of this place from the monks of St. Catherine, it lies in the gulph of Eloth, betwixt two and three days journey from them; enjoying a spacious harbour, from whence they are sometimes supplied with plenty of lobsters and shell-fish. Meenah el Dsahab, therefore, from this circumstance, may be nearly at the same distance from Sinai with Tor, from whence they are likewise furnished with the same provisions; which, unless they are brought with the utmost expedition, frequently corrupt and putrefy. The distance betwixt the north-west part of the desart of Sin and Mount Sinai, is twenty-one hours; and if we further add three hours (the distance betwixt the desart of Sin and the port of Tor, from whence these fish are obtained), we shall have in all twenty-four hours, i.e. in round numbers, about sixty miles. Ezion-gaber, consequently, may lie a little more or less than that distance from Sinai, because the day's journeys, which the monks speak of, are not, perhaps, to be considered as ordinary and common ones, but such as are made in haste, that the fish may arrive in good condition. In Pococke's Description of the East, p. 157, Ezion-gaber is placed to the S.E. of Eloth, and at two or three miles only from it; which, I presume, cannot be admitted. For, as Eloth itself is situated upon the point of the gulph, Ezion-gaber, by lying to the S.E. of it, would belong to the land of Midian; whereas Ezion-gaber was undoubtedly a seaport in the land of Edom, as we learn from the authorities above related, viz. where king Solomon is said to have made a navy of ships in Ezion-gaber, which is אתּאאלות beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. Here it may be observed, that the word את eth, which we render beside, (viz. Eloth) should be rendered, together with Eloth; not denoting any vicinity betwixt them, but that they were both of them ports of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom." See Dr. Shaw's Travels, p. 322.

BENSON, "Numbers 33:35. Ezion-gaber — A seaport town situated on the Red sea, in the land of Edom, near Arabia Felix, Deuteronomy 2:8; 2 Chronicles 8:17. All the encampments, from Numbers 33:16 to this place, were wanderings backward again toward the Red sea, for thirty-eight years together. They were led to and fro, backward and forward, 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, (Deuteronomy 32:10,) and yet led them the right way, Psalms 107:7. The way God takes in bringing his people to himself is always the best way, all circumstances considered, although it does not always appear to us the nearest way, and is often a way in which the Lord would not have led us, unless to chastise us for our sins, and save us from the love of them.

WHEDON, " 35. Ezion-gaber — The giant’s backbone, so called from the head of a mountain that runs out into a point. It is the name of a seaport at the northeast end of the Elanitic Gulf, not far from Elath. Says Stanley, “There is nothing to fix its site.” Kiepert’s map (in Robinson, 1856) locates it at Ain el-Ghudyan, about ten miles up what is now the dry bed of the ‘Arabah, supposed to have been anciently covered by the waters of the Gulf. Numbers 14:25, note. Here the Israelites, in the

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times of Solomon and Jehoshaphat, built a fleet to sail to Ophir. 1 Kings 9:26; 1 Kings 22:49, notes.

PULPIT, "Ezion-gaber, or rather "Etsion-geber," the "giant's backbone." This can hardly be other than the place mentioned in 1 Kings 9:26; 2 Chronicles 8:17 as the harbour of King Solomon's merchant navy. At this later date it was at the head of the navigable waters of the Elanitic Gulf, but considerable changes have taken place in the shore line since the age of Solomon, and no doubt similar changes took place before. It was known to, and at times occupied by, the Egyptians, and the wretched village which occupies the site is still called Aszium by the Arabs. The name itself would seem to be due to some peculiar rock formation—probably the serrated crest either of a neighbouring mountain or of a half-submerged reef.

36 They left Ezion Geber and camped at Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.

CLARKE, "Zin, which is Kadesh - A place remarkable for the death of Miriam the prophetess, and bringing water out of the rock. As this place was on the borders of Edom, the Israelites, being denied permission to pass through their land, which lay on the direct road to the promised land, were obliged to turn to the right to Mount Hor, now called Accaba by the Arabs.

Stat. 33.WHEDON, " 36. Wilderness of Zin — Numbers 13:21, note. Kadesh is said to have been situated also in the wilderness of Paran. Numbers 13:26. To explain this difficulty there are three hypotheses: (1.) That there were two Kadeshes or “holy places.” (2.) That the name applied to a city and to an extensive region, as does New York. (3.) That Kadesh was on the border of both Paran and Zin. It is the theory of Fries, Hengstenberg, Keil, Kurtz, Raumer, Robinson, and others that the Israelites were at Kadesh once in the second, and again in the fortieth year of their wanderings. Numbers 20:16; Joshua 10:41, notes.

37 They left Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, 68

on the border of Edom.

CLARKE, "Hor - Famous for the death of Aaron. See on Numbers 20 (note). Perhaps Moseroth or Mosera, Num_33:30 (note), was a village near this mountain.

Stat. 34.WHEDON, " 37. Pitched in mount Hor — On the slopes at its base. Numbers 20:22, note and cut. The place is called Mosera, Numbers 33:30, note.The edge of… Edom — Numbers 20:14-21, notes.

PETT, " ‘And they journeyed from Kadesh, and encamped in mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom.’The forty years being over Moses brought Israel back to Kadesh. This, as it were, re-established the journey from Egypt and discounted all that had gone between this and the last visit to Kadesh. The journey now began towards the eastern border of Canaan. This would take them round the Dead Sea and up its eastern side. Thus they set off from Kadesh and reached Mount Hor, which was near Moserah, on the border of the land of Edom. See for this 20:22.

38 At the Lord’s command Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor, where he died on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt.

GILL, "And Aaron the priest went up into Mount Hor, at the commandment of the Lord,.... Delivered to Moses: and died there in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of Egypt; not being suffered to go with them into the land of Canaan, because of his sin of unbelief at Kadesh, the last place from whence they

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came: in Mount Hor he died: on the first day of the fifth month; the month Ab, answering to part of July and part of August; so that he lived but four months after his sister Miriam; see Num_20:1.

BENSON, "Numbers 33:38. Aaron went up at the commandment of the Lord, and died — Good men’s goings are ordered of the Lord, and a peculiar providence, watching over all their concerns, appoints the time and place of their death. Let us go on in the way of duty, and leave it to him to call us hence, when, and where, and how he pleases.

TRAPP, "Numbers 33:38 And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of the LORD, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first [day] of the fifth month.Ver. 38. And died there in the fortieth year.]“ Nec te tua plurima PentheuLabentem texit pietas. ”The righteous die as well as the wicked, yea, the righteous oft before the wicked: Wκυμοροι οι θεοφιλεις. God sends his servants to bed when they have done their work, as here he did Aaron; and as within these few days he hath done, to mine unspeakable loss and grief, my dearest brother and most faithful friend, Mr Thomas Jackson, that able and active instrument of God’s glory, while he lived, in the work of the ministry at Gloucester; the sad report of whose death, received whilst I was writing these things, made the pen, almost, fall out of my fingers, not for my own sake so much as for my country, whereof he was, I may truly say, the bulwark and the beauty, as Ambrose is said to have been "the walls of Italy": {a} Aμβροσιον οιδα μονον Eπισκοπον αξιως καλουμενον, said Theodosius; Ambrose, whilst alive, was the only minister, to speak of, that I knew in the whole country. And dilexi virum, qui cum corpore solveretur, magis de ecclesiarum statu, quam de suis periculis angebatur, said the same emperor of the same Ambrose; I could not but love the man, for that when he died, his care was more for the churches’ welfare than for his own. I can safely say the same of the man in speech, without offence to any be it spoken; and I greatly fear lest, as the death of Ambrose forebode the ruin of Italy, so that it bodes no good to us, that God pulls such props and pillars out of our building. But this by way of digression, to satisfy my great grief for so dear a friend deceased, as David did for his brother Jonathan, and made him an epitaph. [2 Samuel 1:17] PETT, "Verse 38-39

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‘And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of Yahweh, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first day of the month. And Aaron was a hundred and twenty and three years old when he died in mount Hor.’It was on Mount Hor that Aaron was to die ‘at the commandment of Yahweh’, the Lord of life and death. This was almost exactly forty years since they had left Egypt, and was on the first day of the fifth month (they had left Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month). He died at the age of one hundred and twenty three. At first sight this appears to be an exact number, but it may simply be one hundred and twenty (three generations - a man of this age in fact often called himself ‘three’) plus three for completeness. Being older than Moses who would shortly die at ‘one hundred and twenty’ (Deuteronomy 34:7) the three indicated that he was the elder brother. Moses had had three periods of life, life in Egypt, life among the Midianites, and the period of deliverance, each of which could be seen as ‘a generation’ (idealistically forty years).The mention of his long life here and not earlier was because earlier his sins were still in mind. Now that that has been dealt with Aaron could be given his final accolade. To the ancients his length of life would be seen as evidence of his righteousness. It was evidence that he had been pleasing to Yahweh.

PULPIT, "In the fortieth year … in the first day of the fifth month. This is the only place where the date of Aaron's death is given. It is in strict accordance with the Divine intimation that Israel was to wander forty years in the wilderness (Numbers 14:33, Numbers 14:34), that period being understood, according to the usual mercy of God, which shortens the days of evil, to include the time already spent in the wilderness.

39 Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.

GILL, "And Aaron was one hundred and twenty three years old when he died in Mount Hor. He was eighty three when he stood before Pharaoh, Exo_7:7, and forty years he had been with Israel since, which make this number; he was three years older than Moses.

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CALVIN, "39.And Aaron was an hundred and twenty and three years old. It is not without reason that the great age of Aaron is expressly stated, inasmuch as his life had been prolonged to an unusual period, for the good of the people. At the age of an hundred he had already exceeded the ordinary extent of life; whereas, by God’s extraordinary blessing, he survived until the people were about to pass into the promised land. Hence their ingratitude was the more base in not acknowledging this paternal care of God, since it was for their advantage that He preserved so long the minister of His grace.PULPIT, "An hundred and twenty and three years old. He had been eighty-three years old when he first stood before Pharaoh, forty years before (Exodus 7:7).

40 The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev of Canaan, heard that the Israelites were coming.

GILL, "And King Arad the Canaanite,.... Or the king of Arad the Canaanite: which dwelt in the land of Canaan, he heard of the coming of the children of Israel; towards the land of Canaan, in order to possess it, and he came out and fought with them, and was vanquished; see Num_21:1, this was when Israel was at Mount Hor; from whence they departed to Zalmonah, twenty eight miles from the mount; and from thence to Punon, which was twenty more; and so to Oboth, which was twenty four miles from Punon: and thence to Ijeabarim, in the border of Moab, which was sixteen miles, see Num_21:9.CALVIN, "40.And king Arad the Canaanite. Although Moses gives no account of a battle, yet he briefly revives the recollection of the previous history; as much as to say, that in this part of their journey the Israelites at length met with their enemy, since they then began to fight with one of the nations of Canaan. In a word, the meaning is, that this was the beginning of their warfare, when the land which God had promised them as an inheritance was about to be occupied.

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PETT, "Verse 40‘And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the South in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.’At this same time had come the Canaanite king of Arad who, living in ‘the South’ (the Canaanite part of the Negeb, compare Genesis 12:9), had ‘heard of the coming of the children of Israel’ and hoped to drive them away (Numbers 21:1-3). There is, in the way that this is put, the indication that the arrival of Israel was news which put fear in the hearts of the Canaanites (compare Numbers 14:14; Deuteronomy 2:25; Exodus 15:14-16).Thus the writer deliberately once more puts us in touch with the history described earlier, which he has deliberately neglected in the middle section. History has, as it were recommencedVerses 41-43‘And they journeyed from mount Hor, and encamped in Zalmonah. And they journeyed from Zalmonah, and encamped in Punon. And they journeyed from Punon, and encamped in Oboth.’The middle two encampments are ignored in the history which speaks simply of moving from Mount Hor to Oboth (Numbers 21:4-11). But they were important as places where the Dwellingplace had been set up.PULPIT, "And king Arad … heard of the coming. See on Numbers 21:1. The introduction of this notice, for which there seems no motive, and which has no assignable connection with the context, is extremely perplexing. It is not simply a fragment which has slipped in by what we call accident (like Deuteronomy 10:6, Deuteronomy 10:7), for the longer statement in Numbers 21:1-3 occupies the same position in the historical narrative immediately after the death of Aaron. It is difficult to suppose that Moses wrote this verse and left it as it stands; it would rather seem as if a later hand had begun to copy out a statement from some earlier document—in which it had itself perhaps become misplaced—and had not gone on with it.

41 They left Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah.73

BARNES, "Num_33:41-49Zalmonah and Punon are stations on the Pilgrim’s road; and the general route is fairly ascertained by a comparison of these verses with Num_21:4, etc.CLARKE, "Zalmonah - Probably in the neighborhood of the land of Edom.

As צלם tselem signifies an image, this place probably had its name from the brazen serpent set up by Moses. See Num_21:9 (note), etc. From the same root the word telesm, corruptly called talisman, which signifies a consecrated image, is derived.

Stat. 35.

COKE, "Verse 41-42Numbers 33:41-42. Pitched in Zalmonah, &c.— Zalmonah and Punon are not mentioned in chap. Numbers 21:4 where it is said, that they journeyed from Hor—to compass the land of Edom; but we are not told where they pitched, which is here supplied. Zalmonah was, probably, so called from the brazen serpent which was there erected: it signifies an image.TRAPP, "Numbers 33:41 And they departed from mount Hor, and pitched in Zalmonah.Ver. 41. Pitched in Zalmonah.] Of Zelem; signifying an image; so called because there the people, stung by fiery serpents, not by little dragons sprung out of their own bodies, as Fontunius Licetus (a) will have it, looked up to the brazen serpent, by God’s command, and were healed. [Numbers 21:5; Numbers 21:9 John 3:16 1 Corinthians 10:9] PULPIT, "Zalmonah. This place is not elsewhere mentioned, and cannot be identified. Either this or Punon may be the encampment where the brazen serpent was set up; according to the Targum of Palestine it was the latter.

42 They left Zalmonah and camped at Punon.

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CLARKE, "Punon - A place in Idumea. Nowhere else mentioned.Stat. 36.

WHEDON, "42. Zalmonah — Probably Wady Ithm, which runs into the Arabah close to where Elath anciently stood. Punon is conjecturally identified with Phenan, a ruined castle on the caravan road east of Mount Seir.PULPIT, "Numbers 33:42Punon. Perhaps connected with the Pinon of Genesis 36:41. The Septuagint has φινώ, and it is identified by Eusebius and Jerome with Phaeno, a place between Petra and Zoar where convicts were sent to labour in the mines. Probably, however, the march of the Israelites lay further to the east, inasmuch as they scrupulously abstained from trespassing upon Edom.

43 They left Punon and camped at Oboth.CLARKE, "Oboth - Mentioned before, Num_21:10.

Stat. 37.

44 They left Oboth and camped at Iye Abarim, on the border of Moab.

CLARKE, "Ije-abarim - The heaps of Abarim. See Num_21:11. Situation uncertain. It is called Iim in the following verse. As the word signifies heaps or protuberances, it probably means tumuil or small hills near some of the fords of Jordan.

Stat. 38.PETT, "Verse 44‘And they journeyed from Oboth, and encamped in Iye-abarim, in the border of Moab.’

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For this compare Numbers 21:11. It is apparent that the list has the histories in mind.

45 They left Iye Abarim and camped at Dibon Gad.

CLARKE, "Dibon-gad - Supposed to be the same as Dibon, Num_32:34, and to be situated on the brook Arnon.

Stat. 39.GILL. "And they departed from Ijim, and pitched in Dibongad. Sixteen miles from Ijim; the remove from whence is said to be to the valley of Zared, Num_21:12 in which Dibongad was, so called perhaps because rebuilt by Gad afterwards.

COKE, "Numbers 33:45. They departed from Iim, and pitched in Dibon-gad— It is said, chap. Numbers 21:12 that they removed from thence, and pitched in the valley of Zared, near which, probably, Dibon-gad was situated. Most interpreters take Dibon-gad to be the same place which is called Dibon, and which fell to the portion of the Gadites, chap. Numbers 32:34 and is therefore called Dibon-gad, to distinguish it from another Dibon, which fell to the Reubenites, Joshua 13:17. But the context shews, that this Dibon was on the south side of Arnon, in the wilderness of Moab; whereas Dibon, both of the Gadites and Reubenites, was on the north side of that river. See Le Clerc.

ELLICOTT, " (45) From Iim.—Instead of the seven intermediate stations between Ijim, or Iie-abarim, and the plains of Moab, which are mentioned in Numbers 21:11-20, we find only three mentioned in this chapter: viz., Dibon of Gad, Almon-diblathaim, and Mount Abarim before Nebo, none of which agree in name with the stations mentioned in Numbers 21. In regard to the number of stations, the diversity may probably be explained on the supposition that Numbers 21 mentions those stations only which were of historical importance—as, e.g., those from which any military expedition was made—whilst Numbers 33 appears to mention every place in which an organised camp was erected, and in which the Tent of Meeting was

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formally set up. If this supposition be correct, no difficulty is involved in the fact that fewer stations are named between Mount Hor and Ije-abarim in Numbers 21 than in Numbers 33, whilst more stations are. named between Ije-abarim and Arboth-Moab in Numbers 33 than in Numbers 21. There is a further diversity, however, in the two accounts as regards the names of the intermediate stations between Ije-abarim and the plains of Moab. In respect of the stations between Mount Hor and Ije-abarim, if we suppose Zalmonah to have been the station at which the brazen serpent was set up (see Numbers 21:10, and Note), the difference between the two accounts consists only in the insertion in Numbers 33 of the station at Punon, between Zalmonah and Oboth. In respect of the stations, however, between Ije-abarim and Arboth-Moab there is not only a difference in the number, but also in the names of the stations. But this difference is easily accounted for when it is remembered that a host consisting of 600,000 men, with their wives, children, and cattle, must have extended over a large area, and, in the case of an inhabited country in which towns and villages abounded, may have occupied more than one of these at the same time. (Comp. Numbers 33:49, where the Israelites are represented as encamping “from Beth-jesimoth even unto Abel-shittim.”) Hence there is no difficulty in connecting the formal encampment at Dibon of Gad (Numbers 33:45) with some one or more of the stations on the north of the Arnon mentioned in Numbers 23:13-19, or in connecting Almon-diblathaim, which appears to have been situated on the north or north-west of Dibon (Comp. Jeremiah 48:22, where Beth-diblathaim is mentioned in conjunction with Dibon and Nebo) with Bamoth—i.e., heights—which, if identical with Bamoth-Baal (Numbers 22:4), is mentioned by Joshua (Joshua 13:17) in immediate connection with Dibon. In regard to the last station named in this chapter before the encampment in the plains of Moab—viz., “the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo”—there can be no doubt as to the identity of the station with that in “the valley in the country (or, field) of Moab, at the top of Pisgah,” in Numbers 21:20. According to Deuteronomy 34:1, Mount Nebo was a peak of Pisgah, which, as we learn from Deuteronomy 32:49, was one of the mountains of Abarim; and the place of the burial of Moses, who died upon the top of Pisgah, is described as “the valley”—i.e., the well-known valley—“in the land of Moab” (Deuteronomy 34:6).In Dibon-gad.—Or, Dibon of Gad. The reference is probably to the fact which has already been mentioned in Numbers 32:34, that the children of Gad rebuilt or fortified Dibon, which stood on the northern side of the river Arnon, and which is one of the towns named in Numbers 32:3 as situated in that portion of the country which the Reubenites and the Gadites desired to possess.

POOLE, "Iim, rather Ijim, i.e. the heaps, as the word signifies, even the heaps of Abarim, last mentioned; the Hebrew word is the same with Ije, Numbers 33:44, only there it is in the construed, and here in the absolute, form. Dibon-gad; so called partly by way of distinction of this from another Dibon, in the portion of Reuben, Joshua 13:17, and partly, because it was rebuilt by the tribe of Gad.

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WHEDON, " 45. Iim is Ije-abarim abbreviated.Dibon-gad — Dibon, rebuilt by the Gadites after the conquest of the land, (Numbers 32:3; Numbers 32:34, notes,) and allotted to Reuben.

PETT, "Verses 45-48‘And they journeyed from Iyim (a shortening of Iye-abarim), and encamped in Dibon-gad. And they journeyed from Dibon-gad, and encamped in Almon-diblathaim. And they journeyed from Almon-diblathaim, and encamped in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. And they journeyed from the mountains of Abarim, and encamped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho.’This contrasts with Numbers 21:12-13; Numbers 21:18-20 which says, ‘From there they journeyed, and encamped in the valley of Zered. From there they journeyed, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness, which comes out of the border of the Amorites -- and from the wilderness they journeyed to Mattanah, and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks towards Jeshimon (or ‘down on the desert’).’The difference probably lies in the purpose of the descriptions. These in Numbers 33 refer to the places where they encamped and set up the Dwellingplace (or in the early part the old Tent of Meeting - Exodus 33:7-11). Anywhere were the Dwellingplace was set up was special. That is possibly one reason for this list in Numbers 33. It indicated the march of Yahweh and where He stayed. Those in Numbers 21 refer to sites of well known interest, which were not necessarily campsites. Alternately the change of Dibon to Dibon-gad (Dibon of Gad) may suggest that these in Numbers 33 were the new names given by the children of Israel as in Numbers 32:38. That would explain why unexpectedly there was not a single similar name.(We must not make too much of these differences. The descriptions in chapter 21 only include two specific ‘place’ names, Mattanah and Nahaliel (and this latter simply means ‘the valley of God’). Bamoth is ‘the heights’, the river valley and mountain sites are general descriptions).

PULPIT, "Dibon-gad. This encampment may have been the same as that previously called by the name of Nabaliel or Bamoth (Numbers 21:19, and see on Numbers 33:34). Several stages are here passed over in the Itinerary. At a time when the conquest and partial occupation of large districts was going on, it would be hard to say what regular stages were made by the host as such (see note at end of chapter).

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46 They left Dibon Gad and camped at Almon Diblathaim.

CLARKE, "Almon-diblathaim - Situation not known. It belonged to the Moabites in the time of the prophet Jeremiah. Jer_48:22.

Stat. 40.GILL, "And they removed from Dibongad, and encamped in Almondiblathaim. Sixteen miles from Dibon, perhaps the same with Diblath, Eze_6:14, according to the account in Num_21:16, &c. they went from hence to Beer, a place where they found a well, which gave it this name; and several other removes are mentioned there, which are not here, and which, perhaps, were small removes, and not properly stations.

PULPIT, "Numbers 33:46Almon-diblathaim. Probably the same as the Beth-diblathaim mentioned in Jeremiah 48:22 as a Moabitish town contignous to Dibon, Nebo, and Kiriathaim. The name, which signifies "hiding-place of the two circles" or "cakes," was doubtless due either to some local legend, or more probably to the fanciful interpretation of some peculiar feature in the landscape.

47 They left Almon Diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, near Nebo.

CLARKE, "Mountains of Abarim, before Nebo - The mountain on which Moses died. They came to this place after the overthrow of the Amorites. See Numbers 21.

Stat. 41.GILL, "And they removed from Almondiblathaim, and pitched in the

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mountains of Abarim,.... Sixteen miles from Almondiblathaim; these were so called from passages near them over the river Jordan: and this station was pitched before Nebo; one of those mountains, whither Moses went up and died.

WHEDON, " 47. Almon-diblathaim is probably the same as Beth-diblathaim in Jeremiah 48:22, and is to be sought for to the north or north-west of Dibon.Abarim — Numbers 21:11; Numbers 21:20, notes. Nebo is only another name for the valley in the field of Moab upon the top of Pisgah, as is proved by the fact that, according to Deuteronomy 34:1; Deuteronomy 3:27; Deuteronomy 32:48, Nebo was a peak of Pisgah upon the mountains of Abarim; from which it is evident that Pisgah was a portion of the mountains of Abarim opposite to Jericho. Numbers 21:20, note.PULPIT, "Numbers 33:47The mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. The same locality is called "the top of Pisgah, which looketh toward the waste," in Numbers 21:20 (see note there, and at Numbers 27:12). Nebo is the name of a town here, as in Numbers 32:3, Numbers 32:38, and in the later books; in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 32:49; Deuteronomy 34:1) it is the name of the mountain, here included in the general designation Abarim.

48 They left the mountains of Abarim and camped on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

CLARKE, "The Plains of Moab - This was the scene of the transactions between Balaam and Balak; see Numbers 23, 24, 25.

Stat. 42.

GILL, "And they departed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains of Moab,.... Sixteen miles from Abarim, where all those things

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were transacted, which make the history of Balak and Balaam, Num_22:1and where the Israelites now were by Jordan near Jericho; not on that side Jordan where Jericho stood, but on the other; Jericho, according to Eusebius, was ten miles from Bethjesimoth, where Israel now were, as follows.

49 There on the plains of Moab they camped along the Jordan from Beth Jeshimoth to Abel Shittim.

CLARKE, "From Beth-jesimoth even unto Abel-shittim - The former of these places fell to the Reubenites, Jos_13:15-20. The Israelites were now come to the edge of Jordan, over against Jericho, where they afterwards passed.

For further information on the subject of these different encampments, the reader is requested to refer to the extracts from Dr. Shaw at the end of the book of Exodus.

GILL, "From Beth-jesimoth even unto Abel-shittim - The former of these places fell to the Reubenites, Jos_13:15-20. The Israelites were now come to the edge of Jordan, over against Jericho, where they afterwards passed.

For further information on the subject of these different encampments, the reader is requested to refer to the extracts from Dr. Shaw at the end of the book of Exodus.

COKE, "Numbers 33:49. They pitched by Jordan from Beth-jesimoth— A place where there was, probably, a temple to some deity; for beth, in composition, often signifies a temple, as Beth-peor, Beth-astaroth, Beth-baal Berith. Perhaps Jesimoth is the same with Jeshimon, chap. Numbers 21:20. Abel Shittim is called simply Shittim in chap. Numbers 25:1. This was the forty-second and last station. It is observable, says Dr. Shaw, that from mount Hor, the direction of their marches through Zalmonah, Punon, &c. seems to have been betwixt the north and north-east; for it does not appear that they wandered any more in the wilderness out of the direct way which was to conduct them through the country of Moab into the Land

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of Promise.REFLECTIONS.—At God's command, Moses is ordered to keep a journal of their marches; which is here published, that they might remember and adore the guardian hand of the Lord upon them in this dangerous road. Particular notice is taken of their departure from Egypt; they came out with a high hand, under the conduct of their divinely-appointed leaders, whilst the Egyptians were digging the graves of their children, and lamenting the desolation of their idols. Amidst all the dangers of the way, and the greater dangers of their sins, God safely conducted them through the dreary wilderness, and, after forty years of wandering, had brought them safe to the borders of the promised land; thence to look back on the places of their manifold provocations with shame, and forward to the land of promise with enlivened hope. Note; (1.) It is useful to keep a diary of God's mercies and providences, that they may be remembered for our own and others' comfort or direction. (2.) This world is the Christian's wilderness; many a long year he is called to wander to and fro in it; but being under Divine guidance, amidst all his winding steps, he is led by the right way, and is sure to arrive safe at last at the land of glory.

BENSON. "Numbers 33:49. Abel-shittim — The place where the people sinned in the matter of Peor, called simply Shittim, Numbers 25:1; but here Abel-shittim, for the grievous mourning (Abel signifying mourning) which was there, both for the heinous crimes committed, and the severe judgments inflicted. This was their forty-second and last station, before their entrance into Canaan, and here we left them in the last transactions of this history.POOLE, "Abel-shittim; called Shittim, Numbers 25:1, and here Abel-shittim, for the grievous mourning which there was both for the heinous crimes committed, and horrible judgments there inflicted.

WHEDON, "49. Beth-jesimoth — House of wastes. It was at the south end of the Jordan valley, the southern limit of the camp which stretched northward to Abel-shittim, or Shittim, or “acacia-groves,” which still remain, says Stanley, “marking with a line of verdure the upper terraces of the Jordan valley.” Joshua 2:1, note.

PETT, "Verse 49‘And they encamped by the Jordan, from Beth-jeshimoth even to Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab.’And finally they arrived in the plains of Moab and encamped between Beth-jeshimoth (House of the Deserts, near the north-east shore of the Dead Sea) and Abel-shittim (meadow or brook of Shittim). ‘Between the desert and the meadow/brook’ may be intended by the writer also to emphasise both from where

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they came (the wilderness), and where they now were (in a pleasant watered land). The journey was now over.

PULPIT, "From Beth-jesimoth even unto Abel-shittim. Beth-jesimoth, "house of the wastes," must have been very near the point where Jordan empties itself into the Dead Sea, on the verge of the salt desert which bounds that sea on the east. It formed the boundary of Sihon's kingdom at the south-west corner. Abel-shittim, "meadow of acacias," is better known by the abbreviated name "Shittim" (Numbers 25:1; Micah 6:5). Its exact site cannot be recovered, but the Talmud states that it was twelve miles north of the Jordan mouth. Probably the center of the camp was opposite to the great fords, and the road leading to Jericho.Note on the Two Lists of Stations Between Egypt and the JordanThere can be no question that the chief interest of the Itinerary here given is due to its literary character as a document containing elements at least of extreme and unquestioned antiquity. At the same time it is a matter of some importance to compare it with the history as given at large in Exodus and Numbers, and to note carefully the points of contact and divergence. It is evident at first sight that no pains have been taken to make the two lists of stages agree, each list containing several names which the other lacks, and (in some cases) each having a name of its own for what appears to be the same place. With respect to the latter point, the explanation usually given seems quite natural and satisfactory: the names were in many cases given by the Israelites themselves, and in others were derived from some small local peculiarity, or belonged to insignificant hamlets, so that the same encampment may very well have received one name in the official record of the movements of the tabernacle, and retained another in the popular recollection of the march. With respect to the former point, it may fairly be argued that the narrative only records as a rule the names of places where something memorable occurred, and indeed does not always mention the place even then, while the Itinerary is simply concerned with the consecutive encampments as such. It would be more correct to say that the narrative is essentially fragmentary, and does not purport to record more than certain incidents of the wanderings.We have, therefore, no difficulty in understanding why the Itinerary gives us the names of three stations between Egypt and Mount Sinai not mentioned in Exodus. There is much more difficulty with the ensuing notices, because the name of Kadesh only occurs once in the list, whereas it is absolutely necessary, in order to bring the narrative into any chronological sequence, to assume (what the narrative itself pretty clearly intimates) that there were two encampments at Kadesh, separated by an interval of more than thirty-eight years. It has accordingly been very generally agreed that the Rithmah of the Itinerary is identical with the nameless station "in the wilderness of Paran," afterwards called Kadesh in the narrative. This is of course an assumption which has only probabilities to support it, but it may fairly be said that there is nothing against it. The retem, or broom, is so common that it must

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have given a name to many different spots—a name too common, and possessing too few associations, to stand its ground in popular remembrance against any rival name (see note on verse 18). It has been argued by some that the whole of the twenty-one stages enumerated in verses 16-35 were made on the one journey from Sinai to Kadesh; and as far as the mere number goes there is nothing improbable in the supposition; the "eleven days" of Deuteronomy 1:2 are no doubt the days of ordinary travelers, not of women and children, flocks and herds. It is true that the supposition is commonly connected with a theory which throws the whole historical narrative into confusion, viz; that Israel spent only two years instead of forty in the wilderness; but that need not cause its rejection, for the whole thirty-eight may be intercalated between Deuteronomy 1:36 and Deuteronomy 1:37 of the Itinerary, and we could explain a total silence concerning the wanderings of those years better than we can the mention of (only) seventeen stations. The only serious difficulty is presented by the name Ezion-geber, which it is very difficult not to identify with the place of that name, so well known afterwards, at the head of the Elanitic Gulf; for it is impossible to find the last stage towards Kadesh at a spot as near to Sinai as to any of the supposed sites of Kadesh.It is of course possible that more than one place was known as the "giant's backbone;" but, on the other hand, the fact that at Moseroth Israel was near Mount Hor, and that they made five marches thence to Ezion-geber, is quite in accordance with the site usually assigned to it. It must remain, therefore, an unsettled point as to which nothing more can be said than that a balance of probabilities is in favour of the identification of Rithmah with the first encampment at Kadesh. Proceeding on this assumption, we have thereafter eleven names of stations concerning which nothing is known, and nothing can be with any profit conjectured. Then come four others which are evidently the same as those mentioned in Deuteronomy 10:6, Deuteronomy 10:7. That this latter passage is a fragment which has come into its present position (humanly speaking) by some accident of transcription does not admit of serious debate; but it is evidently a fragment of some ancient document, possibly of the very Itinerary of which we have only an abbreviation here. Comparing the two, we are met at once with the difficulty that Aaron is said to have died and been buried at Moserah, whereas, according to the narrative and the Itinerary, he died on Mount Hor during the last journey from Kadesh. This is not unnaturally explained by assuming that the official name of the encampment under, or opposite to, Mount Hor, from which Aaron ascended the mountain to die, was Moserah or Moseroth, and that the Israelites were twice encamped there—once on their way to Ezion-geber and back to Kadesh, and again on the last march round Edom, to which the fragment in Deuteronomy refers. There remain, however, unexplained the singular facts—1. That the station where Aaron died is called Moserah in Deuteronomy 10:6, whereas it is called Mount Hor not only in the narrative, but in the Itinerary, which nevertheless does give the name Moseroth to this very station when occupied on a previous occasion.

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2. That the fragment gives Bene-Jaakan, Moseroth, Gudgod, and Jotbath as stages on the last journey, whereas the Itinerary gives them (the order of the first two being inverted) as stages on a previous journey, and gives other names for the encampments of the last journey. There is no doubt room for all four, and more besides, between Mount Hor and Oboth; but it cannot be denied that there is an appearance of error either in the fragment or in the Itinerary.A further objection has been made to the statement that Israel marched from Ezion-geber to Kadesh, both on the score of distance and of the apparent absurdity of returning to Kadesh only to retrace their steps once more. It is repliedLastly, with respect to the names which occur after Ije-abarim, we have again an almost total want of coincidence with this peculiarity, that the narrative gives seven names where the Itinerary only gives three. It must, however, be remembered that the whole distance from the brook of Arnon, where the Israelites crossed it, to the Arboth Moab is only thirty miles in a straight line. Over this short distance it is quite likely that the armies of Israel moved in lines more or less parallel, the tabernacle probably only shifting its place as the general advance made it desirable. That the two accounts are based on different documents, or drawn from different sources, is likely enough; but both may nevertheless be equally correct. If one record was kept by Eleazar, and another by Joshua, the apparent disagreement may be readily explained.

50 On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho the Lord said to Moses,

BARNES 50-56, "The expulsion of the Canaanites and the destruction of their monuments of idolatry had been already enjoined (see the marginal references); and Num_33:54 is substantially a repetition from Exo. 26:53-55. But the solemn warning of Num_33:55-56 is new. A call for it had been furnished by their past transgressions in the matter of Baal-peor, and by their imperfect fulfillment, at the first, of Moses’ orders in the Midianite war.

GILL, "And the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan, near Jericho,.... See Gill on Num_33:48; see Gill on Num_22:1,

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JAMISON 50-53, "ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you — not, however, by expulsion, but extermination (Deu_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.

K&D 50-56, "These instructions, with which the eyes of the Israelites were directed to the end of all their wandering, viz., the possession of the promised land, are arranged in two sections by longer introductory formulas (Num_33:50 and Num_35:1). The former contains the divine commands (a) with regard to the extermination of the Canaanites and their idolatry, and the division of the land among the tribes of Israel (Num_33:50-56); (b) concerning the boundaries of Canaan (Num_34:1-15); (c) concerning the men who were to divide the land (Num_34:16-29). The second contains commands (a) respecting the towns to be given up to the Levites (Num_35:1-8); (b) as to the setting apart of cities of refuge for unintentional manslayers, and the course to be adopted in relation to such manslayers (Num 35:9-34); and (c) a law concerning the marrying of heiresses within their own tribes (Num_36:1-13). - The careful dovetailing of all these legal regulations by separate introductory formulas, is a distinct proof that the section Num_33:50-56 is not to be regarded, as Baumgarten, Knobel, and others suppose, in accordance with the traditional division of the chapters, as an appendix or admonitory conclusion to the list of stations, but as the general legal foundation for the more minute instructions in Num 34-36.Num_33:50-56

Command to Exterminate the Canaanites, and Divide their Land among the Families of Israel.

CALVIN, "50.And the Lord spake unto Moses. The end and design of God in willing that these nations should be expelled, I have elsewhere explained, (226) viz, lest they should adulterate the pure worship of God by their admixtures, should corrupt the people by their bad examples, and thus be pollutions to the Holy Land. But Moses now refers to another point, for, when about to speak of the division of the land, he begins by saying that it must be emptied of its inhabitants, that its free and full enjoyment may remain for the children of Israel. We must remark the connection here, for else this passage would have been a supplement of the First Commandment, to which I have indeed appended the latter part of the verse: but, since God declares connectedly, “Ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein, for I have given you the land to possess it,” it would have been absurd that one clause should be disjoined from the other.

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COFFMAN, "THE BALANCE OF THE TEXT OF THIS CHAPTER"And Jehovah spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan of Jericho, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places: and ye shall take possession of the land, and dwell therein; for unto you have I given the land to possess it. And ye shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer thou shalt give the less inheritance: wheresoever the lot falleth to any man, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers shall ye inherit. But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then shall those that ye let remain of them be as pricks in your eyes, and as thorns in your sides, and they shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. And it shall come to pass, that, as I thought to do unto them, so will I do unto you."This directive effectually ordered the extermination of the Canaanites whom Israel was commissioned to destroy and to possess their land. Men may scream about this if they wish; but it was altogether a just and necessary condition of Israel's achievement of what God intended through them."Think of all the innocent people and little babies this condemned to death!" All right, let's think of them. Their culture had become so vile, so reprobate and contrary to God's will, that it was impossible for little children to be reared in such an environment in such a manner as to allow any possibility of their pleasing their Creator! Their whole civilization was out of control and justly consigned to destruction. As for the innocents and little children, Christ himself would take care of their redemption in the times and manner known to himself; and it was a mercy for them (in their depraved environment) to die. Furthermore, another phase of this often overlooked is that the vast majority of Adam's race at that time were approaching a stage of wickedness, if indeed they had not already reached it, in which they deserved the same fate as the antediluvians who were totally removed by the Great Deluge. What a mercy it was, therefore, on the part of God, that he would continue the vast majority of Adam's evil race as they were, but destroy only that portion of it that was necessary to provide a haven for the Chosen Race, through whom the hopes of all mankind were eventually to be delivered in the person of the holy Christ!The only shameful thing about this commission to destroy the Canaanites was that Israel refused to do it, and in that alone lay their own total failure at last. Why did they not do it?(1) The custom of the times allowed captured peoples to be used as slaves. It is not hard to see how Israel reacted to that.

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(2) The lust of Israel was aroused and captured by the allurement of vast numbers of women, many of whom no doubt were persons of great physical beauty and attractiveness.(3) There were still remnants of the old pagan superstitions in Israel as revealed in Stephen's valedictory in Acts 7, and, in the case of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, those pagan traditions went back to the very roots of their tribes. Rachel herself seems to have been, at least partially, an idolater, as witnessed by her stealing the gods ([~teraphiym]) of Laban; and Joseph married the daughter of the Egyptian Priest of On, and it is exceedingly likely that from these pagan roots, there eventually flowered the full paganism of the Northern Israel as denounced by all the minor prophets.(4) Added to all of this, the natural revulsion of normal human beings against taking the lives of vast numbers of helpless and defeated peoples must have entered unto Israel's utter failure to follow the Divine instructions here given.(5) And, in addition to all this, the deployment of two and a half tribes of Israel east of Jordan robbed Israel of sufficient strength to have disposed of this commission quickly and efficiently."Demolish all their high places ..." (Numbers 33:52). Orlinsky gave the meaning of "high places" in this verse as, "cult places."[14] These were sex-oriented shrines erected under any convenient grove of trees or upon any hill-top eminence, and were characterized by the most depraved acts of orgiastic sex and perversion. The shameful immorality was rationalized as the "worship" of the Baalim (the gods of the land), the theory being that the sexual practices in those cultic centers was a form of "procuring the help of the gods in the production of fruitful harvests." Of course, this destruction of that kind of worship was the absolute necessity that underlay God's order to exterminate the Canaanites. The subsequent history of Northern Israel, and later, that of the Southern Israel also, afford an overwhelming demonstration of just how absolutely necessary such an order of extermination really was, and just what a wretched tragedy overwhelmed Israel because they failed to obey it!Israel was commanded to drive out all of the inhabitants of the land. It was not enough for them to clear off enough land where they could exist. They were to take complete control of it for their God. God would not share this land with any other gods.[15]"Jehovah spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab ..." (Numbers 33:50). Repeatedly, we find the solemn affirmation God Himself is the author of the commandments given to Israel in the Pentateuch; and yet this is precisely the fact that many alleged "scholars" deny and contradict. Of such claims in this chapter, for example, Wade remarked that such citations, "Can at most imply that the writer used some writing

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which he attributed to Moses."[16] Such snide and arrogant denials are part and parcel of that found in Genesis where Satan said, "Ye shall not surely die." No proof is offered; none is available; unbelievers need no proof; the fountain of unbelief is within themselves. As Whitelaw declared, "Of this document containing this itinerary, there can be no question that we have here elements of extreme and unquestioned antiquity."[17] In this light, by what authority can any man deny that Moses is the author of it? Indeed, who but Moses could have provided this? Why do not the critics busy themselves with finding out who wrote the diary of Julius Caesar, or the journal of Columbus, or the travels of Marco Polo? They could have a lot better luck on tasks like that!We should not leave this chapter without observing that this and the final three chapters of Numbers are actually interim preparations for the crossing of Jordan, although, of course, the actual entry into Canaan will be related only after a number of Moses' final words to the people have been given in the Book of Deuteronomy.

COKE, "Verses 50-52Numbers 33:50-52. The Lord spake—ye shall drive out— i.e. Entirely root out and destroy the inhabitants, for their idolatry and abominable vices, Exodus 23:33. Deuteronomy 20:16; Deuteronomy 20:20. As they were shortly to pass into the promised land, God commands Moses to give the Israelites a general but strict notice, how they should treat the inhabitants of that land, as the instruments of his just providence in the punishment of their long and incurable course of wickedness; and for preventing themselves from being tainted and misled, by their vicious example, into any superstitious practices. See this command, delivered by Moses, Deuteronomy 7:1; Deuteronomy 7:26. Respecting the word pictures, and their images and high places, see Leviticus 1:17 and Exodus 23:24.

BENSON, "Verses 50-52Numbers 33:50-52. Ye shall drive out all the inhabitants — They were to be entirely rooted out, that the Israelites might not be seduced by their abominable idolatries, Exodus 23:33; Deuteronomy 20:16-18. And destroy all their pictures — Which seem to have been stones curiously engraven and set up for worship, Deuteronomy 16:22. Destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places — The chapels, altars, groves, or other means of worship here set up.PULPIT, "Numbers 33:50And the Lord spake. It is quite obvious that a new section begins here, closely connected, not with the Itinerary which precedes it, but with the delimitation which follows. The formula which introduces the present command is repeated in Numbers 35:1, and again in the last verse of Numbers 36:1-13, thus giving a

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character of its own to this concluding portion of the Book, and to some extent isolating it from the rest.

WHEDON, "Verses 50-52THE COMMAND TO EXTERMINATE THE CANAANITES, AND TO DISTRIBUTE THEIR LAND. Numbers 33:50 to Numbers 34:29.52. Destroy all their pictures — Literally, idols of stone, R.V., “figured stones.” Painting is the product of a more advanced civilization.Molten images — Idols cast from brass. This verse is not to be construed as a charter for universal iconoclasm. In the case of Israel, strongly inclined to idolatry, this was the only safe course.PARKER, " ThoroughnessNumbers 33:50-56The subject is evidently thoroughness. Do the work completely—root and branch, in and out, so that there may be no mistake as to earnestness; and the result shall be security, peace, contentment;—Do the work partially—half and half, perfunctorily; and the end shall be disappointment, vexation, and ruin. Causes have effects; work is followed by consequences. Do not suppose that you can turn away the law of causation and consequence. Things are settled and decreed before you begin the work. There is no cloud upon the covenant, no ambiguity in its terms. He is faithful who hath promised—faithful to give blessing, and faithful to inflict penalty. Faithfulness in God is not a one-sided quality or virtue. Do not fear to call God "Judge." We mistake and misapply the term when we think of it only in its vengeful aspect. To "judge" is to do right. God will "judge the fatherless and the widow," God will "judge" every worker. He will come into the Canaan which he has appointed to us, and see whether we have done the work thoroughly or only partially; if thoroughly, Canaan will be as heaven; if partially and selfishly, then the very land of promise shall become the land of disappointment. It is well the words were spoken before the work began. There is no after-thought with God. Hell is not a recent invention of Omnipotence: it is as old as right and wrong. Let us have no affectation of surprise, no falling-back as from uncalculated violence; the covenant is written in plain ink, uttered in distinct terms—so written, so uttered, that the wayfaring man need not err.There was so much to be undone in the Canaan that was promised. It is this negative work which tries our patience, and puts our faith to severe tests. We meet it everywhere. The colonist has to subdue the country, take down much that is already put up, root out the trees, destroy the beasts of prey, and do much that is of a merely negative kind, before he begins to sow corn, to reap harvests, and to build a secure

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homestead. This is the case in all the relations of life. The weed is not the green thing on the surface; that is only the signal that the weed is underneath. The work that has to be done is a work of eradication. The weed must be torn up by its every fibre. We are apt to lop off the top, and think we have completed the work of destruction. We must learn the meaning of the word eradication—the getting out of the root, the sinking right down to the very farthest point of residence, and then having no pity, but pulling out the weed, not for the sake of destruction, but to make room for a flower that shall please the very vision of God. But the colonist is a character of whom we know little. The illustration by being so remote does not immediately touch our life; but an illustration can be drawn from our own experience and conduct. In the work of education, for example, how much has to be undone! When the first thing the teacher has to do is to destroy a man"s supposed Wisdom of Solomon , he encounters the most obstinate hostility of the man. The student comes with lines that have pleased him, with conclusions which he thinks established, and with processes of accomplishing results which he regards as perfect. Solemn is the work of the teacher, even to pathos and tears, when the first thing he has to do with the young man is to tell him that he cannot speak his mother-tongue. At home he was quite an idol in the family; they considered him a paragon; they called upon him to recite his poems and to display his talents, and he answered the challenge in gay response; and now some learned chief in the temple of wisdom tells him that he does not know how to utter the alphabet of his mother-tongue; he battles with him over the very first letter: he will not have it so pronounced but quite otherwise; he will have the alphabet reconstructed as to tone, colour, fire; and, in the end, he who thought himself so excellent in speech will deliver himself in a tongue which will be foreign to those at home. This holds good in nearly every department of education. There is so much to be undone: so many prejudices have to be conquered, so many evil habits have to be eradicated, like the weed we would not spare; so that, at the end of a few months, when idolatrous friends ask how the young student is advancing, they find that he is actually worse at the end of six months than he was when he went to be taught. So he Isaiah , in a certain sense. But we must not punctuate processes by our impatience: we must await the issue; and when the educator says, "It is finished," we may pronounce the word of judgment.The theory of the Bible is that it has to encounter a human nature that is altogether wrong. It is not our business, at this point, to ask how far that theory is true. The Bible itself proceeds upon the assumption that "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;" "There is none righteous, no, not one;" "God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions;" there is none that doeth good, no, not one; the whole head and the whole heart are not righteous or true before God. That being the theory of the Bible, see what it proposes to do. What iconoclasm it must first accomplish! How it must swing its terrific arms in the temples of our idolatry and in the whole circuit of our life, breaking, destroying, burning, casting out, overturning, overturning! What is it doing? It is preparing; it is doing the work of a pioneer; it is uttering the voice of a herald. Mark the audacity of the Book! It speaks no flattering word, never uncovers before any Prayer of Manasseh , bids every man go wash and be clean. A book

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coming before society with so bold a proposition must expect to be encountered with resolute obstinacy. If we suppose we are ready-made to the hand of God, to be turned in any direction he is pleased to adopt, we begin upon a false basis; our theory is wrong, and our conception will lead us to proportionate disappointment. God has to do with a fallen intelligence; an apostate heart, a selfish will; and, therefore, he undertakes much negative work before he can begin constructive processes What a temptation there Isaiah , however, to reserve something. Point to one instance in all the Biblical history in which a man actually and perfectly accomplished the divine will in this matter of destruction. A good deal of destruction was accomplished, unquestionably; but was there nothing left? "What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" The temptation to reserve something is very strong. Take it as a matter of old companionship. It does seem to be ruthless to cut off the old comrades as with the blow of a sword. They do not understand the process of excision; they say,—We can still be friends; you have changed your theological convictions and your religious standpoint: you attend church, you pay respect to the altar, you read the Bible with a new attentiveness,—let it all be granted; but surely there is neutral ground: there are occupations that are not directly touched by the religious sanctities; surely we need not wholly separate one from another, as if we had never seen each other"s face? Such a plea is not without tenderness: there is a touch of humanity in it; but to the man who is earnestly religious before God there is no neutral ground, there is no secular occupation, there is no non-religious relation; the dew of the heavenly baptism has fallen upon all life, all duty, all suffering. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." We cannot clutch time with one hand and eternity with the other, in any sense of dividing them into secular and religious; we cannot serve God and Mammon. Then take the thought in relation to old places, where we used to spend the happy evening, where the recreation was innocent and, in a sense, helpful, reinvigorating jaded faculties, and giving a new start to weary or exhausted impulses. Why not look in just once more, or now and then,—say, annually, on particular occasions, when the men are at their best and the institution is in state? It will look friendly; in fact, we may do good by some such arrangement, because we shall show that we are not Pharisees and pedants; we have not betaken ourselves to a monastic life, but we can return to old places and old associations, and breathe upon them a new spirit. The reasoning is specious: there is no doubt about its plausibility; but take care how you carry a naked candle into a high wind; take care lest the battle should go the other way. It is dangerous for immature experience to expose itself to rooted prejudices and established habits. There is a time in the growth of some lives when a loud laugh may blow out the trembling light of a young profession. Our language, therefore, must be that of caution; the exhortation, charged with tenderness, must begin with the words, "My Song of Solomon ," and flow out in most sacred and persuasive emotion. It is not enough to adjure, to hurl the bolt of avenging judgment: we must wrestle and reason and pray.The words of the text are complete in their force and range. In many a life, great improvement takes place without eradication being perfected. We are not called in

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the Bible merely to make great improvement. That is what we have been trying to do by our own strength and wit, and which we have always failed in doing. Nowhere do the sacred writers encourage us to make considerable advance upon our old selves. The exhortation of the Bible is vital. Suppose a man should have been addicted to the meanest of all vices—the vice of lying, the vice that God can hardly cure,—that last deep dye that the blood of God"s own Christ"s heart can hardly get at, that defies the very detergents of heaven;—suppose such a man should lie less, is he less a liar? Suppose he should cease the vulgarity of falsehood and betake himself to the refinement of deceit, has he improved? Rather, he has aggravated the first offence—multiplied by infinite aggravations the conditions which first constituted his character. Suppose he should neither lie nor deceive on any great scale, but should betake himself to the act of speaking ambiguously—that is to say, using words in two senses, meaning the hearer to accept the words in one sense, whilst he construes them in another; he then becomes a verbal trickster, a conjurer in speech; he has mental reservations; he has a secret or esoteric backway by which he interprets to his own conscience the language which he uses in public and which he intends to be construed by public lexicography. Has he improved? He has gone to a deeper depth of evil. The vulgar criminal may be hopefully encountered; but the man who has twisted language, coloured and flushed with new significance terms which ought to have been pure in their meaning and direct in their intent; the man who trifles with the conscience and intelligence of his fellow-creatures, and does so in cold blood, is no black criminal: he is a skilled artist in the devil"s pay, and so far in that the divine finger can hardly touch his supposed security. Song of Solomon , we are not called to great improvements, to marvellous changes of a superficial kind: we are called to newness of birth, regeneration, the washing of the Holy Ghost, the renewal—the recreation of the inner man. "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." There is a great work of destruction to be done which we dare not undertake. You can never reason down many of the institutions of Christian countries which are at this moment mocking the sanctuary, and secretly laughing with jeers and bitterest sarcasm at Christianity. We must use force in relation to some institutions—not the force of the arm, which is the poorest of all strength, but the force of reasoned law, righteous legislation, laws made at the altar and sanctified by the very spirit of prayer. There are institutions in every nominally Christian city that can burn up any number of tracts, blow away any force of eloquence, turn aside any dart of argument. Nothing can touch them but the mighty arm of rational—that is to say, intelligent and righteous—legislation.Thoroughness gives confidence in all things. Take it in the matter of language. How many men know just enough of any language not to dare to speak it! How many persons know the first syllables of a word, but dare not commit themselves to a precise termination! The grammar lies where the sting lies, at the tail of the word. Song of Solomon , how we huddle up our terminations, broaden, or sharpen, or blur the final vowels, so that men may not know whether we have used the one vowel or the other, coming out with tremendous emphasis on the syllables about which there is no doubt. Thoroughness gives confidence. The man who understands the language in and out, through and through, speaks off-handedly, freely, with

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dignified carelessness; he knows that he is fully master of the language, and can speak it with a master"s ease. That is true in theology. If we do not believe our theology, we cannot preach it; if we do not believe the Gospel, we can only preach about the Gospel,—make complimentary references to it, set it in a very dignified place in the lyceum of intellect; but knowing it, we breathe it like a great healing, purifying wind over the whole earth, saying, "One thing I know: once I was blind,—now I see." Where are the Pharisees that can frighten us, or the critics that can displace our crown? Do not go beyond your own knowledge; keep strictly within the line of experience and living testimony; and then you will be Herculean in strength, Job -like in patience, Paul-like in heroism and courage.If not, punishments will come. If you will not do this, "those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell;"—they will tease you, excite you, irritate you; they will watch for the moments of your weakness, and tempt you into apostasy. What keen eyes the spared enemies have! Looking upon our life, they say,—Now a malign suggestion might be effected—try it; behold, he halts,—Now speak to him, and tell him that just near at hand is a place to which he may resort for the recruiting of his strength; listen! the old emphasis has gone out of his voice: he does not speak as he used to speak: his convictions are halting, faltering,—now say unto him, but gently,—"Where is thy God?" Take him up to an exceeding high mountain: show what he might be under given conditions. Lift him to the pinnacle of the temple, and show that it is possible for a man to hold churches and temples under his feet—to stand above them and to be more than they;—but speak it quietly, softly, as if you had his interest at heart, and, who knows? you may prevail. Has it, then, come to a battle of skill against skill, faculty against faculty? Nothing of the kind. On the Christian side it comes to a question of character. How is that character created and established? By the Spirit of the living God. We cannot explain the process. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." If we are to meet temptation by cleverness, it is impossible for any cleverness to rival the ingenuity of the devil; whenever it was a battle of words, the devil won; he is mighty in conversation, he is most excellent in speech. We can only oppose him by the higher Spirit—the divine Spirit, living in the heart, breathing in the soul, established in the character; so that when he cometh, he findeth nothing in us,—altar everywhere, prayer in all the spirit, righteousness at the foundations, and the whole man burning with the presence of the unconsuming fire. When Satan cometh, may he have nothing in us! Let us begin the work of destruction—tear the enemy out, cut him in pieces, and never repeat the habit. Do not say you will touch with the tips of your fingers the Old Canaanitish idols and temptations: say,—Lord of heaven and earth, make me a sword, and give me an arm to wield it; may I go forth as thy warrior, sparing nothing that is impure and unlike thyself. Do not attempt to build a Christian character upon rotten foundations. That is a miracle you cannot accomplish. Do not suppose you can heap up a great pile of noble theological dogmas upon rottenness and bog. The work is foundation work, vital work, work in the heart; and until that negative, iconoclastic work is done, we cannot begin to

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build. Overturn! overturn! overturn!—then He will come whose right it is.Selected NoteThe Israelites were delivered from Egypt by Moses, in order that they might take possession of the land which God had promised to their fathers. This country was then inhabited by the descendants of Canaan, who were divided into six or seven distinct nations. These nations the Israelites were commanded to dispossess and utterly to destroy. The destruction, however, was not to be accomplished at once. The promise on the part of God was that he would "put out those nations by little and little," and the command to the Israelites corresponded with it; the reason given being, "lest the beast of the field increase upon thee."The destructive war commenced with an attack on the Israelites, by Arad, king of the Canaanites, which issued in the destruction of several cities in the extreme south of Palestine, to which the name of Hormah was given ( Numbers 21:1-3). The Israelites, however, did not follow up this victory, which was simply the consequence of an unprovoked assault on them; but, turning back, and compassing the land of Edom, they attempted to pass through the country on the other side of the Jordan, inhabited by a tribe of the Amorites. Their passage being refused, and an attack made on them by Sihon, king of the Amorites, they not only forced their way through his land, but destroyed its inhabitants, and proceeding onwards toward the adjoining kingdom of Bashan, they in like manner destroyed the inhabitants of that district, and slew Og, their king, who was the last of the Rephaim, or giants. The tract of which they thus became possessed was subsequently allotted to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.PETT, "Verses 50-562). The Dividing Up Of The Land That Was Set Before Them (Numbers 33:50 to Numbers 34:29).Having arrived at the plains of Moab with the land visible over the Jordan, a preliminary indication of what would be expected of them, and what they might expect to receive, was now provided for them. This will be followed in Numbers 34 by a brief description of the land and the names of those who will divide it out between them. The picture is being dangled in front of their eyes of the prize that lies before them.Instruction Concerning Dividing Up The Land By Lot in the Future So That Each Man Has His Lot and For the Purifying of the Land (Numbers 33:50-56).a Introductory words of Yahweh (Numbers 33:50-51).b When they enter the land they are to drive out the inhabitants of the land

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(Numbers 33:50-52).c They are to take possession of the land (33:53).c They are to inherit the land by lot fairly, and each is to have his ‘lot’ (Numbers 33:54).b If they do not drive out the inhabitants of the land they will be a constant pain and trouble to them (Numbers 33:55).a Final warning of Yahweh (Numbers 33:56).There were two prongs to the requirements. One was that they were to receive the land by lot. It was theirs for the taking, and Yahweh Himself would dispose of it among them. And the second was that they must remember His word about driving out the Canaanites in their totality. The land must be purified from all the sin and idolatry that had been committed in it.Numbers 33:50‘And Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,’These are triumphant words. This time when Yahweh spoke to Moses it was on the very borders of the promised land. BI 50-56, "Ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you.The expulsion of the CanaanitesI. The imperative command.

1. To utterly expel the inhabitants of Canaan.2. To completely destroy all idolatrous objects and places.3. To equitably divide the land.4. The authority by which they were to do these things.

II. The solemn warning.1. Those whom they spared would become their tormentors. “Under these metaphors,” says Dr. A. Clarke, “the continual mischief that should be done to them, both in soul and body, by these idolaters, is set forth in a very expressive manner. What can be more vexatious than a continual goading of each side, so that the attempt to avoid the one throws the body more forcibly on the other? And what can be more distressing than a continual pricking in the eye, harassing the mind, tormenting the body, and extinguishing the sight?” “That which we are willing should tempt us we shall find will vex us.”

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2. The God whom they disobeyed would disinherit them. (W. Jones.)

The danger of allowing sinThe Israelites were now on the confines of the land of promise. So God speaks to them about the future, tells them what it was His will that they should do when they enclosed the land of promise, and what would be the consequence of disobedience. These, then, are the two points which we may consider—Israel’s calling, and the consequences of neglecting it.I. Israel’s calling. This was to drive out all the inhabitants of the land, to dispossess them, and themselves to dwell in it. If we view this with reference to the inhabitants themselves, we must regard it as the righteous judgment of God upon them on account of their sins. But we may also regard this visitation with reference to Israel, and then it will become evident that it was necessary for their safety. The Israelites themselves were so prone to fall away from God that their being surrounded by many idolatrous and degraded nations would be sure to lead them gradually away from Him. They would soon cease to be a separate people—a people consecrated to Jehovah. That little word “all” is very expressive. It shows that the judgment was to be universal. It proved the greatness of God’s care for Israel. It was also the test of Israel’s obedience; and it was a test, we know, which they did not stand. They substituted a partial for an unreserved obedience, and drove out same, but not all, the inhabitants of the land. We find a long list of Israel’s defects of obedience in Jdg_1:21. Now, in this, as in so many other points, Israel’s calling is typical of the Christian life. In what way? We often take Canaan to be a type of heaven. Yet it is easy to see that there are many points in which Canaan was no type of heaven; and one of these evidently was that whereas in heaven there will be no sin, no enemies, no temptations, in Canaan all these existed. In this point of view, then, Canaan was not a type of heaven, but rather of the Christian life now; and to that command, “Drive out all the inhabitants of the land, and dispossess them,” we shall find an analogous one, descriptive of the Christian calling, “Put off the old man with his deeds.” There is a principle of evil, called in Scripture the “old man,” which comprehends sinful desires and evil habits; and this we are called to dispossess of the land. The old man is daily to be put off, the new man to be put on. The old man, though nailed to the cross, is never utterly extinct until the earthly house of our tabernacle is exchanged for the “building of God, the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” The new man requires to be constantly strengthened by fresh gifts of the Spirit of God. When, then, God says, “Drive out all the inhabitants of the land,” it has a meaning for the Christian; and its meaning virtually is, “Mortify the old man,” crucify the whole body of sin. Do not spare any sin. Let all be resisted and overcome. Now, the old man is in no sense the same in every Christian. It is the principle of sin, the principle of self. In whatever heart it is, its nature is the same; but in other aspects it is not always the same—for instance, it is not always the same in its power. In one Christian it prevails much, in another more believing and watchful heart it is kept under control. Then, again, it is

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made up of different elements, and the elements which constitute it are not always the same in their proportions. Thus, the chief element in one case will be pride, in another self-righteousness, in another hypocrisy, in another vanity, in another temper, in another impurity. Sometimes two will appear together in intimate alliance, and those not unfrequently two very opposite evils. In endeavouring, then, to carry out the injunction, “Drive out all the inhabitants of the land,” it is important, on the one hand, that we should be aware of the element of the old man which is most prominent in it; and, on the other, that we should never forget that our besetting sin is not the only evil against which we have to contend, but against the old man as a whole.II. The consequences of neglecting this calling. We see it in Israel. They did not fulfil the command, “Drive out all the inhabitants of the land.” Most of the tribes allowed some to remain, whom they brought under tribute; in fact, with whom they made a league. The consequence was that those few inhabitants, though not powerful, caused them constant trouble; sometimes they seized an opportunity to attack them again; still oftener they proved a snare to them by leading them into sin, so that in the expressive language of Scripture they were “pricks in their eyes, and thorns in their sides.” Thus Israel’s sin was made their punishment. They spared those whom they ought not to have spared, and they suffered terribly in consequence. All this bears upon the Christian’s life. There is a deep mystery in the spiritual life. How wonderful it is that there should be two principles—two natures in perpetual warfare with each other in the Christian’s heart—the one of God, the product of the Spirit, the other of Satan, the result of the Fall; the one the ally of God, holding communion with Him, the other allied with the powers of darkness, an enemy in the camp ever ready to open the gates! It seems to be God’s purpose not to put His people at once and for ever beyond the reach of temptation, but to exercise their faith and patience, and to show the power of that Divine principle which His own grace has put into their hearts. Do not, then, be cast down when you are deeply and painfully conscious of this inward conflict. Take it as God’s appointment. Remember that it is to prove you, and that God proves you in mercy, to make you more than conqueror. But there is another point of view in which we must look at this. There are many cases in which this painful severity of conflict is owing, in great measure, to previous unfaithfulness to God. Suppose a person to have indulged in some sinful habit at any period of his life; it may be a want of truth, or impurity, or in any other sin, though the power of that sin will be broken by the entrance of the Spirit of God into the heart, yet it will cast its shadow long after it. The habitual sins of the unrenewed man are the snares and temptations of the renewed man. There is much of practical warning in this solemn truth. If ever you are tempted to indulge any sinful thought in your heart, remember that that indulgence will certainly find you out again. God may, in mercy, forgive it; but if He does so that act of unfaithfulness will bring bitterness into the soul, will prepare the way for new conflicts and temptations. We should cast ourselves wholly on Jesus for the forgiveness of all past and present sins, and for strength to drive out “every inhabitant of the land”—the old man, with all his deceitful lusts. (G. Wagner.)

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ThoroughnessThe subject is evidently thoroughness. Do the work completely—root and branch, in and out, so that there may be no mistake as to earnestness—and the result shall be security, peace, contentment; do the work partially—half and half, perfunctorily—and the end shall be disappointment, vexation, and ruin. Causes have effects; work is followed by consequences. Do not suppose that you can turn away the law of causation and consequence. Things are settled and decreed before you begin the work. There is no cloud upon the covenant, no ambiguity in its terms. He is faithful who hath promised—faithful to give blessing and faithful to inflict penalty. There was so much to be undone in the Canaan that was promised. It is this negative work which tries our patience and puts our faith to severe tests. We meet it everywhere. The colonist has to subdue the country, take down much that is already put up, root out the trees, destroy the beasts of prey, and do much that is of a merely negative kind, before he begins to sow corn, to reap harvests, and to build a secure homestead. This is the case in all the relations of life. The weed is not the green thing on the surface; that is only the signal that the weed is underneath. The work that has to be done is a work of eradication. The weed must be torn up by its every fibre. The theory of the Bible is that it has to encounter a human nature that is altogether wrong. It is not our business, at this point, to ask how far that theory is true. The Bible itself proceeds upon the assumption that “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way”; “There is none righteous, no, not one”; “God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions”; “there is none that doeth good, no, not one”; the whole head and the whole heart are not righteous or true before God. That being the theory of the Bible, see what it proposes to do. What iconoclasm it must first accomplish! How it must swing its terrific arms in the temples of our idolatry and in the whole circuit of our life, breaking, destroying, burning, casting out, overturning, overturning! What is it doing? It is preparing; it is doing the work of a pioneer; it is uttering the voice of a herald. Mark the audacity of the book! It speaks no flattering word, never uncovers before any man, bids every man go wash and be clean. A book coming before society with so bold a proposition must expect to be encountered with resolute obstinacy. If we suppose that we are ready-made to the hand of God, to be turned in any direction He is pleased to adopt, we begin upon a false basis; our theory is wrong, and our conception will lead us to proportionate disappointment. God has to do with a fallen intelligence, an apostate heart, a selfish will; and therefore He undertakes much negative work before He can begin constructive processes. What a temptation there is, however, to reserve something. Point to one instance in all the Biblical history in which a man actually and perfectly accomplished the Divine will in this matter of destruction. A good deal of destruction was accomplished, unquestionably; but was there nothing left? “What meaneth, then, this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” The temptation to reserve something is very strong. In many a life great improvement takes place without eradication being perfected. We are not

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called in the Bible merely to make great improvement. That is what we have been trying to do by our own strength and wit, and which we have always failed in doing. Nowhere do the sacred writers encourage us to make considerable advance upon our old selves. The exhortation of the Bible is vital. Suppose a man should have been addicted to the meanest of all vices—the vice of lying, the vice that God can hardly cure—suppose such a man should lie less, is be less a liar? Suppose he should cease the vulgarity of falsehood and betake himself to the refinement of deceit, has he improved? Bather, he has aggravated the first offence—multiplied by infinite aggravations the conditions which first constituted his character. So we are not called to great improvements, to marvellous changes of a superficial kind; we are called to newness of birth, regeneration, the washing of the Holy Ghost, the renewal the recreation of the inner man. If not, punishments will come. If you will not do this, “those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell”; they will tease you, excite you, irritate you; they will watch for the moments of your weakness, and tempt you into apostasy. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Unexpelled sin a thorn in the sideEvery one can trace in his own life how one unconquered sin becomes a thorn in the side. For ours also is commonly but a half-completed conquest. We have not made war upon our sin in its fastnesses and breeding-places, in the lurking-places of thought and of our habitual tone. We did not believe that happy was he who dashed the little ones against the stones; we did not grapple and put an end to the young things that grow up to be strong and subduing sins. We were not remorseless, did not rouse ourselves to take stern and extreme measures. But it is not enough to let sin alone so long as it does not violently molest us. If we know our own hearts at all, we know that sin may be lodging in them, and gathering strength, without making incursions that visibly devastate the life. And so it has come true in our experience that God has not driven out what we would not rouse ourselves to drive out, and our sin has become a thorn in our side. Again and again that thing we would not slay makes us cry out before God that life is not worth having if it is to be life with this sin. We may learn to wear the thorn under our garment, and go about smiling, as if there were not terrible havoc being made of our peace with God; we may wear it as the ascetic wears his spiked girdle under his frock; but it is there, reminding us by pain and misery and weakness of our slackness in cleansing our life. One sin thus excepted and overlooked cleaves to us and makes itself felt in all our life: not a day passes but something occurs to give it occasion; it is a thorn in our flesh, carried with us into all companies, cleaving to us at all times; our one inseparable; exasperating, saddening, heart-breaking in its pertinacity. (Marcus Dods, D. D.).

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51 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into Canaan,

GILL, "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,.... What was to be said, being what concerned the whole body of the people: when ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; near to which they now were, and Moses was about to leave them; and therefore it was the more necessary to give them some instructions and directions what they should do, when they were come into it.

K&D, "Num_33:51-53When the Israelites passed through the Jordan into the land of Canaan, they were to exterminate all the inhabitants of the land, and to destroy all the memorials of their idolatry; to take possession of the land and well

therein, for Jehovah had given it to them for a possession. הוִריׁש, to take possession of (Num_33:53, etc.), then to drive out of their possession, to exterminate (Num_33:52; cf. Num_14:12, etc.). On Num_33:52, see Exo_ַמֵּסֹכת .an idol of stone (cf. Lev_26:1) ,ַמְׂשִּכית .34:13 idols cast from ,ַצְלֵמיbrass. Massecah, see at Exo_32:4. Bamoth, altars of the Canaanites upon high places (see Lev_26:30).PETT, "Numbers 33:51-52“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places.”Their solemn duty on possessing the land is again stressed. They must drive out all the inhabitants of the land, and must destroy all tokens of idolatry and places for their worship (compare Numbers 32:21; Exodus 23:24-33; Exodus 34:10-14; Deuteronomy 7:2; Deuteronomy 7:5 and often). The land had to be cleansed by the driving out or destruction of all that offended Yahweh, for the iniquity of these nations had now reached overflowing (compare Genesis 15:16).

PULPIT, "When ye are passed over Jordan. Previous legislation had anticipated the time when they should have come into their own land (cf. Numbers 15:2; Le

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Numbers 23:10), but now the crossing of the river is spoken of as the last step on their journey home.

52 drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places.

CLARKE, "Ye shall - destroy all their pictures - maskiyotham, from משכיתם sachah, to be like, or resemble, either pictures, carved work, or שחהembroidery, as far as these things were employed to exhibit the abominations of idolatry. Molten images צלמי מסכתם tsalmey massechotham , metallic talismanical figures, made under certain constellations, and supposed in consequence to be possessed of some extraordinary influences and virtues.

GILL, "Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you,.... Not at once, but gradually; and the sense is, that they should use their utmost endeavours wholly to extirpate them: and destroy all their pictures; their idolatrous ones; the pictures of their gods, or the statues and figured stones of them: the Targum of Jonathan interprets it,"all the temples of their worship;''and the Jerusalem Targum,"all their idols;''so called, as Jarchi notes, because they covered the floor with a pavement of marble stones, to worship upon them by the stretching out of their hands and feet, according to Lev_26:1, and destroy all their molten images; of gold, silver, &c. and quite pluck down all their high places; their temples, groves, and altars built upon them.ELLICOTT, " (52) And destroy all their pictures.—The word which is here rendered “pictures” denotes “imagery,” or “engraved figures.” In Leviticus 26:1 the material named is stone—“a stone of imagery,” i.e., a stone which has been formed into an idol. (Comp. Exodus 34:13, where, however, a different word is used for “ images.”)

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All their high places.—Hebrew, bamoth. The reference here is probably to the altars which were frequently erected on the high places. (Comp. Numbers 22:41, where Balaam is brought by Balak “up into the high places of Baal.”)

TRAPP, "Numbers 33:52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:Ver. 52. Destroy all the pictures.] Those Balaam’s blocks, those excellent instruments of idolatry; such as was the cross of Hailes, and Cockram cross, which, if it would not serve to make a god, yet with a pair of horns clapped on his head, might make an excellent devil, as the mayor of Doncaster persuaded the men of Cockram, who came to him to complain of the joiner that made it, and refused to pay him his money for the making of it. (a)

POOLE, " Ye shall drive out; not by banishing, but by destroying them, as it is explained, Deuteronomy 7:1,2, and elsewhere. Their pictures seem to have been stones curiously engraven, and set up for worship. See Deuteronomy 16:22.Molten images. See Exodus 23:24,32 Deu 7:5.High places, i.e. by a metonymy, the chapels, altars, groves, or other means of worship there set up, for the hills themselves could not be destroyed by them. See Poole "Deuteronomy 12:2".

PULPIT, "Ye shall drive out. The Hebrew word (from ָיַרׁש ) is the same which is translated "dispossess" in the next verse. The Septuagint has in both eases ἀπολεῖτε, supplying (like the A.V.) the word "inhabitants" in Numbers 33:53. The Hebrew word, however, seems to have much the same sense as the English phrase "clear out," and is, therefore, equally applied to the land and the occupants of it. No doubt it implies extermination as a necessary condition of the clearance. Their pictures. ַמְׂשִּכֹּיָתם . Septuagint, τὰς σκοπιὰς αὐτῶν, (their outlooks, or high places). The Targums of Onkelos and Palestine have "the houses of their worship;" the Targum of Jerusalem has "their idols." The same word occurs in Le Numbers 26:1, in the phrase ֵאֶבן ַמְׂשִּכית, which is usually rendered "a stone image," i.e; a stone shaped into some likeness of man. If so, ַמְׂשִּכית by itself has probably the same meaning; at any rate it can hardly be "a picture," nor is there the least evidence that the art of painting was at all practiced among the rude tribes of' Canaan. The same word, maskith, is indeed found in Ezekiel 8:12 in connection with "gravings" (from ָחַקק ; cf. Isaiah 22:16; Isaiah 49:18 with Ezekiel 4:1; Ezekiel 23:14) on a wall; but even this belonged to a very different age. Their molten images, ַצְלֵמי ַמֵּסֹכָתם, "images cast of brass." Septuagint, τὰ εἰδωλα τὰ χονευτά. The word tselem is only elsewhere used in the Pentateuch for that "likeness'' which is reproduced in Divine creation

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(Genesis 1:26, Genesis 1:27; Genesis 9:6) or in human generation (Genesis 5:3); in the later books, however (especially in Daniel), it is freely used for idols. On "massakah," see on Exodus 32:4; Isaiah 30:22. Their high places. ָבמֹוָתם . See on Le 26:30. The Septuagint translates Bamoth in both places by στῆλαι, and of course it was not the high places themselves, which were simply certain prominent elevations, but the monuments (of whatever kind) which superstition had erected upon them, which were to be plucked down. As a fact, it would seem that the Jews, instead of obeying this command, appropriated the Bamoth to their own religious uses (cf. 1 Samuel 9:12; 1 Kings 3:2; Psalms 78:58, &c.). The natural result was, as in all similar cases, that not only the Bamoth, but very many of the superstitions and idolatries connected with them, were taken over into the service of the Lord.

53 Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.

GILL, "And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein,.... Turn them out of their cities, towns, and houses, and inhabit them: for I have given you the land to possess it; who had a right to dispose of it, and a better title they needed not desire than the Lord could and did make them.

PETT, "Numbers 33:53“And you shall take possession of the land, and dwell in it; for I have given to you the land that you might possess it.”And on the positive side they themselves were to possess it and dwell in it, to live in its cities and farm its fields. For Yahweh was giving it to them for this purpose. This was the dream for which they would fight. PULPIT, "I have given you the land. "The earth is the Lord's," and no one, therefore, can dispute his right in the abstract to evict any of his tenants and to put others in possession. But while the whole earth was the Lord's, it is clear that he assumed a special relation towards the land of Canaan, as to which he chose to exercise directly the rights and duties of landlord (see on Deuteronomy 22:8 for a

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small but striking instance). The first duty of a landlord is to see that the occupancy of his property is not abused for illegal or immoral ends; and this duty excuses, because it necessitates, eviction under certain circumstances. It is not, therefore, necessary to argue that the Canaanites were more infamous than many others; it is enough to remember that God had assumed towards the land which they occupied (apparently by conquest) a relation which did not allow him to overlook their enormities, as he might those of other nations (see on Exodus 23:23-33; Exodus 34:11-17, and cf. Acts 14:16; Acts 17:30). It was (if we like to put it so) the misfortune of the Canaanites that they alone of "all nations" could not be suffered to "walk in their own ways," because they had settled in a land which the Lord had chosen to administer directly as his own earthly kingdom.

54 Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes.

GILL, "And ye shall divide the land by lot,.... What is said in this verse is the same with Num_26:53, where it has been explained; See Gill on Num_26:53; see Gill on Num_26:54; see Gill on Num_26:55; see Gill on Num_26:56.

JAMISON, "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 (Jos_18:10; Psa_16:5, Psa_16:6).

K&D, "Num_33:54-56The command to divide the land by lot among the families is partly a

verbal repetition of Num_26:53-56. וגו ל ֵיֵצא ,literally, “into that :ֶאל־ֲאֶׁשרwhither the lot comes out to him, shall be to him” (i.e., to each family); in other words, it is to receive that portion of land to which the lot that comes out of the urn shall point it. “According to the tribes of your fathers:” see at Num_26:55. - The command closes in Num_33:55, Num_33:56, with the

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threat, that if they did not exterminate the Canaanites, not only would such as were left become “thorns in their eyes and stings in their sides,” i.e., inflict the most painful injuries upon them, and make war upon them in the land; but Jehovah would also do the very same things to the Israelites that He had intended to do to the Canaanites, i.e., drive them out of the land and destroy them. This threat is repeated by Joshua in his last address to the assembled congregation (Jos_23:13).CALVIN, "54And ye shall divide the land by lot. The mode of division is also stated, that each should possess what fell to him by lot; and this was the best plan, for the several tribes would never have allowed themselves to be sent here or there at the option of men: and even if the arrangement had been left to the voices of the judges, they would rather have quarreled with each other than determined what was right. But we must here take into consideration something deeper; viz., that by this method God gave certain proof that the children of Israel were the inheritors and masters of that land by His liberality and special blessing. And, in the first place, we must remember that, although men consider nothing more fortuitous than casting lots, still they are governed by God, as Solomon says. (Proverbs 16:33.) God, therefore, commanded the people to cast lots, reserving to Himself the judgment as to those to whom they should fall. For how came it to pass that Zebulun obtained his portion on the sea-shore, except because it had been thus predicted by the Patriarch Jacob? Why did a district productive of the best corn fall to the tribe of Asher, unless because it had been pronounced by the same lips, that“Out of Asher his bread should be fat;and he should yield royal dainties”? (Genesis 49:20.)By the same prophecy the tribe of Judah obtained an inheritance rich in vines, and abounding in the best of pastures. Thus the division of the land, by lot, clearly showed that God had not formerly promised that land to Abraham in vain; because the proclamation of the gift by the mouth of Jacob was actually confirmed. The pious old man had been expelled from hence by famine; he was but a sojourner in Egypt, and twice an exile, and yet he assigns their portions to his descendants in the most authoritative manner, just as the father of a family might divide his few acres of land among his heirs. Yet God finally sealed what then might have seemed ridiculous. Hence it appears that things which, in the feebleness of our senses, we imagine to move at the blind impulse of chance, are directed by God’s secret providence; and that His counsel always proceeds in such a regular course, that the end corresponds with the beginning. Again he recommends to them the law of proportion, so that, according to their numbers, a greater or a less allotment should be given to the several tribes. The allegory which some conceive to be indicated here, viz., that we obtain our heavenly inheritance by God’s gratuitous good pleasure, as if by lot, although at first sight plausible, is easily refuted. Hebron was a part of the inheritance, but Caleb obtained it without casting lots: and a still more decided exception appears in the case of the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh, who, by the consent of the rest, and not by lot, acquired by privilege, as it were, all the

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territory that had been won on the other side of Jordan. Let my readers, therefore, learn to abstain from such conceits, lest they should often be obliged to confess with shame, that they have caught at an empty shadow.

BENSON, "Numbers 33:54. Ye shall divide the land by lot — As they gradually conquered the country, they were to divide it among the tribes, according to the rules and proportions before prescribed them, Numbers 26:54-55.

PETT, "Numbers 33:54“And you shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers shall you inherit.”And when they did inherit the land it was to be by lot, which would indicate Yahweh’s will in its disposal, and they were to do it by and in accordance with their clans. The many would receive much, the fewer less. This was their inheritance from Yahweh. All was to be by lot and not by man’s devising. Each man would receive what the lot indicated. And all would receive within their tribes, and dependent on their size.

PULPIT, "Numbers 33:54Ye shall divide the land by lot. These directions are repeated in substance from Numbers 26:53-56. Every man's inheritance. Not only the tribe, but the family and the household, was to receive its special inheritance by lot; no doubt in such a way that the final settlement of the country would correspond with the blood relationships of the settlers.

55 “‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. 107

CLARKE, "Shall be pricks in your eyes - Under these metaphors, the continual mischief that should be done to them, both in soul and body, by these idolaters, is set forth in a very expressive manner. What can be more vexatious than a continual goading of each side, so that the attempt to avoid the one throws the body more forcibly on the other? And what can be more distressing than a continual pricking in the eye, harassing the mind, tormenting the body, and extinguishing the sight?

1. It has been usual among pious men to consider these Canaanites remaining in the land, as emblems of indwelling sin; and it must be granted that what those remaining Canaanites were to the people of Israel, who were disobedient to God, such is indwelling sin to all those who will not have the blood of the covenant to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. For a time, while conscience is tender, such persons feel themselves straitened in all their goings, hindered in all their religious services, and distressed beyond measure because of the law -the authority and power of sin, which they find warring in their members: by and by the eye of their mind becomes obscured by the constant piercings of sin, till at last, fatally persuaded that sin must dwell in them as long as they live, they accommodate their minds to their situation, their consciences cease to be tender, and they content themselves with expecting redemption where and when it has never been promised, viz., beyond the grave! On the subject of the journeyings of the Israelites, the following observations from old Mr. Ainsworth cannot fail to interest the reader.2. “The Travels of Israel through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water, Deu_8:15, which was a land of deserts, and of pits, a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt, Jer_2:6, signified the many troubles and afflictions through which we must enter into the kingdom of God, Act_14:22. The helps, comforts, and deliverances which God gave unto his people in their distresses, are examples of his love and mercy towards his followers; for he comforts them in all their tribulation, that as the sufferings of Christ abound in them, so their consolation also abounds in Christ, 2Co_1:5. The punishments which God inflicted upon the disobedient, who perished in the wilderness for their sins, happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come, 1Co_10:1, 1Co_10:11; Heb_3:17, Heb_3:18, Heb_3:19; Heb_4:1, Heb_4:2. By the names of their encamping places, and histories adjoined, it appears how Israel came sometimes into straits and troublesome ways, as at Pihahiroth, Exo_14:2, Exo_14:3, Exo_14:10, etc.; and at Zalmonah, Num_2:1, Num_2:4, etc.; sometimes into large and ample room, as at the plains of Moab; sometimes to places of hunger and thirst, as at

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Rephidim and Kadesh, Exodus 16, 17; Numbers 20; sometimes to places of refreshing, as at Elim and Beer, Exo_15:27; Num_21:16; sometimes where they had wars, as at Rephidim, Kadesh, Edrei, Exo_17:8; Num_21:1, Num_21:33; sometimes where they had rest, as at Mount Sinai: sometimes they went right forward, as from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea; sometimes they turned backward, as from Kadesh-barnea to the Red Sea: sometimes they came to mountains, as Sinai, Shapher, Hor-Gidgad; sometimes to valleys, as Tahath, etc.; sometimes to places of bitterness, as Marah; sometimes, of sweetness, as Mithcah.3. “The Sins which they committed in the wilderness were many and great; as open Idolatry by the calf, at Horeb, Exodus 32, and with Baal-peor, Numbers 25. Unbelief, at Kadesh, Numbers 14; and afterwards Presumptuous Boldness in the same place; Murmuring against God sundry times, with tempting of Christ, (as the apostle speaks, 1 Corinthians 15). Contention and Rebellion against their governors often; lusting for flesh to fill their appetites, and loathing manna, the heavenly food; Whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and many other provocations; so that this complaint is after made of them, How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Psa_78:40. All sorts of persons sinned against God; the multitude of people very often; the mixed multitude of strangers among them, Numbers 11. The princes, as the ten spies, Dathan, Abiram, etc. The Levites, as Korah and his company; Miriam the prophetess, Numbers 12; Aaron the priest with her, besides his sin at Horeb, Exodus 32; and at the water of Meribah, Numbers 20. Moses also himself at the same place, for which he was excluded from the land of Canaan.4. “The Punishments laid on them by the Lord for their disobedience were many. They died by the sword of the enemy, as of the Amalekites, Exodus 17, and of the Canaanites, Num_14:45; and some by the sword of their brethren, Exodus 32. Some were burned with fire, Numbers 11, 16; some died with surfeit, Numbers 11; some were swallowed up alive in the earth, Numbers 16; some were killed with serpents, Numbers 21; many died of the pestilence, Num_16:46, and Num_5:25; and generally all that generation which were first mustered, after their coming out of Egypt, perished, Num_26:64, Num_26:65. God consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror, Psa_78:33.5. “Nevertheless, for his name’s sake, he magnified his Mercies unto them and their posterity. He had divided the sea, and led them through on dry land, drowning their enemies, Exodus 14. He led them with a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, continually. He gave them manna from heaven daily. He clave the rock, and gave them water for their thirst. He fed them with quails, when they longed for flesh. He sweetened the bitter waters. He saved them from the sword of their enemies. He delivered them from the fiery serpents and scorpions. Their raiment waxed not old upon them, neither did their foot swell for forty years, Deu_8:4. He delivered them from the intended curse of Balaam, and turned it into a blessing, because he loved them, Numbers 22; Deu_23:5. He came down from Mount Sinai, and spake with them

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from heaven, and gave them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and gave also his good Spirit to instruct them, Neh_9:13, Neh_9:20. In the times of his wrath he remembered mercy; his eye spared them from destroying them, neither did he make an end of them in the wilderness, Eze_20:17, Eze_20:22. He gave them kingdoms and nations, and they possessed the lands of their enemies; and he multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land promised unto their forefathers. Neh_9:22, Neh_9:23. Now whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope, Rom_15:4.” Let him that readeth understand.”

GILL, "But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you,.... Should be remiss and careless about it, and indifferent to it, and not make use of the proper means to get rid of them, but, on the contrary, make covenants with them, and intermarry among them; or, however, become friendly to them, and suffer them to dwell among them: then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them; sparing their lives, and permitting them to dwell among them: shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides; which figurative expressions show that they should be very troublesome and distressing to them, even in their most tender and nearest concerns, and dearest relations, and which are explained and more properly expressed as follows: and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell; among other things by their wicked conversation, and by drawing them into sin through their ill examples, and so bring the displeasure of God upon them, and punishment for their evil doings.

JAMISON, "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.

CALVIN, "55But if ye will not drive out. We have elsewhere seen why God’s wrath was so greatly aroused against those nations, that He desired them to be exterminated. Even in Abraham’s time gross indulgence of sin had begun to prevail

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there, as we gather from God’s word, when He said that “their iniquity was not yet full.” After they had abused the forbearance of God Himself for 400 years, who will deny that their destruction was the just and reasonable reward of their long obstinacy? Still, in cutting them off, God had regard to His elect people, in order that they might be separated from the heathen, and never turn aside to foreign superstitions. But the punishment which is here threatened the Israelites deserved twice over by their remissness, for they neither performed their duty in executing God’s vengeance, and, as far as in them lay, they detracted from His grace. He had conferred upon them no common honor, when He appointed them to be His ministers for executing His judgments. It was therefore base supineness in them to be remiss on this point. But again, He had given them the whole land; when, then, they contented themselves with part of it, and neglected the rest, their perverse ingratitude betrayed itself by their indifference. Besides, they had willfully entangled themselves in deadly nerds, by mixing with heathen nations, from whom they had been separated by God, lest they should imitate their habits, and corrupt religious ceremonies. God, therefore, threatens that these nations shall be as prickles to pierce their eyes, and thorns in their sides. That this was fulfilled, the Book of Judges affords the clearest and most ample testimony, although, even to the days of David, this punishment was constantly in course of infliction upon their eyes and sides. Thus, also, is their untamable headstrongness proved, since such a solemn admonition had no effect in causing (227) them to go forwards, no less in the open punishment of iniquity, than in a course of victory and success.

COKE, "Numbers 33:55. Pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides— God here declares to the Israelites, that if they mix themselves with the Canaanites, whom they suffered to remain in the land, those Canaanites should be the instruments, in his hand, to chastise them, and should cause them evils as dolorous in their kind as those which arise from a thorn in the eye, or poignard in the side. See Ezekiel 28:24. Joshua intimated the same threatening to them before he died, Joshua 23:13 of which an angel put them in mind, Judges 2:3. And so it came to pass, as we read there, Numbers 33:13 and throughout that whole book.

BENSON, "Numbers 33:55. If ye will not drive out the inhabitants — Those of them whom ye suffer to remain in the land through your cowardice, slothfulness, or friendship toward them, shall be a great plague to you, and bring sore calamities upon you; see Ezekiel 28:24. Joshua intimates the same to them before he died, Numbers 23:13. Of this also an angel puts them in mind, 2:3. And so it came to pass, as we read there, (Numbers 33:14,) and throughout that whole book. Shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides — Both vexatious and pernicious. Whosoever, by neglecting, through the Spirit, (to be sought by prayer,) to mortify the deeds of the body, and to crucify the flesh, with its sinful lusts, shall permit sinful tempers and desires to remain in his heart, will one day find by experience that these evil dispositions will be to his soul what the ancient inhabitants of Canaan were to the Israelites; they will be as pricks in his eyes, and thorns in his flesh — A continual

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source of trouble and vexation, depriving him of true peace and comfort. But is it our privilege to be delivered from these corrupt passions and inclinations? Certainly it is, as much as it was the privilege of the Israelites to be delivered from the Canaanites. For Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, (Titus 2:14,) might sanctify and cleanse his church, and render it without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, Ephesians 5:26-27. And God promises, by Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 36:25,) From all your filthiness and idols will I cleanse you. And faithful is he that hath promised, who also will do it for all those that earnestly call upon, firmly confide in, and perseveringly seek him in the way he has appointed.

TRAPP, "Numbers 33:55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them [shall be] pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.Ver. 55. Shall be pricks in your eyes.] The eye is the tenderest part, and soon vexed with the least mote that falls into it. These Jebusites preserved, should be notorious mischiefs to them; as the Jesuits at this day are to those Christian states that harbour them. Shall we suffer those vipers to lodge in our bosoms till they eat out our hearts? Sic notus Ulysses? Jesuits, like bells, will never be well tuned till well hanged. Among much change of houses in foreign parts, they have in France two famous for the accordance of their names, the one called the Bow at Nola, the other the Arrow, la Fleche, given them by Henry IV, whom afterwards they villanously stabbed to death. Their apostate Ferrier played upon them in this distitch: -“ Arcum Nola dedit, dedit illis alma sagttramGallia; quis funem, quem meruere, dabit! ”“Nola the bow, and France the shaft did bring;But who shall help them to a hempen string?”

WHEDON, " 55. If ye will not drive out, etc. — If Israel should be perversely disobedient, Jehovah threatens to withdraw from them his help. Exodus 23:22-23.Pricks in your eyes — Joshua, (Numbers 23:13,) in repeating this, says, “scourges in your sides and thorns in your eyes,” and adds, “they shall be snares and traps unto you.” These strong metaphors portray the infliction of the most painful injuries by the un-exterminated Canaanites.

PETT, "Numbers 33:55112

“But if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then will those whom you allow to remain of them be as pricks in your eyes, and as thorns in your sides, and they will vex you in the land in which you dwell.”But if they failed to drive out the inhabitants of the land, those inhabitants would remain, ever to be to them a sore in their eyes, thorns in their sides, a vexation. (compare Joshua 23:12-13; Judges 2:3; Psalms 106:34; Psalms 106:36). It would permanently mar the enjoyment of their dwelling in the land.Note the vivid picture. They would be well aware from their days of wandering of the prickly bushes that could tear at the eyes, and the thorns that could pierce their sides. This was not something that they would want to find in the new land.

PULPIT, "If ye will not drive out the inhabitants. As was in fact the case ( 1:1-36). The warning is here given for the first time, because the danger was now near at hand, and had indeed already shown itself in the matter of the Midianitish women and children. Pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides. Natural symbols of dangerous annoyances. Possibly the thickets which fringe the Jordan supplied them with present examples. In Joshua 23:13 we have "scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes," which sounds somewhat more artificial. In 2:3, where this warning is quoted, the figure is not expressed at all: "they shall be in your sides."

56 And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.’”

GILL, "Moreover, it shall come to pass,.... This being the case, they suffering the Canaanites to dwell among them, and they mingling with them, learning their works, and serving their gods: that I shall do unto you as I thought I should do unto them; deliver them up into the hands of their enemies, who should carry them captive into other lands.COKE, "Numbers 33:56. I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them— That is to say, I will make you the slaves of those who have been slaves to you, and who shall drive you from your country as you have before driven them. See Judges 8:14; Judges 6:2.REFLECTIONS.—Strict injunctions are given for the entire destruction of every monument of idolatry, and the utter extirpation of the people. It would be highly

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dangerous to maintain any friendship with them, or preserve the least relics of their idols, lest they should be ensnared thereby. We are peculiarly to guard against our besetting sin, and stop up every avenue of our heart, at which it might enter. If they were obedient, then their inheritance was secure; if disobedient, they should suffer that expulsion themselves, which they should have inflicted on the inhabitants. Note; (1.) We can be safe only by renouncing all peace with our sins. (2.) If we destroy not them, they will destroy us, body and soul, in hell.

BENSON, "Numbers 33:56. I shall do unto you as I thought to do unto them — Make you their slaves; or rather, you shall flee before them, and be expelled the land, as they should have been.

ELLICOTT, " (56) Moreover it shall come to pass . . . —Better, And it shall come to pass that, as I have thought (or, determined) to do unto them, so will I do unto you. It must be borne in mind that the idolatrous inhabitants of Canaan were never wholly exterminated, and the pernicious influence which they exercised was felt throughout the whole of the history of the Israelites until the judgments threatened against them were finally executed in the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities.

WHEDON, "56. I shall do unto you, as… unto them — God is no respecter of persons, nor of nations. The sins of the people are followed by the same punishments as the sins of Gentile nations. The land vomited out Israel as it rejected the Canaanites when the former had copied the vices of the latter. Joshua 6:21; Joshua 13:13, notes.

PETT, "Numbers 33:56“And it will come about, that, as I thought to do to them, so will I do to you.”And even more, if they neglect to purify the land from idolatry Yahweh Himself will do to Israel what He had thought to do to those nations. They would come to be in such a state that He would drive them out, and destroy their places of worship. And they would have brought it all on themselves. This is the basis of all the warnings and prophecies elsewhere, see especially Leviticus 26:14-39; Deuteronomy 28:15-68.There is a reminder here for us that as we too go forward with God we must remove from our lives all that could hinder our forward march, so that we might please Him Who has chosen us to be soldiers (2 Timothy 2:4-5). We too must set aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us (Hebrews 12:1). We too must avoid what attacks the eye (Matthew 5:29; Matthew 6:23; Matthew 18:9) and the thorns that seek to tear at us (1 Timothy 6:9)

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PULPIT, "Numbers 33:56I shaft do unto you as I thought to do unto them, i.e; I shall execute by other hands upon you the sentence of dispossession which ye shall have refused to execute upon the Canaanites. The threat (although in fact fulfilled) does not necessarily involve any prophecy, since to settle down among the remnants of the heathen was a course of action which would obviously and for many reasons commend itself to the Israelites. Indolence and cowardice were consulted by such a policy as much as the natural feelings of pity towards vanquished and apparently harmless foes. The command to extirpate was certainly justified in this case (if it could be in any) by the unhappy consequences of its neglect. Israel being what he was, and so little severed in anything but religion from the ancient heathen, his only chance of future happiness lay in keeping himself from any contact with them. On the morality of the command itself, see on the passages referred to, and on the slaughter of the Midianites. As a fact, the extirpation of the conquered did not offend the moral sense of the Jews then any more than it did that of our heathen Saxon ancestors. Where both races could not dwell in security, it was a matter of course that the weaker was destroyed. Such a command was therefore justified at that time by the end to be attained, because it was not contrary to the moral law as then revealed, or to the moral sense as then educated. Being in itself a lawful proceeding, it was made a religious proceeding, and taken out of the category of selfish violence by being made a direct command of God.

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