Numbers 33: Summary and Commentary

Verse 1

33:1-56 This review of the entire wilderness period contains the longest integrated list of place-names in the Old Testament, from Israel’s departure from Egypt (33:3; cp. Exod 12:37) until their arrival in the plains of Moab, opposite Jericho (Num 33:49; cp. 22:1). The forty-two way stations on this itinerary represent far more than a geographical journey; they recall Israel’s forty-year spiritual pilgrimage. In their travels between Rameses in Egypt (33:3) and AcaciaAbel-shittim on the plains of Moab (33:49), Israel finally became the people who could invade the land of Canaan and claim the promises God made to Abraham. • This itinerary does not provide enough data to plot an accurate, specific route. Most of the places cannot be identified with certainty; many of the sites appear nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, and there are not enough clues to pinpoint their locations precisely. Furthermore, this list is partial or selective, omitting some of the place-names mentioned earlier in the journey.

33:1-2 The itinerary contains features that reflect detailed record keeping. This is the only place where Numbers says that Moses kept a record of Israel’s history (cp. Exod 24:4).

Verse 3

33:3 left defiantly: See Exod 14:8.

Verse 4

33:4 defeated the gods of Egypt: See Exod 6:6; 12:12. This historical review draws attention to those special events that forced Pharaoh to allow the Israelite exodus from Egypt.

Verse 5

33:5-15 For Israel’s wilderness itinerary between Rameses and the desert of Sinai, see Exod 13:17–19:1.

Verse 6

33:6 Etham: See Exod 13:20.

Verse 9

33:9 Elim remains impossible to identify with certainty, but it may have been the oasis (with springs and palm trees) at Wadi Gharandel.

Verse 14

33:14 The entry for Rephidim (see study note on 20:13) adds a reminder of Israel’s rebellion there (Exod 17:1-7).

Verse 15

33:15 Tradition associates the wilderness of Sinai with a mountainous region in the southern Sinai Peninsula near Jebel Musa (Arabic for “mountain of Moses”), though scholars have suggested other locations.

Verse 16

33:16-36 The journey between Sinai and Kadesh. Our ability to locate the named sites depends on the identification of Mount Sinai.

33:16-17 Kibroth-hattaavah . . . Hazeroth: See 11:34–12:16.

Verse 18

33:18-30 Most of the place-names in this section appear nowhere else in the Old Testament.

Verse 30

33:30-31 Moseroth was also called “Moserah” (Deut 10:6). This is where Aaron died and was buried (cp. Num 20:22-29; 33:37-39).

Verse 35

33:35 Ezion-geber (cp. Deut 2:8) was located near the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba.

Verse 36

33:36 Israel was residing in Kadesh (13:26; 27:14; “Kadesh-barnea,” 32:8) when the spies reported on their trip through Canaan.

Verse 37

33:37-49 Israel traveled from Kadesh to the plains of Moab.

Verse 38

33:38-39 These details about Aaron’s death (cp. 20:22-29) and his age show that he was about three years older than Moses (cp. Deut 31:1-2; 34:7).

Verse 42

33:42-49 Good candidates for the locations of most of these sites are found east of the Jordan between the southern Arabah and the plains of Moab, opposite Jericho.

Verse 47

33:47 Almon-diblathaim is probably the same place as “Beth-diblathaim” (Jer 48:22), also mentioned in the famous Mesha Inscription (see study note on Num 21:26).

Verse 50

33:50-56 After the Israelites reached the plains of Moab opposite Jericho (22:1), they camped there for the rest of the period covered in Numbers (see 36:13) and Deuteronomy (Deut 34:8). While they were camped there, God gave Israel specific instructions for dealing with the population of Canaan. The Lord commanded his people to destroy the people groups that occupied Canaan and to obliterate all vestiges of their religious practices (cp. Exod 23:23-33; 34:11-17; Deut 7:1-6; 12:2-4; Josh 23:4-8). Moses’ commands included the destruction of their carved and molten images (cp. Lev 26:1) and the demolition of their pagan shrines (see Deut 12:2-3).

Verse 54

33:54 distribute the land . . . by sacred lot: See 26:53-56. Chapter 34 describes the boundaries of the land of Canaan, which they would soon conquer and divide.

Verse 55

33:55-56 Israel failed to carry out God’s instructions (33:51-53) and suffered the consequences predicted here (see Judg 1:1–2:5; 2:11–3:6). Israel’s enemies in the period of the judges were like splinters and thorns (Num 33:55), harassing them militarily and spiritually (cp. 2 Cor 12:7).

Verse 2

Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the Lord—The wisdom of this divine order is seen in the importance of the end to which it was subservient—namely, partly to establish the truth of the history, partly to preserve a memorial of God's marvellous interpositions on behalf of Israel, and partly to confirm their faith in the prospect of the difficult enterprise on which they were entering, the invasion of Canaan.

Verse 3

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.

Verse 4

upon their gods—used either according to Scripture phraseology to denote their rulers (the first-born of the king and his princes) or the idolatrous objects of Egyptian worship.

Verse 5

pitched in Succoth—that is, "booths"—a place of no note except as a temporary halting place, at Birketel-Hadji, the Pilgrim's Pool [CALMET].

Verse 6

Etham—edge, or border of all that part of Arabia-PetrÃ&brvbra which lay contiguous to Egypt and was known by the general name of Shur.

Verse 7

Pi-hahiroth, Baal-zephon . . . Migdol—(See on Exo 14:2).

Verse 8

Marah—thought to be Ain Howarah, both from its position and the time (three days) it would take them with their children and flocks to march from the water of Ayun Musa to that spot.

Verse 9

Elim—supposed to be Wady Ghurundel (see on Exo 15:27).

Verse 10

encamped by the Red Sea—The road from Wady Ghurundel leads into the interior, in consequence of a high continuous ridge which excludes all view of the sea. At the mouth of Wady-et-Tayibeh, after about three days' march, it opens again on a plain along the margin of the Red Sea. The minute accuracy of the Scripture narrative, in corresponding so exactly with the geographical features of this region, is remarkably shown in describing the Israelites as proceeding by the only practicable route that could be taken. This plain, where they encamped, was the Desert of Sin (see on Exo 16:1).

Verse 12

Dophkah . . . Alush . . . Rephidim—These three stations, in the great valleys of El Sheikh and Feiran, would be equivalent to four days' journey for such a host. Rephidim (Exo 17:6) was in Horeb, the burnt region—a generic name for a hot, mountainous country. [See on Exo 17:1.]

Verse 15

wilderness of Sinai—the Wady Er-Raheh.

Verse 16

FROM SINAI TO KADESH AND PLAINS OF MOAB. (Num. 33:16-56)

Kibroth-Hattaavah ("the graves of lust," see on Num 11:34) —The route, on breaking up the encampment at Sinai, led down Wady Sheikh; then crossing Jebel-et-Tih, which intersected the peninsula, they descended into Wady Zalaka, pitching successively at two brief, though memorable, stations (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 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.

Verse 18

Rithmah ("the place of the broom")—a station possibly in some wady extending westward of the Ghor.

Verse 19

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).

Verse 50

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.

Verse 54

ye shall divide the land by lot—The particular locality of each tribe was to be determined in this manner while a line was to be used in measuring the proportion (Jos 18:10; Psa 16:5-6).

Verse 55

But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you—No associations were to be formed with the inhabitants; otherwise, "if ye let remain, they will be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides"—that is, they would prove troublesome and dangerous neighbors, enticing to idolatry, and consequently depriving you of the divine favor and blessing. The neglect of the counsel against union with the idolatrous inhabitants became fatal to them. This earnest admonition given to the Israelites in their peculiar circumstances conveys a salutary lesson to us to allow no lurking habits of sin to remain in us. That spiritual enemy must be eradicated from our nature; otherwise it will be ruinous to our present peace and future salvation.

Next: Numbers Chapter 34