Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on Numbers 33:1
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
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. מסּע 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). לצבאתם (see Exo 7:4). בּיד, under the guidance, as in Num 4:28, and Exo 38:21. למסעיהם מוצאיהם, "their goings out (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 ויּסעוּ, "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 ( 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. Numbers 33:16-35 In 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 whi…
This public page shows a contextual excerpt from the locally available source text.
How to use this source
This excerpt is attributed to its named commentary. It is included as a historical study resource and should be evaluated in light of Scripture and other relevant evidence.
