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Numbers 33:2-56 Bible in Basic English (BBE)

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2 And the stages of their journey on their way out were put down in writing by Moses at the order of the Lord: these are the stages of their journey and the way they went.

3 On the fifteenth day of the first month they went out from Rameses; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out by the power of the Lord before the eyes of all the Egyptians,

4 While the Egyptians were placing in the earth the bodies of their sons on whom the Lord had sent destruction: and their gods had been judged by him.

5 So the children of Israel went from Rameses and put up their tents in Succoth.

6 And they went on from Succoth and put up their tents in Etham on the edge of the waste land.

7 And from Etham, turning back to Pi-hahiroth which is before Baal-zephon, they put up their tents before Migdol.

8 And journeying on from before Hahiroth, they went through the sea into the waste land: they went three days' journey through the waste land of Etham and put up their tents in Marah.

9 And from Marah they went on to Elim: and in Elim there were twelve water-springs and seventy palm-trees; and they put up their tents there.

10 And they went on from Elim and put up their tents by the Red Sea.

11 Then from the Red Sea they went on and put up their tents in the waste land of Sin.

12 And they went on from the waste land of Sin, and put up their tents in Dophkah.

13 And they went on from Dophkah, and put up their tents in Alush.

14 And they went on from Alush, and put up their tents in Rephidim, where there was no drinking-water for the people.

15 And they went on from Rephidim, and put up their tents in the waste land of Sinai.

16 And they went on from the waste land of Sinai and put up their tents in Kibroth-hattaavah.

17 And they went on from Kibroth-hattaavah, and put up their tents in Hazeroth.

18 And they went on from Hazeroth, and put up their tents in Rithmah.

19 And they went on from Rithmah, and put up their tents in Rimmon-perez.

20 And they went on from Rimmon-perez, and put up their tents in Libnah.

21 And they went on from Libnah, and put up their tents in Rissah.

22 And they went on from Rissah, and put up their tents in Kehelathah.

23 And they went on from Kehelathah, and put up their tents in Mount Shepher.

24 And they went on from Mount Shepher, and put up their tents in Haradah.

25 And they went on from Haradah, and put up their tents in Makheloth.

26 And they went on from Makheloth, and put up their tents in Tahath.

27 And they went on from Tahath, and put up their tents in Terah.

28 And they went on from Terah, and put up their tents in Mithkah.

29 And they went on from Mithkah, and put up their tents in Hashmonah.

30 And they went on from Hashmonah, and put up their tents in Moseroth.

31 And they went on from Moseroth, and put up their tents in Bene-jaakan.

32 And they went on from Bene-jaakan, and put up their tents in Hor-haggidgad.

33 And they went on from Hor-haggidgad, and put up their tents in Jotbathah.

34 And they went on from Jotbathah, and put up their tents in Abronah.

35 And they went on from Abronah, and put up their tents in Ezion-geber.

36 And they went on from Ezion-geber, and put up their tents in the waste land of Zin (which is Kadesh).

37 And they went on from Kadesh, and put up their tents in Mount Hor, on the edge of the land of Edom.

38 And Aaron the priest went up into the mountain at the order of the Lord, and came to his death there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first day of the month.

39 Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old at the time of his death in Mount Hor.

40 And news of the coming of the children of Israel came to the king of Arad, the Canaanite, who was living in the South in the land of Canaan.

41 And from Mount Hor they went on, and put up their tents in Zalmonah.

42 And they went on from Zalmonah, and put up their tents in Punon.

43 And they went on from Punon, and put up their tents in Oboth.

44 And they went on from Oboth, and put up their tents in Iye-abarim at the edge of Moab.

45 And they went on from Iyim, and put up their tents in Dibon-gad.

46 And from Dibon-gad they went on, and put up their tents in Almon-diblathaim.

47 And from Almon-diblathaim they went on, and put up their tents in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo.

48 And they went on from the mountains of Abarim, and put up their tents in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho;

49 Planting their tents by the side of Jordan from Beth-jeshimoth as far as Abel-shittim in the lowlands of Moab.

50 And in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho, the Lord said to Moses,

51 Say to the children of Israel, When you go over Jordan into the land of Canaan,

52 See that all the people of the land are forced out from before you, and put to destruction all their pictured stones, and all their metal images, and all their high places:

53 And take the land for yourselves, for your resting-place: for to you I have given the land as your heritage.

54 And you will take up your heritage in the land by the decision of the Lord, to every family its part; the greater the family the greater its heritage, and the smaller the family the smaller will be its heritage; wherever the decision of the Lord gives to any man his part, that will be his; distribution will be made to you by your fathers' tribes.

55 But if you are slow in driving out the people of the land, then those of them who are still there will be like pin-points in your eyes and like thorns in your sides, troubling you in the land where you are living.

56 And it will come about that as it was my purpose to do to them, so I will do to you.

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Numbers 33

Commentary on Numbers 33 Matthew Henry Commentary

John Gill   Keil & Delitzsch   Robert Jamieson: Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible  

Chapter 33

In this chapter we have,

  • I. A particular account of the removals and encampments of the children of Israel, from their escape out of Egypt to their entrance into Canaan, forty-two in all, with some remarkable events that happened at some of those places (v. 1-49).
  • II. A strict command given them to drive out all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, which they were not going to conquer and take possession of (v. 50-56). So that the former part of the chapter looks back upon their march through the wilderness, the latter looks forward to their settlement in Canaan.

Num 33:1-49

This is a review and brief rehearsal of the travels of the children of Israel through the wilderness. It was a memorable history and well worthy to be thus abridged, and the abridgment thus preserved, to the honour of God that led them and for the encouragement of the generations that followed. Observe here,

  • I. How the account was kept: Moses wrote their goings out, v. 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, continued with their march through the wilderness, and ended in the plains of Moab, where they now lay encamped.
    • 1. Some things are observed here concerning their departure out of Egypt, which they are reminded of upon all occasions, as a work of wonder never to be forgotten.
      • (1.) That they went forth with their armies (v. 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, v. 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, v. 4. They had a mind good enough, or rather bad enough, still to have detained the Israelites their prisoners, but God found them other work to do. They would have God's first-born buried alive, but God set them a burying their own first-born.
      • (5.) To all the plagues of Egypt it is added here that on their gods also the Lord executed judgments. Their idols which they worshipped, it is probable, were broken down, as Dagon afterwards before the ark, so that they could not consult them about this great affair. To this perhaps there is reference, Isa. 19:1, The idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence.
    • 2. Concerning their travels towards Canaan. Observe,
      • (1.) They were continually upon the remove. When they had pitched a little while in one place they departed from that to another. Such is our state in this world; we have here no continuing city.
      • (2.) Most of their way lay through a wilderness, uninhabited, untracked, unfurnished even with the necessaries of human life, which magnifies the wisdom and power of God, by whose wonderful conduct and bounty the thousands of Israel not only subsisted for forty years in that desolate place, but came out at least as numerous and vigorous as they went in. At first they pitched in the edge of the wilderness (v. 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 (v. 8), of Sin (v. 11), of Sinai, v. 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, Ps. 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 (v. 14), the death of Aaron (v. 38, 39), the insult of Arad (v. 40); and the very name of Kibroth-hattaavah-the graves of lusts (v. 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 (ch. 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.

Num 33:50-56

While the children of Israel were in the wilderness their total separation from all other people kept them out of the way of temptation to idolatry, and perhaps this was one thing intended by their long confinement in the wilderness, that thereby the idols of Egypt might be forgotten, and the people aired (as it were) and purified from that infection, and the generation that entered Canaan might be such as never knew those depths of Satan. But now that they were to pass over Jordan they were entering again into that temptation, and therefore,

  • 1. They are here strictly charged utterly to destroy all remnants of idolatry. They must not only drive out the inhabitants of the land, that they may possess their country, but they must deface all their idolatrous pictures and images, and pull down all their high places, v. 52. They must not preserve any of them, no, not as monuments of antiquity to gratify the curious, nor as ornaments of their houses, nor toys for their children to play with, but they must destroy all, both in token of their abhorrence and detestation of idolatry and to prevent their being tempted to worship those images, and the false gods represented by them, or to worship the God of Israel by such images or representations.
  • 2. They were assured that, if they did so, God would by degrees put them in full possession of the land of promise, v. 53, 54. If they would keep themselves pure from the idols of Canaan, God would enrich them with the wealth of Canaan. Learn not their way, and then fear not their power.
  • 3. They were threatened that, if they spared either the idols or the idolaters, they should be beaten with their own rod and their sin would certainly be their punishment.
    • (1.) They would foster snakes in their own bosoms, v. 55. The remnant of the Canaanites, if they made any league with them, though it were but a cessation of arms, would be pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides, that is, they would be upon all occasions vexatious to them, insulting them, robbing them, and, to the utmost of their power, making mischief among them. We must expect trouble and affliction from that, whatever it is, which we sinfully indulge; that which we are willing should tempt us we shall find will vex us.
    • (2.) The righteous God would turn that wheel upon the Israelites which was to have crushed the Canaanites: I shall do to you as I thought to do unto them, v. 56. It was intended that the Canaanites should be dispossessed; but if the Israelites fell in with them, and learned their way, they should be dispossessed, for God's displeasure would justly be greater against them than against the Canaanites themselves. Let us hear this, and fear. If we do not drive sin out, sin will drive us out; if we be not the death of our lusts, our lusts will be the death of our souls.