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Numbers 33

KJV · Chapter 33/36

1These are the journeys of the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron.

2And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the Lord: and these are their journeys according to their goings out.

3And they departed 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 an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians.

4For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the Lord had smitten among them: upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments.

5And the children of Israel removed from Rameses, and pitched in Succoth.

6And they departed from Succoth, and pitched in Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness.

7And they removed from Etham, and turned again unto Pi–hahiroth, which is before Baal–zephon: and they pitched before Migdol.

8And they departed from before Pi–hahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched in Marah.

9And they removed from Marah, and came unto Elim: and in Elim were twelve fountains of water, and threescore and ten palm trees; and they pitched there.

10And they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red sea.

11And they removed from the Red sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.

12And they took their journey out of the wilderness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah.

13And they departed from Dophkah, and encamped in Alush.

14And they removed from Alush, and encamped at Rephidim, where was no water for the people to drink.

15And they departed from Rephidim, and pitched in the wilderness of Sinai.

16And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibroth–hattaavah.

17And they departed from Kibroth–hattaavah, and encamped at Hazeroth.

18And they departed from Hazeroth, and pitched in Rithmah.

19And they departed from Rithmah, and pitched at Rimmon–parez.

20And they departed from Rimmon–parez, and pitched in Libnah.

21And they removed from Libnah, and pitched at Rissah.

22And they journeyed from Rissah, and pitched in Kehelathah.

23And they went from Kehelathah, and pitched in mount Shapher.

24And they removed from mount Shapher, and encamped in Haradah.

25And they removed from Haradah, and pitched in Makheloth.

26And they removed from Makheloth, and encamped at Tahath.

27And they departed from Tahath, and pitched at Tarah.

28And they removed from Tarah, and pitched in Mithcah.

29And they went from Mithcah, and pitched in Hashmonah.

30And they departed from Hashmonah, and encamped at Moseroth.

31And they departed from Moseroth, and pitched in Bene–jaakan.

32And they removed from Bene–jaakan, and encamped at Hor–hagidgad.

33And they went from Hor–hagidgad, and pitched in Jotbathah.

34And they removed from Jotbathah, and encamped at Ebronah.

35And they departed from Ebronah, and encamped at Ezion–gaber.

36And they removed from Ezion–gaber, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh.

37And they removed from Kadesh, and pitched in mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom.

38And 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.

39And Aaron was an hundred and twenty and three years old when he died in mount Hor.

40And king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.

41And they departed from mount Hor, and pitched in Zalmonah.

42And they departed from Zalmonah, and pitched in Punon.

43And they departed from Punon, and pitched in Oboth.

44And they departed from Oboth, and pitched in Ije–abarim, in the border of Moab.

45And they departed from Iim, and pitched in Dibon–gad.

46And they removed from Dibon–gad, and encamped in Almon–diblathaim.

47And they removed from Almon–diblathaim, and pitched in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo.

48And they departed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

49And they pitched by Jordan, from Beth–jesimoth even unto Abel–shittim in the plains of Moab.

50And the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,

51Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan;

52Then 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:

53And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it.

54And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man’s inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit.

55But 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.

56Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Moses records in detail all 42 stops of Israel's journey from leaving Egypt to the plains of Moab. The chapter ends with God's command to completely drive out the inhabitants of Canaan and destroy their idols upon entering the land.

Explanation

This travel record functions as an official historical diary, preserving the concrete memory of 40 years of journeying — a tangible reminder that every stop, however obscure it may seem today, was part of a real history lived by the people. The final, urgent command to completely eliminate Canaanite idolatry ('you shall destroy all their engraved images... demolish all their high places') comes with a serious warning: if Israel does not do this, the remaining Canaanites will become constant 'thorns' and 'irritants' — a prophecy that would be fulfilled repeatedly throughout the book of Judges, when the incomplete conquest generated centuries of conflict and idolatrous temptation. The application today: dealing incompletely with spiritually corrosive influences generally brings recurring problems in the future.

Fun facts

  • The list of 42 stops is used by archaeologists and biblical geographers to this day in the attempt to reconstruct the possible exact route of the Exodus, though the location of many of these places remains uncertain or debated.
  • The metaphor of 'thorns in your eyes and pricks in your sides' (v. 55) to describe the Canaanites who were not driven out is picked up almost literally in Joshua 23:13 and Judges 2:3, showing how this specific prophecy became a recurring theme explaining Israel's future troubles.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Numbers 33:1This chapter works like a travel log: the complete list of every stop on the forty-year journey, from Egypt to here, recorded by order of Moses and Aaron.
  2. Numbers 33:2This chapter is basically a travel diary: the list of every place where the people camped during the forty years in the wilderness, written at God’s command. It serves as a historical record of the whole journey, from Egypt to the plains of Moab, more than a narrative with a lesson at each stop.
  3. Numbers 33:3The departure from Egypt took place at Rameses, the day after the first Passover, with the people leaving openly, in full view of all the Egyptians.
  4. Numbers 33:4Meanwhile, the Egyptians were burying their firstborn who had died in the last plague, an event the text also describes as a judgment of God against the Egyptian gods themselves.
  5. Numbers 33:5Succoth is the first stop after leaving Egypt, still on the night following the Passover — the start of a list of 42 campsites that Moses recorded by God’s command.
  6. Numbers 33:6Etham lies already at the edge of the wilderness, the second stop of the long journey. It is the same stretch described in more detail in the book of Exodus, shortly before the crossing of the Red Sea.
  7. Numbers 33:7They then turned back to Pi-hahiroth, facing Baal-zephon, camping near Migdol.
  8. Numbers 33:8It was there that they crossed the sea into the wilderness, walking three days until they camped at Marah, where the water was bitter.
  9. Numbers 33:9From Marah they came to Elim, an oasis with twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees.
  10. Numbers 33:10Before this stop, the people had stayed at Elim, an oasis with twelve springs and seventy palm trees. From there they moved back toward the Red Sea, in this early stage of the journey.
  11. Numbers 33:11The wilderness of Sin is where the people begin to complain of hunger — and it is there, according to Exodus, that God sends the manna for the first time, shortly after this stop.
  12. Numbers 33:12Almost nothing is known about Dophkah beyond its name: it is one of the many stops on the list of 42 campsites that marked the years of crossing the wilderness.
  13. Numbers 33:13Alush is another stop with no details preserved in the Bible — its only record is here, in this travel log Moses wrote at God’s command.
  14. Numbers 33:14They then arrived at Rephidim, a place remembered for having no water at all for the people to drink.
  15. Numbers 33:15From Rephidim they finally reached the wilderness of Sinai, where the people would spend considerable time receiving the law.
  16. Numbers 33:16Leaving Sinai, the next stop was Kibroth-hattaavah, the place of the plague of the quail told in chapter 11.
  17. Numbers 33:17From there they moved on to Hazeroth, where the episode of Miriam’s leprosy took place.
  18. Numbers 33:18After Hazeroth — where Miriam was punished with leprosy for criticizing Moses — the people reach Rithmah, already in a stretch of stops with almost no other detail in the Bible.
  19. Numbers 33:19From Rithmah the people move on to Rimmon-parez, one of nearly twenty stops between leaving Sinai and returning to Kadesh, a stretch of the journey with very little record beyond the names.
  20. Numbers 33:20Libnah is one more of the stops in this long sequence in the middle of the wilderness — part of the nearly 40 years of wandering between leaving Egypt and arriving at the plains of Moab.
  21. Numbers 33:21Rissah enters the list with no other biblical detail — like much of these stops, it exists for us only because Moses recorded the name in this travel log.
  22. Numbers 33:22From Rissah the people move on to Kehelathah, another name that appears only here, in this list of 42 campsites covering practically the entire walk through the wilderness.
  23. Numbers 33:23This stop is the only time Mount Shapher appears in the Bible — a geographic marker lost in the middle of the long list of wilderness campsites.
  24. Numbers 33:24Haradah continues the sequence of stops between leaving Sinai and returning to Kadesh, a stretch of the journey the Bible records only by the names of the places.
  25. Numbers 33:25Makheloth is another name that appears only in this list — Moses noted down every stop of the walk, even the ones with no episode worth mentioning.
  26. Numbers 33:26From Makheloth the people move on to Tahath, continuing the itinerary of 42 stops that Moses wrote at the LORD’s command, like a kind of travel log of the journey.
  27. Numbers 33:27Tarah is one more of the stops with no other record in the Bible — part of the nearly 40 years in which the people moved from campsite to campsite through the wilderness.
  28. Numbers 33:28From Tarah the people arrive at Mithcah, continuing this sequence of places we can barely locate on a map today, but that Moses made a point of recording one by one.
  29. Numbers 33:29From Mithcah the next stop is Hashmonah — another link in this chain of campsites connecting the departure from Sinai to the people’s return to Kadesh, years later.
  30. Numbers 33:30Moseroth appears again in Deuteronomy, tied to the death of Aaron — though there the order of the stops in the people’s memory does not exactly match this list in Numbers.
  31. Numbers 33:31Bene-jaakan, which means something like ‘sons of Jaakan’, is another stop on the long list — a family or clan name that gave its name to the place where they camped.
  32. Numbers 33:32Hor-hagidgad closes out another stage of the journey — a name that exists only in this list of 42 campsites, with no episode attached to it.
  33. Numbers 33:33Deuteronomy remembers Jotbathah as a land of streams of water — a breath of relief amid the sequence of dry stops that marks much of this list.
  34. Numbers 33:34From Jotbathah the people move on to Ebronah, the second-to-last stop before Ezion-gaber, already nearing the end of this long sequence of wilderness campsites.
  35. Numbers 33:35The next stop was Ezion-gaber, which would later become an important port in the reign of Solomon.
  36. Numbers 33:36From Ezion-gaber they arrived at the wilderness of Zin, that is, Kadesh — practically back at the region where the spies had been sent decades earlier.
  37. Numbers 33:37From Kadesh the people reach Mount Hor, on the border of Edom — it is there that Aaron dies and the priesthood passes to his son Eleazar.
  38. Numbers 33:38It was there that Aaron went up the mountain at the LORD’s command and died, in the fifth month of the fortieth year after leaving Egypt.
  39. Numbers 33:39The text records Aaron’s exact age when he died: 123 years old.
  40. Numbers 33:40It was at this point in the journey that the Canaanite king of Arad, in the south of Canaan, heard of Israel’s approach — the same attack already told in chapter 21.
  41. Numbers 33:41This stop comes right after Aaron’s death on Mount Hor — the people are now in the final stretch of the journey, skirting Edom toward the plains of Moab.
  42. Numbers 33:42Punon lies in the final stage of the walk, in the same stretch where the people complained about the food and God sent the serpents — an episode told just a few chapters earlier.
  43. Numbers 33:43This is the same Oboth mentioned in chapter 21, right after the episode of the bronze serpent — already in the final stretch toward the plains of Moab.
  44. Numbers 33:44From Oboth they arrived at the mountains of Abarim, on the border of Moab.
  45. Numbers 33:45Dibon-gad gets its name because, later on, the tribe of Gad rebuilds this city — already in territory conquered from the Amorites, near the end of the journey.
  46. Numbers 33:46This is the second-to-last stop before the mountains of Abarim, from where the people finally catch sight of the promised land — the end of a journey of 42 campsites.
  47. Numbers 33:47The next stop was in the mountains of Abarim, facing Mount Nebo.
  48. Numbers 33:48From the mountains of Abarim they finally arrived at the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho — the last campsite of the journey.
  49. Numbers 33:49There the people spread out along the Jordan, from Beth-jeshimoth to Abel-shittim, and it is at this same camp that the rest of the book of Numbers takes place.
  50. Numbers 33:50The LORD speaks to Moses right at this final camp, beginning the final instructions before entering the land.
  51. Numbers 33:51The instruction is for when the people would finally cross the Jordan into Canaan.
  52. Numbers 33:52The command is to drive out all the inhabitants of the land and completely destroy their images, idols, and pagan altars.
  53. Numbers 33:53After that, the people were to take possession of the land and settle in it, since God had given this land specifically to them.
  54. Numbers 33:54The land would be divided by lot among the families, with larger portions for larger groups and smaller ones for smaller groups, each tribe receiving its share.
  55. Numbers 33:55God warns that if the people did not drive out the previous inhabitants, they would become a constant problem, like thorns in their eyes and barbs in their sides.
  56. Numbers 33:56And He warns further: if that happened, the same destruction planned for the Canaanites would fall on Israel itself.

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