Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 33:3
And 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 a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians.
Verse 3. 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 Clarke on Ex 12:37.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They all repaired to
Rameses by Mosess order from all parts of the land.
In the sight of all the Egyptians. See Exo 14:8; Num 15:30.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. Ramesesgenerallyidentified with Heroopoils, now the modern Abu-Keisheid (see on Ex12:37), which was probably the capital of Goshen, and, bydirection of Moses, the place of general rendezvous previous to theirdeparture.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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
Ex 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 Ex 11:7.
a Travels, p. 307. Ed. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3 And 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 His presence,” (Isa 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.
(222) There seems to be an oversight here; he probably refers to ver. 1, “per exercitus suos.”
(223) “Qu’ils ont quitte le combat pour ne plus resister a Dieu; “that they had abandoned the contest so as to resist God no longer. — Fr.
(224) The Fr. omits the negative here, and states the meaning of Moses to be, that the Egyptians forbore to hinder the departure of the Israelites, not only because they were preoccupied by the burial of their dead, but also, etc.
(225) De Lyra’s gloss is: “Tunc enim idola. A Egypti corruerunt, et comminuta sunt.” Corn. a Lapide refers to his own note on Exo 12:12, which is as follows: “Hence it appears, says Caietanus, that Apis or Serapis, and all the other images of gods in Egypt are thrown down, and dashed to atoms on the Passover night, either by an earthquake, or by thunderbolts, as St. Jerome, after the Hebrews, asserts, ‘Ad Fabiol. de 42 Mansion,’ at the beginning. Artabanus, an old historian, in Eusebius, lib. 9, ‘De praepar.’ cap. ult., tells us that this was the case; and Isaiah alludes to it, Isa 19:1. The Hebrews, moreover, have a tradition that the Egyptian idols, which were of stone, were then ground to powder; that those of wood were rotted or reduced to ashes, and those of metal melted and liquefied.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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 Exo. 12:37. The places of encampment from Succoth to the wilderness of Sinai (Num. 33:6-15) agree with those which are recorded in Exo. 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 (Num. 33:10), and of the stations at Dophkah and Alush (Num. 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 Num. 11:34-35. The next station named in this list is Rithmah. Now, according to Num. 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 (Num. 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 Kudeirt, 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 Num. 12:16. If this inference be admitted, it is reasonable to conclude further that the seventeen places of encampment which are mentioned in Num. 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 Num. 33:30-33 of this chapter with Deu. 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 Deu. 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 Num. 33:19-35, no intermediate stations between Ezion-geber and Kadesh are mentioned in Num. 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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Rameses Exo 12:37, note.
First month The event was so important that it became the beginning of a new era. Exo 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. Num 15:30, note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Journey From Egypt To Sinai ( Num 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.
Num 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.
Num 33:4
‘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 Exo 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.
Num 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 (Exo 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 (Exo 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.
Num 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 (Exo 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.
Num 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 Exo 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’ (Exo 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’.
Num 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 – Exo 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 (Exo 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 (Exo 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.
Num 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 (Exo 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.
Num 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.
Num 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’ (Exo 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.
Num 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 they reach Mount Hor in Num 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 (Num 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.
Num 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 (Exo 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.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Num 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.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
If the Reader will count the number of the different routes and stages of Israel, he will find the number amount to two and forty. It began from the borders of Egypt, and extended as far as the plains of Moab. Reader! nothing can be more improving than for the truly pious believer to mark down the memorandums in his own experience of the LORD’S gracious dealings all the way that he hath led him through the wilderness, to show him what is in his heart. Deu 8:2 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the Egyptians: repeated = Figure of speech Anadiplosis (App-6).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
first month
i.e. April.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
they departed: Gen 47:11, Exo 1:11, Exo 12:37
in the first: Exo 12:2, Exo 13:4
with an high: Exo 14:8, Psa 105:38, Isa 52:12, Mic 2:13
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Num 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.