Numbers 33:3

3 They set out from the city of Rameses in early spring—on the fifteenth day of the first month —on the morning after the first Passover celebration. The people of Israel left defiantly, in full view of all the Egyptians.

Numbers 33:3 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 33:3

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

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 thinks it might be Cairo, from whence they set forward; see ( Exodus 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 ( Exodus 11:7 ) ( 12:33 ) .

F1 Travels, p. 307. Ed. 2.

Numbers 33:3 In-Context

1 This is the route the Israelites followed as they marched out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.

2 At the LORD ’s direction, Moses kept a written record of their progress. These are the stages of their march, identified by the different places where they stopped along the way.

3 They set out from the city of Rameses in early spring—on the fifteenth day of the first month —on the morning after the first Passover celebration. The people of Israel left defiantly, in full view of all the Egyptians.

4 Meanwhile, the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn sons, whom the LORD had killed the night before. The LORD had defeated the gods of Egypt that night with great acts of judgment!

5 After leaving Rameses, the Israelites set up camp at Succoth.

Footnotes

• [a]. This day in the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar occurred in late March, April, or early May.