Numbers 10:11

From Sinai to Paran

11 During the second year, in the second month on the twentieth [day] of the month, the cloud was lifted up above the tabernacle of the testimony.

Numbers 10:11 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 10:11

And it came to pass, on the twentieth [day] of the second
month, in the second year
Which was the twentieth of the month Ijar, in the second year of the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt; who, as it appears from hence, compared with ( Exodus 19:1 ) ; had been in the wilderness of Sinai twelve months wanting ten days; so Jarchi and other Jewish writers ^F13, with whom Aben Ezra agrees, who says it was near a year:

that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony;
that part of the tabernacle where the ark of the testimony stood, even the most holy place, over which the cloud was, the token of the divine Presence, and which it covered; but now was taken up from it, and went up higher above it, and was a signal for the motion of the camps of Israel to set forward in their journey towards Canaan's land.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 23. Abarbinel

Numbers 10:11 In-Context

9 "When you enter into battle in your land against an adversary who is attacking you, sound short blasts on the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God and be delivered from your enemies.

10 You are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and your fellowship sacrifices and on your joyous occasions, your appointed festivals, and the beginning of each of your months. They will serve as a reminder for you before your God: I am the Lord your God."

11 During the second year, in the second month on the twentieth [day] of the month, the cloud was lifted up above the tabernacle of the testimony.

12 The Israelites traveled on from the Wilderness of Sinai, moving from one place to the next until the cloud stopped in the Wilderness of Paran.

13 They set out for the first time according to the Lord's command through Moses.