Numbers 33:2

2 which dwellings Moses described by the places of (the) tents, that were changed by commandment of the Lord. (and Moses wrote down each place where they pitched their tents, by the Lord's command.)

Numbers 33:2 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 33:2

And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys,
by the commandment of the Lord
Which may be understood, either that their journeys were by the commandment of the Lord; so Aben Ezra takes the connection to be, and which is undoubtedly true, and which is expressed plainly elsewhere; for so it was, that when the cloud abode on the tabernacle they rested, and had their stations, and continued as long as the cloud tarried on it, and when that was taken up, then they marched; and thus at the commandment of the Lord they rested, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed, see ( Numbers 9:17-23 ) or that Moses wrote the account of their journeys, and several stations, at the commandment of the Lord, that it might be on record, and be read in future ages, and appear to be a fact, that they were led about in a wilderness, in places which were unknown to others, and had no names but what they gave them:

and these are their journeys according to their goings out;
from place to place; some of the ancients, as Jerom ^F26 particularly, and some modern writers, have allegorized these journeys of the children of Israel, and have fancied that there is something in the signification of the names of the places they came to, and abode in, suitable to the cases and circumstances of the people of God in their passage through this world; but though the travels of the children of Israel in the wilderness may in general be an emblem of the case and condition of the people of God in this world, and there are many things in them, and which they met with, and befell them, that may be accommodated to them; yet the particulars will never hold good of individual saints, since they are not all led exactly in the same path of difficulties and troubles, but each have something peculiar to themselves; and it will be difficult to apply these things to the church of God in general, in the several stages and periods of time, and which I do not know that any have attempted; and yet, if there is anything pointed out by the travels, one would think it should be that.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 "De 42 mansionibus", Fabiolae, "inter opera ejus", T. 3. fol. 13.

Numbers 33:2 In-Context

1 These be the dwellings of the sons of Israel, that went out of the land of Egypt, by their companies, in the hand of Moses and Aaron; (These be the dwelling places of the Israelites, after they went out of the land of Egypt, by their companies, or their tribes, under the hand of Moses and Aaron;)

2 which dwellings Moses described by the places of (the) tents, that were changed by commandment of the Lord. (and Moses wrote down each place where they pitched their tents, by the Lord's command.)

3 Therefore the sons of Israel went forth in an high hand from Rameses, in the first month, in the fifteenth day of the first month, in the tother day of pask, that is, in the morrow of the offering of the lamb of pask, while all [the] Egyptians saw, (And so the Israelites went forth defiantly from Rameses, in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the day after the first Passover, that is, in the morning after the offering of the lamb of the first Passover, while all the Egyptians watched,)

4 and (while) the Egyptians buried their first begotten (male) children, which the Lord had slain; for the Lord took vengeance also upon their gods. (and while the Egyptians buried their first-born sons, whom the Lord had killed; and the Lord also took vengeance upon their gods, and their animals.)

5 The sons of Israel (first) setted tents in Succoth, (The Israelites first pitched their tents at Succoth,)