Bible Strands
Numbers 33:2
At the LORD’s command, Moses recorded the stages of their journey. These are the stages listed by their starting points:
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses records the departure stages at Yahweh’s command, positioned narratively between the general exodus account and the specific march from Rameses. The text presents this as a direct written account following the initial departure under Moses and Aaron.
The words — The verb וַיִּכְתֹּב (va-yiḵtōḇ) means “and he wrote down,” paired with מוֹצָאֵי (mōṣāʾê, “points of departure”) and לְמַסְעֵי (lə-maśʿê, “to their settings out”). These terms anchor the record to the exact locations where the camps broke ground.
The thread — This directive to document the departure points echoes the obedience motif in Numbers 10:13, where the first march out occurs by Yahweh’s command through Moses. The pattern of setting out under divine direction also appears in Numbers 9:17 and Numbers 10:6, where the cloud and trumpet signals dictate the camp’s movement.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to recognize that the journey was initiated and sustained by divine instruction rather than human planning. It demands attention to the specific locations recorded as markers of Yahweh’s guided movement.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And 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.
Cross-references
- Numbers 9:17 Whenever the cloud was lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites would set out, and wherever the cloud settled, there the Israelites would camp.
- Numbers 10:6 When you sound the short blasts a second time, the camps that lie on the south side are to set out. The blasts are to signal them to set out.
- Numbers 10:13 They set out this first time according to the LORD’s command through Moses.
- Deuteronomy 1:2 It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by way of Mount Seir.
- Deuteronomy 10:11 Then the LORD said to me, “Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”