1These are the journeyings of the Israelites who came out of the land of Egypt by their battalions, in the hand of Moses and Aaron. 2And Moses wrote down their departure points for their journeyings by the word of the LORD, and these are their journeyings by their departure points.
3And they journeyed from Rameses, in the first month on the fifteenth day of the first month on the morrow of the Passover offering the Israelites went out with a high hand before the eyes of all Egypt. 4And the Egyptians were burying all the firstborn that the LORD had struck down among them, and the LORD had dealt punishment to their gods. 5And the Israelites journeyed from Rameses and camped at Succoth. 6And they journeyed from Succoth and camped at Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness. 7And they journeyed from Etham and went back toward Pi-Hahiroth, which is opposite Baal-Zephon, and they camped before Migdol. 8And they journeyed from Pi-Hahiroth and crossed over through the sea to the wilderness, and they went three days in the Wilderness of Etham and camped at Marah. 9And they journeyed from Marah and came to Elim, and at Elim there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there. 10And they journeyed from Elim and camped by the Sea of Reeds. 11And they journeyed from the Sea of Reeds and camped in the Wilderness of Sin. 12And they journeyed from the Wilderness of Sin and camped at Dophkah. 13And they journeyed from Dophkah and camped at Alush. 14And they journeyed from Alush and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water there to drink. 15And they journeyed from Rephidim and camped in the Wilderness of Sinai. 16And they journeyed from the Wilderness of Sinai and camped at Kibroth-Hattaavah. 17And they journeyed from Kibroth-Hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth. 18And they journeyed from Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah. 19And they journeyed from Rithmah and camped at Rimmon-Perez. 20And they journeyed from Rimmon-Perez and camped at Libnah. 21And they journeyed from Libnah and camped at Rissah. 22And they journeyed from Rissah and camped at Kehelath. 23And they journeyed from Kehelath and camped at Mount Shepher. 24And they journeyed from Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah. 25And they journeyed from Haradah and camped at Makheloth. 26And they journeyed from Makheloth and camped at Tahath. 27And they journeyed from Tahath and camped at Terah. 28And they journeyed from Terah and camped at Mithkah. 29And they journeyed from Mithkah and camped at Hashmonah. 30And they journeyed from Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth. 31And they journeyed from Moseroth and camped at Bene-Jaakan. 32And they journeyed from Bene-Jaakan and camped at Hor-Haggidgad. 33And they journeyed from Hor-Haggidgad and camped at Jothbathah. 34And they journeyed from Jothbathah and camped at Abronah. 35And they journeyed from Abronah and camped at Ezion-Geber. 36And they journeyed from Ezion-Geber and camped in the Wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh. 37And they journeyed from Kadesh and camped at Hor the Mountain at the edge of the land of Edom. 38And Aaron the priest went up Hor the Mountain by the LORD’s word and died there in the fortieth year of the Israelites’ going out from Egypt, in the fifth month on the first of the month. 39And Aaron was one hundred twenty-three years old when he died on Hor the Mountain. 40And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelled in the Negeb in the land of Canaan, heard when the Israelites came. 41And they journeyed from Hor the Mountain and camped at Zalmonah. 42And they journeyed from Zalmonah and camped at Punon. 43And they journeyed from Punon and camped at Oboth. 44And they journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iye-Abarim on the border of Moab. 45And they journeyed from Iye-Abarim and camped at Dibon-Gad. 46And they journeyed from Dibon-Gad and camped at Almon-Diblathaim. 47And they journeyed from Almon-Diblathaim and camped in the high country of Abarim, before Nebo. 48And they journeyed from the high country of Abarim and camped in the steppes of Moab across the Jordan from Jericho. 49And they camped by the Jordan from Beth-Jeshimoth to Abel-Shittim, in the steppes of Moab.
50And the LORD spoke to Moses in the steppes of Moab across the Jordan from Jericho, saying, 51“Speak to the Israelites and you shall say to them, ‘You are about to cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan. 52And you shall dispossess all the inhabitants of the land before you, and you shall destroy all their carved figures and all their molten images you shall destroy, and all their cult-places you shall demolish. 53And you shall take possession of the land and dwell in it, for to you I have given the land to take hold of it. 54And you shall settle the land by lot according to your clans. For the many you shall make their estate large and for the few you shall make their estate small. Wherever the lot falls, there it will be his. By the tribes of your fathers you shall settle. 55And if you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land from before you, it will come about that those of them you leave will become stings in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will be foes to you on the land in which you dwell. 56And it will come about that as I had thought to do to them, I shall do to you.’”
CHAPTER 33 NOTES
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1. These are the journeyings. Now at the end of the long chain of Wilderness stories that began in Exodus, as the Israelites are poised to cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, we get a grand recapitulation of the whole narrative in the form of an itinerary of all the way stations in the Wilderness march. Such itineraries were a set literary form in the ancient Near East, with Mesopotamian examples, akin in form to the document in this chapter, going back to early in the second millennium B.C.E.
2. Moses wrote down their departure points. As elsewhere, the narrative reflects a consciousness of the antiquity and primacy of writing in Hebrew culture.
by the word. Literally, “by the mouth.”
4. the LORD had dealt punishment to their gods. The conjecture of some scholars that this clause reflects a lost tradition in which the God of Israel battled directly against the gods of Egypt seems unnecessary. From the story in Exodus, it is clear enough that the Ten Plagues and the freeing of the Hebrew slaves are understood as a resounding demonstration of the impotence of the gods of Egypt in the face of the all-powerful YHWH.
5–49. Most of the place-names occur in the narrative in Exodus and Numbers, and the rehearsal of these names here constitutes a summary and recollection of incidents that occurred at the sundry places. (Thus Kibroth-Hattaavah, verse 16, which means Graves of Desire, hardly an ordinary place-name, recalls the incident recorded in chapter 11.) But there are some important episodes with their place-names that do not appear in this itinerary: even, surprisingly, the central stop at Mount Sinai is not actually mentioned, only a stay in the Wilderness of Sinai. At the same time, a number of places are recorded in the itinerary that do not appear in the preceding narrative. At least a few of these are designations that don’t sound like conventional place-names but appear to refer to some event that occurred at the location in question (e.g., Haradah in verse 24 is the Hebrew word for “terror”). All this makes it likely that, in keeping with a common compositional procedure of biblical literature, an archival document has been spliced into the text, reflecting some traditions about the Wilderness wanderings that were not incorporated in the canonical narrative of Exodus and Numbers.
52. cult-places. The bamah was an open-air altar on which sacrifices, to agricultural and other gods, were offered. Israelites in fact widely used bamot until they were suppressed in the reforms of Josiah around 621 B.C.E.
55. stings in your eyes and thorns in your sides. Given the next clause, “they will be foes to you on the land” (Onkelos interprets the verb here as “oppress”), the reference of these metaphors appears to be strategic: unless you entirely destroy or expel the Canaanites, they will continually attack you as you try to dwell in the land. The parallels to this verse in Exodus 34:11–13, Deuteronomy 7:1, and Joshua 23:4–9 see the danger of the Canaanite presence as cultic temptation rather than military harassment. In any case, the idea of wiping out or totally banishing the Canaanites was never actually implemented, and it has the look of a theological program retrojected onto a purportedly historical narrative as a desideratum presented by God to Israel.