Numbers 10:33

_AND THEY DEPARTED FROM THE MOUNT OF THE LORD THREE DAYS' JOURNEY: AND THE ARK OF THE COVENANT OF THE LORD WENT BEFORE THEM IN THE THREE DAYS' JOURNEY, TO SEARCH OUT A RESTING PLACE FOR THEM._ They departed ... three days' journey - i:e., (the first day's progress being very small), about 18 or 20 miles. ARK OF COVENANT ... WENT BEFORE THEM ... TO SEARCH OUT A RESTING PLACE FOR THEM, х_ LAATUWR_ (H8446) _ LAAHEM_ (H3807a) _ MªNUWCHAAH_ (H4496)] - to search or discover (used here anthropomorphically), a place of rest. It was carried in the center; and hence, some eminent commentators think the passage should be rendered, 'the ark went in their presence,' the cloud above upon it being conspicuous in their eyes. But it is probable that the cloudy pillar, which, while stationary, rested upon the ark, preceded them in the march-as, when in

33._And they departed from the mount of the Lord. _He calls Sinai “the mount of the Lord,” because in no other place had God’s glory been so conspicuously manifested. This, I admit, it had been called by anticipation ( κατὰ πρόληψιν) before the promulgation of the law; but this name was imposed upon it afterwards to inspire eternal reverence for the law. By “three days’ journey,” we must understand a continuous march of three days, for they did not pitch their tents until they reached the desert of Paran, but slept in the. open air. When it is said that the ark went before them in the three days’ journey, there is no reference to its distance, as if it was sent forward three days ahead; but that it was so placed in their van that, when the cloud settled upon it, they halted as at a station prescribed to them by God. This was the searching for a resting-place of which he speaks....

33-36 Their going out and coming in, gives an example to us to begin and end every day's journey and every day's work with prayer. Here is Moses's prayer when the ark set forward, "Rise up, and let thine enemies be scattered." There are those in the world who are enemies to God and haters of him; secret and open enemies; enemies to his truths, his laws, his ordinances, his people. But for the scattering and defeating of God's enemies, there needs no more than God's arising. Observe also the prayer of Moses when the ark rested, that God would cause his people to rest. The welfare and happiness of the Israel of God, consist in the continual presence of God among them. Their safety is not in their numbers, but in the favour of God, and his gracious return to them, and resting with them. Upon this account, Happy art thou, O Israel! who is like unto thee, O people! God will go before them, t...

Verse Numbers 10:33. _THE ARK - WENT BEFORE THEM_] We find from Numbers 10:21 that the ark was carried by the _Kohathites_ in the center of the army; but as the army never moved till the cloud was taken up, it is said to _go before them_, i. e., to be the first to move, as without this motion the Israelites continued in their encampments....

THREE DAYS’ JOURNEY - Probably a technical expression for such a distance as could not be traversed in a single day, and therefore not without intervals of encampment and due provision: compare Genesis 30:36; Exodus 3:18; Exodus 5:3; Exodus 8:27; Exodus 15:22. The technical use of the phrase “Sabbath-day’s journey” for another average distance, Acts 1:12, is similar. The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them -...

EXPOSITION THE ACTUAL DEPARTURE FROM SINAI (Numbers 10:33-4). NUMBERS 10:33 AND THEY DEPARTED. These words mark the moment of actual departure, which has been anticipated in the general statement of Numbers 10:12. It was one of the supreme moments in the life of Israel—one of those beginnings or "departures" which lead to untold gain or loss; it was, in fact, although they knew it not, the commencement of a march which for almost all of them should know no end except within a hasty grave. No doubt, during the months spent at Sinai, _every _preparat

AND THEY DEPARTED FROM THE MOUNT OF THE LORD THREE DAYS' JOURNEY,...., From Mount Sinai, so called, because the Lord descended upon it, and gave the law from it; so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, "from the mount on which the glory of the Lord (or of his Shechinah or divine Majesty) was revealed.'' This they left, after they had been nearly twelve months about it, and travelled three days' journey from it before the cloud rested, so as to abide, otherwise is stopped no doubt to give them time to eat their food, and take sleep and rest. The Targum of Jonathan expressly says, they went thirty six miles on that day; but, according to Bunting o, Taberah or Kibrothhattaavah, to which the children of Israel first came, and where they abode a month, was but eight miles from Sinai; wherefore the three days' journey were not successively one after another, but the first day's journey was t...

NUMBERS 10:33 (JE). THE MOVEMENTS OF THE ARK. Here the Ark is not regarded as carried in the middle of the column (as in Numbers 10:21), but as preceding it (_cf._ Psalms 68:7). The address to it assumes that it was the seat or symbol of Yahweh, and the particular expressions used are more appropriate to a time after the settlement in Canaan, when the Ark accompanied the Israelite armies to war (1 Samuel 4:3; 2 Samuel 11:11), than to the period spent in the wilderness....

MOUNT OF THE LORD. mountain of Jehovah: because His glory had there been revealed. THREE DAYS. From 20-23 Ziph. App-50....

AND THE ARK—WENT BEFORE THEM— The ark was carried in the midst of the camp; see ch. Numbers 2:17 and the 21st of this chapter. The words _before them,_ in the Hebrew, signify, _in their presence; before their face;_ לפניהם _lipneihem,_ and thus rendered, there is no difficulty or contradiction. The ark of the covenant of the Lord went in their presence in the three days' journey, to explore (or direct them in finding out) a resting-place for them. Calmet renders it, L'arche d'alliance marchoit en leur presence; _the ark of the covenant marched in their presence;_ in the midst of the army, where every one might see it. Historians remark, that the kings of Persia in battles, encampments, and marches, were always in the centre of their army, to be the more secure, and better enabled to issue their orders; to keep their troops to their duty, and more easily to distinguish what