Numbers - 33:16



16 They traveled from the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped in Kibroth Hattaavah.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Numbers 33:16.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibrothhattaavah.
And they journeyed from the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped in Kibroth-hattaavah.
But departing also from the desert of Sinai, they came to the graves of lust.
And they removed from the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped at Kibroth-hattaavah.
And they journeyed from the wilderness of Sinai, and pitched in Kibroth-hattaavah.
And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and encamped at Kibroth-hattaavah.
and they journey from the wilderness of Sinai, and encamp in Kibroth-Hattaavah.
And they went on from the waste land of Sinai and put up their tents in Kibroth-hattaavah.
They traveled from the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in Kibroth Hattaavah.
But departing also from the wilderness of the Sinai, they arrived at the Graves of Lust.
Profecti autem e deserto Sinai, castrametati sunt in Cibroth-Hathaavah.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Kibroth-hattaavah - No city, village, etc., but a place in the open desert, which had its name from the plague that fell upon the Israelites, through their murmuring against God, and their inordinate desire of flesh. See on Numbers 11 (note). But it appears that the Israelites had traveled three days' journey in order to reach this place, Numbers 10:33, and commentators suppose there must have been other stations which are not laid down here, probably because the places were not remarkable.
Stat. 13.

And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibrothhattaavah. Eight miles from the desert of Sinai; here the people lusted after flesh, and murmured, which, though given them, a pestilence came and destroyed many of them, and here they were buried, whence the place was so called, which signifies the "graves of lust", i.e. of those that lusted: no mention is made of Taberah, either because it was the same with Kibroth, or near it; or, as Aben Ezra on Deuteronomy 9:22 says, they encamped there but one day, and so is not mentioned in the journeys, though it was one of the three they journeyed from Mount Sinai to Kibrothhattaavah, see Numbers 11:1.

FROM SINAI TO KADESH AND PLAINS OF MOAB. (Numbers. 33:16-56)
Kibroth-Hattaavah ("the graves of lust," see on Numbers 11:34) --The route, on breaking up the encampment at Sinai, led down Wady Sheikh; then crossing Jebel-et-Tih, which intersected the peninsula, they descended into Wady Zalaka, pitching successively at two brief, though memorable, stations (Deuteronomy 9:22); then they encamped at Hazeroth ("unwalled villages"), supposed to be at Ain-Hadera (see on Numbers 11:35). Kadesh, or Kadesh-barnea, is supposed to be the great valley of the Ghor, and the city Kadesh to have been situated on the border of this valley [BURCKHARDT; ROBINSON]. But as there are no less than eighteen stations inserted between Hazeroth and Kadesh, and only eleven days were spent in performing that journey (Deuteronomy 1:2), it is evident that the intermediate stations here recorded belong to another and totally different visit to Kadesh. The first was when they left Sinai in the second month (Numbers 1:11; Numbers 13:20), and were in Kadesh in August (Deuteronomy 1:45), and "abode many days" in it. Then, murmuring at the report of the spies, they were commanded to return into the desert "by the way of the Red Sea." The arrival at Kadesh, mentioned in this catalogue, corresponds to the second sojourn at that place, being the first month, or April (Numbers 20:1). Between the two visits there intervened a period of thirty-eight years, during which they wandered hither and thither through all the region of El-Tih ("wanderings"), often returning to the same spots as the pastoral necessities of their flocks required; and there is the strongest reason for believing that the stations named between Hazeroth (Numbers 33:8) and Kadesh (Numbers 33:36) belong to the long interval of wandering. No certainty has yet been attained in ascertaining the locale of many of these stations. There must have been more than are recorded; for it is probable that those only are noted where they remained some time, where the tabernacle was pitched, and where Moses and the elders encamped, the people being scattered for pasture in various directions. From Ezion-geber, for instance, which stood at the head of the gulf of Akaba, to Kadesh, could not be much less than the whole length of the great valley of the Ghor, a distance of not less than a hundred miles, whatever might be the exact situation of Kadesh; and, of course, there must have been several intervening stations, though none are mentioned. The incidents and stages of the rest of the journey to the plains of Moab are sufficiently explicit from the preceding chapters.

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