Matthew Poole
Numbers 33

Introduction

A relation of the marches and campings of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan, Numbers 33:1-49. They are commanded to drive out the Canaanites, and destroy their pictures, molten images, and high places, and to divide the land by lot, Numbers 33:50-54. The Canaanites, if not dispossessed, should trouble and vex them; and God would do to them as he thought to do to the others, Numbers 33:55-56.

Verse 1

With their armies, i.e. in great number and exact order, as armies march, and they did, Exodus 12:37, 38; 13:18.

Verse 2

Moses would have this done, partly to evince the truth of the history, partly to preserve the remembrance of God's glorious and miraculous works both of judgment and mercy towards his people, and thereby to confirm their faith in their present difficult undertaking.

Verse 3

They all repaired to Rameses by Moses's order from all parts of the land. In the sight of all the Egyptians. See Exodus 14:8; Numbers 15:30.

Verse 4

Upon their gods; either,

1. Their princes and rulers, who are sometimes called gods in Scripture; and so this is added by way of amplification, God slew their first-born; not only of the meaner sort, but even of their king and princes. Or,
2. Their false gods, to wit, those beasts which the brutish Egyptians worshipped as gods, which were killed with the rest, for the first-born both of men and beasts were then killed, Exodus 13:5. See the notes on Exodus 12:12; See the notes on Exodus 18:11.

Verse 5-18

Ritmah; a place in the wilderness of Paran, near Kadesh-barnea.

Verse 19-31

Called more fully Beeroth-bene-jaacan, Deuteronomy 10:6.

Verse 32

Called Gudgodah, as Jotbathah is called Jotbath, Deuteronomy 10:7.

Verse 33-35

A place upon the Red Sea, as appears from 1 Kings 9:26; 22:48.

Verse 36-45

Iim, rather Ijim, i.e. the heaps, as the word signifies, even the heaps of Abarim, last mentioned; the Hebrew word is the same with Ije, Numbers 33:44, only there it is in the construed, and here in the absolute, form. Dibon-gad; so called partly by way of distinction of this from another Dibon, in the portion of Reuben, Joshua 13:17, and partly, because it was rebuilt by the tribe of Gad.

Verse 46, 47

Of which see Numbers 27:12; Deuteronomy 32:49, 50; 34:1.

Verse 48, 49

Abel-shittim; called Shittim, Numbers 25:1, and here Abel-shittim, for the grievous mourning which there was both for the heinous crimes committed, and horrible judgments there inflicted.

Verse 50-52

Ye shall drive out; not by banishing, but by destroying them, as it is explained, Deuteronomy 7:1, 2, and elsewhere. Their pictures seem to have been stones curiously engraven, and set up for worship. See Deuteronomy 16:22. Molten images. See Exodus 23:24, 32; Deuteronomy 7:5. High places, i.e. by a metonymy, the chapels, altars, groves, or other means of worship there set up, for the hills themselves could not be destroyed by them. See the notes on Deuteronomy 12:2.

Verse 53-55

Pricks in your eyes, i.e. both vexatious and pernicious, for the eye is a tender part, and a wound there is very mischievous.

Verse 56