B. THE JOURNEY FROM SINAI TO KADESH (Numbers 10:11 to Numbers 12:15).
This section comprises of:
a The setting forward from Sinai and the order of the march (Numbers 10:11-33).
b The people complain and are smitten, Moses intervenes (Numbers 11:1-3)
c Murmuring for meat instead of manna (Numbers 11:4-15).
d Appointment of the seventy elders (Numbers 11:16-24).
d Enduing of the seventy elders (Numbers 11:25-30)
c The provision of meat instead of manna in the form of quails (Numbers 11:31-35).
b Personal complaint about Moses by Aaron and Miriam, Miriam is smitten, Moses intervenes (Numbers 12:1-15).
a Journeying forward and arrival at the Wilderness of Paran (Numbers 12:16)
1). The Setting Forward From Sinai and The Order of the March (Numbers 10:11-33).
After eleven months which have passed encamped before Mount Sinai, during which the people had received the ten words of the covenant and had set up the Dwellingplace of Yahweh, the people were now called to move on towards Canaan. The remainder of this chapter covers the first setting forward from the wilderness of Sinai.
The first section divides up chiastically as follow:
a The ‘setting forth' of the children of Israel on their journeys (Numbers 10:11-13).
b The troops who are in the van (Numbers 10:14-16).
c The Levites bearing the Dwellingplace (Numbers 10:17).
d The troops who are in the centre (Numbers 10:18-20).
c The Levites bearing the bearing the holy things (Numbers 10:21).
b The troops who are in the rear (Numbers 10:22-27).
a The ‘setting forth' of the children of Israel (Numbers 10:28).
The Setting Forward (Numbers 10:11-13).
‘And it came about that in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony.'
The time for moving forward had come on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year. This would have given time for the additional second Passover to have taken place on the fourteenth day of the second month (Numbers 9:10-11). The requirement for this movement was indicated by the cloud being taken up from over the Dwellingplace, the place of the covenant, in accordance with Yahweh's instructions in Numbers 9:15-23.
‘And the children of Israel set forward according to their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai, and the cloud abode in the wilderness of Paran.'
So the children of Israel set forward in the course of their journeying from the wilderness of Sinai where they had remained for eleven months (see Exodus 19:1) and were brought to rest by the abiding of the cloud in the wilderness of Paran. This was a large and barren wilderness to the north of Sinai. How large or big it was thought to be is disputed. Again we must keep in mind that there were no clearly defined boundaries and the description would therefore be general.
They had covered a ‘three day journey' (Numbers 10:33). That was a recognised designation of a fairly short journey, compared with a ‘seven day journey' which would be a longer one. It theoretically measured the distance that a group moving easily would expect to travel in the time. It does not necessarily indicate the passing of three days. It was a measure of distance. It would take slightly shorter or somewhat longer depending on the speed at which people travelled. Given the necessary slowness of the convoy it would almost certainly have been longer. The point being made is that for a few days they did not establish more than a temporary camp.
‘And they first took their journey according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.'
It is stressed that the beginning of the journey was in accordance with Yahweh's command by Moses. This was the first stage of Yahweh's plan to possess the land. Moses would command the silver trumpets to sound, and the march would begin.