(There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.)
(There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea), (see the notes at Numbers 33:1-56.) This statement, which is properly marked in our version as a parenthesis, was designed to indicate the general course of the Israelites after their departure from Sinai. The route traced seems to have been a well-known one, and occupied in journeying between the extremes the space of eleven days, which, at the average rate of 10 miles a day, would make a distance of 110 miles.
Distances are computed in the East still by the hours or days occupied by the journey. A day's journey on foot is about 20 miles; on camels, at the rate of 3 miles per hour, 30 miles; and by caravans, about 25 miles. But the Israelites being encumbered with children and flocks, would move at a slower rate than any of these.
Some writers consider that their journey could not have exceeded 10 miles per day, or perhaps five miles a day (Benisch). The mention of the time here was made to show that the great number of years spent in traveling from Horeb to Kadesh was not owing to the length of the way, but to a very different cause-namely, banishment for their apostasy and frequent rebellions.
Kadesh, whether considered as a city or a region, was the most important stage next to Sinai in the history of the Israelite wanderings; and although "the plains of Moab" lay further north, no more reckoning of days' journeyings is given, owing to the intervention of the Dead Sea (see for opinions as to Kadesh, Numbers 13:26: cf. Genesis 14:17).