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Numbers 33

Moses records the stages of Israel's journey from Rameses to the plains of Moab, camp by camp, in order. Israel is then told to drive out the people of Canaan, destroy their images and divide the land by lot.

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People in this chapter

Aaron

Places

RamesesTheory: the Bitter Lakes or the Gulf of SuezMarahElimRephidimHar Karkom

Also in this chapter

Yam Suph: 'the sea of reeds'The stations of Numbers 33

How sure can we be?

  • Textually stated

    Elim had twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees.

    Exodus 15:27 and Numbers 33:9.

  • Textually stated

    Numbers 33 lists the camps from Rameses to the wilderness of Sinai.

    Numbers 33:3–15.

  • Strongly supported

    Yam Suph is used for the Gulf of Aqaba and apparently for the Gulf of Suez too, so the name alone does not locate the crossing.

    1 Kings 9:26 puts Ezion-geber 'on the shore of the Red sea' (Hebrew Yam Suph) at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba; Numbers 33:10 has Israel camp by Yam Suph after Elim, on the way south.

  • Strongly supported

    Nuweiba is over 300 km from the delta, far more than the few days' march the itinerary suggests before the crossing.

    Numbers 33 lists only three camps between Rameses and the sea. The gulf there is also hundreds of metres deep, unlike the shallow lakes of the other theories.

  • Strongly supported

    The Bible does not give Mount Sinai's location in terms that can be mapped with certainty.

    The clues are travel times (eleven days from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, Deuteronomy 1:2), the Midian setting of Exodus 3 and the stations of Numbers 33, which have not been securely identified.

  • Plausible

    A crossing in the isthmus lakes fits a march east from the Wadi Tumilat, a turn back to camp by the sea, and the stations of Numbers 33 down the west of Sinai.

    It fits the order of the itinerary, and Numbers 33:10 has Israel camp by Yam Suph after Elim. None of the camp names (Etham, Pi-hahiroth, Migdol, Baal-zephon) has been securely located.

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King James Version (KJV) Chinese Union Version, 1919 (Wikisource)