Charles Ellicott Commentary Numbers 33:45

"And they journeyed from Iyim, and encamped in Dibon-gad." — Numbers 33:45 (ASV)

From Iim.— Instead of the seven intermediate stations between Ijim, or Iie-abarim, and the plains of Moab, which are mentioned in Numbers 21:11-20, we find only three mentioned in this chapter: namely, Dibon of Gad, Almon-diblathaim, and Mount Abarim before Nebo. None of these agree in name with the stations mentioned in Numbers 21. Regarding the number of stations, the diversity may probably be explained on the supposition that Numbers 21 mentions only those stations that were of historical importance—as, e.g., those from which any military expedition was made—while Numbers 33 appears to mention every place in which an organized camp was erected, and in which the Tent of Meeting was formally set up.

If this supposition is correct, no difficulty is involved in the fact that fewer stations are named between Mount Hor and Ije-abarim in Numbers 21 than in Numbers 33, while more stations are named between Ije-abarim and Arboth-Moab in Numbers 33 than in Numbers 21. There is a further diversity, however, in the two accounts regarding the names of the intermediate stations between Ije-abarim and the plains of Moab.

Regarding the stations between Mount Hor and Ije-abarim, if we suppose Zalmonah to have been the station at which the bronze serpent was set up (see Numbers 21:10, and Note), the difference between the two accounts consists only in the insertion in Numbers 33 of the station at Punon, between Zalmonah and Oboth. Regarding the stations, however, between Ije-abarim and Arboth-Moab, there is not only a difference in the number but also in the names of the stations.

But this difference is easily accounted for when it is remembered that a host consisting of 600,000 men, with their wives, children, and cattle, must have extended over a large area. In an inhabited country where towns and villages abounded, they may have occupied more than one of these at the same time (Compare Numbers 33:49, where the Israelites are represented as encamping from Beth-jesimoth even unto Abel-shittim.).

Hence, there is no difficulty in connecting the formal encampment at Dibon of Gad (Numbers 33:45) with one or more of the stations on the north of the Arnon mentioned in Numbers 23:13-19. Nor is there difficulty in connecting Almon-diblathaim, which appears to have been situated on the north or north-west of Dibon (compare Jeremiah 48:22, where Beth-diblathaim is mentioned in conjunction with Dibon and Nebo), with Bamoth—i.e., heights—which, if identical with Bamoth-Baal (Numbers 22:4), is mentioned by Joshua (Joshua 13:17) in immediate connection with Dibon.

Regarding the last station named in this chapter before the encampment in the plains of Moab—namely, the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo—there can be no doubt as to its identity with the station in the valley in the country (or, field) of Moab, at the top of Pisgah, mentioned in Numbers 21:20. According to Deuteronomy 34:1, Mount Nebo was a peak of Pisgah, which, as we learn from Deuteronomy 32:49, was one of the mountains of Abarim. The place of Moses' burial, who died on the top of Pisgah, is described as the valley—that is, the well-known valley—in the land of Moab (Deuteronomy 34:6).

In Dibon-gad.— Or, Dibon of Gad. The reference is probably to the fact, already mentioned in Numbers 32:34, that the children of Gad rebuilt or fortified Dibon. This town stood on the northern side of the river Arnon and is one of the towns named in Numbers 32:3 as situated in that portion of the country which the Reubenites and the Gadites desired to possess.