John Gill Commentary Numbers 33

These are the journeys of the children of Israel
which are related in the following chapter:

which went forth out of the land of Egypt :
where their fathers went and stayed, and were kept in hard bondage, but in due time were delivered from it, and came out from there:

with their armies ;
in great numbers, and in an orderly manner, in rank and file, and like so many squadrons, see (Exodus 7:4) , under the hand of Moses and Aaron: who were sent to the king of Egypt to require their dismission, and who were the instruments under God of their deliverance, and were the leaders of them; as of them out of Egypt, so through the wilderness, in their several journeys here recorded.

And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys,
by the commandment of the Lord
Which may be understood, either that their journeys were by the commandment of the Lord; so Aben Ezra takes the connection to be, and which is undoubtedly true, and which is expressed plainly elsewhere; for so it was, that when the cloud abode on the tabernacle they rested, and had their stations, and continued as long as the cloud tarried on it, and when that was taken up, then they marched; and thus at the commandment of the Lord they rested, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed, see (Numbers 9:17–23).

or that Moses wrote the account of their journeys, and several stations, at the commandment of the Lord, that it might be on record, and be read in future ages, and appear to be a fact, that they were led about in a wilderness, in places which were unknown to others, and had no names but what they gave them:

and these are their journeys according to their goings out ;
from place to place; some of the ancients, as Jerom ^F26 particularly, and some modern writers, have allegorized these journeys of the children of Israel, and have fancied that there is something in the signification of the names of the places they came to, and abode in, suitable to the cases and circumstances of the people of God in their passage through this world;

but though the travels of the children of Israel in the wilderness may in general be an emblem of the case and condition of the people of God in this world, and there are many things in them, and which they met with, and befell them, that may be accommodated to them; yet the particulars will never hold good of individual saints, since they are not all led exactly in the same path of difficulties and troubles, but each have something peculiar to themselves; and it will be difficult to apply these things to the church of God in general, in the several stages and periods of time, and which I do not know that any have attempted; and yet, if there is anything pointed out by the travels, one would think it should be that.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: "Deuteronomy 42 mansionibus", Fabiolae, "inter opera ejus", T. 3. fol. 13.

And they departed from Rameses
A city in Egypt, where the children of Israel, a little before their departure, seem to have been gathered together in a body, in order to march out all together, as they did. This place the Targum of Jonathan calls Pelusium. Dr. Shaw

in the first month ;
in the month Nisan, as the same Targum, or Abib, which was appointed the first month on this account, and answers to part of our March and April:

on the fifteenth of the first month, on the morrow after the passover ;
that was kept on the fourteenth, when the Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites, and slew all the firstborn in Egypt, which made way for their departure the next morning; the Egyptians being urgent upon them to be gone:

the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all
the Egyptians ;
openly and publicly, with great courage and boldness, without any fear of their enemies; who seeing them march out, had no power to stop them, or to move their lips at them, nay, were willing to be rid of them; see (Exodus 11:7) (12:33) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: Travels, p. 307. Ed. 2. thinks it might be Cairo, from where they set forward; see (Exodus 12:37) and it was

For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the Lord
had smitten among them
Which contributed much to the more easy and safe deliverance of the children of Israel; for their hearts were heavy with sorrow, and their hands were full, and they had other work to do, namely, to bury their dead, than to molest Israel; and besides, they knew it was for detaining them this stroke came upon them:

upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments ;
they were moved at the presence, and by the power of God, and fell and were dashed to pieces, as the idols of the same land were in later times, see (Isaiah 19:1) and this still the more intimidated and frightened the Egyptians, that they dared not attempt to hinder the departure of the Israelites from them. The Targum of Jonathan says, the Word of the Lord did this; and adds, their molten idols became soft, their strong idols were mutilated, their earthen idols were diminished, their wooden idols became ashes, and those of beasts died.

And the children of Israel removed from Rameses
Or Pelusium, as the same Targum again:

and pitched in Succoth :
where, as the same paraphrase says, they were covered with the clouds of glory, suggesting that to be the reason of its name; but that was rather because of the booths or tents the Israelites erected, pitched, and dwelt in, during their abode there: this, according to Bunting ^F2 , was eight miles from Rameses; according to whose computation, for want of a better guide, the distances of the several stations from each other will be given.

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: Travels of the Patriarchs p. 81.