Numbers 10:12

Num 10:12 And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.

Ver. 12. Out of the wilderness of Sinai.] Where they had dwelt long enough. {Deu 1:6-8} It being a place of bondage, by reason of the law there given. {Gal 4:24-25} The law is a yoke of bondage, as Jerome calls it; and they who look for righteousness from thence, are like oxen, who toil and draw, and when they have done their labour, are fatted for slaughter.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Num 10:12. Paran — From which they travelled to other places, and then returned into it again, Num 12:16.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10:12 The Israelites marched to the wilderness of Paran, an arid or semi-arid region in the northeastern part of the Sinai Peninsula, south of the Negev and west of the Dead Sea/Arabah Rift (cp. Gen 21:21).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, in keeping this order in their journeys.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

wilderness of Paran--It stretched from the base of the Sinaitic group, or from Et-Tyh, over that extensive plateau to the southwestern borders of Palestine.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 12. The cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.] This was three days' journey from the wilderness of Sinai, (see Nu 10:33,) and the people had three stations; the first at Kibroth-hattaavah, the second at Hazeroth, Nu 11:35, and the third in the wilderness of Paran, see Nu 12:16. But it is extremely difficult to determine these journeyings with any degree of exactness; and we are often at a loss to know whether the place in question was in a direct or retrograde position from the place previously mentioned.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(12) And the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.—The fact is here mentioned by way of anticipation (see Num_10:33). The spot referred to is probably Kibroth-hattaavah, which may have been at the southernmost extremity of the wilderness of Paran. In Deu_1:19 it is called “that great and terrible wilderness.” This wilderness is supposed to have been bounded by the land of Canaan on the north, by the valley of Arabah on the east, and by the desert of Sinai on the south. Its western boundary appears to have been the wilderness of Shur, or rather the river, or brook, of Egypt (Wady-el-Arish), which divides the wilderness into two parts, of which the western part is sometimes known as the wilderness of Shur. The sojourn of the Israelites was confined to the eastern part. (See Kurtz’s History of the Old Covenant, 3 p. 221.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. their journeys] their stages; cf. Num_33:1 f., Exo_17:1.

the cloud abode] The verb is that to which mishkân ‘dwelling’ corresponds. The cloud settled down and abode upon the Tabernacle in the wilderness of Paran, as a sign that they were to halt there. See the opening note on ch. 11.

Paran] This wilderness lay to the north of the Sinaitic peninsula. Its eastern border would be roughly a line drawn from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba. It is closely connected with Edom in Deu_33:2, Hab_3:3. See the writer’s Exodus, p. ciii. It lay between Midian and Egypt (1Ki_11:18); and was Ishmael’s dwelling-place (Gen_21:21 E ). It apparently corresponded to the modern desert of Et-tih.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai,.... Each of their camps removed from thence, and so everyone took their journey:

and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran; which was a signal for the camps to rest and pitch their tents; this was after they had gone three days journey, and were come to Taberah, which, it is probable, was in the wilderness of Paran; otherwise we read of their pitching in the wilderness of Paran, after they had been a month at Kibrothhattaavah, Num 11:34, and seven days at Hazeroth, Num 12:16; so they went from one wilderness to another; of this wilderness; see Gill on Gen 21:21.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The wilderness of Paran - See Gen 14:6 note. The wilderness is mentioned here by anticipation. The earliest halting-places, Kibroth-hattaavah and Hazeroth, were not within its limits Num 11:35; Num 12:16.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

From which they travelled to other places, and then returned into it again, Num 12:16.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. The wilderness of Paran — Paran literally signifies a region abounding in caverns. It corresponds in general outline with the desert Et-Tih, a wide stretch of hilly limestone region elsewhere known as “the Desert,” lying north of the Sinaitic triangle, its southern boundary not being a straight line running east and west, but a concave crescent of mountains about one hundred and twenty miles long. The surface of this extensive desert is a chalky formation covered with coarse gravel, mixed with black flint and drifting sand, dipping southward. See Gen_21:21, note; Exo_15:22-27, introductory note. The Paran proper, or definite spot to which the name is applied, (Deu_1:1,) is by Prof. Palmer and other eminent geographers identified with Wady Feiran, closely resembling it in sound.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Took their journeys. Literally, "marched according to their journeys" Septuagint, tiaiv autwn , set forward with their baggage. And the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran. Taken by itself this would seem to apply to the first resting of the cloud and the first halt of the host after breaking up from "the wilderness of Sinai." It appears, however, from Num_12:16 that "the wilderness of Paran" was fully reached after leaving Hazeroth at the end of three days" journey from Sinai, nor would a shorter space of time suffice to carry the host across the mountain barrier of the Jebel et-Tih, which forms the clearly-marked southern limit of the desert plateau of Paran (see next note). Some critics have arbitrarily extended the limits of "the wilderness of Paran" so as to include the sandy waste between Sinai and the Jebel et-Tih, and therefore the very first halting-place of Israel. This, however, is unnecessary as well as arbitrary; for

(1) verses 12, 13 are evidently in the nature of a summary, and the same subject is confessedly taken up again in verse 33, sq. ; and

(2) the departure from Sinai is expressly said to have been for a "three days" journey" (verse 33), which must mean that the march, although actually divided into three stages, was regarded as a single journey, because it brought them to their immediate destination in the wilderness of Paran. Here then is a plain reason for the statement in this verse: the cloud did indeed rest twice between the two wildernesses, but only so as to allow of a night"s repose, not so as to break the continuity of the march. "The wilderness of Paran." Septuagint, en th erhmw tou faran . This geographical expression is nowhere exactly defined in Holy Scripture, and the name itself has disappeared; for in spite of the resemblance in sound (a resemblance here, as in so many cases, wholly delusive), it seems to have no connection whatever with the Wady Feiran, the fertile valley at the base of Serbal, or with the town which once shared the name. All the allusions, however, in the Old Testament to Paran point to a district so clearly marked out, so deeply stamped with its own characteristics, by nature, that no mistake is possible. This district is now called et-Tih, i.e., the wandering, and is still remembered in the traditions of the Arabs as the scene of the wanderings of the people of God. Little known, and never thoroughly explored, its main features are nevertheless unmistakable, and its boundaries sharply defined. Measuring about 150 miles in either direction, its southern frontier (now called the Jebel et-Tih) is divided by the broad sandy waste of er-Ramleh from the Sinaitic mountains and the Sinaitic peninsula properly so called; its northern mountain mass looks across the deep fissure of the Wady Murreh (or desert of Zin), some ten or fifteen miles broad, into er-Rachmah, the mountain of the Amorite, the southern extension of the plateau of Judah; on the east it fails abruptly down to the narrow beach of the Elanite Gulf, and to the Arabah; on the west alone it sinks slowly into the sandy desert of Shur, which separates it from the Mediterranean and from Egypt. Et-Tih is itself divided into nearly equal halves, by the Wady el Arish (or "river of Egypt"), which, rising on the northern slopes of the Jebel et-Tih, and running northwards through the whole plateau, turns off to the west and is lost in the desert of Shur. That the western half of the plateau went also under the name of Paran is evident from the history of Ishmael, (see especially Gen_21:21 Gen_25:18) but it was through the eastern portion alone that the wanderings of the Israelites, so far as we can trace them, lay. This "wilderness of Paran" is indeed "a great and terrible wilderness", (Deu_1:9) lacking for the most part the precipitous grandeur of the granite mountains of Sinai, but lacking also their fertile valleys and numerous streams. A bare limestone or sandstone plateau, crossed by low ranges of hills, seamed with innumerable dry water-courses, and interspersed with large patches of sand and gravel, is what now meets the eye of the traveler in this forsaken land. It is true that a good deal of rain falls at times, and that when it does fall vegetation appears with surprising rapidity and abundance; it is true also that the district has been persistently denuded of trees and shrubs for the sake of fuel. But whatever mitigations may have then existed, it is clear from the Bible itself that the country was then, as now, emphatically frightful. (cf. Deu_1:19 Deu_8:15 Deu_32:10 Jer_2:6) Something may be set, no doubt, to the account of rhetoric, and much may be allowed for variety of seasons. Even in Australia the very same district will appear at one time like the desolation of a thousand years, and in the very next year it will blossom as the rose. But at certain seasons at any rate et-Tih was (as it is) a "howling" wilderness, where the dreadful silence of a lifeless land was only broken by the nightly howling of unclean beasts who tracked the footsteps of the living in order to devour the carcasses of the dead. Perhaps so bad a country has never been attempted by any army in modern days, even by the Russian troops in Central Asia.

Amongst the many Wadys which drain the uncertain rain-fall of the eastern half of et-Tih (and at the same time testify to a greater rain-fall in bygone ages), the most important is the Wady el Terafeh, which, also rising on the northern slopes of Jebel et-Tih, runs northwards and north-westwards, and finally opens into the Arabah. Towards its northern limit et-Tih changes its character for the worse. Here it rises into a precipitous quadrilateral of mountains, about forty miles square, not very lofty, but exceedingly steep and rugged, composed in great measure of dazzling masses of bare chalk or limestone, which glow as in a furnace beneath the summer sun. This mountain mass, now called the Azaimat, or mountain country of the Azazimeh, rising steeply from the rest of the plateau to the southward, is almost completely detached by deep depressions from the surrounding districts; at the north-west corner alone it is united by a short range of mountains with er-Rachmah, and so with the highlands of Southern Palestine. From this corner the Wady Murreh descends broad and deep towards the cast, forking at the eastern extremity towards the Arabah on the southeast, and towards the Dead Sea on the north. east. The interior of this inaccessible country has yet to be really explored, and it is the scanty nature of our present knowledge concerning it which, more than anything else, prevents us from following with any certainty the march of the Israelites as recorded in this book.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Paran - From which they travelled to other places, and then returned into it again, chap. xii, 16.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

למסעיהם means, in accordance with the regulations set forth for the journeys of their divisions — which should be the first to set out and which the last.

במדבר פראן IN THE WILDERNESS OF PARAN — The place “Kibroth-hattavah” (Numbers 12:34) was in the wilderness of Paran and there they encamped after this journey (cf. Numbers 33:16—17 with our verse and with Numbers 11:34—35).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.