Numbers 33:18

Num 33:18. They pitched in Rithmah — A place not mentioned in Exodus, but which appears, from Num 12:16, to have been in the wilderness of Paran, not far from Kadesh-barnea.

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

33:18-30 Most of the place-names in this section appear nowhere else in the Old Testament.

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

Rithmah ("the place of the broom")--a station possibly in some wady extending westward of the Ghor.

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

STAT. XIV.

Verse 18. RITHMAH.] This place lay somewhere in the wilderness of Paran, through which the Israelites were now passing. See Num 13:1; Num 13:3. The name signifies the juniper tree; and the place probably had its name from the great number of those trees growing in that district.

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

And Aaron the priest went up into Mount Hor, at the commandment of the Lord,.... Delivered to Moses:

and died there in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of Egypt; not being suffered to go with them into the land of Canaan, because of his sin of unbelief at Kadesh, the last place from whence they came: in Mount Hor he died:

on the first day of the fifth month; the month Ab, answering to part of July and part of August; so that he lived but four months after his sister Miriam; see Num 20:1.

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

Ritmah; a place in the wilderness of Paran, near Kadesh-barnea.

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

18. Rithmah has not been identified. The name is kindred to the word rendered “juniper,” but more correctly “broom.” “It may therefore signify the valley of the broom-bushes.” — Edersheim.

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

Rithmah. Comparing this verso with Num_12:16 and with Num_13:26, it would appear as if Rithmah were the station "in the wilderness of Paran" from which the spies went up, and to which they returned a station subsequently known by the name of Kadesh. There are two difficulties in the way of this identification. In the first place we should then only have three names of stations between Sinai and the southern border of Palestine, on what is at least eleven days" journey. This is, however, confessedly the case in the historical narrative, and it admits of explanation. We know that the first journey was a three days" journey, (Num_10:33) and the others may have been longer still, through a country which presented no facilities for encamping, and possessed no variety of natural features. In the second place, Rithmah is not Kadesh, and cannot be connected with Kadesh except through a doubtful identification with the Wady Retemat in the neighbourhood of Ain Kudes. (see note at end of Nu 13) It is, however, evident from Num_12:16, as compared Num_13:26, that Kadesh was not the name originally given to the encampment "in the wilderness of Paran." It seems to have got that name perhaps owing to some popular feeling with respect to an ancient sanctuary, perhaps owing to some partial shifting of the camp during the absence of the spies. Rithmah, therefore, may well have been the official name (so to speak) originally given to the encampment, but subsequently superseded by the more famous name of Kadesh; this would explain both its non-appearance in the narrative of Numbers, and its appearance in the Itinerary here.

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

ויחנו ברתמה AND THEY ENCAMPED IN RITHMAH — It was so called with reference to the slanderous speech of the spies, uttered there, as it is said, (Psalms 120:3-4): “What shall be given unto thee, and what shall be done more unto thee, thou deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty with coals of juniper (רְתָמִים).

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.