Lyrics · Numbers
Every Station Remembered
Numbers 33:1-36:13
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About this song
About this song
This song belongs to the Numbers collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.
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- Numbers
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- Numbers
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- World Music
Named in this songSinaiMosesEgyptAaronJordanJericho
About the passage
Numbers 33: The road is recorded, and the land is not yet secure
Numbers 33 turns Israel's wilderness movement into a written itinerary commanded by the LORD. The route begins with an exact date, the day after Passover, while Egypt buries its firstborn, and then proceeds through a long sequence of departures and encampments. Most stations receive only a name, which gives special weight to the few details preserved: Elim has twelve fountains and seventy palms, Rephidim has no water, and Aaron's death is fixed to the first day of the fifth month in the fortieth year. The record finally reaches the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. At that point the chapter shifts from the road already traveled to the land ahead, commanding the removal of Canaan's inhabitants and cult objects, the division of territory by lot, and warning that Israel itself is not exempt from judgment in the land it receives.
Study Numbers 33 in depthNumbers 34: The inheritance receives boundaries and named stewards
Numbers 34 gives the western inheritance an outer edge before it gives the tribes their internal portions. The southern boundary moves through a chain of named places from the salt sea toward the river of Egypt, while the great sea forms the west. The northern line runs through Mount Hor and the entrance of Hamath, and the eastern boundary descends toward Chinnereth, follows the Jordan, and returns to the salt sea. The outline concerns the land still to be divided among nine and a half tribes, because Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh have already received their inheritance east of the Jordan. The chapter then names Eleazar, Joshua, and tribal representatives who will administer the western division. Moses transmits the arrangement, but his own name is absent from the list of men who will carry it out.
Study Numbers 34 in depthNumbers 35: Refuge, judgment, and blood that cannot be bought off
Numbers 35 distributes the Levites through Israel's territory and places the law of refuge inside that settlement. Forty-eight Levitical towns are to be supplied from the tribal inheritances, with larger tribes contributing more, and six of those towns serve as cities of refuge. They protect a person who kills unintentionally from being killed before communal judgment, but refuge is not an acquittal for murder. The chapter distinguishes deliberate attacks marked by deadly means, hatred, or ambush from killings without enmity or intent to harm. The congregation must judge between the killer and the avenger and protect the unintentional manslayer, who must remain within the refuge boundary until the high priest's death. Capital judgment requires more than one witness, and payments cannot buy either a murderer's life or an early return from refuge. Bloodshed is finally treated as a matter affecting the land where the LORD dwells.
Study Numbers 35 in depth


