Commentaria in Numeros
Verse 11. IN THE SECOND YEAR (from the departure of the Hebrews out of Egypt), IN THE SECOND MONTH, THE TWENTIETH DAY OF THE MONTH, THE CLOUD WAS LIFTED UP.—“The cloud,” that is the pillar of cloud, began to be moved and to go before the camp, which was therefore moved. Hence it is plain that the Hebrews remained in Sinai (which was the twelfth station of the Hebrews in the desert) for a whole year, thirteen days excepted. For they came into Sinai on the third day of the third month of the first year, as is plain from Exodus 19:1; but departed from Sinai on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year. All the things, then, narrated from Exodus 19 to this point were done and said in Sinai. Wherefore first, all the moral, judicial and ceremonial laws were given in Sinai. Secondly, there the tabernacle, as a temple. Thirdly, there the priests and Levites were consecrated. Fourthly, there the camp was ordered, and so both the commonwealth and the old Church of the Hebrews were instituted and formed, just as on Sion the new law was promulgated, and the commonwealth began, and … from Egypt, that holy Job was dead; and this must be said if we suppose, as he and several others teach, that holy Job lived 217 years: for so many are there from the 130th year of Jacob, in which holy Job seems to have been born, to this second year, as I said on Genesis.
Verse 12. AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SET FORWARD, etc., FROM THE DESERT OF SINAI, AND THE CLOUD RESTED IN THE WILDERNESS OF PHARAN—namely in the place which was afterwards called the Graves of Lust. There, then, was the thirteenth station of the Hebrews, which was in that vast desert of Pharan, which is one in itself but comprises many parts: for a part of this desert of Pharan is the desert of Sin, in which was the thirty-third station, of which chapter 33, verse 36 (although St. Jerome, in the tract On the 42 Stations, …Pharan ends in Sin, and places in Pharan only the eighteen following stations, which were as far as Sin and Cades). Where behold, wonder at, and celebrate the wonderful providence of God toward his own, who led the Hebrews wandering through this desert for thirty-eight years; for, first, in it neither manna nor water ever failed them. Second, the pillar of cloud always went before them on the way. Third, their garments and shoes were never worn out; nay, they grew with the growing children; for they neither changed nor renewed their clothes in the desert. Fourth, here quails were received from heaven, and water from the rock, and all the wonders which are afterward recounted in Numbers happened here. Fifth, in this desert all who went out of Egypt, namely more than six hundred thousand, perished and died on account of their murmuring. Those who have carefully surveyed this desert relate: first, that it is a very vast solitude, for it extends from Mount Sina to Cadesbarne, a journey of eleven days; second, that it is pathless and waterless; third, barren and unploughable; fourth, inhabited by men as well as by beasts; fifth, lacking herbs and trees, though here and there it has them, as will appear on verse 33; sixth, rough with steep rocks and mountains; seventh, very dry and burning hot with the heat of the sun; eighth, that in it one must constantly struggle with very clinging sand, which, being very deep and yielding to the footsteps, vehemently hinders and delays advance. Yet through this desert the Hebrews, even the little ones, with God for their leader, walked comfortably for thirty-eight years: see Adrichomius, Borchard, Ziegler and others under Pharan.
Verses 13 and 14. AND THE CHILDREN OF JUDA MOVED THE CAMP.—Of the order of the several tribes and the array of these camps I spoke on Numbers 2. From this place, namely from verse 17, it is plain that the Gersonites and Merarites marched after the first line, Juda’s; but the Caathites after the second, Ruben’s, as I said in chapter 2: although others think otherwise and suppose a hysteron proteron here. But not rightly; for the whole array, both of the people and of the Levites, is described here distinctly and in order.
Where note: God willed the Hebrews for forty years to live in the desert in arms and camps, that, placed among enemies, they might keep perpetual watch and be ready to fight, lest they should melt away in ease and inertia. So Epaminondas, wishing to keep the Boeotians, dissolute in idleness, always in arms, when they chose him Boeotarch, that is their chief, used to exhort them to consult anew; for if they made him leader, he would have to make war for them, and he called their supine and open country the dancing-floor of war, because they could not hold it save with the hand through the shield-handle. So Plutarch in the Laconian Sayings.
Tropologically, these camps signified that the life of the faithful is a warfare, as holy Job says, in which, armed and fighting assiduously, we tend to the heavenly country. “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places,” Ephesians 6:12.
ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD BY THE HAND OF MOSES—which, namely, he gave or published through Moses, his minister and instrument; for the symbol of this is the hand.
Verse 21. THE CAATHITES ALSO CARRYING THE SANCTUARY—that is, the holy vessels of the Sanctuary, namely of the Holy and the Holy of Holies.
SO LONG WAS THE TABERNACLE (the vessels of the tabernacle, that is of the Holy and the Holy of Holies, just mentioned) CARRIED, UNTIL THEY CAME TO THE PLACE OF ITS SETTING UP.—The Hebrew is: they (the Gersonites and Merarites) set up the tabernacle, until they (the Caathites) came to bring in the sacred vessels. Hence it is again plain that the Gersonites and Merarites went before, and followed the first line, to set up the boards and curtains of the tabernacle, namely the Holy and the Holy of Holies, that the Caathites, following the second line, on arriving might find the tabernacle already set up, into which to bring their vessels; for the fitting providence, disposition and order of all required this.
Verse 29. AND MOSES SAID TO HOBAB THE SON OF RAGUEL THE MADIANITE, HIS KINSMAN.—The question is whether this Hobab was Jethro himself, the father-in-law of Moses, or the son of Jethro? The Septuagint assert that Hobab is Jethro himself; so also Abulensis. Jethro therefore had four names: for he was called first Jethro; second, Raguel; third, Hobab; fourth, Cineus, as is plain from Judges 1:16. For Jethro with his daughter Sephora, wife of Moses, came to Moses in Sinai, Exodus 18:4.
If you say: Hobab is here called the son of Raguel, therefore he was not Raguel himself.
They answer that Hobab was the son of the elder Raguel, but was himself Raguel the younger, who was also called Jethro; for the father’s name was given to the son, either as a proper name or as a patronymic, as is done among the Dutch and English: whence they call their people Robersons, that is sons of Robert; Petersons, that is sons of Peter; Jansons, Andrisons, etc.
Others, as Paul of Burgos, Cajetan and Oleaster, think it more probable that this Hobab is the son of Jethro or Raguel. For first, he is expressly so called here: Raguel here seems to be the same as he who is so named in Exodus 2:18: but he was Jethro, father-in-law of Moses; nor is Scripture wont to recount the fathers or grandfathers of Gentiles (such as Jethro was).
Secondly, because Jethro returned into Madian, as is plain from Exodus 18, last verse; but here Hobab, persuaded by Moses, seems to have remained with him, and to have gone on to Canaan, as is gathered from verse 31; and this is the more confirmed from the fact that all the Madianites a little after, namely in the 38th year from this, which was the fortieth and last of the wandering in the desert, were utterly destroyed by the Hebrews just entering Canaan. If, then, Hobab had returned into Madian, he would likewise have been destroyed there with his family; but this is false, as I shall presently show. For what some answer, that Moses, when about to make war on the Madianites, first called Hobab out of there with his family, is said gratuitously and without author or witness. Jethro alone, therefore, being an old man of a hundred (for Moses his son-in-law was already 81), returned into Madian, and died there a little after, before the Madianites were destroyed.
Moses, Hobab the son of Raguel, his father-in-law, and so perhaps the Septuagint rendered it, but not “to his father-in-law,” as the Greek codices now have. Our Interpreter, however, renders “his kinsman,” that is, his relative by marriage, because the Hebrew choten signifies both father-in-law and kinsman, that is, a relation by marriage; for both Hobab and Raguel or Jethro were related to Moses by marriage. For Hobab was his brother-in-law, but Raguel was the father-in-law of Moses.