Numbers 10 - Introduction

The two silver Clarions

Numbers 10:2a. Their workmanship; Numbers 10:2 b Numbers 10:8, their three-fold use during the wanderings; Numbers 10:9, their two-fold use in Canaan.

Second Division: chs. Numbers 10:11 to Numbers 22:1. Journeys between Sinai and Moab

Chapter s Numbers 10:11 to Numbers 22:1 form the second main division of the book, comprising the journeyings between the departure from Sinai and the arrival at the steppes of Moab opposite Jericho. The first division is entirely from P, but at this point the compiler begins to insert into P narratives from the earlier writings J and E.

The contents of the second division are briefly as follows:

(a) Numbers 10:11 to Numbers 12:16. Events in the journey from Sinai to the Wilderness of Paran.

(b) Numbers 13:14. The narrative of the spies; the Israelites are condemned to wander for forty years.

(c) Numbers 15 19. A Priestly section containing a variety of laws on ritual and offerings, and (Numbers 16:1) the narrative of Korah combined with the narrative (from J E) of Dathan and Abiram.

(d) Numbers 20:1. Events in the journeys until the arrival at Moab.

It will be seen that this is not a history of the wanderings, but only of a few incidents at the beginning and at the end of them. See the preliminary note on ch. 20.