Chapter Ten

A command to make two silver trumpets. — Departure into the wilderness of Paran. — The order of movement. — The invitation to Hobab the Midianite to accompany the Hebrews. — Moses’ invocations at the raising and stopping of the ark of the covenant.

Numbers 10:1. And the Lord said to Moses, saying: Numbers 10:2. Make yourself two silver trumpets; of beaten work shall you make them, and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp. Under David seven trumpets were made, under Solomon – 120.

Numbers 10:8. The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets; it shall be a perpetual statute for you throughout your generations; “Blowing the trumpets was permitted only to the priests,” Theodoret remarks, “because the trumpet signified God’s calling” (Commentary on Numbers, question 15).

Numbers 10:11. In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle of the testimony; The chronological sequence of events, as indicated in the note to Exod 18, requires placing here the account in Exod 18 about Moses testing his father-in-law Jethro (compare Num 10:29).

Numbers 10:12. And the sons of Israel set out by their companies from the wilderness of Sinai, and the cloud settled in the wilderness of Paran. The wilderness of Paran is located to the north of the Sinai peninsula, occupying a limestone elevated plain between the valley of the Nile and the mountains of rocky Arabia. Its southern boundary is the sand extending between the upper portions of the gulfs bordering the Sinai peninsula; the western boundary is the Egyptian stream; the eastern — Arabia; the northern — the Negeb (the south of Palestine). At the present time all the desert space from Sinai to Palestine bears one general name “Et-Tih,” that is, “wandering.”

Numbers 10:29. And Moses said to Hobab, son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ relative: “We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you’; come with us, and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good for Israel. According to some, Hobab was the son, according to others the younger brother of Jethro, the son of Reuel (compare Exod 18).

Numbers 10:31. Moses said, “Do not leave us, for you know how we camp in the wilderness, and you will serve as eyes for us; Hobab could be useful to the Hebrews through his acquaintance with the wilderness.