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Numbers 10:11

in Numbers 10

On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud was lifted from above the tabernacle of the Testimony,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And it came to pass in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, that the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony.

KJV

And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony.

This verse in Numbers 10

Commentary

6 notes on this verse
At this point commences the second great division of the book, extending to the close of Num. 14. The remaining verses of the present chapter narrate the actual break up of the camp at Sinai and the order of the march.

This site's exposition

on the twentieth day of the second month

on Numbers 10:11-12

Exodus 19:1 brought Israel to Sinai in the third month of the first year, and this verse dates the departure to the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, so the camp at the mountain stood close to eleven months. Everything from Exodus 19 through Numbers 10:10 happens in that one place. The cloud is taken up and the nation moves, which is the rule laid down at Numbers 9:17-23, and no man gives the order.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

): The cloud was taken up, and we may suppose it stood for some time, till they were ready to march; and a great deal of work it was to take down all those tents, and pack up all those goods that they had there; but every family being employed about its own, and all at the same time, many hands made quick work of it.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

And it came to pass, on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

Besides the religious purposes of the highest importance to which their long sojourn at Sinai was subservient, the Israelites, after the hardships and oppression of the Egyptian servitude, required an interval of repose and refreshment.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

The twentieth day of the second month - The Israelites had lain encamped in the wilderness of Sinai about eleven months and twenty days; compare Exo 19:1 with this verse. They now received the order of God to decamp, and proceed towards the promised land; and therefore the Samaritan introduces at this place the words which we find in Deu 1:6-8: “The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying: Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount, turn and take your journey,” etc.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

בחדש השני [IN THE SECOND YEAR] IN THE SECOND MONTH [THE CLOUD DEPARTED] — Consequently you must say that they spent at Choreb twelve months less ten days, since on the New Moon of Sivan (the third month) they encamped there (Exodus:1) and did not journey until the twentieth of Eyar of the following year.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Numbers 10:11:1, via Sefaria, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934
2 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
על עלתיכם [YE SHALL BLOW WITH THE TRUMPETS] OVER YOUR BURNT OFFERINGS — Scripture is speaking of a communal burnt offering (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar; Arakhin 11b).
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Numbers 10:10:1, via Sefaria, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934
למסעיהם means, in accordance with the regulations set forth for the journeys of their divisions — which should be the first to set out and which the last.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Numbers 10:12:1, via Sefaria, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיְהִ֞יand it was

    vayhiH19613559 times

  • בַּשָּׁנָ֧הin the year

    bashanahH8141877 times

  • הַשֵּׁנִ֛ית<the> second

    hashenitH8145156 times

  • בַּחֹ֥דֶשׁin the month

    bachodeshH2320284 times

  • הַשֵּׁנִ֖י<the> second

    hasheniH8145156 times

  • בְּעֶשְׂרִ֣יםon [day] twenty

    beesrimH6242315 times

  • בַּחֹ֑דֶשׁin the month

    bachodeshH2320284 times

  • נַעֲלָה֙it was taken up

    naalahH5927890 times

  • הֶֽעָנָ֔ןthe cloud

    heananH605187 times

  • מֵעַ֖לfrom over

    mealH59215755 times

  • מִשְׁכַּ֥ן[the] tabernacle of

    mishkanH4908139 times

  • הָעֵדֻֽת׃the testimony

    haedutH571559 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Numbers 9:1

    In the first month of the second year after Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai:

    it leads to

    • Numbers 1:1

      On the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Exodus 40:2

      “On the first day of the first month you are to set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Exodus 40:2

    “On the first day of the first month you are to set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.

    it leads to

    • Exodus 26:30

      So you are to set up the tabernacle according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

    • Exodus 13:4

      Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving.

    • Exodus 40:17–19

      So the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month of the second year.

    • Numbers 7:1

      On the day Moses finished setting up the tabernacle, he anointed and consecrated it and all its furnishings, along with the altar and all its utensils.

  • Through

    Numbers 9:5

    and they did so in the Wilderness of Sinai, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

    it leads to

    • Joshua 5:10

      On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they kept the Passover.

  • Through

    Numbers 9:11

    Such people are to observe it at twilight on the fourteenth day of the second month. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs;

    it leads to

    • 2 Chronicles 30:2–15

      For the king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem had decided to keep the Passover in the second month,

Where this verse is studied

About Numbers

The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.