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The Preparation for the Departure
9:15 to 10:10

Throughout these early chapters of Numbers there is a topical presentation rather than a chronological arrangement of the material. They have been telling us the story of the Israelite’s preparations to leave Mount Sinai. In the first four chapters of Numbers, they took a census (to see link click An – The Levitical Census) and assigned the Levites to their various tasks (see Ar – The Four Camps of Levites). Numbers 7-10 is a flashback and relates how Isra’el was ready to depart from Mount Sinai. Chapters 9 and 10 tell of the final preparation before the departure from Sinai as a flashback on the twentieth of the second month of the second year (10:11); the observance of the second Passover six days earlier (9:1-14); the pillar cloud and fire as a guide (9:15-23); the trumpet signals for assembling the people and its leaders and for breaking camp (10:1-10); the order of march (10:11-28), and a narrative relating a different marching order (10:29-36).144