Num 33: "This serves as a summary of the whole journeyings
during 40 years from Egypt to the Jordan. Omitting the starting point in Egypt,
and the final camp by the Jordan, there are 40 camps listed. Quite a number are
not found elsewhere in Scripture, and some today cannot be definitely located.
But that is not surprising. Pilgrims and travelers do not leave the kind of
remains that archaeologists can use to make specific identifications. In many
cases, the names given were supplied by the Israelites themselves, being derived
from some small local peculiarity or crisis in their wanderings. These names,
therefore, can provide a hint as to the circumstances of the Israelites at the
various points of their wanderings. The chapter divides them into four stages:
(1) from Egypt to Sinai (vv 1-15); (2) from Sinai to Kadesh (vv 16,17); (3) from
Kadesh to Kadesh again -- the 38 years of wanderings (vv 18-36); and (4) from
Kadesh to Moab and the Jordan (vv 37-49). The chapter concludes with the final
instructions and exhortation of Moses on the plain of Moab (vv 50-56)"
42 stations: cp 42 generations (Mat 1:17), 42 periods of
affliction (Rev 12:6; 13:5,12).
Vv 45-50: . It is well known that Egypt had much reason to
travel to Canaan in those days; trade, exploitation, military conquest. These
routes are recorded in three different Egyptian Temples -- listed in the same
order as provided in the Bible, and dated to the exact period of the Israelite
conquest of Canaan.