Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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(1.) That they went up themselves, not as a confused rout, but in good order, rank and file: they went up harnessed, Ex 13:18. They went up by five in a rank (so some), in five squadrons, so others. They marched like an army with banners, which added much to their strength and honour.
(2.) That they took the bones of Joseph along with them (Ex 13:19), and probably the bones of the rest of Jacob's sons, unless (as some think) they had been privately carried to Canaan (Ac 7:16), severally as they died. Joseph had particularly appointed that his bones should be carried up when God should visit the (Ge 50:25,26), so that their carrying up his bones was not only a performance of the oath their fathers had sworn to Joseph, but an acknowledgment of the performance of God's promise to them by Joseph that he would visit them and bring them out of the land of Egypt, and an encouragement to their faith and hope that he would fulfil the other part of the promise, which was to bring them to Canaan, in expectation of which they carried these bones with them while they wandered in the desert. They might think, "Joseph's bones must rest at last, and then we shall." Moses is said to take these bones with him. Moses was now a very great man; so had Joseph been in his day, yet he was now but a box full of dry bones; this was all that remained of him in this world, which might serve for a monitor to Moses to remember his mortality. I have said, You are gods; it was said so to Moses expressly (Ex 7:1); but you shall die like men.
19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly
sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.
20 And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in
Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.
Here is the guidance they were blessed with in the way: The Lord went before them in a pillar, Ex 13:21, 22. In the first two stages it was enough that God directed Moses whither to march: he knew the country and the road well enough; but now that they had come to the edge of the wilderness (Ex