The Lord Spake Unto Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai

Chapter 8. "The LORD spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year..." "Take a census..." "from twenty years old..." and "with you there shall be..." (Numbers 1:3). After that, "count every firstborn male of the children of Israel..." (Numbers 3:40). After that, "take the sum of the sons of Kohath..." (Numbers 4:2). After that, "take the sum of the sons of Gershon also..." (Numbers 4:22). After that, the sons of Merari were counted (Numbers 4:29). After that, "according to the command of the LORD they were counted by the hand of Moses" (Numbers 4:49). On the fourteenth of Iyar, those who were impure by contact with the dead slaughtered the second Passover offering, as it is said, "There were men who were impure by the dead body of a man..." and "those men said to him..." and "the LORD spoke to Moses, saying..." and "If any man will be impure by the dead..." (Numbers 9). "It came to pass in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, that the cloud was lifted" (Numbers 10:11). It follows that they spent twelve months in the Wilderness of Sinai, less ten days. Scripture says, "Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys..." (Numbers 33:2). They traveled from the Wilderness of Sinai and came to Kibroth-hattaavah, and they stayed there thirty days, as it is said, "You shall not eat one day..." but "up to a full month..." (Numbers 11). They traveled from Kibroth-hattaavah and came to Hazeroth, and they stayed there seven days, as it is said, "Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days" (Numbers 12:15). They traveled from Hazeroth and came to the Wilderness of Paran on the twenty-eighth of Sivan. On the twenty-ninth of Sivan, Moses sent the spies, as it is said, "The days were the days of the first ripe grapes" (Numbers 13:20). "They returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days" (Numbers 13:25), and it was the ninth of Av. You therefore find that on the ninth of Av it was decreed against our ancestors that they would not enter the land. After the spies came Korah's dispute and his being swallowed, as it is said, "Indeed, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey..." (Numbers 16:14). "The LORD's anger burned against Israel" (Numbers 32:13), and Scripture says, "The days in which we went from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered were thirty-eight years..." (Deuteronomy 2:14). Nineteen years they wandered and were unsettled, and nineteen years they sat in Kadesh-barnea, as it is said, "You stayed in Kadesh many days, like the days that you stayed" (Deuteronomy 1:46). All the journeys together are found to be forty-two journeys.