It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by way of Mount Seir.
Parallel translations
- WEB It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.
- KJV (There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)
- NKJV It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.
- NASB It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.
- NLT Normally it takes only eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, going by way of Mount Seir.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
It notes that the journey from Horeb (Sinai) to Kadesh Barnea was only eleven days. The brevity highlights how short the trip should have been compared to the forty years Israel actually spent.
Overview
By recording that Horeb to Kadesh Barnea was an eleven-day journey, Scripture quietly underscores the tragedy of Israel's unbelief: a short trip became a forty-year delay because of their refusal to trust God at Kadesh. The detail sets up the book's repeated warning against hardening the heart. It reminds believers that unbelief, not distance, is what keeps God's people from His rest, as Hebrews 3-4 later applies to the gospel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Num 32:8This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to inspect the land.
- Num 13:26and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
- Deut 9:23And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh-barnea, He said, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You neither believed Him nor obeyed Him.
- Lev 2:14If you bring a grain offering of firstfruits to the LORD, you shall offer crushed heads of new grain roasted on the fire.
- Lev 9:23Moses and Aaron then entered the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.
- Josh 14:6Then the sons of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh-barnea about you and me.
- Num 20:17–21Please let us pass through your land. We will not cut through any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will stay on the King’s Highway; we will not turn to the right or to the left until we have passed through your territory.”
- Deut 2:8So we passed by our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion-geber, and traveled along the road of the Wilderness of Moab.
- Deut 2:4and command the people: ‘You will pass through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so you must be very careful.
- Deut 1:44Then the Amorites who lived in the hills came out against you and chased you like a swarm of bees. They routed you from Seir all the way to Hormah.
- Exod 3:1Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 1:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.