Limitless Word
They marched for three days after leaving the mountain of the Lord, with the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant moving ahead of them to show them where to stop and rest.
Numbers 10:33 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB They set forward from the Mount of Yahweh three days’ journey. The ark of Yahweh’s covenant went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them.
  • KJV And they departed from the mount of the LORD three days’ journey: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting place for them.
  • BSB So they set out on a three-day journey from the mountain of the LORD, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD traveling ahead of them for those three days to seek a resting place for them.
  • NKJV So they departed from the mountain of the Lord on a journey of three days; and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them for the three days’ journey, to search out a resting place for them.
  • NASB So they moved on from the mountain of the Lord three days’ journey, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord going on in front of them for the three days, to seek out a resting place for them.

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

Israel journeyed three days from God's mountain, the ark going before them to find a resting place. God's covenant presence led the way.

Overview

As Israel left Sinai, the ark of the covenant went ahead to seek out a place of rest for them. The ark leading the march signified God Himself guiding His people toward rest, a theme fulfilled in Christ, who leads His people into true and eternal rest.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 23

  • Deut 1:33who went before you on the way, to seek out a place for you to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day.
  • Exod 3:1Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God’s mountain, to Horeb.
  • Exod 33:14–15He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
  • Exod 24:17–18The appearance of Yahweh’s glory was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
  • Jer 3:16It will come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days,” says Yahweh, “they will no longer say, ‘the ark of Yahweh’s covenant!’ It will not come to mind. They won’t remember it. They won’t miss it, nor will another be made.
  • Jer 6:16Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
  • Judg 20:27The children of Israel asked Yahweh (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
  • Deut 9:9When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.
  • Deut 31:26“Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of Yahweh’s covenant your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.
  • Matt 11:28–30“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.
  • Exod 19:3Moses went up to God, and Yahweh called to him out of the mountain, saying, “This is what you shall tell the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
  • Num 10:12The children of Israel went forward according to their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud stayed in the wilderness of Paran.
  • Josh 3:2–6After three days, the officers went through the middle of the camp;
  • Josh 4:7then you shall tell them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of Yahweh’s covenant. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.’”
  • Josh 3:11–17Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into the Jordan.
  • 1 Sam 4:3When the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has Yahweh defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us get the ark of Yahweh’s covenant out of Shiloh and bring it to us, that it may come among us, and save us out of the hand of our enemies.”
  • Isa 66:1Yahweh says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build to me? Where will I rest?
  • Isa 28:12to whom he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to weary”; and “This is the refreshing”; yet they would not hear.
  • Ezek 20:6in that day I swore to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.
  • Heb 13:20Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus,
  • Heb 4:3–11For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest”; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
  • Ps 95:11Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They won’t enter into my rest.”
  • Jer 31:8–9Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together. They will return as a great company.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Numbers videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Numbers 10:33YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on NumbersMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.

How Numbers 10:33 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.