民數記 33:2 註釋：Sforno, Or HaChaim, Rabbeinu Bahya & Chizkuni

ויכתוב משה, he wrote down the name of the places towards which they were setting out, as well as the name of the places from which they had started that particular journey. [this unusual sequence would justify the Torah mentioning first מסעיהם before מוצאיהם at the end of our verse. Ed.]

ויכתב משה את מוצאיהם, Moses recorded their departures, etc. What precisely did the Torah want to teach us with this verse? We did not need to be told that it was Moses who recorded this as Moses recorded the entire Torah and the journeys are part of the Torah. Besides, the Torah ought to have written that Moses recorded את מסעיהם, "their journeys." What was the point in recording their "departures?" Furthermore, what is the meaning of the words ואלה מסעיהם למוצאיהם "and these are their journeys according to their departures?" Why did the Torah change the order in which it mentioned departures from מוצאיהם למסעיהם, to מסעיהם למוצאיהם?

למסעיהם על פי ה', “according to their journeys at the command of Hashem.” The Torah states: 1) the journeys themselves were all at the command of G’d; 2) Moses recorded them all at the express command of G’d. The purpose of these records was what we discussed already in our introduction. There was an additional purpose, namely to demonstrate the many acts of loving kindness performed by Hashem, who, though He had decreed that they were to travel through the desert (although alternate routes were available) did not subject them to the discomforts associated with travel through such inhospitable country. Moreover, by having listed all the places where the Israelites camped, we realise that the people did not move around in the desert constantly, like someone escaping from a pursuer, but that during the entire 40 years (counting from the crossing of the sea until the death of Moses) there were actually fewer than 40 stops, so that they usually could stay put in a camp for more than a year at a time.