The long wilderness years
Exodus & Wilderness · Reviewed · BSB
Content revision: d00607304760193f · Editorial review: 2026-09-23
Date: c. 1445–1407 BC · 38 years from Kadesh to the Zered crossing. Dated from 1 Kings 6:1, which places the Exodus 480 years before Solomon began the temple (c. 966 BC). Many scholars instead date the Exodus to about 1260 BC.
The fighting generation that refused to enter the land passes away during the wilderness years. Numbers names Joshua and Caleb as exceptions. Deuteronomy recalls both judgment and God’s continuing provision.
Deuteronomy 2:14 gives 38 years from departure from Kadesh to crossing the Zered. Deuteronomy 8 speaks of the broader forty-year journey. Numbers 33 lists camps but does not date each one within that interval.
Primary Scripture
14:26 Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
14:27 “How long will this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the complaints that the Israelites are making against Me.
14:28 So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say.
14:29 Your bodies will fall in this wilderness—all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older—because you have grumbled against Me.
14:30 Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
14:31 But I will bring your children, whom you said would become plunder, into the land you have rejected—and they will enjoy it.
14:32 As for you, however, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.
14:33 Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
14:34 In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.
14:35 I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this entire wicked congregation, which has conspired against Me. They will meet their end in the wilderness, and there they will die.”
2:14 The time we spent traveling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Brook of Zered was thirty-eight years, until that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.
2:15 Indeed, the LORD’s hand was against them, to eliminate them from the camp, until they had all perished.
2:16 Now when all the fighting men among the people had died,
33:16 They set out from the Wilderness of Sinai and camped at Kibroth-hattaavah.
33:17 They set out from Kibroth-hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth.
33:18 They set out from Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah.
33:19 They set out from Rithmah and camped at Rimmon-perez.
33:20 They set out from Rimmon-perez and camped at Libnah.
33:21 They set out from Libnah and camped at Rissah.
33:22 They set out from Rissah and camped at Kehelathah.
33:23 They set out from Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher.
33:24 They set out from Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah.
33:25 They set out from Haradah and camped at Makheloth.
33:26 They set out from Makheloth and camped at Tahath.
33:27 They set out from Tahath and camped at Terah.
33:28 They set out from Terah and camped at Mithkah.
33:29 They set out from Mithkah and camped at Hashmonah.
33:30 They set out from Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth.
33:31 They set out from Moseroth and camped at Bene-jaakan.
33:32 They set out from Bene-jaakan and camped at Hor-haggidgad.
33:33 They set out from Hor-haggidgad and camped at Jotbathah.
33:34 They set out from Jotbathah and camped at Abronah.
33:35 They set out from Abronah and camped at Ezion-geber.
33:36 They set out from Ezion-geber and camped at Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin.
33:37 They set out from Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the outskirts of the land of Edom.
33:38 At the LORD’s command, Aaron the priest climbed Mount Hor and died there on the first day of the fifth month, in the fortieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt.
33:39 Aaron was 123 years old when he died on Mount Hor.
33:40 Now the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev in the land of Canaan, heard that the Israelites were coming.
33:41 And the Israelites set out from Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah.
33:42 They set out from Zalmonah and camped at Punon.
33:43 They set out from Punon and camped at Oboth.
33:44 They set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim on the border of Moab.
33:45 They set out from Iyim and camped at Dibon-gad.
33:46 They set out from Dibon-gad and camped at Almon-diblathaim.
33:47 They set out from Almon-diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim facing Nebo.
33:48 They set out from the mountains of Abarim and camped on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.
33:49 And there on the plains of Moab they camped by the Jordan, from Beth-jeshimoth to Abel-shittim.
Related Scripture
Direct recollection: Deuteronomy 2 supplies the interval and refers to the passing of the fighting generation; chapter 8 interprets the wider journey as testing and provision.
Deuteronomy 2:14 · recollection
Deuteronomy 8:1–6 · recollection
Location evidence
Many camps in Numbers 33 cannot be located confidently. The shaded area is an illustrative broad region, not a reconstructed path, camp, or measured boundary.
Event map marker: Approximate region; [longitude, latitude] = [34.05, 30.05]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Wilderness of Paran: Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [34.05, 30.05]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[33.2,29.45],[34.85,30.85]]; not a measured confidence interval.
For the class
What does Moses ask the people to remember about these years?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (src/data/journey.ts)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm