Departure from Sinai

¹¹ Now it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud ^(A)was taken up from above the tabernacle of the Testimony. ¹² And the children of Israel set out from the ^(B)Wilderness of Sinai on ^(C)their journeys; then the cloud settled down in the ^(D)Wilderness of Paran. ¹³ So they started out for the first time ^(E)according to the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

²⁹ Now Moses said to ^(A)Hobab the son of ^(B)Reuel^[a] the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, ^(C)‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and ^(D)we will treat you well; for ^(E)the Lord has promised good things to Israel.”

³⁰ And he said to him, “I will not go, but I will depart to my own land and to my relatives.”

³¹ So Moses said, “Please do not leave, inasmuch as you know how we are to camp in the wilderness, and you can ^[b]be our ^(F)eyes. ³² And it shall be, if you go with us—indeed it shall be—that ^(G)whatever good the Lord will do to us, the same we will do to you.”

³³ So they departed from ^(H)the mountain of the Lord on a journey of three days; and the ark of the covenant of the Lord ^(I)went before them for the three days’ journey, to search out a resting place for them. ³⁴ And ^(J)the cloud of the Lord was above them by day when they went out from the camp.

³⁵ So it was, whenever the ark set out, that Moses said:

³⁶ And when it rested, he said: