Did Israel “Wander” in the Desert?

Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness are commonly described as “wandering in the wilderness.” The expression comes from three passages in the KJV:

Numbers 14:33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

Numbers 32:13 And the LORD’S anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the LORD, was consumed.

Joshua 14:10 And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.

Last evening, in meditating on Nehemiah 9, brother Dave called our attention to the Lord’s care for the nation during this time. Even during this 50 year period, we read,

Neh 9:19 Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.

If the Lord was leading them, they certainly weren’t wandering, in the modern sense of the word.

More modern translations recognize that the first and third of the references to Israel’s wandering can be improved. The first (in Num 14:33), רעה (H7462), means simply “to shepherd flocks.” Instead of settling down in cities and cultivating the land, they would remain a nomadic people. Nomads do not wander. They purposefully seek out green pasture and still waters for their flocks, as Psalm 23 illustrates, and move between recognized areas as the seasons change. The third instance (in Josh 14:10), הלך (Η1980), means simply “walk.” They will remain on the move, not allowed to settle down.

But the translation “wander” persists in Num 32:13. Here the verb is נוע (Η5128), which means “tremble, shake.” The wilderness life was not easy, and it makes sense for the Lord to warn them that they will stagger with fatigue and tedium. But the pillar of cloud and fire was still guiding them. They might not know the path, but they were certainly on it.

There are those who truly “wander in the wilderness,” described with the verb תעה (Η8582), which means to err, to leave the right path. These include Hagar after Sarah cast her out (Gen 21:14), before the Lord revealed himself to her, or general descriptions of the condition to which the Lord reduces proud rulers who think they know how to run everything (Job 12:24; 107:4, 40; Is. 16:8). But I don’t know of any place that this verb is applied to Israel’s 40 year trek.

The distinction is important. It is the difference between chastisement and punishment. When he punishes those who do not acknowledge him, they truly are wandering, until, like Hagar in the wilderness, they discover the Lord. When God’s people sin, he may chastise them. They find themselves in unpleasant circumstances, staggering under circumstances, but he will never deprive them of his guidance, and in the end he will always bring them to the destination he has planned for them.