O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah:

The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.

They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.

Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.

13:4 the month Abib. The Israelite religious calendar, as established at this time, is still recognized by modern Jews. It is as follows, in relation to our modern western calendar: Abib = March/April   Tishri = September/October Ziv = April/May   Bul = October/November Sivan = May/June   Chislev = November/December Tammuz = June/July   Tebeth = December/January Ab = July/August   Shebet = January/February Elul = August/September   Adar = February/March

2:3 the east side. Judah’s prophetic preeminence, as revealed through their father Israel (Genesis 49:8-10) is acknowledged by God in specifying that his host (including Issachar and Zebulun) “shall first set forth” (Numbers 2:9) when the tribes were commanded to march forward. His encampment “on the east side” (that is, toward the rising sun) is a further sign of his special relation to God (compare Malachi 4:2). Judah, Issachar and Zebulun had been the fourth, fifth, and sixth sons of Jacob’s first wife Leah. Her first three sons (Reuben, Simeon and Levi) had been rejected for leadership by Jacob because of their special sins (Genesis 49:3-7).

6:3 six days. The army of Israel was to march around Jericho once daily for six days, then to take the city on the seventh day. Similarly they had camped just east of the Jordan for six days, then crossed Jordan on the seventh day (Joshua 2:22; 3:2).

9:32 Purim. The annual feast of Purim of the Jews was established by Esther and Mordecai as two days “of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor” (Esther 9:22), in commemoration of their remarkable deliverance from their imminent annihilation as a people and nation. The name Purim, meaning “lots,” seems a strange name for a holiday, but it was based on Haman’s evil device to “cast Pur, that is, the lot...to consume them, and to destroy them” (Esther 3:7; 9:24) when the month Adar (i.e., February–March) came. This decision by the lots (possibly specially marked stones), rather than helping Haman, turned out to have been so ordered by the Lord that a wait of almost a full year was required. It thus provided ample time for all the events to be set in motion which would finally bring Haman’s evil scheme back on his own head.

21:19 leaves only. The Palestinian fig tree normally produces both leaves and small figs in early March, so that this tree should have borne figs along with its leaves. The heavy foliage of fig leaves, covering the nakedness of a barren fig tree, as it were, perhaps reminded the Lord of the “aprons” of fig leaves used by Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:7) in that far off day when He came to walk with them in the Garden of Eden. More immediately, of course, He would think of Judah and Jerusalem, outwardly prosperous and religious, but inwardly spiritually barren. Israel had often been symbolized in Scripture as a fig tree (Isaiah 34:4; Jeremiah 24:1-8; Hosea 9:10; Luke 13:6-9), and its religious leaders had rejected Him and were now intent on getting rid of Him. Accordingly He “cursed” the fig tree (Mark 11:21), just as He had cursed Adam and Eve and their whole dominion (Genesis 3:16-19), thus symbolizing the terrible fate awaiting the Jews because of their spiritual unfruitfulness.