11 Day Journey in 40 Years

• MARCH 2018
• ISRAEL’S EXODUS AND DELIVERANCE—THEN AND NOW

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Israel’s Exodus and Deliverance—Then and Now

By Kerry Muhlestein

Professor of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University

The book of Deuteronomy begins with a striking verse. In parentheses between verses 1 and 3, verse 2 reads, “(There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea)” (Deuteronomy 1:2). Because it is set within parentheses and because it seems to be relaying minutia, this verse is easily passed over. But, at closer examination, it can be one of the most thought-provoking verses in the Old Testament.

Identifying two of the sites in the verse makes this clearer. Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, and Kadesh-barnea is the place where Moses and the children of Israel camped as they sent men into the promised land as spies. Kadesh-barnea was on the border of the promised land, and it was intended that the children of Israel would go from there and inherit the land.

In other words, it took the children of Israel 40 years to travel the distance they could have traveled in 11 days.

The Prophet Harold B. Lee Testifies

“In this day when the Bible is being down-graded by many who have mingled philosophies of the world with Bible scriptures to nullify their true meaning, how fortunate that our eternal Heavenly Father, who is always concerned about the spiritual well-being of His children, has given to us a companion book of scriptures, known as the Book of Mormon, as a defense for the truths of the Bible that were written and spoken by the prophets as the Lord directed. . . .

“. . . By this second witness we may know more certainly the meaning of the teachings of the ancient prophets and, indeed, of the Master and His disciples as they lived and taught, among men. This should inspire all who would be honest seekers after truth to put these two sacred scriptures together and study them as one book, understanding, as we do, their true relationship.”

President Harold B. Lee, Ye Are the Light of the World (1974), 89, 91. 

The Bible in the Hands in the Common People

“William Tyndale desired to put the Bile in the hands of the common people. Speaking to the clergy of his day, he said, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough, shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost!” Tyndale achieved his goal, but in 1536 he was strangled, then burned at the stake as a heretic.

Nevertheless, much of Tyndale’s translation survived in the King James Bible, and his hope that the common people could study the Bible in English come to pass, as seen in the life of Joseph Smith, a young farm boy.”

Richard N. W. Lambert and Kenneth R. Mays, “400 Years of the King James Bible,” Ensign, August 2011, 45.

The Bible Today

“It is not by chance or coincidence that we have the Bible today. Men like John Wycliffe, the courageous William Tyndale, and Johannes Gutenberg were prompted against much opposition to translate the Bible into language people could understand and to publish it in books people could read. I believe even the scholars of King James had spiritual promptings in their translation work.”

M. Russell Ballard, “The Miracle of the Holy Bible,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2007, 80.