1:19-20 - Then, as the Lord our God commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites through all that vast and dreadful desert that you have seen, and so we reached Kadesh Barnea. Then I said to you, "You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.

Here the narrative harks back to the command Yahweh had given at Horeb to pack up and go (vv6-8), but shifts the scene quickly to Kadesh-Barnea. The qualifer, "as Yahweh commanded us," underscores the sense of obedience that had attended the move. The description of the journey as a track through "all that vast and dreadful wilderness" (v19) serves more than merely to satisfy curiosity; it anticipates and adds texture to the remark later on about how Yahweh carried Israel "like a father carries his son, all the way you went till you reached this place" (v31). Though Kadesh Barnea was not exactly the promised land, it was its threshold, so that Moses could, in truth, assert that "you have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which Yahweh our God is giving to us" (v20). Israel has moved from the imminence of fulfilment to its eve.