Or HaChaim on Numbers 33:2/אור החיים על במדבר ל״ג:ב׳

1 ויכתב משה את מוצאיהם, Moses recorded their departures, etc. What precisely did the Torah want to teach us with this verse? We did not need to be told that it was Moses who recorded this as Moses recorded the entire Torah and the journeys are part of the Torah. Besides, the Torah ought to have written that Moses recorded את מסעיהם, "their journeys." What was the point in recording their "departures?" Furthermore, what is the meaning of the words ואלה מסעיהם למוצאיהם "and these are their journeys according to their departures?" Why did the Torah change the order in which it mentioned departures from מוצאיהם למסעיהם, to מסעיהם למוצאיהם?

2It appears that the Torah wanted to inform us that Moses did not record all these journeys on a single day, but that he recorded them as and when they occurred. He commenced recording when he had received instructions to make the Israelites depart from Egypt. He wrote in his booklet the date on which the Israelites departed from Raamses up until the word שפטים at the end of verse 4. Once the Israelites made camp at Sukkot, Moses wrote verse 5. When the Israelites made camp at Eytan, Moses wrote what had transpired as verse 6. In this manner Moses recorded each and every journey as it occurred until the people arrived at ערבות מואב. At that point G'd told Moses to include these private notes he had made in the Torah in the order in which he had previously recorded it. This is what was meant by: "Moses recorded their departures, i.e. starting from the day the Israelites departed from Egypt. This referred to the two lines from "they journeyed from Raamses until the word שפטים." When the Torah speaks of למסעיהם it refers to Moses listing all the Israelites' journeys from the day they left Egypt until the end of all their journeys. It adds the words על פי השם, "at G'd's command," to inform us that the very first recording already was at the command of G'd, i.e. that G'd had told Moses to record and to keep recording. When the Torah repeats ואלה מטעיהם, "and these are their journeys," this means that these are the journeys which G'd commanded Moses to record למוצאיהם, as and when they occurred, i.e. every time the Israelites broke camp. What the Torah describes in our chapter is a copy of all the notations made by Moses throughout all these years.