1And the sons of Israel will come, all the assembly, to the desert of Zin, in the first month; and the people will dwell in Kadesh; and Miriam will die there and be buried there. 2And there was not water for the assembly: and they will gather together against Moses and against Aaron. 3And they will contend with Moses, and will speak, saying, Would that we died in the dying of our brethren before Jehovah! 4And for what brought ye the gathering of Jehovah into this desert to die there, we and our cattle 5And for what brought ye us up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? Not a place of seed, and figs, and the vine and the pomegranate; and not water to drink. 6And Moses will go, and Aaron, from the face of the gathering to the door of the tent of appointment, and they will fall upon their faces: and the glory of Jehovah shall be seen to them. 7And Jehovah will speak to Moses, saying, 8Take the rod and gather the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes; and it gave water; and brought to them water from the rock, and gave drink to the assembly, and their cattle. 9And Moses will take the rod from before Jehovah, as he commanded him. 10And Moses and Aaron will gather together the gathering before the rock, and he will say to them, Hear, now, ye rebellious: from this rock shall we bring forth to you water? 11And Moses will lift up his hand and will smite the rock with the rod twice, and many waters will come forth, and the assembly will drink and their cattle. 12And Jehovah will say to Moses, and to Aaron, Because ye believed not in me, to consecrate me before the eyes of the sons of Israel, for this, ye shall not bring in this gathering to the land which I gave to them. 13These the Waters of Strife, because the sons of Israel strove with Jehovah, and he will be consecrated in them. 14And Moses will send messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, Thus said thy brother Israel, Thou knewest all the distress which found us: 15And our fathers will go down to Egypt and will dwell in Egypt many days; and the Egyptians will do evil to us and to our fathers. 16And we shall cry to Jehovah, and he will hear our voice, and he will send a messenger and he will bring us forth out of Egypt: and behold us in Kadesh, a city the end of thy boundary. 17Now we will pass over in thy land: we will not pass through in the field and in the vineyard, and we will not drink the water of the well: the way of the king we will go; we will not incline to the right or to the left till we shall pass over thy boundary. 18And Edom will say to him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest with the sword I shall come out to thy meeting. 19And the sons of Israel will say to him, By the highway will we come up; and if we shall drink of thy waters, I and my cattle, I gave a price: only not speaking, I will pass through on my feet. . 20And he will say, Thou shalt not pass through. And Edom will come forth to his meeting with a heavy people, and with a strong hand. 21And Edom will refuse to give to Israel to pass over by his boundary; and Israel will turn away from him. 22And they will remove from Kadesh, and the sons of Israel, all the assembly will come to Mount Hor. 23And Jehovah will say to Moses and to Aaron, in mount Hor, upon the boundary of the land of Edom, saying, 24Aaron shall be gathered to his people; for he shall not come into the land which I gave to the sons of Israel, because that ye resisted my mouth at the Waters of Strife. 25Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to mount Hor. 26And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered and die there. 27And Moses will do as Jehovah commanded: and he will bring him up to mount Hor before the eyes of all the assembly. 28And Moses will strip Aaron of his garments, and will put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron will die there in the head of the mountain: and Moses will come down, and Eleazar, from the mountain. 29And all the assembly will see that Aaron died, and they will weep for Aaron thirty days, all the house of Israel.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 THE DEATH OF MIRIAM. (Num. 20:1-29)
Then came the children of Israel . . . into the desert of Zin in the first month--that is, of the fortieth year (compare
Num 20:22-
Num 20:23, with
Num 33:38). In this history only the principal and most important incidents are recorded, those confined chiefly to the first or second and the last years of the journeyings in the wilderness, thence called Et-Tih. Between
Num 19:22 and
Num 20:1 there is a long and undescribed interval of thirty-seven years.
the people abode in Kadesh--supposed to be what is now known as Ain-el-Weibeh, three springs surrounded by palms. (See on
Num 13:26). It was their second arrival after an interval of thirty-eight years (
Deut 2:14). The old generation had nearly all died, and the new one encamped in it with the view of entering the promised land, not, however, as formerly on the south, but by crossing the Edomite region on the east.
Miriam died there--four months before Aaron [
Num 33:38].
2 there was no water for the congregation--There was at Kadesh a fountain, En-Mishpat (
Gen 14:7), and at the first encampment of the Israelites there was no want of water. It was then either partially dried up by the heat of the season, or had been exhausted by the demands of so vast a multitude.
6 Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly--Here is a fresh ebullition of the untamed and discontented spirit of the people. The leaders fled to the precincts of the sanctuary, both as an asylum from the increasing fury of the highly excited rabble, and as their usual refuge in seasons of perplexity and danger, to implore the direction and aid of God.
8 Take the rod--which had been deposited in the tabernacle (
Num 17:10), the wonder-working rod by which so many miracles had been performed, sometimes called "the rod of God" (
Exod 4:20), sometimes Moses' (
Num 20:11) or Aaron's rod (
Exod 7:12).
10 [Moses] said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?--The conduct of the great leader on this occasion was hasty and passionate (
Ps 106:33). He had been directed to speak to the rock [
Num 20:8], but he smote it twice [
Num 20:11] in his impetuosity, thus endangering the blossoms of the rod, and, instead of speaking to the rock, he spoke to the people in a fury.
11 the congregation drank, and their beasts--Physically the water afforded the same kind of needful refreshment to both. But from a religious point of view, this, which was only a common element to the cattle, was a sacrament to the people (
1Cor 10:3-4) --It possessed a relative sanctity imparted to it by its divine origin and use.
12 The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, &c.--The act of Moses in smiting twice betrayed a doubt, not of the power, but of the will of God to gratify such a rebellious people, and his exclamation seems to have emanated from a spirit of incredulity akin to Sarai's (
Gen 18:13). These circumstances indicate the influence of unbelief, and there might have been others unrecorded which led to so severe a chastisement.
13 This is the water of Meribah--The word "Kadesh" is added to it [
Deut 32:51] to distinguish it from another Meribah (
Exod 17:7).
14 Moses sent messengers . . . to the king of Edom--The encampment at Kadesh was on the confines of the Edomite territory, through which the Israelites would have had an easy passage across the Arabah by Wady-el-Ghuweir, so that they could have continued their course around Moab, and approached Palestine from the east [ROBERTS]. The Edomites, being the descendants of Esau and tracing their line of descent from Abraham as their common stock, were recognized by the Israelites as brethren, and a very brotherly message was sent to them.
17 we will go by the king's highway--probably Wady-el-Ghuweir [ROBERTS], through which ran one of the great lines of road, constructed for commercial caravans, as well as for the progress of armies. The engineering necessary for carrying them over marshes or mountains, and the care requisite for protecting them from the shifting sands, led to their being under the special care of the state. Hence the expression, "the king's highway," which is of great antiquity.
19 if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it--From the scarcity of water in the warm climates of the East, the practice of levying a tax for the use of the wells is universal; and the jealousy of the natives, in guarding the collected treasures of rain, is often so great that water cannot be procured for money.
21 Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border, &c.--A churlish refusal obliged them to take another route. (See on
Num 21:4;
Deut 2:4; and
Judg 11:18; see also
1Sam 14:47;
2Sam 8:14, which describe the retribution that was taken.)
22 the children of Israel . . . came unto mount Hor--now Gebel Haroun, the most striking and lofty elevation in the Seir range, called emphatically "the mount" [
Num 20:28]. It is conspicuous by its double top.
24 Aaron shall be gathered unto his people--In accordance with his recent doom, he, attired in the high priest's costume, was commanded to ascend that mountain and die. But although the time of his death was hastened by the divine displeasure as a punishment for his sins, the manner of his death was arranged in tenderness of love, and to do him honor at the close of his earthly service. His ascent of the mount was to afford him a last look of the camp and a distant prospect of the promised land. The simple narrative of the solemn and impressive scene implies, though it does not describe, the pious resignation, settled faith, and inward peace of the aged pontiff.
26 strip Aaron of his garments--that is, his pontifical robes, in token of his resignation. (See
Isa 22:20-
Isa 22:25).
put them on his son--as the inauguration into his high office. Having been formerly anointed with the sacred oil, that ceremony was not repeated, or, as some think, it was done on his return to the camp.
28 Aaron died there in the top of the mount--(See on
Deut 10:6). A tomb has been erected upon or close by the spot where he was buried.
29 When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead--Moses and Eleazar were the sole witnesses of his departure (
Num 20:28). According to the established law, the new high priest could not have been present at the funeral of his father without contracting ceremonial defilement (
Lev 21:11). But that law was dispensed with in the extraordinary circumstances. The people learned the event not only from the recital of the two witnesses, but from their visible signs of grief and change; and this event betokened the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood (
Heb 7:12).
they mourned for Aaron thirty days--the usual period of public and solemn mourning. (See on
Deut 34:8).