In the first month of the fortieth year, the whole congregation of Israel assembled again at Kadesh, in the desert of Zin, to commence the march to Canaan. In Kadesh, Miriam died (Num 20:1), and the people murmured against Moses and Aaron on account of the want of water. The Lord relieved this want, by pouring water from the rock; but Moses sinned on this occasion, so that he was not allowed to enter Canaan (Num 20:2-13). From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom, to ask permission for the Israelites to pass peaceably through his land; but this was refused by the king of Edom (Num 20:14-21). In the meantime, the Israelites marched from Kadesh to Mount Hor, on the borders of the land of Edom; and there Aaron died, and Eleazar was invested with the high-priesthood in his stead (Num 20:22-29). On this march they were attacked by the Canaanitish king of Arad; but they gained a complete victory, and laid his cities under the ban (Num 21:1-3). As the king of Edom opposed their passing through his land, they were compelled to go from Mount Hor to the Red Sea, and round the land of Edom. On the way the murmuring people were bitten by poisonous serpents; but the penitent among them were healed of the bite of the serpent, by looking at the brazen serpent which Moses set up at the command of God (Num 21:4-9). After going round the Moabitish mountains, they turned to the north, and went along the eastern side of the Edomitish and Moabitish territory, as far as the Arnon, on the border of the Amoritish kingdom of Sihon, with the intention of going through to the Jordan, and so entering Canaan (Num 21:10-20). But as Sihon would not allow the Israelites to pass through his land, and made a hostile demonstration against them, they smote him and conquered his land, and also the northern Amoritish kingdom of Og, king of Bashan (Num 21:21-35), and forced their way through the Amoritish territory to the heights of Pisgah, for the purpose of going forward thence into the steppes of Moab by the Jordan (Num 22:1). These marches formed the third stage in the guidance of Israel through the desert to Canaan.
Death of Miriam. Water out of the Rock.
Refusal of a Passage through Edom. Aaron’s Death.
Conquest over the King of Arad - Numbers 20-21:3
The events mentioned in the heading, which took place either in Kadesh or on the march thence to the mountain of Hor are grouped together in Num 20:1-21:3, rather in a classified order than in one that is strictly chronological. The death of Miriam took place during the time when the people were collected at Kadesh-barnea in the desert of Zin (Num 20:21). But when the whole nation assembled together in this desert there was a deficiency of water, which caused the people to murmur against Moses, until God relieved the want by a miracle (Num 20:2-13). It was from Kadesh that messengers were sent to the king of Edom (Num 20:14.); but instead of waiting at Kadesh till the messengers returned, Moses appears to have proceeded with the people in the meantime into the Arabah. When and where the messengers returned to Moses, we are not informed. So much is certain, however, that the Edomites did not come with an army against the Israelites (Num 20:20, Num 20:21), until they approached their land with the intention of passing through. For it was in the Arabah, at Mount Hor, that Israel first turned to go round the land of Edom (Num 21:4). The attack of the Canaanites of Arad (Num 21:1-3) who attempted to prevent the Israelites from advancing into the desert of Zin, occurred in the interval between the departure from Kadesh and the arrival in the Arabah at Mount Hor; so that if a chronological arrangement were adopted, this event would be placed in Num 20:22, between the first and second clauses of this verse. The words “and came to Mount Hor” (Num 20:22) are anticipatory, and introduce the most important event of all that period, viz., the death of Aaron at Mount Hor (Num 20:23-29)., that the words in Num 21:1, “came by the way of the spies,” are a permutation of those in Num 20:1, “came into the desert of Zin,” and that the two perfectly coincide as to time, is forced; as the Israelites are described in Num 20:1 not only as coming into the desert of Zin in general, but as assembling together there at Kadesh.
Modern critics (Knobel and others) have also mutilated these chapters, and left only Num 20:1 (in part,), 2, 6, 22-29, Num 21:10-11; Num 22:1, as parts of the original work, whilst all the rest is described as a Jehovistic addition, partly from ancient sources and partly from the invention of the Jehovist himself. But the supposed contradiction - viz., that whilst the original work describes the Israelites as going through northern Edom, and going round the Moabitish territory in the more restricted sense, the Jehovist represents them as going round the land of Edom upon the west, south, and east (Num 20:21; Num 21:4), and also as going round the land of the Arnon in a still larger circle, and past other places as well (Num 21:12, Num 21:16, Num 21:18), - rests upon a false interpretation of the passages in question. The other arguments adduced - viz., the fact that the Jehovist gives great prominence to the hatred of the Edomites (Num 20:18, Num 20:20) and interweaves poetical sentences (Num 21:14, Num 21:15, Num 21:17, Num 21:18, Num 21:27, Num 21:28), the miraculous rod in Moses’ hand (Num 20:8), and the etymology (Num 21:3), - are all just arguing in a circle, since the supposition that all these things are foreign to the original work, is not a fact demonstrated, but a simple petitio principii.)
Num 20:1
Assembling of the Congregation at Kadesh. - In the first month the children of Israel came into the desert of Zin, i.e., in the fortieth year of their wanderings, at the commencement of which “the whole congregation” assembled together once more in the very same place where the sentence had been passed thirty-seven years and a half before, that they should remain in the desert for forty years, until the rebellious generation had died out. The year is not mentioned in Num 20:1, but, according to Num 14:32., it can only be the year with which the forty years of the sentence that they should die out in the wilderness came to an end, that is to say, the fortieth year of their wandering. This is put beyond all doubt by what follows. For the whole congregation proceeds from Kadesh in the desert of Zin to Mount Hor, where Aaron died, and that, according to Num 33:38, in the fifth month of the fortieth year after the Exodus from Egypt. Miriam died during the time that the people were staying (ישׁב) in Kadesh, and there she was buried.