Numberschapter 20
29 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
“Take the staff and assemble the congregation. You and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock while they watch, and it will pour out its water. You will bring out water from the rock and provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.”
It stands in Moses strikes the rock twice, verses 1 to 13.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Meribah. Moses strikes the rock. Miriam dies and is buried at Kadesh. The people chide Moses for water. The LORD tells him to take the rod and speak to the rock; he lifts the rod and strikes it twice. Water comes out, but the LORD rebukes: ‘because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them’. Edom refuses passage through his territory. Aaron dies on Mount Hor; his priestly garments transferred to Eleazar his son; the congregation mourns thirty days. The first generation's leadership begins to die.
Context
Law · Moses · Numbers overview
The world behind this chapter
Numbers 20The history
The chapter belongs to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, the three whom Micah 6:4 names as sent before Israel. Miriam dies in the first verse, Aaron in the last, and Moses is told between them that he will not bring the assembly in.
Most of the thirty eight years the book passes over in silence sit between the last verse of chapter 19 and the first of this one. Deuteronomy 2:14 counts them, from Kadesh-barnea until the crossing of the Zered valley.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The camp is back at Kadesh, which is where the sentence of chapter 14 fell. The second half of the chapter moves to the border of Edom and then to Mount Hor.
The occasion is a failure of water at Kadesh and a refusal of passage by Edom. Both are ordinary events, and both end in something permanent.
A first hearer knew what the King's Highway was, a real trade route running north and south through the Transjordan plateau. He also knew what a small kingdom did when a large body of strangers asked to use it. Edom's answer, a refusal backed by troops at the border, was the normal one.
He also knew the language Moses used. Thus says your brother Israel reaches back to Esau and Jacob, so Edom was being asked as kin. And he knew that transferring an office meant investing the successor in the robes, which is what Aaron's death on the mountain looks like when Eleazar is clothed in front of him.
What it meant to them
The new generation watched the guard change. Miriam buried at Kadesh, Aaron's garments handed to his son on a mountainside, and Moses told he would not cross.
They also saw where the standard was set. Moses had been told to speak to the rock and he struck it twice, the water came anyway, and the people lost nothing by it. What he lost was the land.
Sources cited
- Timothy R. Ashley, The Book of Numbers (NICOT)
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible , 1832, on Numbers 20:26
Where the chapter sits
Numbers 20 falls in Wilderness rebellions and instruction (chapters 15–20). Korah's rebellion; Aaron's rod that budded; waters of Meribah; Moses' striking of the rock.
Meribah, Moses strikes the rock. Moses barred from the land; Miriam and Aaron die.
Before it: From Sinai to Kadesh, chapters 11–14. After it: Approach to Moab, chapters 21–25.
The whole shape of Numbers→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Moses strikes the rock twice
1. (v. 1)
Numbers 20:1
“Between Nu 19:22 and Nu 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. It was their second arrival after an interval of thirty-eight years (De 2:14).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Numbers 20:1
“Here dies Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, and as it should seem older than either of them. She must have been so if she was that sister that was set to watch Moses when he was put into the ark of bulrushes, Exod. ii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Between the last verse of chapter 19 and this one sits most of the thirty-eight years the book never narrates, and Deuteronomy 2:14 is where they are counted. The camp is back at Kadesh, which is where the sentence of chapter 14 fell. Miriam is the first of the three whom Micah 6:4 names as sent before Israel to die, and Aaron is buried before this chapter ends. Exodus 2:4 has her watching the ark of bulrushes and Exodus 15:20 has her leading the women with a timbrel, and her death is given one line.
2. (vv. 2-3)
Numbers 20:2
“And there was no water for the congregation - The same occurrence took place to the children of Israel at Kadesh, as did formerly to their fathers at Rephidim, see Exo 17:1; and as the fathers murmured, so also did the children.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Numbers 20:3
“And the people chode with Moses,....”
Exodus 17:1-7 is the first Meribah and this is the second, the same complaint at the start of the wandering and at the end of it. The verb behind chode is rib, to bring a suit, and it is the root of the name given to the place at verse 13. Their wish, that they had died when their brethren died before the Lord, takes its sense from 16:49 and from the sentence of 14:29, so the second generation asks to be given what the first was given.
3. (vv. 4-5)
Numbers 20:4
“And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 20:4
“They prefer slavery before liberty, the house of bondage before the land of promise; and though, the present want was of water only, yet, now that they are disposed to find fault, it shall be looked upon as an insufferable hardship put upon them that they have not vines and figs.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 20:5
“And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt,.... They represent that affair in such a light, as if they were forced out of Egypt by Moses and Aaron against their wills; or at least were overpersuaded by them to do what they had no inclination to, namely, to come out of Egypt; though they were in the utmost bondage and slavery, and their lives were made bitter by it, and they cried by reason of their oppression, and the hardships they endured; but this was all forgot.”
The charge is the one their fathers made at Exodus 17:3 and again at Numbers 14:3, that Moses brought them out here to kill them. The four things they say this place lacks, seed and figs and vines and pomegranates, are close to what the spies carried back out of Canaan at 13:23, where the cluster came with pomegranates and figs. They measure the wilderness by the produce of the land their fathers turned down.
4. (vv. 6-7)
Numbers 20:6
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 20:7
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Out of what was the token of his glory, which perhaps was the cloud, with an uncommon lustre and brightness in it: saying; as follows.”
Moses and Aaron leave the assembly and go face down at the door of the tent, which is the posture they took at 14:5, 16:4, 16:22 and 16:45. Each of those times the glory appeared and something was settled. Here the glory appears and the word that follows it is an instruction rather than a sentence.
5. (v. 8)
Numbers 20:8
Take the rod - That with which the miracles in Egypt had been performed (Exo 7:8 ff; Exo 7:19 ff; Exo 8:5 ff, etc.), and which had been used on a similar occasion at Rephidim (Exo 17:5 following). This rod, as the memorial of so many divine interpositions, was naturally laid up in the tabernacle, and is accordingly Num 20:9 described now as taken by Moses “from before the Lord.”
The instruction carries two verbs and the whole chapter turns on which one is acted. Take the rod, and speak ye unto the rock, so the rod is carried and the rock is addressed. At Exodus 17:6 the word was smite the rock, and there the striking was the obedience. The rod is commanded in the same breath here, and the thing it is carried for is the speaking.
6. (vv. 9-10)
Numbers 20:9
“And Moses took the rod from before the Lord..... Which was laid up somewhere in the sanctuary, as well as the rod of Aaron, Num 17:7, as he commanded him; being always faithful and obedient to him that appointed him.”
Numbers 20:10
“The people were murmuring because there was no water. Moses merely had said to his people, "Can we bring you forth water out of this rock?" Thus he wavered only slightly, yet for this alone he immediately received the threat that he should not enter into the land of promise, which was at that time the chief of all the promises made to the Jews.”
Basil of Caesarea· written before 379· PREFACE ON THE JUDGMENT OF GODpatristic
The rod taken from before the Lord is the rod kept before the testimony, and which rod that is has holders on both sides. Gill reads it as Aaron's rod that budded and was laid up at 17:10, while Keil and Delitzsch read it as the rod of Moses that did the signs in Egypt. What Moses says to the assembly is his own and no part of it was given him, hear now, ye rebels, and the question after it puts the water in the hands of two men, must we fetch you water out of this rock.
7. (v. 11)
Numbers 20:11
“And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice,.... At first it only brought out some drops, as Jarchi conjectures, and therefore Moses smote again, when it brought forth water plentifully: the Targum of Jonathan says,"at the first time it dropped blood, at the second time came out much water.''Could this be credited, it would make the agreement between this rock and Christ appear very manifest, from whom, when his side was pierced with a spear, there came out blood and water, Joh 19:34 for justification and sanctification.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 20:11
“The command Num 20:8 was “Speak ye unto the rock.” The act of smiting, and especially with two strokes, indicates violent irritation on the part of Moses; as does also his unseemly mode of addressing the people: “Hear now, ye rebels.” The form too of the question, “must we, etc.,” directs the people not, as ought to have been the case, to God as their deliverer, but to Moses and Aaron personally.”
He was told to speak and he struck, and he struck twice. The water comes abundantly all the same, and the congregation and their cattle drink, so the people lose nothing by what he did. 1 Corinthians 10:4 says of the rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ, which is the New Testament stating the link itself. The older reading, that a rock struck once and afterward only spoken to shows one offering never repeated, is held by Matthew Henry and taught by Chuck Missler, and the New Testament does not say it.
8. (vv. 12-13)
Numbers 20:12
“Because ye believed me not - What was the offense for which Moses was excluded from the promised land? It appears to have consisted in some or all of the following particulars: 1. God had commanded him (Num 20:8) to take the rod in his hand, and go and Speak To The Rock, and it should give forth water. It seems Moses did not think speaking would be sufficient, therefore he smote the rock without any command so to do.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 20:12
“Fifthly, That which aggravated all the rest, and made it the more provoking, was that it was public, before the eyes of the children of Israel, to whom they should have been examples of faith, and hope, and meekness. We find Moses guilty of sinful distrust, ch. xi. That was private between God and him, and therefore was only checked.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 20:13
“The water of Meribah - i. e. “Strife.” The place is called “Meribah in Kadesh” Num 27:14, and “Meribah-Kadesh” Deu 32:51. to distinguish it from the “Meribah” of Exo 17:2 ff. And he was sanctified in them - An allusion doubtless to the name “Kadesh” (holy), which though not now bestowed, acquired a new significance from the fact that God here vindicated His own sanctity, punishing Moses and Aaron who had trespassed against it.”
The reason given here is unbelief and a failure to sanctify God before Israel, and the price of it is the land. Moses tells it differently three times in Deuteronomy, at 1:37, 3:26 and 4:21, where he says the Lord was angry with him for your sakes, and both accounts stand in the canon. Verse 13 answers verse 12 with the same word, since Moses did not sanctify him and he was sanctified in them anyway. Meribah means strife, and the place is named for what the people did.
B. Edom refuses Israel passage
1. (vv. 14-16)
Numbers 20:14
“And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom,.... This country was sometimes governed by kings, and sometimes by "dukes", see Gen 36:14. At the time of the passage of the Israelites through the Red sea, we read of the dukes of Edom, Exo 15:15, and here, thirty nine years after, of a king of Edom, but who he was is not certain.”
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 20:14
“Sent messengers - unto the king of Edom - Archbishop Usher supposes that the king now reigning in Edom was Hadar, mentioned Gen 36:39. Thus saith thy brother Israel - The Edomites were the descendants of Edom or Esau, the brother of Jacob or Israel, from whom the Israelites were descended.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Numbers 20:14
“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].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 20:15
“How our fathers went down into Egypt,.... Jacob and his twelve sons, with their children: and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; even the space of four hundred and thirty years, Exo 12:40. and the Egyptians vexed us and our fathers; used them ill, brought them into bondage, and made their lives bitter, laid heavy tasks and burdens upon them, as well as slew their male children, see Exo 1:7.”
Numbers 20:16
“For though Moses may be called an angel or messenger yet it is not probable that he is meant, partly because Moses was the person that sent this message; and partly because another angel above Moses conducted them, and the mention hereof to the Edomites, was likely to give more authority to their present message.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 20:16
“An angel - See Gen 12:7, note; Exo 3:2, note. The term is to be understood as importing generally the supernatural guidance under which Israel was.”
Moses addresses Edom as thy brother Israel, which reaches back to Esau and Jacob in Genesis 25 through 33, and Edom is asked as kin rather than as a neighbour. The message is a short history given to a stranger: the fathers went down into Egypt, the Egyptians vexed them, they cried and were heard, and an angel brought them out. Deuteronomy 2:4-5 supplies the other half of the case, that Israel was forbidden any of Edom's ground because it was given to Esau for a possession.
2. (vv. 17-19)
Numbers 20:17
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 20:17
“The wells - Or, pits, which any of you have digged for your private use, not without paying for it, ver. 19, but only of the waters of common rivers, which are free to all passengers. No man's property ought to be invaded, under colour of religion. Dominion is founded in providence, not in Grace.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 20:17
“We will go by the king’s high-way - This is the first time this phrase occurs; it appears to have been a public road made by the king’s authority at the expense of the state.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Numbers 20:18
“And Edom said unto him,.... The king of Edom replied to Israel, represented by the messengers sent in their name: thou shall not pass by me; through my country: lest I come out against thee with the sword; or with those that use the sword, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; that is, with an army of soldiers with their drawn swords in their hands, to slay them as enemies.”
Numbers 20:19
“And the children of Israel said unto him,.... The messengers sent by the children of Israel made answer to the king of Edom: we will go by the highway; we desire no other favour but that of the public road; we propose not to go through any part of the country that is enclosed and cultivated, to do any damage to it: if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it; as it was usual, and still is, to buy water in those countries near the Red sea, where it is scarce.”
The terms give away every advantage a passing army has. Israel keeps to the king's high way, leaves the fields and the vineyards and the wells alone, and turns neither to the right hand nor to the left. When Edom refuses, Israel raises the offer and promises to pay for water that the first message had already waived. Numbers 21:22 puts nearly the same request to Sihon, and that refusal ends in a battle while this one ends in a detour.
3. (vv. 20-21)
Numbers 20:20
“The Israelites, without awaiting at Kadesh the return of their ambassador, commenced their eastward march. At the tidings of their approach the Edomites mustered their forces to oppose them; and on crossing the Arabah they found their ascent through the mountains barred. The notice of this is inserted here to complete the narrative; but in order of time it comes after the march described in Num 20:22.”
Numbers 20:21
“Notwithstanding their near relation to each other, and the fair promises Israel made: wherefore Israel turned away from him: patiently bearing the refusal, and not resenting it; being ordered, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it, by the Word of heaven, not to make war with them, because the time was not yet come to take vengeance on Edom by their hands; and to the same purpose the Targum of Jerusalem.”
Numbers 20:20-22
Edom answers a request with an army, and Israel turns away, though this is the people who beat Amalek at Rephidim and who take Sihon and Og in the next chapter. Deuteronomy 2:4-6 gives the reason from God's side, that Edom's land was Esau's by grant and Israel was to buy meat and water of them for money. Obadiah 10-14 charges Edom with this and worse on the day Jerusalem fell, and Amos 1:11 says he cast off all pity and kept his wrath for ever. The road to mount Hor is the long way round a brother's border.
C. Aaron's garments passed to Eleazar
1. (v. 22)
Numbers 20:22
“Mount Hor - The modern Jebel Harun, situated on the eastern side of the Arabah, and clause to Petra. This striking mountain, rising on a dark red bare rock, to a height of near 5,000 feet above the Mediterranean, is remarkable far and near for its two summits, on one of which is still shown a small square building, crowned with a dome, called the Tomb of Aaron.”
2. (vv. 23-26)
Numbers 20:23
“And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor,.... When they were at the foot of that mountain, in the valley adjoining to it: by the coast of the land of Edom; which they were still upon the borders of, and were going round it, not being permitted to go through it: saying; as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 20:23
“And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron - So these two dear brothers must part! Aaron must die first: but Moses is not likely to be long after him. So that it is only for a while, a little while, that they are separated.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 20:24
“He is not cut off from his people, as the expression usually is concerning those that die by the hand of divine justice, but he is gathered to his people, as one that died in the arms of divine grace. There is much of type and significancy in them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 20:25
“Take Aaron and Eleazar his son,.... His eldest son, who was to succeed him in the priesthood, and did: and bring them up unto Mount Hor; to the top of it, they being now at the foot of it, where the people of Israel lay encamped.”
Numbers 20:26
“But what does this signify, that after Aaron was dead, the Lord commanded, not the whole people, but Moses alone, who is amongst the priests, to clothe Aaron's son Eleazar with the priest's garments, except that we should understand that priest must consecrate priest, and himself clothe him with the vestments, that is, with priestly virtues; and then, if he has seen that nothing is wanting to him of the priestly garments, and that all things are perfect, should admit him to the sacred altars.”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· Epistle 63patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 20:26
“Strip Aaron of his garments - This was, in effect, depriving him of his office; and putting the clothes on his son Eleazar implied a transfer of that office to him. A transfer of office, from this circumstance of putting the clothes of the late possessor on the person intended to succeed him, was called investing or investment, (clothing); as removing a person from an office was termed divesting or unclothing. Among the Catholics, and in the Church of England, this same method is used in degrading ecclesiastics.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The ground for Aaron's death outside the land is named as the water of Meribah, so the sentence of verse 12 is read back over both brothers. Aaron is stripped of his garments and Eleazar is clothed in them while Aaron is alive to watch it, which Adam Clarke reads as the ordinary form of transferring an office, by investing the successor in the robes. Hebrews 7:23-24 takes up this very thing, that the Levitical priests were many because death stopped them, and that the priesthood of Christ passes to no one. Gathered unto his people is the phrase used of Abraham at Genesis 25:8 and of Isaac at Genesis 35:29.
3. (vv. 27-29)
Numbers 20:27
“And Moses did as the Lord commanded,....”
Numbers 20:28
“And Aaron died there - Hence, as Dr. Lightfoot has justly observed, we have an “indisputable proof that the earthly Canaan was not the utmost felicity at which God’s promises to the Israelites aimed since the best men among them were excluded from it.” The remark of some of the fathers here is worthy of attention: “Neither Moses the representative of the law, nor Miriam the representative of the prophets, nor Aaron the representative of the priesthood and its sacrificial rites, could bring the Israelites into possession of the promised land.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 20:28
“We shall see little reason to be proud of our cloaths, our ornaments, or marks of honour, if we consider how soon death will strip us of all our glory, and take the crown off from our head! Aaron died there - He died in Mosera, Deut. x, 6. Mosera was the general name of the place where that station was, and mount Hor a particular place in it.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 20:29
“When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead--Moses and Eleazar were the sole witnesses of his departure (Nu 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 (Le 21:11). But that law was dispensed with in the extraordinary circumstances.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
They go up in the sight of all the congregation, so the nation watches the priesthood change hands. Aaron dies on the top of the mount and two men come down where three went up. Deuteronomy 10:6 places his death at Mosera, and readers hold two accounts of that: Mosera as the name of the district with mount Hor a place inside it, or two records of the same stage kept side by side. The mourning runs thirty days, which is the term Israel keeps for Moses at Deuteronomy 34:8.
This page carries no textual note on Numbers 20. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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