Numberschapter 20
29 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Numbers Overview.
Numbers 20 moves the story forward by nearly forty years without a word of warning. The generation sentenced at Kadesh has almost passed away, and the book returns to the same place with their children. This chapter brings losses to the family that had led Israel out of Egypt. It also records the failure that kept Moses himself out of the land he had led them toward. Listen for the exact words of the instruction at the rock and compare them with what Moses does. Listen also for the brother nation that refuses Israel passage, and for how the priesthood passes to the next generation.
Context
- Who
- The new generation, watching the leaders who had carried them begin to go
- What
- A narrative of Miriam's death, the water from the rock at Meribah, Edom's refusal of passage and Aaron's death on Mount Hor.
- Where
- Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, the border of Edom, and Mount Hor on that border.
- When
- The fortieth year after the Exodus, since Numbers 33:38 dates Aaron's death to its fifth month, about 1407 BC on the traditional dating.
- Why
- To show that even Moses and Aaron were judged for failing to treat the LORD as holy, and that God's purpose passed on to a new generation.
Historical context
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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
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 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.
Significance
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.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi ties the failure of water to the death of Miriam in the first two verses. He holds that the order of the account teaches it. Israel had the well "during the entire forty years" through Miriam's merit, and it stopped when she died (Rashi on Numbers 20:2:1, citing Taanit 9a).
The striking of the rock is read by Rashi as a mistake about which rock. He holds that Moses and Aaron spoke to a rock, that it gave no water, and that they then turned to the rock God had intended (Rashi on Numbers 20:11:1). In his reading the first blow "did not bring forth more than a few drops", because God had ordered speech rather than a blow. Rashi records their reasoning in their own words, that a blow might be needed as at the earlier rock. He names Exodus 17:6 as the precedent they had in mind, and Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 9 as his own source.
Rashi then weighs the sentence passed on Moses and Aaron. He holds that Scripture states the reason so that nobody should equate their sin with the sin of the wilderness generation (Rashi on Numbers 20:12:1). He raises the harder question himself. Moses had doubted more plainly at the quails, and Rashi answers that the earlier doubt was spoken in private. This one was spoken with all Israel standing by, and the hallowing of the Name is what made the difference (Rashi on Numbers 20:12:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 10). Why Moses was barred from the land is one of the three contested points this site already carries with their holders, in src/components/book/dossier-content/numbers.ts, and it states no verdict there.
Rashi reads the message sent to Edom through the two blessings of Genesis 27. He holds that Moses named the brotherhood to recall the debt of the sojourning promised to Abraham's seed, which Israel alone had paid (Rashi on Numbers 20:14:1 and 20:17:1). Israel pleads the voice of Jacob, and Edom answers with the sword of Esau (Rashi on Numbers 20:16:1 and 20:18:1). Ramban takes the turning away from Edom as obedience rather than retreat. He holds that Israel "turned away from Edom by Divine command, since they could not do anything else because Edom did not let them pass through [his border]". The translation is Chavel's, which the corpus reports as CC-BY (Ramban on Numbers 20:21:1). He names Deuteronomy 2:4 and 2:5 as the command Moses later explained.
Rashi reads the death of Aaron at the border of Edom as the consequence of the approach to Edom. Because Israel sought close friendship with the wicked, "a breach was made in their works and they had to lose this righteous man, Aaron" (Rashi on Numbers 20:23:1). He also records how Moses was told to take Aaron up the mountain, with consoling words. Moses was to say, "Happy art thou that thou wilt see thy crown being given to thy son" (Rashi on Numbers 20:25:1).
Ibn Ezra comments at five places here and the corpus carries none of his text, because the licence Sefaria reports for it does not permit keeping it. He stands cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Numbers 20:4:1, 20:5:1, 20:6:1, 20:9:1 and 20:24:1.
A Christian reader should see where the readings part. Rashi reads the rock as a rock, and the fault as a public failure of faith in the two men who struck it. This site carries a christIn entry titled "That Rock was Christ" on 1 Corinthians 10:4, in src/components/book/dossier-content/numbers.ts. The commentators in the corpus carry no word of that reading, and they are reported here in their own terms.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Thirty-four of them are midrashic and six are Talmudic. Bamidbar Rabbah carries the heaviest run. It stands at 2:4, 14:3, 18:11, 18:20, 19:9, 19:10, 19:15, 19:16, 19:17, 19:19, 19:20, 19:29 and 21:4. Midrash Lekach Tov stands at Numbers 20:3:1, 20:4:1, 20:5:1, 20:6:1, 20:7:1, 20:9:1 and 20:11:1, and outside the book at Exodus 2:6:4 and Deuteronomy 32:50:1. Midrash Aggadah stands at Numbers 20:11:1 and 20:27:1, and at Leviticus 19:23:1.
The rest of the midrashic locators are spread across four works. Bereshit Rabbah stands at 40:6 and 53:13, Devarim Rabbah at 2:6 and 3:8, and Aggadat Bereshit at 31:1 and 32:1. Midrash Sekhel Tov stands at Bereshit 30:34:2, and Sifra at Bechukotai, Chapter 11 8. The Talmudic locators are fewer. Avot DeRabbi Natan stands at 12:3 and 36:3, with Recension B at 24:8. Avodah Zarah stands at 29b:12, Menachot at 76b:13, and Arakhin at 11a:17. Ein Yaakov in the Glick Edition stands at Sanhedrin 6:4. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text, because the corpus holds these locators without it.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Numbers 20:1:1 to 20:25:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Ramban, Ramban on Numbers 20:21:1, the Commentary on the Torah translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, New York, Shilo Publishing House, 1971 to 1976, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Numbers 20:4:1, 20:5:1, 20:6:1, 20:9:1 and 20:24:1, cited by ref because the licence the corpus reports does not permit keeping the text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/numbers/20.json, the 34 Midrash and 6 Talmud locators of this chapter, fetched 2026-09-19; MannaFest, src/components/book/dossier-content/numbers.ts, for the three contested readings of why Moses was barred and for the christIn entry on 1 Corinthians 10:4.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Moses strikes the rock twice
Between chapter 19 and this verse sits most of the thirty-eight years the book never narrates, which Deuteronomy 2:14 counts. The camp is back at Kadesh, where the sentence of chapter 14 fell. Miriam, whom Micah 6:4 names with Moses and Aaron as sent before Israel, died and was buried, and her death is given one line.
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
Numbers 20:2-3
Exodus 17:1-7 is the first Meribah and this is the second, the same complaint at the start of the wandering and at its end. The verb for quarreled is rib, to bring a suit, the root of the name Meribah at verse 13. Their wish, If only we had perished with our brothers before the LORD, looks back to 16:49 and 14:29.
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
The wish copies their fathers' words at Exodus 16:3 and Numbers 14:2, where the first generation also asked to have died. Adam Clarke sets the two generations side by side, the children murmuring as the fathers had at Rephidim. The wilderness years had changed only the speakers.
Numbers 20:4-5
The charge repeats Exodus 17:3 and Numbers 14:3, that Moses brought them here to die. The four things this place lacks, grain, figs, vines, or pomegranates, echo what the spies carried out of Canaan at 13:23. They measure the wilderness by the land their fathers refused.
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
The speakers are the children of whom God said at 14:31 that he would bring them into the land their fathers rejected. They now blame Moses for the exodus itself. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call the scene a fresh outbreak of the people's untamed and discontented spirit.
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.”
Numbers 20:6-7
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.
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
The word comes to Moses alone, though both brothers lay facedown. Verse 8 still sends Aaron with him, and verse 24 says both rebelled against that command. Adam Clarke places the offence in Moses judging that speaking would be insufficient, so that he struck the rock unbidden.
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.”
The instruction carries two verbs, and the chapter turns on which one is acted. Take the staff, and speak to the rock, so the staff is carried and the rock is addressed. At Exodus 17:6 the striking was the obedience, and here the staff is carried for the speaking.
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.”
Numbers 20:9-10
Which staff Moses took from the LORD’s presence has holders on both sides: Gill reads it as Aaron's staff laid up at 17:10, Keil and Delitzsch as the staff of Moses from Egypt. What Moses then says is his own, Listen now, you rebels. His question puts the water in two men's hands: must we bring you water out of this rock?
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.”
Psalm 106:32-33 says the people embittered his spirit and Moses spoke rashly with his lips. Basil of Caesarea calls the question a slight wavering, and for it alone Moses lost the land of promise. Basil counts that land the chief promise of the time.
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
He was told to speak, and he struck the rock twice. The water gushed out all the same, so the people lost nothing, and 1 Corinthians 10:4 says that rock was Christ. The older reading, that a rock struck once shows one offering never repeated, is held by Matthew Henry and taught by Chuck Missler, and the New Testament does not state it.
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.”
Numbers 20:12-13
The reason given is that you did not trust Me to show My holiness, and the price is the land. Deuteronomy 1:37 has Moses say the LORD was angry with him on your account, and both accounts stand. Verse 13 answers with the same word, since He showed His holiness among them anyway.
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
The verb for showed His holiness shares its root with Kadesh, and Albert Barnes hears the town's name given new meaning here. Numbers 27:14 and Deuteronomy 32:51 tie the name Meribah to Kadesh. That keeps it apart from Exodus 17.
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.”
Edom refuses Israel passage
Numbers 20:14-16
Moses speaks as your brother Israel, reaching back to Esau and Jacob, so Edom is asked as kin. The message is a short history: our fathers went down to Egypt, were mistreated, cried out, and were heard. Deuteronomy 2:4-5 adds that Israel was forbidden Edom's land, given to Esau.
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
2 more voices on this verse
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.”
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
The history follows the order Israel later recites over the firstfruits at Deuteronomy 26:5-8, a going down, mistreatment, a cry, a hearing and a rescue. Edom is told the confession of Israel's faith. Genesis 15:13 had foretold the mistreatment to Abraham, the grandfather of both nations.
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.”
John Wesley reads the angel as a heavenly guide above Moses, whose mention gave weight to the request, and Albert Barnes takes the term broadly as the supernatural guidance Israel lived under. Exodus 23:20 had promised that angel before Sinai.
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.”
Numbers 20:17-19
The terms give away every advantage a passing army has: the King’s Highway, no field or vineyard, and not to the right or to the left. When Edom refuses, Israel offers to pay for water the first message had waived. Numbers 21:22 puts the same request to Sihon, and there the refusal ends in battle.
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
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
“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
Isaac had told Esau at Genesis 27:40 that he would live by the sword, and his descendants meet Jacob's with it here. John Gill reports the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan reading the sword as an army of swordsmen. Verse 20 shows that army on the road.
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.”
John Gill notes that water was bought in those countries, as it still was in his day, so the offer was the ordinary price of passage. The request shrinks to passage on foot.
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.”
Numbers 20:20-22
Edom answers with a large army and a strong hand, and Israel turned away, though this people beat Amalek and takes Sihon and Og next. Deuteronomy 2:4-6 gives the reason: Edom's land was Esau's by grant. Obadiah 10-14 and Amos 1:11 later charge Edom with worse, and the road to Mount Hor runs round a brother's border.
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.”
John Gill reports the Targum of Jonathan, which says Israel turned aside at the command of the Word of heaven, as the time of vengeance on Edom had not yet come. Deuteronomy 23:7 still calls the Edomite Israel's brother.
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.”
Aaron's garments passed to Eleazar
Albert Barnes identifies Mount Hor with Jebel Harun near Petra, a red rock with two summits, where a domed building is still shown as Aaron's tomb. Numbers 33:37-38 records this stage and dates Aaron's death there. The Arabic name means Mount Aaron.
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.”
Numbers 20:23-26
Aaron dies outside the land because both of you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah. He watches his garments put on his son Eleazar, which Adam Clarke reads as the ordinary transfer of an office. Hebrews 7:23-24 takes this up, since death stopped the Levitical priests, and Genesis 25:8 uses gathered to his people of Abraham.
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
The charge against both brothers is rebellion, from the Hebrew root behind the word Moses threw at the people in verse 10, you rebels. Matthew Henry reads gathered as a death within divine grace. Henry sets it against the cutting off spoken over those who die by divine justice.
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
Deuteronomy 32:49-50 sends Moses up Mount Nebo to die just as Aaron died on Mount Hor, and the text ties the two deaths together by name. Aaron climbs with his son and his brother beside him. Deuteronomy 34:1 names no companion for Moses.
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.”
Exodus 29:29 had provided for this day, that Aaron's holy garments would pass to his sons for their ordination. Ambrose of Milan draws from Moses alone clothing Eleazar that a priest must consecrate a priest, and he reads the vestments as priestly virtues. The office outlives the man.
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
Numbers 20:27-29
They climb in the sight of the whole congregation, so the nation watches the priesthood change hands. Two men come down where three went up. Deuteronomy 10:6 places his death at Moserah, read as the district holding Mount Hor or as a parallel record, and the thirty days of mourning match those for Moses at Deuteronomy 34:8.
Adam Clarke passes on Lightfoot's remark that the exclusion of the best men of Israel from Canaan pointed past the earthly land. He adds an old reading from the fathers, in which Moses stands for the law, Miriam for the prophets and Aaron for the priesthood. Joshua led Israel in after all three had died.
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
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that Leviticus 21:11 barred a high priest from going near any dead body, even his father's. Eleazar stood beside Aaron on the mountain as he died. They hold that the law was set aside for this occasion.
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
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, three scenes at the end of the wilderness years, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Take the rod, and speak to the rock | The instruction at verse 8 carries two verbs and the chapter turns on which one is acted. The rod is to be carried and the rock is to be addressed. At Exodus 17:6 the word was to strike the rock, and there the striking was the obedience. | Numbers 20:8, Numbers 20:11 |
| Hear now, you rebels | What Moses says to the assembly at verse 10 is his own and no part of it was given him. The question after it puts the water in the hands of two men, must we bring you water out of this rock. | Numbers 20:10 |
| Strife, and the place named for it | The verb behind the people's quarrel at verse 3 is rib, to bring a suit, and it is the root of the name Meribah given to the place at verse 13. The place is named for what the people did, and the name is the charge. | Numbers 20:3, Numbers 20:13 |
| Thus says your brother Israel | The message to Edom at verses 14 to 17 is built as a small kingdom built one. It opens on kinship, gives a short history of the descent into Egypt and the deliverance, and then asks for passage with every advantage waived. | Numbers 20:14, Numbers 20:17, Numbers 20:19 |
| Gathered to his people | The phrase used of Aaron at verses 24 and 26 is the phrase used of Abraham at Genesis 25:8 and of Isaac at Genesis 35:29. The book puts the death of the first high priest in the words it uses of the patriarchs. | Numbers 20:24, Numbers 20:26 |
The chapter answers Exodus 17 point for point. There the complaint came at the start of the wandering and here at the end of it. There Moses was told to strike the rock and the striking was the obedience. Here he is told to take the rod and speak, and the rod is carried for the speaking.
10 more paragraphs on the patterns
The posture of verse 6 has a history in the book. Moses and Aaron fall on their faces at 14:5, at 16:4, at 16:22 and at 16:45, and each of those times the glory appeared and something was settled. Here the glory appears and what follows is a simple instruction.
Which rod Moses took has holders on both sides. John Gill reads it as Aaron's rod that budded and was laid up at 17:10. Keil and Delitzsch read it as the rod of Moses that did the signs in Egypt. The text says only that it was the rod from before the LORD.
The New Testament's use
1 Corinthians 10:4 says of the rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ, so the New Testament states the link itself. Hebrews 7:23 to 24 takes up the transfer on Mount Hor, that the Levitical priests were many because death stopped them, and that the priesthood of Christ passes to no one.
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. The New Testament does not say it, and the row records it as a reading held by named teachers.
The debated point
Why Moses was barred is the chapter's standing question, and the dossier for this book carries the three positions with their holders. The first is anger and self exaltation in his own question at verse 10, held by the majority of Jewish and Christian commentators. The second is disobedience to the specific command, since he was told to speak and struck instead, set against the earlier miracle at Exodus 17:6. The third is a broken type drawn from 1 Corinthians 10:4, where striking the rock a second time mars a picture meant to be completed by speaking. This page states no verdict.
A second point stands beside it. Verse 12 gives unbelief and a failure to sanctify God as the reason. Moses tells it differently three times in Deuteronomy, at 1:37, at 3:26 and at 4:21, where he says the LORD was angry with him for your sakes. Both accounts stand in the canon and the chapter reconciles nothing.
Where to go deeper
The striking itself is set out at Moses strikes the rock, and the figure Paul draws from it at the rock in the wilderness. Miriam is set out at Miriam. The country the chapter crosses is set out at the wilderness and the generation that crossed it at the wilderness generation. The office Aaron hands on is set out at the priest.
Keep studying
Studies5
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 form and classifications
Keil and Delitzsch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Numbers 20:2.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Ambrose of Milan, Epistle 63; Basil of Caesarea, PREFACE ON THE JUDGMENT OF GOD; 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; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.