Numbers 20:21
in Numbers 20So Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through their territory, and Israel turned away from them.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.
KJV
Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.
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This verse in Numbers 20
Commentary
5 notes on this verseNotwithstanding 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.
This site's exposition
And Edom came out against him with much people
on 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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
It is a great mercy, to have plenty of water; a mercy which if we found the want of, we should own the worth of. Before the Lord - Suddenly, rather than to die such a lingering death. Their sin was much greater than that of their parents, because they should have taken warning by their miscarriages, and by the terrible effects of them, which their eyes had seen.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border, &c.--A churlish refusal obliged them to take another route. De 2:4; and Jud 11:18; see also 1Sa 14:47; 2Sa 8:14, which describe the retribution that was taken.)
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border - Though every king has a right to refuse passage through his territories to any strangers; yet in a case like this, and in a time also in which emigrations were frequent and universally allowed, it was both cruelty and oppression in Edom to refuse a passage to a comparatively unarmed and inoffensive multitude, who were all their own near kinsmen.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיְמָאֵ֣ן׀ | vaymaen | and it refused | H3985 → | 41 times |
| אֱד֗וֹם | ʾedom | Edom | H123 → | 99 times |
| נְתֹן֙ | neton | to permit | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| עֲבֹ֖ר | ʾavor | to pass | H5674 → | 556 times |
| בִּגְבֻל֑וֹ | bigvulo | in territory its | H1366 → | 240 times |
| וַיֵּ֥ט | vaiyet | and it turned aside | H5186 → | 214 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| מֵעָלָֽיו׃ פ | mealav | from on <the> it | H5921 → | 5755 times |
וַיְמָאֵ֣ן׀and it refused
vaymaenH3985 →41 times
אֱד֗וֹםEdom
ʾedomH123 →99 times
נְתֹן֙to permit
netonH5414 →2011 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
עֲבֹ֖רto pass
ʾavorH5674 →556 times
בִּגְבֻל֑וֹin territory its
bigvuloH1366 →240 times
וַיֵּ֥טand it turned aside
vaiyetH5186 →214 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
מֵעָלָֽיו׃ פfrom on <the> it
mealavH5921 →5755 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Judges 11:24Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh grants you? So also, we possess whatever the LORD our God has granted us.
it leads to
- Micah 4:5
Though each of the peoples may walk in the name of his god, yet we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.
- Psalms 78:55
He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
- Numbers 21:29
Woe to you, O Moab! You are destroyed, O people of Chemosh! He gave up his sons as refugees, and his daughters into captivity to Sihon king of the Amorites.
- 1 Kings 11:7
At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.
- Joshua 3:10
He continued, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that He will surely drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.
- Micah 4:5
Through
Judges 11:18Then Israel traveled through the wilderness and bypassed the lands of Edom and Moab. They came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon.…
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 2:1–8
Then we turned back and headed for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea, as the LORD had instructed me, and for many days we wandered around Mount Seir.
- Numbers 21:4–13
Then they set out from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, in order to bypass the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient on the journey
- Deuteronomy 2:1–8
Through
Deuteronomy 2:27“Let us pass through your land; we will stay on the main road. We will not turn to the right or to the left.
it leads to
- Judges 11:19
And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land into our own place.’
- Judges 11:19
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
About Numbers
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.