Deuteronomy 10:7

From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah,.... Which Jarchi takes to be the same with Horhagidgad, and so do most; see Numbers 33:32, but Aben Ezra says it is not, but is a general name, including

And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera: there Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his stead.

Either, 1. From that place, and that either from Mosera, last mentioned, or from Bene-jaakan; for relatives many times in Scripture belong to the remoter antecedent. Or, 2. From that time; for this particle sometimes notes not place, but time, as . So the meaning is, at, or about that time, as it is , which being considered, may serve to clear the great difficulty discoursed upon the last verse concerning the seeming contradiction of this place and ,32.

Deuteronomy 10:7 From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters.Ver. 7. A land of rivers of water.] A rare thing in a dry desert. Lysimachus sold his crown for a less matter.

(6, 7) On these verses, which are among the most difficult in Deuteronomy, see a separate Excursus. The difficulty is two-fold. First, the account of Israel’s marches about the time of Aaron’s death is given in a different form here to that which we have in Numbers 20, 21, 33. Secondly, there is the further question why Aaron’s death should be recorded here. It appears to have taken place before Moses began the delivery of the discourses in Deuteronomy. It is separated by thirty-nine years from the incidents which Moses is recapitulating in this passage. The Jewish commentator Rashi gives a very curious tale to account for the allusion to Aaron’s death in this place. But though his theory is mythical, he seems to hit the main point, which is that Israel re-visited in their journey round the land of Edom four places where they had previously encamped, and among them Mosera, or Moseroth, the district in which Mount Hor, where Aaron died, was situated. There is no impossibility in this; in fact, it is highly probable, and would partly account for the statement in Numbers 21:4, that “the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.” It was just about this time that the fiery serpents came. If the connection of these verses with the train of thought in Moses’ mind is spiritual, the difficulty may be solved. The death of the priest of Israel, whose first representative Aaron was, is spiritually identical with the destruction of the first pair of tables, the death of the first Adam and of all mankind in the person of our representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. After that death He “ariseth” as “another priest, made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.” Thus the incident is connected with what goes before. The separation of the tribe of Levi “to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord,” i.e., “to bear the burden of the Law,” is the same thing in another form. It deprives them of an earthly inheritance, just as He whose representatives they were gave Himself an offering and sacrifice to God; and “His life is taken from the earth.” Further, the names of the places themselves have in this aspect a spiritual significance. From certain “wells of water”—the wells of the children of Jaakan (crookedness)—the people of God take their journey to the scene of the high priest’s death. From thence to Hor-hagidgad, or Gudgodah, the mount of the “troop,” or “band” (Sinai is the mount of the “congregation” in the Old Testament, Zion in the New), and thence to a land of rivers of water. It is only another way of relating how from the wells of the Law we pass to the rivers of living water opened by the Gospel. But we must pass by way of the cross of Christ. ON NOTES TO . ON Deuteronomy 10:6-7. THESE verses have always seemed to me to present the greatest difficulty in the whole of Deuteronomy.

7. From thence they journeyed] E’s formula, Numbers 21:12-13. Gudgodah to Jotbathah] P, Numbers 33:32 f.; Hor-haggidgad and Yoṭ ?bathah—unknown. Both names are possibly derived from the character of the landscape. Ar. ‘gadgad’ is hard, level ground; and Yoṭ ?bah, or Yoṭ ?bathah, is probably goodliness or pleasantness: a land of brooks of water. On all these names Doughty’s remarks (Ar. Des. i. 49) are instructive: ‘Here a word of the camping grounds of Moses: all their names we may never find again in these countries,—and wherefore? Because they were a good part passengers’ names and without land-right they could not remain in the desert, in the room of the old herdsmen’s names. There is yet another kind of names, not rightly of the country, not known to the Beduins, which are caravaners’ names. The caravaners passing in haste, with fear of the nomads, know not the wide wilderness without their landmarks; nor even in the way, have they a right knowledge of the land names. What wonder if we find not again some which are certainly caravaners’ names in the old itineraries.’

7. Unto Gudgodah — In Numbers 33:32, this station is called Hor Hagidgad. Jotbath — In Numbers 33:33, Jotbathah.