Numbers 20
PATk And Miriam died there. Four months before her brother Aaron, (chap. xxxiii.3S.)and eleven months before Mioses; being elder than either of them. For she was near a hundred and thirty years old, as may be gathered from Exod. ii. 4. 7. where it appears she was not a child when Moses was born. And teas buried there.] In Kadesh, where she died. But we read of no -mourning for her, as there was for Aaron a little after, (ver. 29.); ■ samo history. For tho former was in Horeb, this in Kadesh; which is in the extremity of the land of Edom." But whether God pointed him to a rock, which was then in their sight, (as ho did at Horcb, Exod. xvii. 5, G.) or left him to choose any stony place, is not certain. 13ut it is a mere fancy of some of the Jews, that, because God here bade them speak to the rock, Moses offended God 1^ smiting it. For to what purpose should he take the rod, if he was not to smite the rock with it, as he had done formerly? Just such another conceit there is in Schalschelet Hakkabala; where R. Gedaliah saith, that he had given an account of this sin in another book, which he gathered out of various writers,, and found there were twenty-eight different opinions about it: but he preferred this before any of them; that whereas God bade Moses gather the edah together, that is, the assembly of the people, (ver. 8.) he gathered the kahal, L e. the congregation of the princes and elders (as he will have it), whose faith needed no confirmation:. (see Hottinger in Ins Smegma Orientale, cap. 8. p. 451.) And it shall give forth his water.] The Jews puzzle themselves about this expression, which sounds, they think, as if the w r ater was contained in the rock; and Moses only made a gap for it to gush out: but it seems to be spoken in opposition to the waters issuing out of the former rock’^ which had supplied them hitherto, but now ceased to flow; it being as much as if he had said, This shall give forth.water as that did before: now it shall be* called the water of this rock; not that of Horeb. - And thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock?’] Renew the former miracle; So thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.] So that they and their cattle (which they fear will perish, ver.,24.) shall be as plentifully provided for as ever. rebellious generation; if is likely, made him the more distrustful, that God would do nothing for them. For both these are mentioned by the Divine writers that touch upon this history, that he did not believe; and that his spirit was so provoked, that he spake unadvisedly ivith his tips, (Psal. cvi. 32, 33.) which was when he spake those words, ver.10. Must ive fetch you water out of this rock? i.e. is that a likely matter? They being words of the same sort with those of Sarah, Gen. xviii. 13. Shall I of a surety have a child, who am old? that is, I cannot believe it. And when he saw the water did not come out at the first stroke, he might be so rash as to say, Now it is plain God will give you none, but let you perish:, or words to that effect. I know nothing more probable than this; unless the reader likes the opinion of Joseph Albo better, which is the ninth opinion -mentioned by Abarbinel. That Moses and Aaron having had such long experience of God’s goodness to this people, and of his readiness to help them, ought not to have gone and made their complaints to God about the want of water, (ver. 6.) but immediately, of themselves, gone to the rock (being confident of God’s power and mercy, which had never failed them), and called for water to come out of it. For now the tabernacle was built, and they had God dwelling among them (which they had not when he smote the rock at first), which ought to have bred in them the highest assurance that God would supply them. Dr. Lightfoot hath another conjecture (which I shall propound, that the reader may judge which is most likely), that Moses and Aaron began to distrust God’s promise of entering into tho promised land, at tho end of forty years; imagining, that, if they brought water again out of the rock, it must follow them as long as the other had done. For this he makes the sense of their words, " WJiat, ye rebels! must we bring water out of a rock, as we did at Horebf Arc all our hopes and expectations of getting out of the wilderness come to this? We never fetched you water out of a rock but once; and that was because ye were to stay a long time in the wilderness, &c. Now that is gone, must we fetch water out of another rock? O ye rebels, have ye brought.it to this pass by your murmurings, that we must have a new stay in the wilderness? Are we to begin our abode here again, when we thought we had been at the end of our travels? At this rate we shall never get out." Whereupon he presently smote the rock twice in a fume; whereas God bade him only speak to it, (ver. 8.) To sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel.] i. e. Openly to assert me to be the Holy One of Israel, faithful to my promises (as well as infinite in power), of which they had given the Israelites occasion to doubt, by declaring some distrust of what God said to them, (ver. 8.) For these words plainly shew that their sin did not consist only in an inward diffidence, but in such outward expressions of it in their anger and impatience, as might be apt to breed unbelief in the Israelites; who were already too prone thereunto. And it is no improbable conjecture of a Jewish doctor (in his book of the Death of Moses), that the Divine Glory not appearing now upon this rock, as it did at Horcb, (Exod. xvii. G.) which perhaps they expected; it gave some occasion to their unbelief: which, he thinks, was not so great a sin in itself, as to have deserved the following punishment, had not God, in passing this sentence, had a respect to the excellency and dignity of. their persons; in whom a fault of this nature was far more grievous than in an “ordinary man. Therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.] They brought them -into the land of Silion, and of Og; but not into Canaan, which was properly the land promised to them. f 584 [chap. XX. fathers before us, have travelled from place to place, without any certain habitation. (See Psal. cv. 13.) the rivers of all countries, ought to be free for all that have a mind to pass through thera upon just occasions. And he gives many examples of such permission out of heathen story; and therefore looks upon the denial of this as just ground of weir with Sihon and Og (mentioned in the next chapter, where I shall consider it), as it might have been with Edom and Moab, had not God prohibited it. Nor doth the fear, he thinks, which the Edomites, it is likely, had of letting such a vast number of people pass through their country, alter the case; for no man’s fear is to take away another man’s right: and there might have been means contrived to remove this feaT, by letting them pass through in small companies at a time, or unarmed. He had better have said, in my opinion, by giving hostages on both sides for the performance of conditions: for it might have put the Israelites in as great fear to have gone through in small parties, or if they should have disarmed themselves. But, when all is said, it seems not clear that all men have such a right, as that great man thinks they may claim. For no man can challenge a passage through a private man’s ground without his leave; and every prince hath the same dominion in all his territories that a private man hath in his land. There are many examples also, as Gronovius hath observed, of countries which have suffered extremely by granting this liberty (which shew that princes have reason to deny it for their people’s security), and the examples of those who have granted it, are examples of fact rather than of right; and of such as were not in a condition to refuse what was demanded. (See Selden’s Mare Clausum, lib. i. cap. 20.) Wherefore Israel turned away from him.’] By God’s command; who ordered them also to buy what they wanted of the Edomites, (Dent. ii. 5, 6.) For they stayed some time in Kadesh, by their consent, before they removed; that they might furnish themselves, as they offered, with necessaries, (Judges xi. 17.)
Numbers 20:1
JL HEN came the children of Israel, even theivhofe congregation, into the tvilderness of Zin. From Rithmah, or Kadesh-barnea, they came at last into this wilderness,, after many removals to other stations, of which Moses gives an account in the thirty-third chapter, from ver. 19. to ver. 36. For God led them, by the cloud, quite back again to the Red Sea, (chap. xiv. 25.) and from thence brought them into this wilderness of Tzin; which is quite different from that mentioned Exod. xvi. called Sin: for this lay on the confines ofldumea, as appears from ver. 14, 15. In the first month.] Of the fortieth year after they came out of the land of Egypt. For Moses gives an account of. the transactions only of the two first years after they came from thence, and of the last: the rest he passeth over in si-, lence, being spent in tiresome journeys; whereby all above twenty years old were consumed, by one disease or other.. In those travels he shews how, at several removals, (men-, tioned chap, xxxiii.) they were led back from Kadesh-barnea unto Ezion-Geber*(that is, from the north to the south of the shore of the Red Sea), in which journey they compassed the land of Edom many days, (Deut. ii. 1.) that is, many years. For, from the time they left Kadesh-barnea till they returned back again was thirty-eight years, (Deut. ii.14.) And the people abode in Kadesh.] Not in Kadesh-barnea,” which was their fifteenth station, and in the confines of the* south part of Canaan, (chap, xxxiv.4. Josh.xv. 3.) but anfc other Kadesh on the confines of the land of Edom, towards the Red Sea, (chap, xxxiii. 36. Deut. ii. 3. Judges xi. 17.)',
Numbers 20:2
And there teas no water for the congregation. The water that hitherto followed them from the rock in Horeb now failed. Which happening just at the death of Miriam, the Jews have a foolish conceit, that as her piety procured it for them, so she being dead, it was taken from them, and was restored again for the piety of Moses and Aaron. It is more reasonable to think, that God suffered the water to be discontinued for a time, that he might try the faith of this new generation, whether they were any. better than their rebellious fathers, and withal, to convince them that the water out of the former rock was not contained in it, if he had. not produced it, who could bring forth water out of any other place as well as that. Or, they being now going towards Canaan, and near a country where water might be had for. money (or they might haye found it by digging for it), God thought fit to let the miracle, cease; that they might see he would shortly provide for them otherwise. For it is very likely, that, in their last station, where they were before this, atEzion-Geber,(chap. xxxiii. 36.) the water that had followed them in all.their: journeys thither fell there into the Red Sea,‘and “so was swallowed up; they being, as I said,’to return towards” Canaan, by places where water might be procured without a miracle. For being upon the edge of the land of Edom, when Aaron died in their next removal, (ver. 28. chap. xxxiii. 37.) we read expressly that they presently after came to a land of rivers of water, (Deut. x. 7.) And, indeed, not long after they removed from Mount Hor, when Aaron died, we find, in the next chapter to this, that they came to Oboth, (chap. xxi. 10.) which signifying bottles, it is.no unreasonable conjecture, that here they met with water, with which they filled their empty bottles.’ And, next, to that station, they came to Jie-Abarim, (ver. 11.) heaps of fords; or, as the Chaldee expounds it, the ford of those* tJtatpass over: and then to the valley of Zared, (ver. 12.) or to the brook Zered, as it is in Dent. ii. 13, 14. And then to the river Arnon, (ver. 13.) and thence to Beer, where they digged a famous well, (chap. xxi.lG — 18.) which, per-, haps, they might have done before in other places, if they had made experiment; for Kadesh, where they now were,, was in the border of a country inhabited. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and, against Aaron.] Just as their fathers had many times done; particularly upon such an occasion as this, (Exod. xvii. 2, 3.)’>Ver. 3. And the people chode with Moses.] Instead of condoling with him, and comforting him, for the death of his sister and their prophetess (as Abarbinel observes), they came in a rude manner to scold at him. And spake, saying, Would G od. that we had died, when our brethren died before the Lord!] By a sudden death, rather than linger away by thirst. They allude to the strokes upon their brethren, chap. xi. 1. 33; xiv. 87. xvi.‘32. 35. 4G. which one would have thought should haveaffrighted them from uttering such very discontented lan->* guage, (chap. xix. 2.) But nothing will alter those, who will not lay to heart, and preserve in mind, God’s mercies and judgments. ■>
Numbers 20:4
And why have ye brought the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle shotild die there?. The very words of their fathers,-presently after they~ came out of Egypt, (Exod. xvii. 3.)
Numbers 20:5
And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt. They speak as if it had not been their own desire, but that they were persuaded to it by Moses to’ leave Egypt; who was 1 sent to tell them God heard their sighing, groans, and cries, and would deliver them, (Exod. r ii. 23, 24. iii. 17.) But in a discontented fit, nothing of this was remembered. To bring us unto this evil place?] They do not speak of; returning to Egypt,:as their fathers did, (chap. xiv. 3/4!) but they repented that they were come out of it. • So shamefully forgetful they were of all God’s benefits, who had in a -wonderful manner redeemed them from the heaviest slavery, - and hitherto provided for them miraculously in the wilderness, which was a better place than such an ungrateful peo-: pie deserved! It is no place of seed.] i. e. Of corn. Or of figs, or of vines,’ or pomegranates, &c’.] Now they complain for want of other things, as well as’ water: wherein; they still imitate their unbelieving fathers, (chap.’ xvi. 14.) *‘Ver. 6. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congrega- - tion.] To pray to God to pardon their sin, and to supply their wants.’ - And they fell upon their faces.] As they had often done before, on other such-like occasions; particularly chap. xiv. 5.’ And the glory of the Lord.appeared unto them.] Unto all’’ the people, it is likely; as it had clone several times,’ to si-: lence their murmurings, (see chap. xiv. 10. xvi. 19.42.) •; A
Numbers 20:7
And the Lord spake unto Moses. From that glory’ which appeared upon the tabernacle.
Numbers 20:8
Take the rod. That famous rod wherein Moses had wrought so many miracles in Egypt, and at the Red * Sea, &c. And gather thou the assembly together.] This word edah signifying sometimes only the assembly of the elders, not of; the whole people, it would be uncertain which of them he is * bid to gather together, (for it is a different word from that* which we translate assembly, ver.G.) if the tenth verse had’ not determined that it was the kahal, or congregation of - the people, as the word edah also signifies just before; ( (ver. 8? ) Thou and Aaron thy brother.] For the people were ga^ thered together against Aaron, in a mutinous manner, as well as against Moses, (ver. 2.) And speak ye unto the rock before their eyes.] To the first rock you meet withal (saith Nachmanides), and that is^ within their sight. For this is not the same rock out of which. the former water flowed, as the Jews fancy; but; quite different. Their very names are different; that being * called Tzur, this Selah. That was in Rephidim, this in J Kadesh; two. very distant places. Thus Chaskuni; some think this the same with that in Exodus: " but it is not the
Numbers 20:9
And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him.’) From hence some conclude, that this was the rod of Aaron which blossomed; because he is said to take it/ro77i before the Lord, wherc; Aaron’s rod was laid up, (chap. xvii. 10.) But this rod is so expressly called, Moses’s rod, ver. 11. which was the instrument of bringing the former water out of the rock in Horeb, that I cannot but think this was the very same rod; which being there called the rod of God, (Exod. xvii. 9.) as it is at the first mention of it, (Exod. iv. 20.) it is very probable, that by God’s order it was laid up somewhere before him in the sanctuary; though not before the ark of the testimony. For having been employed in doing so many wonders, it w r as not seemly it should lay in his own tent, as a common staff;. but in the house of God, as a sacred wand. This, indeed, is no where mentioned, no more than many other things, which notwithstanding are plainly intimated. *
Numbers 20:10
And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation before the rock. As God had commanded, ver. 8. And he said unto them.] Moses, who was the chief actor, said unto them. - Hear ye now, ye rebels.] The Talmudists fancy that this is the great sin for which Moses and Aaron were denied to go into Canaan, because he called God’s people rebels: from whence they have framed this maxim, He that treats the church contemptuotisly, ivhich ought to be honoured, is as if he blasphemed the name of God. But they subvert the truth, who build it upon no better foundations. For Moses, the great minister of God, only uses God’s own language to their fathers, chap. xvii. 10. where he bids him lay up Aaron’s rod, as a token against the rebels. And if this were a sin, Moses committed it again not long after this, and in a higher strain (which nobody can think he would have done, if it had cost him so dear), when he saith, Deut. ix. 24. " Ye have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I knew you." Must tve fetch you tvateroutofthis rock?] Jn these words, also, some of the Jews (particularly Nachman) think they find the sin of Moses and Aaron; who here (they fancy) ascribe to themselves that which they ought to have acknowledged the work of God alone. But this is without any ground; for tho plain meaning of the words is quite contrary; Is it in our power to bring water out of a rock?. So the Vulgar Latin translates it; it being a speech of those that wonder, like thatl Kings xxi. 19. " Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?" As if Moses had said, Strange! that you should think it possible for vs to bring you water out of a rock, which is the work only of an omni-’ potent power!
Numbers 20:11
And Moses lifted tip his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice. It seems the water did not gush* out at the first stroke;.which made him repeat it. •.. And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.] So that their present necessity was supplied; and they also filled their vessels when they left this place, to serve them till they met* with the convenience of water; as they did, I shewed upon. ver. 2. Ven 12- And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not.] Here interpreters have been much troubled to find what it was for which God was offended at Moses and Aaron: for though the.text tells us* expressly it was for their unbelief (whereby they gave great scandal, and did not sanctify him as they did formerly, before the Israelites), yet it doth not clearly appear wherein this unbelief declared itself. Abarbinel hath collected several opinions of the Jewish doctors about this matter, which arc no less than ten; after which he delivers his own, which seems to me as unsatisfactory as the rest were to him; for it is far-fetched, with too much nicety and subtilty, and relies also upon uncertainties. The plainest account of it, I think, is this, which none of them take notice of; that the water now ceasing at the same time that Miriam died, Moses was very sad both for her death, and, perhaps, for the ceasing of the w r ater; and being unexpectedly assaulted by tho people, who ought to have had a greater reverence for him, in a time of mourning especially, it was tho occasion of a greater commotion of anger and indignation than was usually in him: which gave him such a disturbance in his mind, and so disordered his thoughts, that when God bade him take his rod, and go and speak to the rock, he fell into somo doubt, whether God would grant them the favour ho had done before; either, because theywore so wretched a people, that it was not fit God should do any thing for them; or because he thought, perhaps, water might bo otherways procured for them. And becauso of this doubting, I suppose, it might be, that upon the first striking of the rock no water came forth (God also, perhaps, so ordering it, that he might try him); and hereupon his diffidence increased.into unbelief, and a settled persuasion they should have no water. His anger also at such a
Numbers 20:13
This is the water of Meribah. Called Meribahkadesh, Deut. xxxii. 51. to distinguish it from that Meribah mentioned Exod. xvii. 7. where the Israelites are guilty of the same crime.’" Because the children of Israel strove with the Lord.] Expostulated with him most undutifully, and accused him of unkindness to them, (ver. 3, 4.) And he was sanctified in them.] The Hebrew doctors differ very much in their opinions about this also, whether he was sanctified in the waters, or in the people of Israel, or in Moses and Aaron.’ Some fancy it is meant of the wa*- ters; -viz. that God did himself great honour in bringing waters again out of a rock: and therefore the name of the place was called Kadesh, from his being sanctified there* Thus Chaskuni. But it seems to have been called so beifore this, being a place well known to the Edomitcs, (ver. 16.) The common opinion is, that he speaks of Moses and Aaron: for God’s name, saith R. Solomon, is much tovered when he doth not spare even his holy ones, (Lev. ». 3;) ButNachmanides expounds it of the Israelites, before whose face (as he expounds sanctified in them) God’s power, and faithfulness, and goodness appeared: and who alonfe are mentioned in this verse; not Moses and Aaron. But all three opinions in the issue concur in this one, that God made his power, &c. appear in the eyes of all the Israelites, by bringing water out of a fock; and at the same time demonstrated his holiness and impartial justice in punishing his greatest friends for their unbelief. - • * »Ver. 14.’ And Moses sent messengers.] By God’s order, as his words seem to import, in Deut. ii. 2 — 4. From Kadesh.] On the confines of the king of Edom’s country. Unto the king of Edom.] When the Israelites came out of Egypt, Moses speaks of Edom as governed by dukes, (Exod. xv» 87.) for the successors of Esau at first had no higher title, (Gen. xxxvi. 15, &c.) Not long after, it seems, their posterity became kings; and now (nine-and-thirty years after the Israelites’ coming out of Egypt) they were still under kingly government. Arid this king, to whom Moses now sends messengers, the great primate of Ireland takes to have been Hadar, the last of those that Moses mentions Gen. xxxvi. 39. who, for his inhumanity to the children of Israel, was shortly after punished with death; and the kingdom turned again into the government by dukes. For Moses (as he thinks) writing thebook of Genesis in (he latter end of his life (or then adding what was necessary to what he had written before), reckons immediately after Hadar several dukes reigning all at one time, in several parts of the country which they had shared among them. (See Usser. Chronolog. Sacra, cap. 11.) TIius saith thy brother Israel.] In the language of those times, all that were near of kin called one another brethren: and these two nations descended from two twin-brothers. Thoti knowest.] For they could not but have received, intelligence before this time of such public things. All the travel that hath befallen us.] How wc, and our
Numbers 20:15
IIoiv our fathers.*. After several removals from one part of Canaan to another. Went down into Egypt.] Which was so public a thing (they being invited by Pharaoh, who sent carriages for •them), that tho Edomites could not be ignorant of it. And ive have dwelt in Egypt a long time.] See Exod. xii. 40, 41. and what I have observed there. And the Egyptians vexed us and our fathers.’] See Exod. i. 11—13, &c. 1 Ver. 1G. And when ive cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice.] See Exod. ii. 23—25. iii. 7, 8. * And sent an angeL] See Exod. iii. 2, &c. Maimonides here by angel understands Moses himself; for the prophets are sometimes called angels, L e. messengers sent from God, (Judg. ii. 1.) This he asserts in the first part, and more than once in the second part, of More Nevochim. But it is very unreasonable to think, that Moses would thus magnify himself to the king of Edom, who understood not such •language; and could not but be the more moved to hearken.to his embassy, if he believed the Israelites were under the conduct of a heavenly minister, who, as other Jews think, -was Michael, the prince of the heavenly host, whom they.commonly understand by the angel here mentioned. But many great men, particularly Masius, think this is short <of -the truth, unless we understand by Michael, the eternal Son.of God, who was, as he speaks, the perpetual prince and director of the people of God. For though he was then properly made the messenger of the Father, when he took on him our flesh, and dwelt here among us, yet from the beginning it was his constant care to reconcile men to God, and •^preserve religion among them. So that he might be called Hie angel of God before he became a man, because God the.Father by him communicated with men about all things necessary for their good. And the Jews seem to have had; &ome obscure notion of this: for what else could Moses Gerundensis mean, when he saith, the angel whom Moses •sawin the bush. was the same Whom Jacob calls the God pf Bethel, and whom he calls the angel Redeemer? of whom Moses, he saith, speaks in this place, and in Deut. vi. 12. The Lord brought us out of Egypt: Certain it is, that thus the ancient Christians understood such places, taking the angel here spoken of to be the eternal Logos, or Word, as St. John calls the eternal So.n of God: whose sense no man, I think, hath better. explained than our Mr. Thorndike; who, though he confesses it to be plain by the Scriptures, that it was always an angel that appeared un()er the Old’^Testament,- who is sometimes called by the proper name of, God (Jehovah), yet this is no prejudice to what the fathers pf the church teach, concerning the appearing of the qternal Word; who was that Lord who then assumed some angelical nature, wherein he might appear, to deal with men for a short time; after which he dismissed it, when he had done that business for which he assumed it. And h#tji brought its forth out of Egypt.] See Exod. xiii, 22. xiv. 19.!; And, behold, tve are in Kadesh.] Near to Kadesh; for it is.no’t likely they were admitted into the city itself, \yhicl) gave its name to the adjacent country. A city.] Or town; for it doth not seem to have been a walled place. In the uttermost of thy borders.]’ In (he confines of the king of Edom’s country; and belonging, it is likely, to his dominion.
Numbers 20:17
Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country J. In our way to the land of Canaan; which God hath promised to give us. We tvill not. pass through the fields, or through the vineyards.] They engaged not to turn aside, as they went along, into any private man’s grounds. (See chap. xxi. 22.) Neither will we drink of the ivater of the toells.] Which any private person had digged for his own use; but only of the rivers, which are common to all creatures.. We will go by the king’s highway.] Keep in the common road, which is made for all passengers, by the king’s allowance. We tvill not turn to the right hand or to the left.] Out of the road, but go straight on. Until tve have passed thy borders.] Got to the other side of the country of Edom.
Numbers 20:18
And Edom said unto him. This sounds as if the whole country had joined in the following answer^ Tltou shalt not pass by’ me.] Go through, our country, (ver. 20.).. , Lest I come out against thee with the sword.] The king bids them not attempt it, for he would oppose their passage with all his forces. He was afraid, no doubt, lest they should seize his country, or spoil it, and therefore would not trust their declarations which they made to the contrary
Numbers 20:19
And the children of Israel. Who were sent upon this message, (ver. 14.).Or else some new ambassadors, whom Moses dispatched with new entreaties after he understood his denial. Said unto him.] Gave him new assurances of their honest intentions., ~.. We will go by thehighivay.] Believe us, we will not step out of the common road. And if I and my cattle drink of thy water.] Out of the wells beforementioncd, (ver. 17.) which private men had digged, and therefore had a propriety in them. Then will I pay for it.] For water was commonly sold in those dry countries, where it was very scarce. I will only, without doing any thing else.] The Hebrew words em dabar (which we translate, without doing any thing else), literally signify in our language, it is no word, i. e. not mere fair promises, but, we will perform what we say. Go through on my feet.] Go through, as fast as we can travel on foot.; ■
Numbers 20:20
And he said, Thou shalt not go through. He persisted in his resplution; and would not rely on their most solemn asseverations. Yet he consented (as appears by Deut. ii. 28, 29.) to furnish them with necessary provisions, both of meat and drink, for their money. And Edom came out against him ivith much people, and with a strong hand.] For fear they should press into his country, he raised a great and powerful army to oppose them; and shewed himself ready to fight them if they moved that way.
Numbers 20:21
Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border. Which Grotius censures in his second book De Jure Belli ct Pacis, cap. 2. sect. 13. as contrary to the law of nations; by which the highways, as wsll as the sea and^
Numbers 20:22
And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation. For they might not divide into several bodies, lying in several places; but all march together, when the clond moved, in the order God appointed, (chap. x. 13, 14, &c.) Journeyed from Kadesh, and came to Mount Hor.] Another, place upon the edge of the Edomites’ country, chap, xxxiii. 37. where they pitched in a part’ of that mountain which was called Mosera, (Deut. x. 6.) Whether Mount Hor gave the name of Hori to him, who was the ancestor of Seir, and the first planter of the country, which was afterward conquered by Esau, (Gen. xxxvi. 20. 30. Deut. ii. 12.) or had its name from him, cannot be determined. But Hori, we are sure, was the first possessor (of whom there is any memory) of this mountain Hor, which was afterward called Seir (from one descended from him), and afterward Edom. Vcr. 23. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in Mount Ilor.] At the foot of the mount, as appears from vcr. 25. By the coast of the land of Edom.] See chap, xxxiii. 37. Vcr. 24. Aaron shall be gathered unto his people.] Shall die, (vcr. 26.) For he shall not enter into the land ivhich I have given unto the children of Israel] See ver. 12. A manifest token that the earthly Canaan was not the utmost felicity at which God’s promises aimed; because the best men among them were shut out of it. Because ye rebelled against my Word at the water of Meribah.] By this word rebelled, it appears there was something of obstinacy in their unbelief, mentioned ver. 12. VeT. 25. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son.] Speak to them in my name. For it is expressly said, (chap, xxxiii. 38.) that they went up " at the commandment of the Lord." And bring them up unto Mount Hor.] This shews that they pitched their tents at the bottom of it, in a place called Mosera. See Deut. x. 6. where this seems also to have been the name of the whole hill, as well as Hor.
Numbers 20:26
And strip Aaron of his garments,. i. e. Of his priestly robes (as Josephus rightly expounds it, rrjv apx it * panicfjv <rro\rjv), mentioned Exod. xxviii. 2, 3, &c. wherewith he was clothed when he was anointed to the office of high-priest, (Lev. viii. 7—9.) which he put on, I suppose, in the camp, and went up in them to Mount Hor, that he might die gloriously; not in his robes, but immediately after he put them off to be put upon his son. For this stripping him of his robes was in effect the divesting Aaron of his office, that it might be conferred upon his son; which was done as follows. And put them upon Eleazar his son.] Which was the in* vesting him with the office of high-priest, in which he now succeeded in his father’s stead, and was by this ceremony admitted to it; The Talmudists say the manner was, first to put on the breeches, then the coat; which being’bound about with the girdle, then the robe, upon which was the ephod, and then the mitre and golden crown. (See Selden de Succession, in Pontif. lib. ii. cap. 8.) And Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and die there.] This was said before, in short, ver. 24. but now the time of his death is expressly declared (immediately after he laid down his office, and had the satisfaction to see his son inaugurated in his room), and the place of it, upon Mount Hor. Of this phrase, gathered to his people, see Gen. xxv. 8. 17.
Numbers 20:27
And Moses did as the Lord commanded: and they went up into Mount Hor, in the sight of all the congregation. That they might all be witnesses of the succession of Eleazar to the office of his father. Vcr. 28. And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son.] This Moses did as the minister of God; who now translated the priesthood to another. And Aaron died there in the top of the mount.] And was buried also there, (Deut. x. 6.) For great and heroic persons were in ancient days usually buried in high places. So Joshua was, (chap. xxiv. 30. 33.) and EleazaT, (Judges ii. 9.) and Cadmus and Harmonia; who lived near the time of Joshua, as Bochartus observes in his Canaan, lib. i. cap. 23. And Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.] After they had seen him laid in his grave by those that attended them. This fell out in the fortieth ycaT after they came out of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month; when Aaron was a hundred and three-and-twenty years old, as we read chap, xxxiii. 38, 39. in the new moon of the month, which the Athenians called Hecatombaon, the Macedonians Lous, and the Hebrews called Sabba, as Josephus glosses. But 4F Microsoft ® A’ COMMENTARY [cmap.-xxi!* that last word should be Ab, not Sabb’a, as Jacobus Capcllus observes, (in his Histor. Sacra et Exotica ad An. 2542.) “which answers, he thinks, to the nineteenth of our July. And so tho Hebrews say in Seder Olam, " Aaron died on the first day of the month Ab;” upon which there is a fast in their rituals, in “memory of it. *”
Numbers 20:29
And when all the congregation saiv that Aaron was dead. ii e. Understood (as the word see is used Gen. xlii. 1.) that God had taken him out of the world, as Moses and Eleazar told them; who also came down from the mount with him. They mourned for Aaron thirty days.] Till the end of the month. For so long their mourning seems, in those days, to have been continued for great persons, (as it was for Moses, Deut. xxxiv. 8.) though a w r eek sufficed for private persons. Even all the house of Israel.] Both men and women.