Numbers 20:1

CHAPTER XX

The Israelites come to Zin, and Miriam dies, 1.

They murmur for want of water, 2-5.

Moses and Aaron make supplication at the tabernacle, and the

glory of the Lord appears, 6.

He commands Moses to take his rod, gather the congregation

together, and bring water out of the rock, 7, 8.

Moses takes the rod, gathers the Israelites together, chides

with them, and smites the rock twice, and the waters flow out

plenteously, 9-11.

The Lord is offended with Moses and Aaron because they did not

sanctify him in the sight of the children of Israel, 12.

The place is called Meribah, 13.

Moses sends a friendly message to the king of Edom, begging

liberty to pass through his territories, 14-17.

The Edomites refuse, 18.

The Israelites expostulate, 19.

The Edomites still refuse, and prepare to attack them, 20, 21.

The Israelites go to Mount Hor, 22.

Aaron is commanded to prepare far his death, 23, 24.

Aaron is stripped on Mount Hor, and his vestments put on Eleazar

his son; Aaron dies, 25-28.

The people mourn for him thirty days, 29.

NOTES ON CHAP. XX

Verse Numbers 20:1. Then came the children of Israel, c.] This was the first month of the fortieth year after their departure from Egypt. See Numbers 33:38, compared with Numbers 20:28 of this chapter, and Deuteronomy 1:3. The transactions of thirty-seven years Moses passes by, because he writes not as a historian but as a legislator and gives us particularly an account of the laws, ordinances, and other occurrences of the first and last years of their peregrinations. The year now spoken of was the last of their journeyings; for from the going out of the spies, Numbers 13:1, unto this time, was about thirty-eight years, Deuteronomy 1:22-5; Deuteronomy 2:14.

Desert of Zin] Calmet contends that this is not the same desert mentioned Exodus 16:1, where Israel had their eighth encampment; that in Exodus being called in the original סין sin, this here צין tsin: but this is no positive proof, as letters of the same organ are frequently interchanged in all languages, and particularly in Hebrew.

And Miriam died there] Miriam was certainly older than Moses. When he was an infant, exposed on the river Nile, she was intrusted by her parents to watch the conduct of Pharaoh's daughter, and to manage a most delicate business, that required much address and prudence. See Exodus 2:1. It is supposed that she was at the time of her death one hundred and thirty years of age, having been at least ten years old at her brother's birth. The Catholic writers represent her as a type of the Virgin Mary; as having preserved a perpetual virginity; as being legislatrix over the Israelitish women, as Moses was over the men; and as having a large portion of the spirit of prophecy. Eusebius says that her tomb was to be seen at Kadesh, near the city of Petra, in his time. She appears to have died about four months before her brother Aaron, Numbers 33:38, and eleven before her brother Moses; so that these three, the most eminent of human beings, died in the space of one year!