Numbers 20:18

_AND EDOM SAID UNTO HIM, THOU SHALT NOT PASS BY ME, LEST I COME OUT AGAINST THEE WITH THE SWORD._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

14-21 The nearest way to Canaan from the place where Israel encamped, was through the country of Edom. The ambassadors who were sent returned with a denial. The Edomites feared to receive damage by the Israelites. And had this numerous army been under any other discipline than that of the righteous God himself, there might have been cause for this jealousy. But Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing; and now the hatred revived, when the blessing was about to be inherited. We must not think it strange, if reasonable requests be denied by unreasonable men, and if those whom God favours be affronted by men....

EXPOSITION THE LAST MARCH: FROM KADESH TO HOR (Numbers 20:1). NUMBERS 20:1 THEN CAME THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, EVEN THE WHOLE CONGREGATION. The latter words are emphatic here and in Numbers 20:22, and seem intended to mark the period of reassembly after the dispersion of nearly thirty eight years. Probably a portion of the tribes had visited Kadesh many times during those years, and perhaps it had never been wholly abandoned. INTO THE DESERT OF ZIN, _i.e; _if the western site be maintained for Kadesh, the Wady Murreh. See th

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....

10. AT KADESH IN THE FORTIETH YEAR: MURMURING AND CONQUEST CHAPTER 20 _ 1. The death of Miriam (Numbers 20:1)_ 2. The murmuring of the people (Numbers 20:2) 3. The divine instruction (Numbers 20:6) 4. Moses' and Aaron's failure (Numbers 20:9) 5. Edom's refusal (Numbers 20:14) 6. The death of Aaron (Numbers 20:23) Between the nineteenth and twentieth chapter lies the unrecorded period of almost 38 years, th

ISRAELS ABORTIVE APPEAL TO EDOM (JE). Israel's desire to cross Edom was due to the wish to attack Canaan on the E. instead of on the S., where they had met with defeat (Numbers 14:45). As Kadesh was W. of Edom, the encompassing of the country (Numbers 21:4) involved a march from Kadesh to the SE. NUMBERS 20:16. BORDER: The term here means territory (_cf. Numbers 22:36_). Numbers 20:19. without. else: better, it is no great matter (of annoyance)....

BY ME. through me. "Me" put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for "my country"....

_Permission to pass through Edom refused_. The Edomites occupied territory to the south of the Dead Sea, westward as far as Kadesh (Numbers 20:16) and southward as far as the eastern arm of the Red Sea (Numbers 21:4). The Israelites having failed long before to enter Canaan from the south, did not attempt it again (see, however, n. on Numbers 21:1-3), but proposed to enter it from the east. And if they could pass straight through Edom, their route would be greatly shortened. Edom's refusal forced them to work round the south of the hostile country, and then northwards along its eastern border....

C. PASSAGE REFUSED THROUGH EDOM vv. 14-21 TEXT Numbers 20:14. And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us: 15. How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers: 16. And when we cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border. 17. Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king's high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders. 18. And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with th

DEATH OF MIRIAM. MURMURING AT MERIBAH. DEATH OF AARON 1. Miriam dies while the people are at Kadesh (see on Numbers 13:21; Numbers 13:26). The first month is the first month of the fortieth year. As the people came to Kadesh in the second year (see Numbers 13:26), they must have remained in the vicinity of Kadesh during the interval, or what is recorded here is a second arrival at the same place: cp. Deuteronomy 2:14. 2-13. Murmuring at Meribah....