Numbers 20:29

_AND WHEN ALL THE CONGREGATION SAW THAT AARON WAS DEAD, THEY MOURNED FOR AARON THIRTY DAYS, EVEN ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL._ When all the congregation saw. Moses and Eleazar were the sole witnesses of his departure. According to the established law, the new high priest could not have been present at the funeral of his father without contracting ceremonial defilement (Leviticus 21:11). But that law was dispensed with in the extraordinary circumstances: the people learned the event not only from the recital of the two witnesses, but from their visible signs of grief and change; and this event betokened the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 7:12). MOURNED ... THIRTY DAYS - the usual period of public and solemn mourning (see the note at...

29._And when all the congregation saw. _This has been an error common to almost all nations and ages, but which reigned peculiarly amongst the people of Israel — to pay due honor to God’s holy servants, rather after their deaths than in their lives. They had frequently wished to stone Aaron; they had raised great tumults, in order to cast him down from the dignity in which God had placed him; now, forgetting their malignity and envy, they lament for him when dead. The question, however, occurs, whether the mourning for a month, which is here recorded, was praiseworthy or not? But it could not be otherwise than improper, inasmuch as it was a means of aggravating their grief; for men are naturally only too much inclined to excessive grief, even although they do not indulge it; and besides, the hope of a better life avails to mitigate sorrow. Hence we infer, that those are endued with scarc...

22-29 God bids Aaron prepare to die. There is something of displeasure in these orders. Aaron must not enter Canaan, because he had failed in his duty at the waters of strife. There is much of mercy in them. Aaron, though he dies for his transgression, dies with ease, and in honour. He is gathered to his people, as one who dies in the arms of Divine grace. There is much significancy in these orders. Aaron must not enter Canaan, to show that the Levitical priesthood could make nothing perfect; that must be done by bringing in a better hope. Aaron submits, and dies in the method and manner appointed; and, for aught that appears, with as much cheerfulness as if he had been going to bed. It was a great satisfaction to Aaron to see his son, who was dear to him, preferred; and his office preserved and secured: especially, to see in this a figure of Christ's everlasting priesthood. A good man...

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 WHEN ALL THE CONGREGATION SAW THAT AARON WAS DEAD,.... Not that they saw his dead body, but they perceived by the relation of Moses, and by various circumstances, as not seeing Aaron come down, whom they saw go up, and seeing Eleazar with Aaron's garments on him, and perhaps by tokens of mourning in Moses and Eleazar; so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem say, they saw them come down from the top of the mountain, with their garments rent, and ashes on their heads, weeping and lamenting: THEY MOURNED FOR AARON THIRTY DAYS; the whole month out; so long public mourning with the Jews lasted, as Josephus m relates: [EVEN] ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL; men and women, as the Targum of Jonathan, and so Jarchi: no doubt it was for the amiable virtues and abundant grace that were in him, and the many services he had done for them, both before and since he was invested with the priestly office;...

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

THE DEATH OF AARON (P).- Mt. Hor, the scene of Aaron's death, has been identified by some with Jebel Maduran, an isolated hill not far from the S. end of the Dead Sea, which must have been near to the NW. frontier of Edom. If the identification is correct, P must have believed that Israel crossed, instead of compassing, Edom. Others identify it with Jebel Haroun, near Petra. According to Deuteronomy 10:6, Aaron's death took place at Moserah (the Moseroth of Numbers 33:30). The date of it is definitely assigned in Numbers 33:38 to the fortieth year after the Exodus....

SAW. Hebrew. _ra'ah,_ to perceive, understand. Compare Genesis 16:13; Genesis 42:1.Exodus 20:18. DEAD. The death of Aaron coincides with the end of the wanderings. THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. See note on Exodus 16:31. one of the thirteen occurrences of the expression before the division of the two kingdoms; and compare note on 1 Kings 12:17....

_The death of Aaron_....

THEY MOURNED FOR AARON THIRTY DAYS— For such was the usual time of mourning for great persons: they mourned so long for Moses. Deuteronomy 34:8. Hence, probably, arose the custom among the Greeks, which Plutarch mentions: when any one lost an intimate friend, he offered a sacrifice to Apollo; and thirty days after he offered another to Mercury, who was thought to receive the soul of the departed as the earth received his body....