Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter 20. Synopsis of the Chapter
Mary dies. Secondly, verse 3, the people murmur on account of thirst; hence Moses and Aaron, provoked at the waters of Contradiction, offend God, and are therefore kept from entering the promised land. Thirdly, verse 14, Moses asks passage from the king of Edom; he refuses. Fourthly, verse 22, Aaron dies on Mount Hor.
1. And the children of Israel and the whole multitude came into the desert of Sin, in the first month, and the people abode in Cades. And Maria died there, and was buried in the same place. 2. And the people wanting water, they came together against Moses and Aaron: 3. And being turned to sedition, they said: Would God we had perished among our brethren before the Lord! 4. Why have you brought out the church of the Lord into the wilderness, that both we and our cattle should die? 5. Why did you make us come up out of Egypt, and have brought us into this wretched place, which cannot be sowed, nor bringeth forth figs, nor vines, nor pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink? 6. And Moses and Aaron leaving the multitude went into the tabernacle of the covenant, and fell flat on the ground, and cried to the Lord, and said: O Lord God, hear the cry of this people, and open to them thy treasure, a fountain of living water, that being satisfied, they may cease to murmur. And the glory of the Lord appeared over them. 7. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 8. Take the rod, and assemble the people together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak to the rock before them, and it shall yield waters. And when thou hast brought forth water out of the rock, all the multitude and their cattle shall drink. 9. Moses therefore took the rod, which was before the Lord, as he had commanded him, 10. And having gathered together the multitude before the rock, he said to them: Hear, ye rebellious and incredulous: Can we bring you forth water out of this rock? 11. And when Moses had lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with the rod, there came forth water in great abundance, so that the people and their cattle drank. 12. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Because you have not believed me, to sanctify me before the children of Israel, you shall not bring these people into the land which I will give them. 13. This is the water of contradiction, where the children of Israel strove with words against the Lord, and he was sanctified in them. 14. In the meantime Moses sent messengers from Cades to the king of Edom, to say: Thus saith thy brother Israel: Thou knowest all the labour that hath befallen us, 15. How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt there a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers: 16. And how we cried to the Lord, and he heard us, and sent an angel who hath brought us out of Egypt. Behold we are in the city of Cades, which is in the uttermost of thy borders, 17. And we beseech thee that we may have leave to pass through thy country. We will not go through the fields, nor through the vineyards, we will not drink the waters of thy wells, but we will go by the common highway, not turning aside either to the right hand or to the left, till we are past thy borders. 18. And Edom answered him: Thou shalt not pass through my country, or I will come out armed against thee. 19. And the children of Israel said: We will go by the beaten way; and if we drink thy waters, we and our cattle, we will give thee what is just: there shall be no difficulty in the price, only let us pass quickly. 20. But he answered: Thou shalt not pass. And immediately he came forth to meet them with an exceeding great multitude, and a strong hand, 21. Neither would he hearken to them, desiring to pass through his borders: wherefore Israel turned away from him. 22. And when they had removed the camp from Cades, they came to mount Hor, which is in the borders of the land of Edom: 23. Where the Lord said to Moses: 24. Let Aaron go to his people: for he shall not enter into the land which I gave to the children of Israel, because he was incredulous to my words, at the waters of contradiction. 25. Take Aaron and his son with him, and bring them up into mount Hor. 26. And when thou hast stripped the father of his vestment, thou shalt put it upon Eleazar his son: Aaron shall be gathered to his fathers, and die there. 27. Moses did as the Lord had commanded: and they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the multitude. 28. And when he had stripped Aaron of his vestments, he clothed Eleazar his son with them. 29. And Aaron being dead on the top of the mountain, he came down with Eleazar. 30. And all the multitude seeing that Aaron was dead, mourned for him thirty days by all their families.
Verses 1–4.—AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL AND THE WHOLE MULTITUDE CAME INTO THE DESERT OF SIN, IN THE FIRST MONTH, AND THE PEOPLE ABODE IN CADES.—This desert of Sin is different from the Sin in which manna began to rain, Exodus 16:4 and 15. For in that it was the eighth station or encampment of the Hebrews; in this it was the thirty-third; whence in the Hebrew this Sin is written with tsade, that one in Exodus with samech.
IN THE FIRST MONTH.—Understand, of the fortieth year from the departure of the Hebrews out of Egypt, as all interpreters commonly explain; for, as Abulensis shrewdly observes, Moses describes only the deeds of three years in the desert, namely of the first two, and that from Exodus chapter 12 up to this point; and of the fortieth or last year, from this chapter onward and in Deuteronomy. The remaining thirty-seven years between he wraps in silence, perhaps because nothing memorable happened in them. Since, therefore, this first month cannot be of the first or second year of the departure from Egypt (for of those he has long since treated in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers up to this point), it follows that this first month must be taken of the fortieth year; and this is plainly gathered, secondly, from Numbers 33:37 and 38, where the Hebrews are said to have come from Cades (of which he treats here) to mount Hor, where was the thirty-fourth encampment of the Hebrews, and there Aaron is said to have died, in the fortieth year of the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the fifth month. Whence it is quite probably gathered that in the same fortieth year the Hebrews came to the preceding encampment, Cades, but in the first month, as is said here. From this chapter, therefore, to the end of the Pentateuch, are described the deeds of the fortieth year, which was the last of the wandering of the Hebrews in the desert.
AND THE PEOPLE ABODE IN CADES.—Abulensis and Andreas Masius, on Josue 15:3, think that this Cades is to be identified with Cadesbarne. But I say: this Cades is different from Cadesbarne, near which was the eleventh encampment of the Hebrews, as I said in chapter 12, verses 4 and 27. For in this Cades was the thirty-third encampment, as is plain from chapter 33:36. Secondly, the geographers of the Holy Land teach the same, such as Wolfgang, Ziegler, Adrichomius and others. Thirdly, Tornielli demonstrates the same in his Annals, page 346, from the fact that Cadesbarne stood on the southern border of the land of Chanaan, as is plain from Numbers 34:4 and Josue 15:3, where it is placed in the lot of the tribe of Juda. But this Cades was far from Chanaan: for it was situated on the extreme borders of Idumea, lying toward the south, as is plain from Numbers 20:16, not very far from the Red Sea. For from Asiongaber, which was by the Red Sea, the Hebrews came to Cades, and thence to mount Hor, which is in the borders of Edom; whence here from Cades the Hebrews, verse 14, sent messengers to the king of Edom, to grant them passage through his land; and when he would not grant it, the Hebrews were forced to go around by a longer way and pass by his eastern boundaries, then through the Moabites and Ammonites, that at length, having crossed the Jordan, they might enter Chanaan from its eastern side. Hence St. Jerome in On Hebrew Places says: “It is a city in the desert, near the city Arad, which is called Petra. In Cades the king of Sodom with his people was smitten by Codorlahomor, Genesis 14:1. There also died Maria, the sister of Moses; there Moses and Aaron, because of the waters of Contradiction, offended the Lord, and were forbidden to cross the Jordan.” Whence also Cades is so called in Hebrew by antiphrasis, as though it were by no means Cades, that is, holy, or because it was changed from the holiness of Moses into an offence. Cades was also called the Fountain of Judgment, Genesis chapter 14, verse 7, because there the king of Sodom and his people were judged; or by anticipation, because there Moses and Aaron were judged, as is plain from this chapter.