Numbers 20

¹ The sons of Israel, the whole community, arrived in the first month at the desert of Zin. The people settled at Kadesh. It was there that Miriam died and was buried.

² There was no water for the community, and they were all united against Moses and Aaron.

³ The people challenged Moses: ‘We would rather have died,’ they said ‘as our brothers died before Yahweh!

⁴ Why did you bring the assembly of Yahweh into this wilderness, only to let us die here, ourselves and our cattle?

⁵ Why did you lead us out of Egypt, only to bring us to this wretched place? It is a place unfit for sowing, it has no figs, no vines, no pomegranates, and there is not even water to drink!’

⁶ Leaving the assembly, Moses and Aaron went to the door of the Tent of Meeting. They threw themselves face downward on the ground, and the glory of Yahweh appeared to them.

⁷ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

⁸ ‘Take the branch and call the community together, you and your brother Aaron. Then, in full view of them, order this rock to give water. You will make water flow for them out of the rock, and provide drink for the community and their cattle.’

⁹ Moses took up the branch from before Yahweh, as he had directed him.

¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron called the assembly together in front of the rock and addressed them, ‘Listen now, you rebels. Shall we make water gush from this rock for you?’

¹¹ And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the branch; water gushed in abundance, and the community drank and their cattle too.

¹² Then Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe that I could proclaim my holiness in the eyes of the sons of Israel, you shall not lead this assembly into the land I am giving them’.[*a]

¹³ These are the waters of Meribah, where the sons of Israel challenged Yahweh and he proclaimed his holiness.

¹⁴ Moses sent messengers from Kadesh, ‘To the king of Edom. A message from your brother Israel. You know well enough the extremity to which we have been reduced.

¹⁵ Our ancestors went down into Egypt, and there we stayed for a long time. But the Egyptians treated us badly, as they did our ancestors.

¹⁶ We cried to Yahweh. He listened to us and sent an angel to bring us out of Egypt. Now we are here at Kadesh, a town on the borders of your territory.

¹⁷ We ask permission to pass through your land. We will not cross any fields or vineyards; we will not drink any water from the wells; we will keep to the king’s highway without turning to right or left until we are clear of your frontiers.’

¹⁸ Edom answered, ‘You shall not pass through my country; if you do, I will come out to attack you’.

¹⁹ The answer of the sons of Israel was, ‘We will keep to the high road; if we use any of your water for myself and my cattle, I will pay for it. I am asking only to pass through on foot.’

²⁰ Edom replied, ‘You shall not pass’, and Edom marched out to meet them with many men and in great force.

²¹ At Edom’s refusal to allow Israel a passage through his territory, Israel turned away.

²² They set out from Kadesh, and the whole community of the sons of Israel came to Mount Hor.

²³ Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the frontier of the land of Edom.[*b] He said,

²⁴ ‘Aaron must be gathered to his people: he is not to enter the land that I am giving to the sons of Israel, since you disobeyed my order at the waters of Meribah.

²⁵ Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up Mount Hor.

²⁶ There, strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son, and Aaron will be gathered to his people: he is to die there.’

²⁷ Moses did as Yahweh ordered. In the sight of the whole community they went up Mount Hor.

²⁸ Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came back down the mountain.

²⁹ The whole community saw that Aaron had died, and all the House of Israel wept for Aaron for thirty days.