Edom Refuses, and Aaron Dies
14 Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: “Your brother Israel says: You know all the travail that has happened to us; 15 how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers. 16 When we cried to Yahweh, he heard our voice, sent an angel, and brought us out of Egypt. Behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the edge of your border. 17 “Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard, neither will we drink from the water of the wells. We will go along the king’s highway. We will not turn away to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed your border.” 18 Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you.” 19 The children of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway; and if we drink your water, I and my livestock, then I will give its price. Only let me, without doing anything else, pass through on my feet.” 20 He said, “You shall not pass through.” Edom came out against him with many people, and with a strong hand. 21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border, so Israel turned away from him. 22 They traveled from Kadesh, and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. 23 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying, 24 “Aaron shall be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah. 25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor; 26 and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son. Aaron shall be gathered, and shall die there.” 27 Moses did as Yahweh commanded. They went up onto Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. 28 Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son. Aaron died there on the top of the mountain, and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. 29 When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.
A brother nation refuses passage and Israel turns aside, and Aaron is stripped of his garments on a mountain and dies there.
The message to EDOM opens by claiming kinship: your brother Israel says Numbers 20:14. Edom descends from Esau, and the appeal is to family before anything else.
What follows is a short history and a modest request. They have been badly treated in Egypt, God brought them out, and now they ask to pass along the highway, promising to turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, and to pay for any water they or their animals drink Numbers 20:17 Numbers 20:19.
The answer is a refusal backed by an army Numbers 20:18 Numbers 20:20.
And Israel's response is one clause: Israel turned away from him Numbers 20:21.
They have several hundred thousand fighting men and a promise of the land, and they walk around. The reason is given in Deuteronomy: this territory was not theirs, and God had assigned it to Esau Deuteronomy 2:5. A nation that will shortly destroy two kingdoms takes a long detour rather than touch a border it was told to respect.
Then Mt Hor, and the death of Aaron, and the manner of it is deliberate.
The three of them go up in sight of the whole congregation. Moses strips Aaron of his garments and puts them on Eleazar Numbers 20:28, and Aaron dies on the mountain top.
The office is transferred before the man dies, in public, by his brother. Nothing is left uncertain: the nation watches the high priest go up in his vestments and watches his son come down wearing them. The priesthood does not lapse for a day.
And the reason Aaron is dying there rather than in the land has been given six verses earlier — because you rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah Numbers 20:24. He struck no rock and said nothing, and he shares the sentence with his brother.
The chapter ends with thirty days of national mourning Numbers 20:29. It is the same span given for Moses later, and for nobody else in the Pentateuch.
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