Add parallel Print Page Options

Chapter 20[a]

Death of Miriam. The Israelites, the whole community, arrived in the wilderness of Zin[b] in the first month, and the people stayed at Kadesh. It was here that Miriam died, and here that she was buried.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 20:1–29 In this chapter the deaths of the three wilderness leaders are either intimated or explicitly reported: Miriam, v. 1; Moses, v. 12; Aaron, vv. 12, 22–29.
  2. 20:1 The wilderness of Zin: a barren region with a few good oases, southwest of the Dead Sea. See note on 13:21. The first month: we would expect the mention also of the day and of the year (after the exodus) when this took place; cf. similar dates in 1:1; 10:11; 33:38; Dt 1:3. Here the full date is left unspecified. According to one chronology, the Israelites arrived in Kadesh in the third year after the exodus (cf. Dt 1:46). But the itinerary in chap. 33 would suggest the fortieth year, the year in which Aaron died (33:38).

Death of Aaron. 22 (A)Setting out from Kadesh, the Israelites, the whole community, came to Mount Hor.[a]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 20:22 Mount Hor: not definitively identified, but probably to be sought in the vicinity of Kadesh. According to Dt 10:6, Aaron died at Moserah (cf. “Moseroth” in Nm 33:30–31), which is apparently the name of the region in which Mount Hor is situated.