🔢WEB · Numbers 20:14
What does Numbers 20:14 mean?
"Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the travail that has happened to us;"
— Numbers 20:14 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank.
Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with Yahweh, and he was sanctified in them.
Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the travail that has happened to us;
how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers.
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.
“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.”
Explanation
Numbers 20:14 records the beginning of a diplomatic message that Moses sent from the wilderness encampment at Kadesh to the king of Edom. In plain language, Moses is dispatching official messengers to make a formal request, and he opens the message by identifying Israel as Edom's "brother," then reminding the king that he is already aware of the hardships Israel has endured. This verse sets up the request that follows in the next few verses, where Moses asks permission for Israel to pass through Edomite territory on their way toward the Promised Land.
The context is the final stage of Israel's forty years of wilderness wandering. The nation has arrived at Kadesh, on the border of Edom, and needs to cross that land to continue their journey. Moses, as Israel's leader, follows the customary diplomatic practice of the ancient Near East by sending messengers ahead with a formal appeal rather than simply marching through uninvited. The reference to Edom as "brother" is not sentimental language but a historical and covenantal fact: Edom descended from Esau, the twin brother of Jacob (Israel), as recorded in Genesis 25 and 36. By invoking this kinship, Moses appeals to a real family bond that should have obligated Edom to show hospitality and cooperation toward their relatives.
Theologically, this verse highlights the continuing significance of family lines and covenant relationships established generations earlier. God had made promises to both Jacob and Esau's descendants, and the memory of that shared ancestry still mattered enough to be invoked in a formal request
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