🔢WEB · Numbers 20:15
What does Numbers 20:15 mean?
"how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers."
— Numbers 20:15 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.”
Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you.”
Explanation
This verse comes from a message Moses sent to the king of Edom as Israel traveled toward the Promised Land near the end of the wilderness wanderings. In plain language, the verse is a brief historical reminder: Israel's ancestors ("our fathers") went down into Egypt generations earlier, the people lived there for a long time, and during that time the Egyptians oppressed and mistreated them. It is a summary of the story told in Genesis and Exodus, compressed into a few words as part of a diplomatic appeal.
The context is important. Numbers 20 finds Israel at Kadesh, near the border of Edom, a nation descended from Esau, Jacob's brother. Because Edom and Israel shared ancestry (Edom being "brothers" through Esau and Jacob), Moses sent messengers asking for permission to pass peacefully through Edom's land on the way to Canaan. To make his appeal personal and appeal to their shared kinship, Moses recounted Israel's history: their ancestors had gone to Egypt (referring to Jacob and his sons during Joseph's time), had lived there a long time, and had been mistreated by the Egyptians — a reference to the slavery and oppression described in Exodus 1. This appeal to shared history and suffering was meant to soften Edom's response and secure safe
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