🔢WEB · Numbers 20:22
What does Numbers 20:22 mean?
"They traveled from Kadesh: and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor."
— Numbers 20:22 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.”
He said, “You shall not pass through.” Edom came out against him with many people, and with a strong hand.
Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border, so Israel turned away from him.
They traveled from Kadesh: and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.
Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying,
“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.
Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor;
Explanation
Numbers 20:22 is a simple narrative statement: the Israelites left Kadesh and traveled as one united body—"the whole congregation"—to Mount Hor. On the surface it is nothing more than a travel notice, the kind of verse that moves the story from one location to another. But even such brief statements serve an important purpose in the biblical narrative, marking the stages of Israel's long journey through the wilderness.
The book of Numbers records the forty years Israel spent wandering after leaving Egypt, before entering the Promised Land. Moses, traditionally understood as the author, recounts the various stops, complaints, victories, and failures of this generation. By chapter 20, the people are near the
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