NUMBERS 20:1 (JE and P). THE DEATH OF MIRIAM AT KADESH. As the narrative is now arranged, this must be assumed to have occurred at the close of the forty years-' wanderings. Zin, which is identified with Kadesh, was reached, according to P, immediately before the final advance towards Canaan (_cf. N... [ Continue Reading ]
NUMBERS 20:2 (mainly JE). THE LACK OF WATER SUPPLIED BY A MIRACLE. The account of the people's demand for water, and of the means by which it was supplied, seems to be a duplicate of the narrative in Exodus 17:1, for the name _Meribah_ appears in both; but whereas there the scene is Horeb, here it i... [ Continue Reading ]
ISRAELS ABORTIVE APPEAL TO EDOM (JE). Israel's desire to cross Edom was due to the wish to attack Canaan on the E. instead of on the S., where they had met with defeat (Numbers 14:45). As Kadesh was W. of Edom, the encompassing of the country (Numbers 21:4) involved a march from Kadesh to the SE.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DEATH OF AARON (P).- Mt. Hor, the scene of Aaron's death, has been identified by some with Jebel Maduran, an isolated hill not far from the S. end of the Dead Sea, which must have been near to the NW. frontier of Edom. If the identification is correct, P must have believed that Israel crossed, i... [ Continue Reading ]