Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Miriam dies. Secondly, verse 3, the people murmur on account of thirst: hence Moses and Aaron, provoked at the waters of Contradiction, offend God, and therefore are barred from entering the promised land. Thirdly, verse 14, Moses asks the king of Edom for passage; he refuses. Fourthly, verse 22, Aaron dies on Mount Hor.
Vulgate Text: Numbers 20:1-30
1. And the children of Israel and the whole multitude came into the desert of Sin, in the first month; and the people abode in Kadesh. And Miriam died there, and was buried in the same place. 2. And when the people wanted water, they came together against Moses and Aaron; 3. and turning to sedition, they said: Would that we had perished among our brethren before the Lord! 4. Why have you brought forth the assembly of the Lord into the wilderness, that both we and our cattle should die? 5. Why did you make us come up out of Egypt, and have brought us into this most wretched place, which cannot be sown, which produces neither fig trees, nor vines, nor pomegranates, and moreover has no water to drink? 6. And Moses and Aaron, having dismissed the multitude, went into the tabernacle of the covenant, and fell prostrate upon the ground, and cried to the Lord, and said: O Lord God, hear the cry of this people, and open to them Your treasure, a fountain of living water, that being satisfied, their murmuring may cease. And the glory of the Lord appeared over them. 7. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 8. Take the rod, and gather the people together, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before them, and it shall give waters. And when you shall have brought forth water from the rock, the whole multitude and their cattle shall drink. 9. Moses therefore took the rod, which was before the Lord, as He had commanded him, 10. and having gathered the multitude together before the rock, he said to them: Hear, you rebels and unbelievers: can we bring forth water for you out of this rock? 11. And when Moses had lifted up his hand, striking the rock twice with the rod, there came forth water in great abundance, so that the people and their cattle drank. 12. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Because you did not believe Me, to sanctify Me before the children of Israel, you shall not bring these peoples into the land which I will give them. 13. This is the water of Contradiction, where the children of Israel contended against the Lord, and He was sanctified in them. 14. Meanwhile Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, to say: Thus commands your brother Israel: You know all the labor that has come upon us, 15. how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt there a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers: 16. and how we cried to the Lord, and He heard us, and sent an angel, who brought us out of Egypt. Behold, we are in the city of Kadesh, which is at the uttermost of your borders, 17. we beseech you that we may be allowed to pass through your land. We will not go through the fields, nor through the vineyards, we will not drink waters from your wells, but we will go by the public way, turning neither to the right nor to the left, until we have passed your borders. 18. To whom Edom answered: You shall not pass through me, otherwise I will come out armed against you. 19. And the children of Israel said: We will go by the beaten way; and if we and our cattle drink of your waters, we will give what is just; there shall be no difficulty in the price -- only let us pass through quickly. 20. But he answered: You shall not pass. And immediately he came out to meet them with an infinite multitude and a strong hand, 21. nor would he agree to the petition, to grant passage through his borders: for which reason Israel turned away from him. 22. And when they had moved camp from Kadesh, they came to Mount Hor, which is on the borders of the land of Edom; 23. where the Lord spoke to Moses: 24. Let Aaron, He said, go to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because he was incredulous to My word, at the waters of Contradiction. 25. Take Aaron and his son with him, and you shall lead them onto Mount Hor. 26. And when you shall have stripped the father of his garment, you shall clothe Eleazar his son with it: Aaron shall be gathered and shall die there. 27. Moses did as the Lord had commanded: and they went up onto Mount Hor before the whole multitude. 28. And when he had stripped Aaron of his garments, he clothed Eleazar his son with them. 29. And when Aaron had died on the top of the mountain, he came down with Eleazar. 30. And the whole multitude, seeing that Aaron had died, wept over him for thirty days through all their families.
Verse 1: The Desert of Sin and Kadesh
1. AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL AND THE WHOLE MULTITUDE CAME INTO THE DESERT OF SIN, IN THE FIRST MONTH, AND THE PEOPLE ABODE IN KADESH. -- This desert of Sin is different from the Sin in which manna began to rain, Exodus XVI, 1 and 13. For in that one was the eighth station of the Hebrews, or halting place: but in this one was the thirty-third; hence in Hebrew this Sin is written with tsade, but that one in Exodus is written with samech.
In the first month. -- Understand: of the fortieth year from the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt, as all interpreters commonly explain: for, as Abulensis shrewdly observes, Moses only describes the events of three years in the desert, namely the first two, and this from chapter XII of Exodus up to this point; and the fortieth or last, from this chapter onward. The remaining thirty-seven intervening years he envelops in silence, perhaps because nothing memorable occurred in them. And so since this first month cannot be of the first or second year of the departure from Egypt -- for he has already dealt with those long ago in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers up to this point -- it follows that this first month must be understood of the fortieth year: and this is clearly gathered secondly from Numbers XXXIII, 37 and 38, where the Hebrews are said to have come from Kadesh (which is discussed here) to Mount Hor, where was the thirty-fourth station of the Hebrews, and where Aaron is said to have died, in the fortieth year of the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, in the fifth month. Whence it is plainly and plausibly gathered that the Hebrews came to the preceding station of Kadesh in the same fortieth year, but in the first month, as it says here.
From this chapter, therefore, to the end of the Pentateuch, the events of the fortieth year are described, which was the last of the Hebrews' sojourn in the desert.
Kadesh Distinguished from Kadesh-barnea
AND THE PEOPLE ABODE IN KADESH. -- Abulensis and Andreas Masius on Joshua XV, 3, think this Kadesh is the same as Kadesh-barnea. But I say truly: this Kadesh is different from Kadesh-barnea, near which was the fifteenth station of the Hebrews, as I said at chapter XIII, 1 and 27. For in this Kadesh was the thirty-third station, as is clear from chapter XXXIII, 36. Secondly, the same is taught by the chorographers of the Holy Land, such as Wolfgang, Ziegler, Adrichomius, and others. Thirdly, the same is demonstrated by Torniellus in his Annals, page 346, from the fact that Kadesh-barnea was situated on the southern border of the land of Canaan, as is clear from Numbers XXXIV, 4, and Joshua XV, 3, where it is placed in the lot of the tribe of Judah. But this Kadesh was far from Canaan: for it was situated at the uttermost borders of Edom, on the side facing south, as is clear from Numbers XX, 16, not very far from the Red Sea. For from Ezion-geber, which was at the Red Sea, the Hebrews came to Kadesh, and thence to Mount Hor, which is on the borders of Edom; whence from Kadesh the Hebrews here, verse 20, sent messengers to the king of Edom, to grant them passage through his land; when he refused, the Hebrews were compelled to go by a longer way around and pass through his eastern borders, then through the Moabites and Ammonites, so that finally, having crossed the Jordan, they might enter Canaan from its eastern side. Hence Saint Jerome in his Hebrew Places, and in his letter to Fabiola, On the 42 Stations, at the 33rd: "Kadesh, he says, is a city in the desert, near the city of Arabia which is called Petra. In Kadesh the king of Sodom was defeated with his men by Chedorlaomer, Genesis XIV, 7. There also Miriam, Moses' sister, died; there also Moses and Aaron, because of the waters of Contradiction, offended the Lord, and were forbidden to cross the Jordan." Hence also Kadesh in Hebrew is said by antiphrasis, as if the very opposite of Kadesh, that is, holy, or the holiness of Moses was turned into offense. Kadesh was also called the Fountain of Judgment, Genesis chapter XIV, verse 7, because there the king of Sodom was judged with his men; or by anticipation, because there Moses and Aaron were judged, as is clear from this chapter, verse 12.
The Death of Miriam
AND MIRIAM DIED THERE -- namely in Kadesh, in the first month of the 40th year. Miriam therefore died four months before her brother Aaron; for he died on the first day of the fifth month of the 40th year, as is clear from Numbers XXXIII, 38; and eleven months before Moses: for Moses died at the end of the same 40th year (as will be clear from Deuteronomy, last chapter), which was the year of the world 2493.
Note: Miriam died at the age of about 130; for she was easily a decade older than Moses, as I said at Exodus II, 4 and 7. And Moses, who died in this same year, died at the age of 120, as is clear from Deuteronomy, last chapter, verse 7.
Allegorical Meaning: Prophecy, Priesthood, and the Law
Allegorically, it seems that in Miriam prophecy died, in Aaron and Moses the priesthood and the law of the Jews came to an end: because neither they themselves could cross over to the promised land, nor lead the believing people to it from the wilderness of this world, except Jesus alone, that is, the Savior, the true Son of God, says Saint Jerome above, and from him Rabanus.
Verse 2: The People's Need for Water
AND WHEN THE PEOPLE WANTED WATER. -- There were wells and springs in Kadesh: these seem to have dried up while the Hebrews were staying there, and therefore the Jews, suffering from thirst, murmured against Moses.
The Hebrews hand down, and specifically Rabbi Solomon, that on account of Miriam God had given the Jews a well of water that preceded them wherever they camped: on account of Moses He had given them manna: on account of Aaron, the pillar of cloud; hence when these died, those things ceased: hence also the Hebrews were attacked by Arad the king, in the following chapter, because Arad, seeing that after Miriam's death the well had been withdrawn from the Hebrews, thought they had been abandoned by God, and therefore could easily be conquered and destroyed.
But these are fables: for it is certain that neither the pillar of cloud nor the manna ceased at the death of Aaron or Moses; but long after, when the Hebrews had already entered Canaan and had tasted of the produce of the land, as is clear from Joshua chapter V, verse 12.
Verse 3: The Ingratitude of the People
3. WOULD THAT WE HAD PERISHED AMONG OUR BRETHREN BEFORE THE LORD! -- In Hebrew, would that we had expired with our brethren in the desert, and that "before the Lord," residing and presiding in the pillar of cloud and in the tabernacle! For the Lord condemned us to death, on account of the murmuring of the spies, in chapter XIV, verse 19.
See here again the ingratitude of the people, and the great charity of Moses struggling against it and overcoming it. Laertius narrates, book IV, chapter 1, that Antisthenes, when he heard Plato speaking ill of him, said: "It is kingly, when you have done good, to hear evil." For it is the mark of a lofty spirit not to be deterred from the zeal of benefiting all by the ingratitude of men.
Diogenes, when asked, "What among men grows old fastest?" replied: "A kindness."
Plato called Aristotle a mule: because a mule, when sated with its mother's milk, kicks its mother. Plato was therefore signifying the ingratitude of Aristotle, who, educated by him, had opened a school in the Peripatos and was carping at his ideas and doctrines. So Aelian, book IV.
When Aristotle was asked, "Why he had left Athens," he replied: "Lest the Athenians sin twice against Philosophy," cryptically reproaching the death of Socrates, and his own danger as well. So Aelian, book VI.
Demosthenes, while fleeing and repeatedly looking back at the citadel of Pallas, with hands raised said: "O Pallas, mistress of affairs, why do you delight in three most ill-omened beasts -- the owl, the dragon, and the people?" For the owl is sacred to Pallas; she also has the dragon as her emblem; and the people is a beast of many heads, accustomed to repay with the worst gratitude those who have served them best, such as Socrates, Phocion, Scipio, etc. So Plutarch.
Epaminondas, accused of having held command four months beyond the time allotted to him, compelled by necessity, said to a puppy fawning on him: "This one repays me with gratitude for a kindness, but the Thebans, for whom I have often and greatly rendered illustrious service, have decreed the penalty of death against me by their judgment." So Aelian, book XIII.
Pompey said to Marcellinus, whom he had promoted, but who had become hostile and was hurling insults: "Are you not ashamed, Marcellinus, to insult me, who made you speak when you were mute, and vomit when you were starving?" So Plutarch in the Apophthegms.
Alfonso, King of Aragon, when he was reproached for having conferred such great benefits on Alvaro de Luna, a man utterly ungrateful to him, who was not even mindful of them: "Do you not know," he said, "that a great benefit can never be adequately repaid except by great ingratitude?" The same king said: "I prefer to save many by my clemency and gentleness, than to destroy a few by my severity." Witness is Panormitanus in his Life.
Verse 6: Moses and Aaron Enter the Tabernacle
6. AND MOSES AND AARON, HAVING DISMISSED THE MULTITUDE, ENTERED THE TABERNACLE OF THE COVENANT -- to consult the Lord.
Morally, Saint Gregory, XXIII Moralia, XXI: "To leave the crowds and return to the tabernacle, and setting aside the tumults of external things, to enter the secret of the mind: for there the Lord is consulted, and what must be done publicly outside is silently heard within; good Rulers do this daily: when they recognize that they cannot discern doubtful matters, they return to the secret of the mind, as to a kind of tabernacle, and having pondered the divine law, they consult the Lord as if before the ark placed before them, and what they first hear in silence within, they afterward make known by acting outwardly."
The Prayer of Moses
O LORD GOD, HEAR THE CRY. -- This prayer of Moses is no longer found in the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint; either it fell out of them, or certainly our translator supplied it paraphrastically. For it is certain that Moses, praying, prayed no other things than these very things, namely that God would give water to the people murmuring from thirst. So Abulensis. In like manner "Let us go out," Genesis IV, 8, is no longer found in the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Greek.
The Fountain of Living Water
OPEN TO THEM YOUR TREASURE, A FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATER. -- Living water is called that which springs up, or which flows, just as the Dead Sea is stagnant. He calls such a fountain a treasure, because things that are hidden, and not yet discovered, are said to be in the treasuries of God: hence that passage in Psalm XXXIII, 7: "He places the abysses in His treasuries;" and Psalm CXXXIV, 7: "He brings forth winds from His treasuries;" and Deuteronomy XXVIII, 12: "The Lord will open His best treasury, the heavens, to give rain;" and chapter XXXIII, verse 19: "They shall suck the abundance of the sea as milk, and the hidden treasures of the sand."
THAT BEING SATISFIED -- namely, when they shall have been satisfied.
AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD APPEARED -- namely the splendor of the pillar of cloud, sending forth new and unusual rays, of the pillar, I say, resting upon the tabernacle.
Verse 8: Speak to the Rock
8. SPEAK TO THE ROCK -- what? It is probable that it was this: "Rock, in the name of the Lord God, give waters."
Verse 9: The Rod before the Lord
9. MOSES THEREFORE TOOK THE ROD, WHICH WAS BEFORE THE LORD -- which had been placed in the tabernacle. This rod was that of Moses, worker of so many wonders, not that of Aaron which had budded: for the latter was only a sign of the priesthood assigned to Aaron, and for testimony of this had been placed beside the ark of the covenant: so some say. But since it is established that Aaron's rod was placed in the tabernacle, while it is unknown what became of Moses' rod, hence we shall more certainly understand here the rod of Aaron, not of Moses.
Verse 11: Moses Strikes the Rock Twice
11. AND WHEN MOSES HAD LIFTED UP HIS HAND, STRIKING THE ROCK TWICE WITH THE ROD, THERE CAME FORTH WATER IN GREAT ABUNDANCE. -- This rock and this striking are different from those of Exodus XVII, 6. For that one was at Rephidim, near Sinai, in the second year; but this one occurred at Kadesh in the fortieth year. Again, God here by Himself alone supernaturally produced waters from the rock, converting the nearby air into water; but at Rephidim He drew out an underground vein of water into the stone struck by Moses, which, splitting the stone, gushed forth from it, and that continuously and without ceasing. For cosmographers hand down that at Rephidim this fountain of the rock struck by Moses endures, and waters continue to spring forth, says Abulensis. So Theodosius the Abbot, after first praying, striking a rock with a staff, drew from it a fountain of perennial water, which through aqueducts irrigated the neighboring monastery, built by him in an arid place. This fountain later dried up when a bath was built in the monastery; but when the bath was destroyed, it began to flow again. For God, just as He does not fail His own in necessities, so He does not overflow in superfluities; witness is Theodoret in the Philotheus, chapter X.
Allegorical Meaning: Christ on the Cross
Allegorically, the rock is Christ, 1 Corinthians X, 5; the water is spiritual grace flowing from Christ; the rod is the cross of Christ; it is struck twice, because two crossed pieces of wood form the cross. Moses bears the type of the Jews: just as Moses, striking the rock with the rod, doubted God's power: so that people, which was held under the law given through Moses, nailing Christ to the wood of the cross, did not believe that He was the power of God; but just as from the struck rock water flowed for the thirsty, and God was sanctified through it: so through the wound of the Lord's passion, life was effected for believers; the cross therefore brings forth water, of contradiction for the unbelieving, of sanctification for the believing, says Saint Augustine here, Question XXXV, and book XVI Against Faustus, chapter XV, and Rupert.
Verse 12: The Sin of Moses and Aaron
12. BECAUSE YOU DID NOT BELIEVE ME, TO SANCTIFY ME BEFORE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, YOU SHALL NOT BRING THESE PEOPLES INTO THE LAND WHICH I WILL GIVE THEM.
Five Opinions on Moses' Sin
You will ask, what was this unbelief or sin of Moses? First, some respond that it was that he struck the rock twice, when he should have struck only once.
Secondly, others say that, at the people's request, he struck a different rock from the one the Lord had designated; and that this is what Moses means when he says: "Can we bring forth water for you out of this rock (which you, O Hebrews, designate, not the Lord)?" So the Rabbis.
Thirdly, others say that he spoke not to the rock, as the Lord had commanded, but to the people, rebuking and exasperating them, calling them unbelieving and rebellious: whence the people, provoked, even though they saw the miracle of the waters, nevertheless did not sanctify the Lord, by praising Him and giving Him thanks. So Abulensis, Theodoret, Oleaster, Lyranus, and this opinion is quite probable. For it is hard and difficult to believe that Moses doubted God's power, since he had experienced it so many times in so many wonders.
Fourthly, others say that, being more agitated and angry at the murmuring people, he expressed himself ambiguously by asking: "Can we?" etc., which he should have expressed absolutely and affirmatively, saying: "Rock, give waters;" and this is what is said of Moses in Psalm CV, verse 34: "He divided with his lips," that is, he uttered the words of God differently from how they should have been uttered.
Fifthly and most genuinely, the sin of Moses was that he, now clearly aging (for the elderly are easily provoked to bile, impatience, distrust, and pusillanimity), being both irritated and dejected, and disturbed by the new and unwonted murmuring of the people (for from the second year up to the fortieth year, when these things occurred, we read of no murmuring of the people), struck the rock doubtingly: not that he doubted God's power, or His faithfulness to himself: for he, from zeal for the faith, here rebukes the people's unbelief, and in much greater wonders performed by him, and indeed in the similar striking of the rock at Rephidim, he had believed God, Exodus XVII, 6; but because he judged the people, so rebellious and so provoking God, to be unworthy of this miracle, and therefore doubted whether God would do it, and whether He had truly promised it, or only through irony and sarcasm, or conditionally, if the Hebrews should cease murmuring and believe that God would give waters from the rock. But now, seeing them unbelieving, he strikes the rock doubtingly, as though it were impossible or improbable that water should come forth from the rock for such unbelievers. For this doubt is clearly signified by the words of Moses: "Hear, you rebels and unbelievers: can we bring forth water for you from this rock?"
What could be clearer? But God had promised, not ironically, nor conditionally, but truly and absolutely, that He would bring forth water from the rock, by which both the Hebrews and their cattle might quench their thirst. Again, the same is clearly signified by the words of God to Moses and Aaron in verses 12 and 24: "Because you did not believe Me." They sinned therefore by some unbelief, doubt, and distrust regarding the water promised by God. So Saint Augustine, Question XIX, Rabanus, Rupert, Cajetan, and others.
Why God Permitted Moses' Fall
God permitted this fall of Moses so that at such a height of honor and virtues he might remember that he was a man, that is, fallible and weak, not an angel, not God. For "to remember all things and to err in nothing at all is the mark of divinity rather than of mortality," says the Emperor Justinian. And so that by his example the Saints, who have served God most diligently, especially Prelates, might humble themselves, fearing and saying to themselves: Let him who stands see that he does not fall; so that with fear and trembling they may continue to work out their salvation, as those who are uncertain of perseverance, even on the very last day of their life. In old age fell Solomon, the wisest of mortals, Origen, Tertullian, Lucifer of Cagliari; and what great men they were! Let us therefore pray unceasingly: "When my strength shall fail, even unto old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me." This lamentable fall of Moses at the end of his life teaches us this; which, even though it was not a mortal sin, yet it excluded him from the holy land so greatly desired. For death was imposed on him not so much by a sentence of God, as by the necessity of nature failing and declining: for he was already in the 120th year of his age. The same I say of Aaron his brother: for he was three years older than Moses. Both therefore had to die soon; but God arranged that both should die before the now imminent entry into the holy land, because He had excluded both by His sentence.
Secondly, God permitted this fall of Moses for the allegorical cause and signification, which was that God had destined in His mind Joshua as the successor of Moses, so that he, as a type of Jesus Christ, might lead the people into the promised land.
Allegorically, therefore, Moses bears the figure of the law, Joshua of Christ; and so just as Moses led the people out of Egypt, while Joshua led the same into Canaan: so the law frees believers from impiety, but evangelical grace leads them into the kingdom of heaven. So Theodoret, Question XLIII on Deuteronomy, and Saint Augustine here, Question LIII, who says: "When it is said to both brothers, Moses and Aaron, that they shall be gathered to their people, it is clear that they were not in the wrath of God, which separates from the peace of eternal fellowship. Whence it is made manifest that not only their offices, but also their deaths, were signs of future things, not punishments of God's indignation." Where Saint Augustine clearly signifies that this sin of Moses was light and venial, and therefore that death was for him not so much a punishment as a correction, which was rather a sign and signification of a future thing, already mentioned: and this is altogether most probable.
To Sanctify Me before Israel
TO SANCTIFY ME BEFORE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL -- that you might show them that I am holy, omnipotent, truthful, and most merciful, who bestow even upon the impious and ungrateful those things (as you can and ought to remember that I have done more often heretofore) which I have promised, namely water from the rock.
Note: The faithful who in perplexing and difficult matters hope in God, and with Abraham believe against hope unto hope, these sanctify God; for God wills that great things be hoped for from Him: hence He says in Wisdom chapter I: "Think of the Lord in goodness."
Exclusion from the Promised Land
YOU SHALL NOT BRING THESE PEOPLES INTO THE LAND WHICH I WILL GIVE THEM -- namely into Canaan itself, beyond the Jordan: for otherwise Moses did enter the promised land situated on this side of the Jordan, namely into the kingdoms of Og and Sihon, and he gave them to the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh; but he did not cross the Jordan into Canaan, to the land promised to all the other tribes, whose boundaries are described in Numbers 34. So Abulensis, Question XLVIII, and Saint Augustine. This was a notable punishment and mortification of Moses, that he could not see the promised land flowing with milk and honey, so greatly desired, and that he was frustrated of the end and fruit of his very long and very burdensome leadership. So God mortified Saint Xavier and other Saints in death itself, so that they might learn to die fully to the world and to themselves, and to live for God, and so that they might have this as the purgatory of their light faults, by which being purified they might soon fly to heaven.
Verse 13: The Water of Contradiction
13. THIS IS THE WATER OF CONTRADICTION -- of dispute and contention (for the Hebrew meriba signifies all these things), where they contradicted and murmured.
WHERE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL CONTENDED AGAINST THE LORD, AND HE WAS SANCTIFIED IN THEM -- that is, He was declared holy, truthful, faithful, merciful, and generous, by giving them, though unbelieving and rebellious, a drink of water, and thus overcoming and confounding their unbelief. So those imitate the holiness of God who love their enemies and overcome evil with good.
Verse 14: Messengers to the King of Edom
14. MEANWHILE MOSES SENT MESSENGERS FROM KADESH TO THE KING OF EDOM (for Kadesh was near Edom, through which the Hebrews had to pass if going straight to Canaan) TO SAY: THUS COMMANDS (thus he gave us in command to say to you. Whence the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint have: Thus says) YOUR BROTHER ISRAEL -- your brother Jacob, namely the Jacobites, or the descendants of Jacob, who are your brothers: for their ancestor Jacob was the brother of Esau, who was your ancestor and that of all the Edomites.
Verse 16: The Angel and the City of Kadesh
16. AND SENT AN ANGEL -- our leader, going before us in the pillar of cloud.
BEHOLD, WE ARE STATIONED IN THE CITY OF KADESH. -- "In," that is, near: for it is not likely that the Hebrews entered cities in the desert; for the inhabitants, fearing the Hebrews, would not have permitted it: nor would the cities have been able to accommodate such a great multitude of people. So Abulensis.
Verse 17: We Will Not Drink from Your Wells
17. WE WILL NOT DRINK WATERS FROM YOUR WELLS -- that is, for free and without price, but we will buy them with money, as is said in verse 19. For in those deserts there is great aridity and scarcity of water: hence lest the Edomites fear for their waters located outside the cities, which they needed for their own and their cattle's thirst, the Hebrews promise that they will not drink their waters except with their consent and upon payment.
Verse 18: Edom's Refusal
18. TO WHOM THE KING OF EDOM ANSWERED: YOU SHALL NOT PASS THROUGH ME -- through my territory.
20. AND IMMEDIATELY HE CAME OUT TO MEET THEM WITH AN INFINITE MULTITUDE (in Hebrew, with a heavy people, that is, dense, numerous, and very great, which we commonly call infinite) AND A STRONG HAND -- a great force of soldiers.
Verse 21: Israel Turns Away from Edom
21. THEREFORE ISRAEL TURNED AWAY FROM HIM -- that is, so that reversing their course they went around Edom to its eastern side, and consequently had to pass through some part of Edom necessarily, in order to come to Moab and Ammon, and thence to Canaan. For this is what is said in Deuteronomy II, 4 and 8: "And when we had passed by our brethren, the children of Esau."
Verses 22-24: Mount Hor and Aaron's Death Foretold
22, 23, and 24. AND WHEN THEY HAD MOVED CAMP FROM KADESH, THEY CAME TO MOUNT HOR, WHERE THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSES: LET AARON GO TO HIS PEOPLE -- that is to say: Let Aaron die, and pass to his just fathers in Limbo, and be gathered to them: for this is what that phrase signifies, to go or to be gathered to his people, and therefore it is said almost exclusively of the just.
Verse 26: The Investiture of Eleazar
26. AND WHEN YOU SHALL HAVE STRIPPED THE FATHER OF HIS GARMENT. -- Hence it is clear that Aaron had put on the pontifical vestments in the camp, and from there went out thus clothed to Mount Hor, so that he might die with dignity and glory, and so that on the mountain Moses might strip him of these vestments and clothe Eleazar, the firstborn son of Aaron, with them, as indeed he did; and thus by this rite of investiture alone, without any other anointing or consecration, he consecrated Eleazar as high priest and successor of his father on this mountain. So Abulensis.
This was done contrary to the law and custom. For first, while the father was living, a son in the old law could not become high priest. For the high priesthood among the Jews was hereditary and perpetual, so that not even the parents themselves could resign it to their sons, as long as they could discharge the office. Secondly, Eleazar was consecrated high priest outside the tabernacle and the camp, and by the sole investiture of the pontifical vestments. But Eleazar, as the firstborn, was obliged to accept the high priesthood, and could not reject it in favor of his brother Ithamar, because God had commanded that firstborn sons should succeed their father in the high priesthood, and should take it up, and should serve in it, unless they had a blemish, of which Leviticus XXI, 17 speaks.
Verse 29: The Death of Aaron
29. AND WHEN HE HAD DIED ON THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN. -- Aaron died in the fortieth year after the departure from Egypt, at the age of 123, in the fifth month, as is said in Numbers XXXIII, 38, and this outside the camp, as also Moses, lest the Hebrews, prone to idolatry, should worship them and their bodies as deities; and on Mount Hor, that is, on the mountain of the mountain, so that a place worthy of his merits might be shown, says Saint Jerome to Fabiola, On the 42 Stations, at the 34th: for Aaron in Hebrew means the same as "mountaineer," who rightly dies on a mountain, because like a mountain he surpassed the rest, both in office and in virtue.
Aaron's Three Privileges in Death
Hence it is clear that Aaron had these three privileges in death: first, that he died without any preceding wound, illness, or weariness of life, but in full health (for he climbed Mount Hor healthy and strong), as if he were taken from this life while sleeping. Second, that he saw his son Eleazar succeed him, and be clothed with the pontifical vestments, and thus be consecrated as high priest. Third, that he expired in the presence and, as it were, in the arms of his dearest brother Moses and his son Eleazar, and they themselves closed his eyes; nor did Moses and Eleazar, attending Aaron as he died, contract legal uncleanness therefrom, because God, by the very fact that He commanded them to attend the dying man, dispensed them from this law and legal uncleanness. So Abulensis.
Rabbi Solomon adds a fourth point, which anyone may believe who wishes, that these three, namely Moses, Aaron, and Eleazar, ascending Mount Hor, found a cave, and a bed prepared, and a lamp burning, as is customary to be arranged for the dying, and from this Moses recognized that this place had been prepared by God for the repose of Aaron. Having been stripped of the vestments, therefore, and Eleazar having been clothed, Aaron lay down on the bed, and with eyes closed was received by the Lord in peace: and Moses, seeing such a peaceful death, desired a similar one, which was also promised to him in chapter XXVII, 13, and Deuteronomy XXXII, 50.
Verse 30: Thirty Days of Mourning
30. AND THE WHOLE MULTITUDE, SEEING THAT AARON HAD DIED, WEPT OVER HIM FOR THIRTY DAYS. -- So also they wept for Moses when he died for thirty days, Deuteronomy, last chapter, and Joseph with his men mourned the death of his father Jacob for 30 days.
You will say: Genesis L, 3, says that Joseph mourned him for 70 days. I respond: Of these 70 days, the first 40 pertained to embalming the body with spices, according to the custom of the Egyptians, as is clear from the same passage, verse 3; but the last thirty were properly the mourning. From this thirty-day period, therefore, the Church received the custom of observing tricennials for the dead, that is, a memorial of thirty days, prayers, and alms. So Abulensis.