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Numbers 20:14
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12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because ayou did not believe Me, to bhallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”  
13 aThis was the water of1 Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the Lord, and He was hallowed among them.  

Passage Through Edom Refused

14 aNow Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of bEdom. c“Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardship that has befallen us,  
15 ahow our fathers went down to Egypt, band we dwelt in Egypt a long time, cand the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers.  
16 aWhen we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and bsent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt; now here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border.  
17 Please alet us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the King’s Highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.’ ”  
18 Then aEdom said to him, “You shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you with the sword.”  
19 So the children of Israel said to him, “We will go by the Highway, and if I or my livestock drink any of your water, athen I will pay for it; let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.”  
20 Then he said, a“You shall not pass through.” So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand.  
21 Thus Edom arefused to give Israel passage through his territory; so Israel bturned away from him.  
Book Notes:
Barnes' Book Notes



Introduction to Numbers

The title commonly given to this book is evidently suggested by the two numberings of the people recorded in Num. 1 and Num. 26.

The book narrates the history of the Israelites during their sojourn in the wilderness from the completion of the law-giving at Sinai, Leviticus 27:34, to their mustering in the plains of Moab for actual entry into the land of promise.

The incidents are generally given in their chronological order, except in the third part. The five chapters comprised in this part appear to deal with a long period, from which only isolated episodes are given; and of these the dates can only be conjectured.

Between the two dates "the first day of the second month of the second year after they were come out of Egypt" Numbers 1:1, and the death of Aaron Numbers 33:38, intervene no less than 38 years and 3 months (compare Deuteronomy 2:14), the long and dreary period of tarrying in the wilderness until the disobedient generation had wasted away.

From the death of Aaron to the date given in the opening verses of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 1:1-3, occurred a space of exactly six months, in which all the events narrated in the fourth part of the Book of Numbers, from Numbers 20:1 to the end, would seem to have occurred, with the probable exception of the defeat of the king of Arad Numbers 21:1-3.

As regards the authorship and date of composition, the notes of time, the tenor of the contents, no less than the direct assertions of the text itself, lead to the conclusion that Moses is properly spoken of as the writer of the Book of Numbers. It is in substance his work; though many portions of it were probably committed to writing many years before the whole was completed; and the concluding chapters were not written until toward the close of the 40th year after the exodus.

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