And they removed from Kadesh, and encamped in mount Hor, in the border of the land of Edom.
Numbers 33 is a travel log of every place Israel camped between Egypt and the Jordan. Verse 37 records one of the last stops: the move from Kadesh to Mount Hor, on the border of Edom, the land whose people had barred Israel's way.
The chapter is God retracing the route He had already walked with His people:
You cannot read it without being deeply moved by the tender love and care of God, shown so clearly all through it. Think of Him keeping such a record of the journeys of His poor people! The record runs from the day they marched out of Egypt until they crossed the Jordan. They went from the land of death and darkness to the land flowing with milk and honey. He went before them, every step of the way. He travelled over every stage of the wilderness. In all their afflictions He was afflicted.
One writer draws out the comfort for anyone still on the road:
It comforts the heart of the poor, weary pilgrim to know this: God's infinite love and unerring wisdom mark out every stage of his wilderness journey. He is leading His people by a right way, home to Himself. There is not a single circumstance in their lot, or a single ingredient in their cup, which He has not carefully ordered, with direct reference to their present profit and their everlasting happiness.
The verse puts the camp "on the edge of the land of Edom." One writer maps that edge, and separates the mountain from the camp below it:
Mount Hor is a district on the western edge of Edom. The Israelites "camped at Mount Hor, on the edge of the land of Edom" before they went around Edom to head north... On the return journey we know they were heading there when Aaron died. So Moseroth is a camp in the district and neighbourhood of Hor. From that camp he went up into the mountain itself to die.
Mount Hor appears more than once in the chapter's list, and readers have called the order a muddle. One writer traces the marches and answers:
Compare the previous verses (30–35). The children of Israel first came down from Moseroth, in or near Mount Hor on the west of Edom, to Ezion-geber on the Red Sea. Then they went up the Arabah again to Mount Hor (verses 36, 37), and there Aaron died... Disorder in the order of the places named is only in the minds of hasty readers, not in the Scriptures when readers weigh them patiently.
Israel camped on the edge of Edom and never inside it. One writer takes Edom as a picture of the flesh, and draws the lesson of that detour:
The apostle does not tell us to war against the flesh. He says, "walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." Israel here were to walk where the cloud led. But the cloud never led them through Edom. Had that been His way, could He have allowed the enemy to bar it? Of course not; and it is exactly so with the Spirit's leading now... the path of progress is seen to be, not through Edom's territory, but around it. Reckoning yourself dead to sin is neither ignoring it nor fighting it: it is turning away.
Mount Hor is where Aaron died. One writer sets that death against Christ's priesthood:
On Mount Hor they stripped Aaron of his priestly garments and put them on his son Eleazar, for Aaron had to die. Death removed high priest after high priest of the Levitical order. But Christ's priesthood cannot be handed on: "He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:24–25). The Lord Jesus will bring God's people safely through the wilderness to the rest and glory of God. He cares for them in every way, and He intercedes for them on high.
Why did Aaron die on this mountain and not another? One writer holds that the name itself carries meaning:
But why is it at Hor that he departs? Should there not be meaning in this? The rule that alone is worthy of Scripture is that there is meaning EVERYWHERE. In this case it is striking that the names "Aaron" (really "Aharon") and "Hor" come from the same root.
- Recorded — God wrote down every camp in the chapter, and He "went before them, every step of the way."
- Located — Mount Hor sat on Edom's western edge, with the camp below and the summit above it.
- Ordered — the two mentions of Hor trace a real back-and-forth march. The confusion is in hasty reading, not in the text.
- Skirted — the cloud led around Edom, never through it. Turning away, not fighting, is how we refuse the flesh.
- Handed on — on this mountain the robes passed from Aaron to Eleazar, because death kept removing priests. Christ's priesthood passes to no one, for He always lives.
And Aaron the priest went up mount Hor by the commandment of Jehovah, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first of the month.
Numbers 33 lists Israel's camps one by one, and only one event in it carries a date: Aaron's death on Mount Hor. Why does a bare travel record stop to date one man's death, and why did Israel's first high priest die outside the land?
Most of those years are blank. One writer notes the gap between Numbers 19 and 20, and says why Scripture leaves it empty.
Almost 38 years lie unrecorded between chapter nineteen and chapter twenty — the years when the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness. Chapter 33 does list their different camps... There was nothing to record but scenes of death and sorrow. God had suspended the whole covenant under which He ruled the nation, so the history of that rule has nothing to report.
Why could Aaron not enter the land? One writer warns against putting it down to his office alone.
It was not merely that Moses, in his official capacity, or as representing the legal system, could not bring Israel into the land. This is true; but it is not all. Moses spoke without thinking. He and Aaron his brother failed to glorify God in the presence of the congregation.
Another writer draws out what this says about God Himself.
Aaron dies, and the time is not far off when Moses also must die. It is a solemn thought. These two honoured servants of God must die in the wilderness, like the generation that God said would not enter His rest. God is righteous, and He maintains government according to His righteousness.
Aaron did not fade away; he walked up a mountain to keep an appointment he had been told about.
The time had now arrived for Aaron to disappear. God told him in advance that he would die, as He also did with Moses a little later. He had no period of weakness and no sickbed, for he could go to the top of a mountain in the sight of the people. There, stripped of his garments, which were placed on his son, he died. Aaron's priesthood belonged to earth, so it could be passed on, "because they were prevented by death from continuing in office" (Heb. 7:23). This was the first time the priesthood had to change hands. God arranged it in full public view, so no one could challenge Eleazar's new position. The picture is small next to the One it points to. The priesthood of the Lord Jesus is heavenly, and the next verse in Hebrews says it can never pass to anyone else. Because He is the Son, He is set apart as priest for ever.
One writer sets Aaron's climb beside a later going up.
Aaron was stripped of his robes on Mount Hor. His son received them, and then Aaron died on that mountain. In all this he warned Israel how weak a man is when he stands in for the High Priest of God, who lives and will never die again. He went up into the mountain "in the sight of all the congregation" (Num. 20:27-28). What a contrast to the High Priest above, who went up to heaven with hands lifted in blessing (Luke 24:50).
One writer corrects a common misreading of that death.
People clearly misunderstand what Aaron's death in Numbers 20 means. The idea is not the end of priesthood, because priesthood does not end. Aaron's son Eleazar carries it on. His death is not a picture of the end of priesthood.
The son who received the robes points forward:
Next, Aaron passes away. His garments of glory and beauty pass to his son Eleazar, who is a picture of Christ risen from the dead — the only power for true priesthood. It is the risen Lord who is our Priest.
The date of Aaron's death sits inside a list God Himself kept.
Think of Him choosing to keep such a record of the journeys of His poor people, from the day they marched out of Egypt until they crossed the Jordan... He went before them, every step of the way. He travelled over every stage of the wilderness. In all their suffering He suffered too... Here He retraces the whole way His hand had led them. He notes down each stage of that wonderful journey, and every spot in the desert where they stopped. What a journey! What a travelling companion!
- Dated. One moment in that silent stretch carries a year, a month and a day — a death. The wilderness years had little else to record.
- Deserved. Aaron died outside the land because he and Moses failed to glorify God before the people. God's government holds even His honoured servants.
- Directed. God told him in advance, and he climbed the mountain on his own feet. This was a death by appointment.
- Transferred. The robes passed to Eleazar in full view. Death interrupts an earthly priesthood; Christ's priesthood never changes hands.
- Remembered. The God who dated Aaron's death also recorded every stage of the journey. The One who walked it with them wrote it down.