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.
And Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on mount Hor.
Numbers 33 reads like a travel log of camping places, until it stops at Mount Hor to record one man's death and his exact age. Why does a list of stopping places pause over a grave, and what does the death of Israel's high priest say about the God who kept the record?
The chapter can look like a dry catalogue of place names. One writer calls that a shallow reading:
Numbers 33 testifies to another beautiful truth: Jehovah remembers all the past. He remembers all our journeys, all the scenes of difficulty that came through our weakness, and sometimes worse too, and the solemn judgments. And here we have it told again. It was good to think of His ways with them. It was good for those about to enter a new scene to look back on every step of the journey. So this is far from an unimportant chapter, or, as it might seem to a careless reader, a mere dry list of names. Every part of Scripture has a divine as well as a moral purpose in it.
Aaron did not simply die of old age. He died under a sentence that reaches back to the waters of Meribah:
It may seem strange to us, hard to understand, that God should refuse one so loved as Moses entry into the promised land. But in this we see the solemn action of God's government, and we have to bow our heads and worship. Moses spoke rashly with his lips. He and Aaron his brother failed to glorify God in the presence of the congregation. And we read, "Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah."
Aaron's failure was not only at Meribah. One writer reads the 123 years as time given, not time earned:
Moses looks back to Israel's awful failure in making the calf that Aaron made… Aaron did not die then and there, though that is what he deserved. The prayers of Moses prevailed so far for his brother and the people that Aaron lived till near the end of the wanderings in the desert. The people, instead of all perishing at once, lived to journey from a land of wells to Mosera, where Aaron died at Mount Hor, and then on to Gudgodah and to Jotbath, "a land of flowing streams." Such was the patient goodness of God to both, and the long interval made it the more striking.
Nothing suggests a slow decline. He walked up a mountain to die, after four decades of service, knowing he would not see the country he had worked toward:
When he hears that he is to die without seeing the promised land, toward which he has fought and laboured for forty years, he calmly prepares for his lonely pilgrimage up the sides of Mount Hor.
Scripture records the death because the office changed hands. That handover shows the weakness of the whole system:
The time had now come for Aaron to disappear. He was told of his death in advance, as Moses was a little later. He had no time of weakness and no sickbed, for he could still climb 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. The Aaronic priesthood belonged to earth, so it could be passed on, because "they were prevented by death from continuing in office." This was the first time the priesthood had to be handed over. So God arranged it in a very public way, and no one could challenge Eleazar's new position. The type, however, is small compared with the reality. The priesthood of the Lord Jesus is heavenly. As the next verse in Hebrews tells us, it is an "unchangeable," or untransferable, priesthood. Being the Son, He is "made perfect forever."
The son came down the mountain wearing his father's robes. That change of clothes carries a meaning beyond the discipline:
Aaron had no choice, and when his garments were taken and given to his son, Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. The moral reason for his death at that time was his disobedience. Yet God's wisdom also lies behind it, showing that Eleazar pictures Christ as High Priest in resurrection. It is the One raised from the dead who leads us into heavenly places, which the land of Canaan pictures. Israel then mourned Aaron for thirty days, so his death had a deep effect on them. How much more deeply should the death of the Lord Jesus affect us, even though we now know Him as raised in glory.
- Recorded — the list of camps is God's own memory of the journey, so even a grave on the route has a purpose.
- Reason — Aaron died outside the land under God's government. He had failed to honour God at the waters of Meribah.
- Reprieve — the 123 years measure God's patience. Moses prayed, and Aaron lived on long after the golden calf.
- Removal — he climbed the mountain strong, then died stripped of his robes. Death kept breaking off an earthly priesthood.
- Replacement — Eleazar came down in his father's robes. He pictures a risen Priest whose office passes to no one, and who does bring His people in.
And the Canaanite, the king of Arad who dwelt in the south in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.
In a long list of camping places, the record stops to name a man who was never in the camp. He is a Canaanite king in the south of the land, and he hears that Israel is coming. Why does a travel log pause for an enemy, and what does his one appearance tell us about the road ahead?
Numbers 33 lists every stage of Israel's journey. One commentator warns against skimming it:
Numbers 33 testifies to another beautiful truth: Jehovah remembers all the past. He remembers all our travels, all the scenes of difficulty that came through our weakness, and sometimes worse than that, His solemn judgments. Here the whole record is gone over again. It was good to think of His ways with them. They were about to enter a new scene, and it was good for them to look back on every step of the journey. So this is far from an unimportant chapter. It is not, as a careless reader might think, a mere dry list of names. No part of Scripture is without a divine purpose and a moral purpose in it.
Arad was a city as well as a king, and it did not survive the war:
A royal city of the Canaanites, in the south, near Mount Hor. Its king fought against Israel, but with God's help Israel destroyed him and his people. Num. 21:1-3; Num. 33:40; Joshua 12:14; Judges 1:16. (In the two passages in Numbers read "the Canaanite king of Arad.")
Some have called the fuller account in Numbers 21 misplaced. This verse is the evidence against that, and it also exposes a word that older translations added:
Dr. Perowne says that King Arad's attack on the Israelites is "clearly out of place." But comparing Numbers 33:40 confirms that it is in its true place. The one mistake is the word "when," which older English translations supply; it is not written in the text. At that point the Canaanite rose up against Israel, until Israel vowed to Jehovah to deal with that accursed people as He judged right.
One commentator traces what alerted the king, and what the fight cost Israel:
Israel asks nothing of the Canaanite king of Arad. He hears that they are coming and goes out to oppose them. Whether it is Edom or the Canaanite, Israel meets the same treatment. Those God has called and the world have always been opposed, and they will be until Christ reigns in power… The land will surely be given and all enemies put down, but it must be in God's own time. Any departure from His way brings loss, not victory… As they had done when they were first brought to the land, they put human planning in the place of dependence on God. They had sent spies, perhaps because Edom's unkind treatment had left them discouraged… The presence of the spies alarms the king, and he prepares to fight. Israel does not go in faith, so they have no advantage over Arad, and they are beaten back.
The defeat woke Israel up. What they did next reversed the outcome:
Losing men seems to have awakened an energy in the people to fight back. They vowed to the Lord that if He would support their attack, they would completely destroy the cities of these Canaanites. The Lord opened the way for them, and they destroyed the Canaanites and their cities. They called the place Hormah, meaning "destruction."
The ground where the new generation won was the ground where their parents had been beaten:
The generation before had been beaten on this very battlefield, and it seems by these very people. So Israel's victory now was not only a sign of recovery from their old state. It was also a pledge that they would conquer the land. These Canaanites stand for the "spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12). They now try to keep us from taking hold in faith of what is ours in heaven. As the "cosmic powers over this present darkness," they use the world and the things in it to rob the soul of heavenly light. The book of Joshua opens up this conflict fully, and according to God it is a conflict without compromise.
- Remembered. Jehovah remembers every stage of the journey — weakness, difficulty and judgment alike. This is no dry list of names.
- Heard. Arad was a royal Canaanite city in the south, near Mount Hor. Its king heard Israel coming and went out to fight, though Israel had asked nothing of him.
- Alerted. Israel sent spies instead of depending on God. The spies alarmed the king, and Israel was beaten back.
- Answered. The setback drove them to vow, and God opened the way; the place became Hormah, "destruction."
- Pledged. They won on the ground where their parents lost. That was a sign of recovery and a pledge of the whole land. The same conflict goes on today, and it allows no compromise.
And they removed from mount Hor, and encamped in Zalmonah.
Numbers 33 walks back over Israel's whole route from Egypt. This verse gives one short step in it: the move from Mount Hor, where Aaron died, to a camp at Zalmonah. The line looks like map-keeping. So why did God keep it, and what does this stage mark in Israel's story?
God kept this list Himself, and He had walked every step of the road He wrote down.
Think of it — He was willing to keep such a record of the journeys of His poor people. He kept it from the moment they marched out of Egypt until they crossed the Jordan, 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. He shared in all their afflictions. He took care of them like a tender nurse... and here He goes back over the whole way His hand had led them. He writes down each stage of that wonderful pilgrimage with care, and every spot in the desert where they had halted. What a journey! What a travelling companion!
Skim the names and you miss why the chapter was written. Its timing matters too: Israel stood on the edge of something new.
Numbers 33 testifies to another beautiful truth: the Lord remembers all the past. He remembers all our journeys, and all the scenes of difficulty brought on by our weakness — and at times by worse than weakness — and the solemn judgments too. And here we have it rehearsed. It was good to think of His ways with them — good for those who were about to enter on a new scene to look back on every step of the journey. So this is far from an unimportant chapter. It is not the mere dry list of names that a shallow reader might take it for.
Scripture tells us nothing about Zalmonah except that Israel camped there. Its place in the route still matters: the march had turned north. Hasty readers think the lists of camps in Numbers and Deuteronomy clash. One commentator answers them.
Numbers 33 gives us details of this journey southward. Of their final northward march, up the eastern side of Mount Seir, it gives only the broad facts: they departed from Mount Hor and encamped in Zalmonah. Any disorder in the order of the places named lies only in the minds of hasty readers. It is not in the Scriptures, once you weigh them patiently.
Aaron dies in the verses just before this one, and Eleazar takes his place. Commentators see more in that than a change of men.
You can see at once that the death of Aaron and the succession of Eleazar are the central points here... In Eleazar, Aaron's priesthood continues despite his death, and in the power of resurrection. This ties in with the rapid advance of the people. They now press on in triumph through all opposition, right to the border of the land. Our great High Priest, His work accomplished, and risen out of death, is able to lead on His people like this.
Israel's stopping places are all written down. One writer looks ahead to who will read them back to us, and when.
A whole volume might be written from this backward-looking chapter. No doubt every name has a special meaning. Those meanings, with all that many of the names bring to mind, would recall the whole wilderness journey. What a day it will be! At the judgment seat of Christ He will go over all our path with us, pointing out our failures and His faithfulness!
If God chose each camp for Israel, then no stretch of the reader's own road is accidental either.
It is a great comfort to the poor, weary pilgrim to know this: the infinite love and unerring wisdom of God mark out every stage of his wilderness journey. He is leading His people by a right way, home to Himself. He Himself orders with care every circumstance in their lot and every ingredient in their cup. He orders it all for their present profit and their everlasting happiness.
- Recorded — God wrote down every stopping place of His people, even one as obscure as Zalmonah. He walked every stage with them.
- Rehearsed — The chapter is a review for people about to enter a new scene. It is not a dry list. It is the Lord remembering their weakness and His own ways.
- Route — Zalmonah falls on the final northward march. The lists of camps only seem to clash; read patiently, they agree.
- Renewed — Aaron dies just before this camp, yet the priesthood goes on in Eleazar. On that basis the people press to the border of the land.
- Reviewed — Every name holds meaning, and every step will be gone over again, showing our failures and His faithfulness.