East of Edom

Numbers 20 ¹⁴From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom with this message: "Your brother Israel sends you this message: You know the difficulties we have faced. ¹⁵ You know that our ancestors went down to Egypt, that we lived there for a long time, and that the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors badly. ¹⁶ We cried out to the Lord, and he heard our cry; he sent us an angel and brought us out of Egypt. Now we are at Kadesh, a town on the border of your kingdom. ¹⁷ Allow us to pass through your land. We will not go through fields or vineyards, and we will not drink water from wells. As long as we are in your territory, we will follow the King's Highway and will not deviate from it, neither to the left nor to the right.

¹⁸ The Edomites replied, "You may not pass through our territory; if you do, we will come out against you with weapons."

¹⁹ The Israelites said, "We will follow the beaten path, and if we and our livestock drink your water, we will pay whatever you ask. We only ask permission to pass through your land on foot, nothing more."

²⁰ But the Edomites refused to let them pass and came out against them with a large, strong army. ²¹ Because the Edomites would not let them pass, the Israelites took a detour.

21 ¹The Canaanite king of Arad in the Negev heard that the Israelites were coming, the path of spies. He attacked Israel and took some of them prisoner.

Judges 11 ¹⁶ This is how it happened: When the Israelites left Egypt, they traveled through the desert to the Red Sea and then came to Kadesh. ¹⁷ Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom with a request to pass through his land, but he did not agree. The same request was made to the king of Moab, but he also refused. So Israel had to stay in Kadesh. ¹⁸ Finally, they chose their route through the desert, bypassing the territory of Edom and Moab. They stayed east of Moab and pitched their tents on the other side of the Arnon. They never entered the territory of Moab, because they did not cross the Arnon River, which marked the border.

The road to the north was blocked by the alliance of the cities of the plain, the Amalekites, and the king of Arad.

Therefore, Moses decided to invade the country from the east, across the Jordan. The best route was the King's Highway, along which entire armies could move between Egypt and Damascus. That road ran right through Edom and Moab. Moses had no desire for war with the brother peoples of Israel (Edom was descended from Esau and Moab from Lot). He needed his warriors to conquer the Promised Land.

            When Edom refused, they had to go around Edom to the left or right. Going left meant going below the Dead Sea and then through Moab. But Moab also refused passage, and the king of Arad captured Israel's scouts and messengers.

            Moses was angry, and he made the Israelites swear an oath: "If YHWH ever delivers this people to us, we will completely destroy their cities." Another reason to call that place "Khorma": "destruction."

But first they traveled south, bypassing Edom and Moab.

Aaron dies

Numbers 20 ²² After they left Kadesh, the Israelites, the whole people, came to Hor, ²³ a mountain on the border of Edom.

There YHWH said to Moses and Aaron: ²⁴ "Aaron will now be united with his ancestors. He will not enter the land I am giving to the Israelites, because you disobeyed my command at the waters of Meribah. ²⁵ You, Moses, must take Aaron and his son Eleazar up the mountain. ²⁶ Have Aaron take off his priestly garments and put them on his son Eleazar. Aaron will die there and be reunited with his ancestors."

²⁷ They went up the mountain in the sight of the whole community, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁸ Moses had Aaron take off his priestly garments and put them on Aaron's son Eleazar. There, on the top of the mountain, Aaron died. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

²⁹ When the Israelites heard that Aaron had died, the whole community mourned him for thirty days.

How do you know that the time has come, that this is it? And what do you still have to do before you die?

            "I don't want to die in this holy priestly garment," Aaron said. "I don't want my dead body to defile this sanctuary and this people."

Moses nodded, thinking that the holier something is, the more dangerous it is. "We will go up the mountain," he replied. "There you can die in peace."

"You mustn't tell anyone," said Aaron, "otherwise they won't let me go. Just say that I am going to make a sacrifice and bless the people from on high."

"But Eleazar must come with you; he will wear the priestly robe after you."

The journey up was difficult for a sick man of seventy years of age. They had to stop several times, and Aaron often had to lean on his brother's shoulder for support.

            "Where is the animal we are to sacrifice?" asked Eleazar.

With an exhausted Aaron, they reached a height that overlooked the orderly camp of Israel. The tents of the four times three tribes stood in an orderly cross formation: in the east around the banner of Judah, in the south the banner of Reuben, in the west that of Ephraim, and in the north Dan. In the center of the cross they could see the tabernacle, surrounded by the tents of the Levites.

            Aaron asked for help and stood up once more. He stretched out his hands and said, "May YHWH bless you and protect you, may YHWH make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, may YHWH turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Moses and Eleazar helped him take off his clothes. Eleazar put them on. He gave his own linen tunic to his father. They helped Aaron sit up, with his back resting against the rock wall. Sitting down, he anointed his son. His trembling hands grasped those of his brother and son and looked out over Israel. They sat there in silence for hours.

When the sun was low in the west, Aaron whispered, "Go back now, for evening is falling, and otherwise my dead body would defile the new high priest."

The copper works of Punon

Numbers 21 ⁴ From Hor they continued toward the Red Sea, for they had to go around Edom. But on the way, the people became impatient.

⁵ "Why did you bring us out of Egypt?" they complained to God and Moses. "To let us die in the desert? We have no bread and no water, and we can't stand this miserable food any longer!"

Deuteronomy 2 ⁸ After we had left our brothers in Seir, the descendants of Esau, we left the route that runs from Elath and Ezion-geber through the Arabah.

Numbers 33 ⁴¹ After they left Hor, they camped at Shittim. ⁴² After they left Shittim, they camped at Punon.

It was the sixth month when the mourning period was over. They moved south, toward the Red Sea. The Araba was a barren, hot plain between the towering mountain plateaus. And every meter southward was a meter further away from the Promised Land. The people became impatient and began to grumble. Moses wanted to cross the mountains as quickly as possible so that he could turn north again on the eastern side of Edom.

Between Salmona and Punan, in the south of Edom, they entered the mountains across the dry riverbed to the "copper city," Nachas or "snake hole," as someone said, because that one word meant both "copper" and "snake" — and also "omen." Since time immemorial, copper had been smelted from the rocks here, especially when supplies from the copper island of Kupros (Cyprus) dried up.

            The water sources in the wadis were severely polluted by the extensive copper smelting. Acute copper poisoning can lead to severe headaches, heartburn, diarrhea, and coma. The Kenites and Edomites who smelted and processed copper there obtained their water from higher up in the mountains. Excavated skeletons have shown that there were wealthy men and women among the copper workers of that time, but also that their health had suffered from constant exposure to copper and other metals.

            "Don't drink if the water tastes like nachas," Zipporah cried, "or her poison will bite you and set your insides on fire."

It was in vain. The thirsty Israelites rushed to every water hole they could find along the way.

            "Let them continue until we reach Punon," Zipporah said to Moses. "There is a place there where we can set up camp and care for the sick."

The bronze cobra

Numbers 21 ⁶Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the Israelites, which bit them, so that many of them died. ⁷So the people came to Moses.

"We have sinned," they said, "for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He will take away the snakes."

Moses prayed for the people, ⁸ and the LORD said to him, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole. Everyone who is bitten and looks at it will live."

⁹ Moses had a bronze snake made and mounted it on a pole. And everyone who had been bitten by the snake (the nachas) and looked up at the bronze snake remained alive.

Moses would never forget how he first heard the name of YHWH in the fire—a name that called him to life and freedom. He would never forget how much he wanted to share that name with the people of Israel. How happy he was that they had entered into a covenant with that God on Mount Sinai. That they had been freed from slavery and voluntarily embraced God's guidance, his Torah.

But now he had doubts.

            "Would YHWH also have been so angry with a people who did not know or pronounce his name?" he asked.

            "Could you be angry with a small child who does not yet know the rules?" asked Zipporah.

            Moses raised his hands. "That's what I mean!" he exclaimed. "Have I taken away the people's innocence by teaching them what is right and what is wrong? Did I misunderstand when I thought God was calling me?"

             "Do you remember that story," she continued, "about the treacherous snake in paradise that tempted people to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? The nachas in us whispers that we will then be like God."

            He nodded.

            "Didn't God himself create that serpent and bring it into the garden?"

            Moses thought about it.

"What is that seductive nachas other than the burning desire for knowledge and wisdom that God has placed within us? It lies hidden like fire in the earth. Those who bring it to the surface are inevitably changed by it. The Torah that you teach people is also such a burning fire that forces a choice between slavery and freedom, between death and life."

"How do people make that choice," he asked, "what makes the difference?"

"The difference is whether you focus on God or on yourself." 

"Then that burning desire for God must be raised up, like a tree of life, so that everyone who looks up to it remains alive."

The descendants of Lot

Numbers 21 ¹⁰ The Israelites moved on and camped at Oboth. ¹¹ After leaving Oboth, they camped at Ijje-Haäbarim, in the desert east of Moab. ¹² From there they moved on and camped in the valley through which the Zered flows.

Deuteronomy 2 ⁸ Then (...) we went to the wilderness of Moab.

⁹ Then the Lord said to me, "You shall not harass the Moabites or provoke them to battle, for I will not give you any of their land, since I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession."

(...) ¹⁸ "Today you are passing through Ar, the territory of Moab. ¹⁹ You will then come near the Ammonites. Do not treat them with hostility or challenge them. I will not give you any of the land of the Ammonites, for I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their possession."

Numbers 21 ¹³ They moved on again and camped on the other side of the Arnon, in the desert bordering the land of the Amorites; the Arnon forms the border between Moab and the land of the Amorites.

Moab and Ammon were relatives of Israel.

Abraham's nephew Lot had two daughters. When they fled Sodom and Gomorrah, his sons-in-law did not want to come along, and his wife remained stuck in the past like a pillar of salt in the Dead Sea. So Lot was left alone with his daughters.

            They no longer dared to face people. He hid with his daughters in the mountains and lived in a cave. His daughters saw a bleak future: no love and no children for them. No one to grow old with.

            They gave their father wine to forget what he had to do.

The eldest became pregnant and named her son Moab, "of my father." The youngest also became pregnant and named her son Ben-Ammi, "son of my family." At least, that was the gossip that the neighboring peoples told about the origin of the Moabites and the Ammonites.

Moses led the Israelites through the desert east of Moab until they came to the Arnon.

The plain of Moab

Numbers 21 ²¹ Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites with this message: ²² "Allow us to pass through your land. We will not go through fields or vineyards, and we will not drink water from wells. As long as we are in your territory, we will follow the King's Highway." ²³ But Sihon refused to let Israel pass through. He gathered his forces and went out into the desert to meet Israel.

He attacked them at Jahaz. ²⁴ But the Israelites defeated him and conquered his land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok, which formed the border with the Ammonites and was fortified. ²⁵ Israel captured all the cities of the Amorites and settled there, including Heshbon and the surrounding villages. ²⁶ Heshbon was the capital of the Amorite king Sihon.

Sihon had waged war against the previous king of Moab and taken all his land, as far as the Arnon.

Judges 11 ¹⁸ They remained east of Moab and pitched their tents on the other side [north] of the Arnon. So they never entered the territory of Moab, because they did not cross the border river Arnon [to the south].

Numbers 22 ¹ Then they moved on and camped in the plains of Moab, across the Jordan from Jericho.

Thus the Israelites came to Shittim, in the plains of Moab, when that land no longer belonged to Moab. But that did not mean that Moab saw it that way.

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Suggestions for reading groups

• Check in with the group and with yourself, seek stillness/humility.

• First share the story. In this chapter, the bronze serpent of technology, environmental pollution, and moral judgment plays an important role. What did you read? 

• Encourage, comfort, inspire. When have you experienced the progress of science and technology as positive or negative? What was the difference? Is it enough to set ethical requirements for research? How do you deal with dilemmas, such as the health damage to people in developing countries who have to mine lithium for the batteries of our electric cars? How and where do you experience harmony with nature?

Reflecting on Numbers 20¹⁴-21 and Deuteronomy 1-15, the knowledge of good and evil   

The book of Deuteronomy is primarily a new interpretation of the exodus from Egypt and the radical choice for the God of Israel. Once you have entered into that covenant, your behavior determines whether you will be blessed or cursed.

• Encourage, comfort, exhort. How does that moral appeal resonate with you? Do you feel that you have taken on certain obligations that you must fulfill in order to live well?

• Leave room for silence and contemplation. Perhaps you will be allowed to "see" or "hear" something from "God." Like Moses and Zipporah, do you dare to enter into conversation with that voice? What answer wells up within you? How do you test that answer?