Numbers 20

2  The community was without water, and they joined against Moshe and Aharon.

3  The people quarreled with Moshe, saying, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished at the instance of Hashem!

4  Why have you brought Hashem’s congregation into this wilderness for us and our beasts to die there?

5  Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place, a place with no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates? There is not even water to drink!”

6  Moshe and Aharon came away from the congregation to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and fell on their faces. The Presence of Hashem appeared to them,

7  and Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying,

8  “You and your brother Aharon take the rod and assemble the community, and before their very eyes order the rock to yield its water. Thus you shall produce water for them from the rock and provide drink for the congregation and their beasts.”

9  Moshe took the rod from before Hashem, as He had commanded him.

10  Moshe and Aharon assembled the congregation in front of the rock; and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?”

11  And Moshe raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Out came copious water, and the community and their beasts drank.

13  Those are the Waters of Meribah—meaning that the Israelites quarrelled with Hashem—through which He affirmed His sanctity.

14  From Kadesh, Moshe sent messengers to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Yisrael: You know all the hardships that have befallen us;

15  that our ancestors went down to Egypt, that we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and that the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our ancestors.

16  We cried to Hashem and He heard our plea, and He sent a messenger who freed us from Egypt. Now we are in Kadesh, the town on the border of your territory.

17  Allow us, then, to cross your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, and we will not drink water from wells. We will follow the king’s highway, turning off neither to the right nor to the left until we have crossed your territory.”

18  But Edom answered him, “You shall not pass through us, else we will go out against you with the sword.”

19  “We will keep to the beaten track,” the Israelites said to them, “and if we or our cattle drink your water, we will pay for it. We ask only for passage on foot—it is but a small matter.”

20  But they replied, “You shall not pass through!” And Edom went out against them in heavy force, strongly armed.

21  So Edom would not let Yisrael cross their territory, and Yisrael turned away from them.

22  Setting out from Kadesh, the Israelites arrived in a body at Mount Hor.

23  At Mount Hor, on the boundary of the land of Edom, Hashem said to Moshe and Aharon,

24  “Let Aharonbe gathered to his kin: he is not to enter the land that I have assigned to B’nei Yisrael, because you disobeyed my command about the waters of Meribah.

26  Strip Aharon of his vestments and put them on his son Elazar. There Aharon shall be gathered unto the dead.”

27  Moshe did as Hashem had commanded. They ascended Mount Hor in the sight of the whole community.

28  Moshe stripped Aharon of his vestments and put them on his son Elazar, and Aharon died there on the summit of the mountain. When Moshe and Elazar came down from the mountain,

29  the whole community knew that Aharon had breathed his last. All the house of Yisrael bewailed Aharon thirty days.