and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?”
Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank.
But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
Those were the waters of Meribah, because the sons of Israel contended with the LORD, and He proved Himself holy among them.
From Kadesh Moses then sent messengers to the king of Edom: “Thus your brother Israel has said, ‘You know all the hardship that has befallen us;
that our fathers went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly.
But when we cried out to the LORD, He heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out from Egypt; now behold, we are at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory.
Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard; we will not even drink water from a well. We will go along the king’s highway, not turning to the right or left, until we pass through your territory.’”
Edom, however, said to him, “You shall not pass through us, or I will come out with the sword against you.”
Again, the sons of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if I and my livestock do drink any of your water, then I will pay its price. Let me only pass through on my feet, nothing else.”
Now when they set out from Kadesh, the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.
Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying,
“Aaron will be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah.
So Moses did just as the LORD had commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.
After Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar, Aaron died there on the mountain top. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.
When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.
When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.
So Israel made a vow to the LORD and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.”
The LORD heard the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites; then they utterly destroyed them and their cities. Thus the name of the place was called Hormah.
Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey.
The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.”
The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.”
And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
Now the sons of Israel moved out and camped in Oboth.
They journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness which is opposite Moab, to the east.
From there they journeyed and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites, for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the LORD, “Waheb in Suphah, And the wadis of the Arnon,
And the slope of the wadis That extends to the site of Ar, And leans to the border of Moab.”
From there they continued to Beer, that is the well where the LORD said to Moses, “Assemble the people, that I may give them water.”
“The well, which the leaders sank, Which the nobles of the people dug, With the scepter and with their staffs.” And from the wilderness they continued to Mattanah,
and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab, at the top of Pisgah which overlooks the wasteland.
Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying,
“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn off into field or vineyard; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the king’s highway until we have passed through your border.”
But Sihon would not permit Israel to pass through his border. So Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.
Then Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon; for the border of the sons of Ammon was Jazer.
Israel took all these cities and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all her villages.
For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.
Therefore those who use proverbs say, “Come to Heshbon! Let it be built! So let the city of Sihon be established.
“For a fire went forth from Heshbon, A flame from the town of Sihon; It devoured Ar of Moab, The dominant heights of the Arnon.
Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.
Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.
Then they turned and went up by the way of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out with all his people, for battle at Edrei.
But the LORD said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”
Then the sons of Israel journeyed, and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan opposite Jericho.
Now Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.
So Moab was in great fear because of the people, for they were numerous; and Moab was in dread of the sons of Israel.
Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now this horde will lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.” And Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time.
So he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, at Pethor, which is near the River, in the land of the sons of his people, to call him, saying, “Behold, a people came out of Egypt; behold, they cover the surface of the land, and they are living opposite me.
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