What Does Numbers 20:1 Mean?

XX. (1) **Then came . . . —**It would be better to translate thus: *And *(or, *Now*)* the children of Israel came *(or, *had come*) . . ., inasmuch as the interval of time between the events related in the preceding chapters and in this chapter is unknown. **In the first month.—**It has been commonly supposed that the reference is to the first month of the fortieth year, when the Israelites are thought to have arrived for the second time at Kadesh. Some, however, are of opinion that the journey is the same as that which is mentioned in Numbers 12:16, and in Deuteronomy 1:19; and that the arrival at Kadesh was on the first month of the third year, *i.e., *the year which followed the departure from Sinai, which departure took place on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year after the exodus. **And the people abode in Kadesh.—**It is evident that the sojourn in Kadesh was a protracted one, whether Kadesh did, or did not serve as the head-quarters of the people from the second or third year of the exodus until that in which they entered into the land of Canaan. See Deuteronomy 1:46, where Moses describes the length of the sojourn in Kadesh by the words “many days,” the same words which he employs in Numbers 20:15 to denote the length of the sojourn in the land of Egypt. It cannot, however, be inferred from the simple use of the word which is here rendered *abode *that the sojourn at Kadesh at the beginning of the fortieth year was of long duration (see Judges 11:17, where the same word is used). Hence no legitimate conclusion can be drawn from the use of this word respecting the reference of the verse to an arrival at Kadesh at the beginning of the third or of the fortieth year after the exodus. (See 20:14, and Note).