Numbers 13:21

The Spies’ Activities

13:21 So they went up and investigated the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, ¹  at the entrance of Hamath. ² 

Numbers 27:14

27:14 For ³  in the wilderness of Zin when the community rebelled against me, you ⁴  rebelled against my command ⁵  to show me as holy ⁶  before their eyes over the water – the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.”

Numbers 33:36

33:36 They traveled from Ezion-geber and camped in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh.

Deuteronomy 32:51

32:51 for both of you ⁷  rebelled against me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the desert of Zin when you did not show me proper respect ⁸  among the Israelites.

¹ sn Zin is on the southern edge of the land, but Rehob is far north, near Mount Hermon. The spies covered all the land.

² tn The idiom uses the infinitive construct: “to enter Hamath,” meaning, “on the way that people go to Hamath.”

³ tn The preposition on the relative pronoun has the force of “because of the fact that.”

⁴ tn The verb is the second masculine plural form.

⁵ tn Heb “mouth.”

⁶ sn Using the basic meaning of the word קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be separate, distinct, set apart”), we can understand better what Moses failed to do. He was supposed to have acted in a way that would have shown God to be distinct, different, holy. Instead, he gave the impression that God was capricious and hostile – very human. The leader has to be aware of what image he is conveying to the people.

⁷ tn The use of the plural (“you”) in the Hebrew text suggests that Moses and Aaron are both in view here, since both had rebelled at some time or other, if not at Meribah Kadesh then elsewhere (cf. Num 20:24; 27:14).

⁸ tn Heb “did not esteem me holy.” Cf. NIV “did not uphold my holiness”; NLT “failed to demonstrate my holiness.”