Numbers 20:1

The Israelites Complain Again

20:1 ¹ Then the entire community of Israel ²  entered the wilderness of Zin in the first month, ³  and the people stayed in Kadesh. ⁴  Miriam died and was buried there. ⁵ 

Numbers 27:14

27:14 For ⁶  in the wilderness of Zin when the community rebelled against me, you ⁷  rebelled against my command ⁸  to show me as holy ⁹  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.

Numbers 34:3-4

34:3 your southern border ¹⁰  will extend from the wilderness of Zin along the Edomite border, and your southern border will run eastward to the extremity of the Salt Sea, 34:4 and then the border will turn from the south to the Scorpion Ascent, ¹¹  continue to Zin, and then its direction ¹²  will be from the south to Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and pass over to Azmon.

Deuteronomy 32:51

32:51 for both of you ¹³  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 ¹⁴  among the Israelites.

Joshua 15:1

15:1 The land allotted to the tribe of Judah by its clans reached to the border of Edom, to the Wilderness of Zin in the Negev far to the south. ¹⁵ 

¹ sn This chapter is the account of how Moses struck the rock in disobedience to the Lord, and thereby was prohibited from entering the land. For additional literature on this part, see E. Arden, “How Moses Failed God,” JBL 76 (1957): 50-52; J. Gray, “The Desert Sojourn of the Hebrews and the Sinai Horeb Tradition,” VT 4 (1954): 148-54; T. W. Mann, “Theological Reflections on the Denial of Moses,” JBL 98 (1979): 481-94; and J. R. Porter, “The Role of Kadesh-Barnea in the Narrative of the Exodus,” JTS 44 (1943): 130-43.

² tn The Hebrew text stresses this idea by use of apposition: “the Israelites entered, the entire community, the wilderness.”

³ sn The text does not indicate here what year this was, but from comparing the other passages about the itinerary, this is probably the end of the wanderings, the fortieth year, for Aaron died some forty years after the exodus. So in that year the people come through the wilderness of Zin and prepare for a journey through the Moabite plains.

⁴ sn The Israelites stayed in Kadesh for some time during the wandering; here the stop at Kadesh Barnea may have lasted several months. See the commentaries for the general itinerary.

⁵ sn The death of Miriam is recorded without any qualifications or epitaph. In her older age she had been self-willed and rebellious, and so no doubt humbled by the vivid rebuke from God. But she had made her contribution from the beginning.

⁶ tn The preposition on the relative pronoun has the force of “because of the fact that.”

⁷ tn The verb is the second masculine plural form.

⁸ tn Heb “mouth.”

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ tn The expression refers to the corner or extremity of the Negev, the South.

¹¹ tn Or “the Ascent of Scorpions” (עַקְרַבִּים [’aqrabbim] means “scorpions” in Hebrew).

¹² tn Heb “its going forth,” or the way it runs.

¹³ 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).

¹⁴ tn Heb “did not esteem me holy.” Cf. NIV “did not uphold my holiness”; NLT “failed to demonstrate my holiness.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “The lot was to the tribe of the sons of Judah by their clans to the border of Edom, the wilderness of Zin toward the south, southward.”