After reading chapter 20:
*This chapter starts on the first month of an unknown year. My study bible says it must have been the end of the forty years the Israelites were condemned to wander in the desert, back in chapter 14. If this is true, it appears that nothing noteworthy happened during the intervening years. They are back in Kadesh, where they started forty years ago. Miriam dies and is buried there. Echoing Exodus 17, the Israelites complain of no water. Moses and Aaron go to the tabernacle, where Yahweh tells Moses ( not Aaron) to take the magical staff that has apparently lasted all this time and speak to a rock, which would pour out water. This is the same staff that Moses turned into snakes, used to part the Nile, and which became Aaron's staff which blossomed. So, they gather the Israelites for a show of god's power. Moses struck the rock just like before, and just like before, water gushed out. All million plus Israelites and their livestock now had water. The text says these were called the waters of Meribah, just like the waters struck from a rock over forty years ago in Horeb. God takes this opportunity to remind Moses that he will not be going into the promised land.
*Then Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom asking permission for the Israelites to pass through his land, with promises not to disturb anything. The king denied them passage. The Israelites said they were coming through any way. The king of Edom said, "No, you are not." He sent a large army against the Israelites and they backed off.
*On the border of Edom, at Mount Hor, Yahweh told Moses it was time for Aaron to die. Moses, Aaron, and his son Eleazar, went up the mountain. Moses removed the high priest garments from Aaron and put them on Eleazar. Aaron died. Then, Moses and Eleazar came down the mountain. Sounds mighty fishy to me.
*If we continue to follow the bible chronology, placing the creation at 4004 B.C.E, this would have taken place around the year 1296 B.C.E.
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