Bible Strands
Numbers 20:14
From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to tell the king of Edom, “This is what your brother Israel says: You know all the hardship that has befallen us,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the king of Edom from Kadesh immediately after the Israelites depart the waters of Meribah.
The words — וַיִּשְלַח (va-yishlach) translates as "and he sent," and כֹּה (koh) means "thus," structuring the formal diplomatic dispatch and its opening declaration.
The thread — The appeal to Edom's king mirrors Jacob's earlier messengers to Esau (Genesis 32:3), aligns with the later prohibition against despising Edomites as brothers (Deuteronomy 23:7), and anchors the narrative at Kadesh, previously noted as a wilderness waypoint (Judges 11:16).
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge shared lineage and recorded hardship as the basis for a political request, without softening the context of the preceding quarrel at Meribah.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:
Cross-references
- Judges 11:16 But when Israel came up out of Egypt, they traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.
- Deuteronomy 23:7 Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.
- Genesis 32:3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
- Genesis 36:31 These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites:
- Deuteronomy 2:4 and command the people: ‘You will pass through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so you must be very careful.
- Joshua 9:9 “Your servants have come from a very distant land,” they replied, “because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard the reports about Him: all that He did in Egypt,
- Obadiah 1:10 Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever.
- Malachi 1:2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you ask, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved,
- Exodus 18:8 Then Moses recounted to his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardships they had encountered along the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.