Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first {a} month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and {b} Miriam died there, and was buried there.

(a) This was forty years after their departure from Egypt.

(b) Moses and Aaron's sister.

Wesley's Notes

20:1 Then - To wit, after many stations and long journeys here omitted, but particularly described, Num 33:1 - 49. Zin - A place near the land of Edom, distinct and distant from that Sin, Exo 16:1. The first month - Of the fortieth year, as is evident, because the next station to this was in mount Hor, where Aaron died, who died in the fifth month of the fortieth year, Num 33:38. Moses doth not give us an exact journal of all occurrences in the wilderness, but only of those which were most remarkable, and especially of those which happened in the first and second, and in the fortieth year. Miriam died - Four months before Aaron, and but a few more before Moses.

Scofield Reference Notes

Margin first month

i.e. April.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 20

Nu 20:1-29. The Death of Miriam.

1. Then came the children of Israel . into the desert of Zin in the first month-that is, of the fortieth year (compare Nu 20:22, 23, with Nu 33:38). In this history only the principal and most important incidents are recorded, those confined chiefly to the first or second and the last years of the journeyings in the wilderness, thence called Et-Tih. Between Nu 19:22 and Nu 20:1 there is a long and undescribed interval of thirty-seven years.

the people abode in Kadesh-supposed to be what is now known as Ain-el-Weibeh, three springs surrounded by palms. (See on [80]Nu 13:26). It was their second arrival after an interval of thirty-eight years (De 2:14). The old generation had nearly all died, and the new one encamped in it with the view of entering the promised land, not, however, as formerly on the south, but by crossing the Edomite region on the east.

Miriam died there-four months before Aaron [Nu 33:38].

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:1-13 After thirty-eight years' tedious abode in the wilderness, the armies of Israel advanced towards Canaan again. There was no water for the congregation. We live in a wanting world, and wherever we are, must expect to meet with something to put us out. It is a great mercy to have plenty of water, a mercy which, if we found the want of, we should more own the worth of. Hereupon they murmured against Moses and Aaron. They spake the same absurd and brutish language their fathers had done. It made their crime the worse, that they had smarted so long for the discontent and distrusts of their fathers, yet they venture in the same steps. Moses must again, in God's name, command water out of a rock for them; God is as able as ever to supply his people with what is needful for them. But Moses and Aaron acted wrong. They took much of the glory of this work of wonder to themselves; Must we fetch water? As if it were done by some power or worthiness of their own. They were to speak to the rock, but they smote it. Therefore it is charged upon them, that they did not sanctify God, that is, they did not give to him alone that glory of this miracle which was due unto his name. And being provoked by the people, Moses spake unadvisedly with his lips. The same pride of man would still usurp the office of the appointed Mediator; and become to ourselves wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Such a state of sinful independence, such a rebellion of the soul against its Saviour, the voice of God condemns in every page of the gospel.