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,
Parallel translations
- WEB Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the travail that has happened to us;
- KJV 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:
- NKJV Now Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardship that has befallen us,
- NASB From Kadesh Moses then sent messengers to the king of Edom to say, “This is what your brother Israel has said: ‘You know all the hardship that has overtaken us;
- NLT While Moses was at Kadesh, he sent ambassadors to the king of Edom with this message: “This is what your relatives, the people of Israel, say: You know all the hardships we have been through.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, appealing as a brother nation for passage. Israel sought a peaceful route through related kin.
Overview
Edom descended from Esau, Jacob's brother, so Israel addresses them as 'your brother Israel.' The respectful diplomacy honors the kinship and God's prior command not to seize Edom's land (Deuteronomy 2:4-5). The appeal recounts Israel's hardships to invoke compassion from their relatives.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Judg 11:16–17But when Israel came up out of Egypt, they traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.
- Deut 23:7Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.
- Deut 2:4–25and 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.
- Gen 36:31–39These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites:
- Mal 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,
- Gen 32:3–4Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
- Obad 1:10–12Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever.
- Josh 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,
- Exod 18:8Then 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.
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 20:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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