Rebellion in the Wilderness and the Death of Moses

Next came the revolt of those who, led by Dathan and Abiram, tried to set themselves up against Moses and Aaron; but the earth opened and swallowed them alive. Not long afterward the whole people rose against Moses and Aaron, so that they rushed into the tabernacle, which no one but the priests was allowed to enter. Then death mowed them down in heaps, and all of them would have perished in a moment if the Lord, won over by the prayers of Moses, had not turned the disaster aside. Even so, the number of those killed came to seven hundred and fourteen thousand. Not long afterward, as had often happened already, the people revolted over a lack of water. Moses was told by God to strike the rock with his rod. It was a kind of test now familiar to him, since he had done it once before; and he struck the rock twice, and so water flowed out of it. On this point, however, Moses is said to have been rebuked by God, because through lack of faith he brought out the water only with repeated blows. In fact, because of this offense he did not enter the land promised to him, as I will show further on. [a]

Moses then moved away from that place. As he was preparing to lead his company along the borders of Edom, he sent ambassadors to its king to ask permission to pass through. He thought it right to avoid war because they were related by blood, for that nation was descended from Esau. But the king despised the men who came asking and refused to let them pass, being ready to fight. So Moses turned his march toward Mount Hor, keeping clear of the forbidden road so as not to give any cause for war between kinsmen. On that route he destroyed the king of the nation of the Canaanites. He also defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites, and took possession of all their towns. He conquered Bashan and Balac too. He pitched his camp beyond the Jordan, not far from Jericho. Then a battle was fought against the Midianites, and they were conquered and subdued.

Moses died after he had ruled the people forty years in the wilderness. The Hebrews are said to have stayed in the wilderness for so long for this purpose: until all who had not believed the words of God had died. For apart from Joshua and Caleb, not one of those who were more than twenty years old when they left Egypt crossed the Jordan. That Moses himself only saw the promised land and did not reach it is put down to his sin. When he was ordered to strike the rock and bring out water, he doubted, even after so many proofs of his power to work miracles. He died in the hundred and twentieth year of his life. Nothing is known about the place where he was buried.