Numbers 20:22

"And they journeyed from Kadesh: and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came unto mount Hor. And Jehovah spake unto Moses and Aaron in mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying, Aaron shall be gathered unto his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I gave unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up into mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there. And Moses did as Jehovah commanded: and they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there on the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount. And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel."

"Unto mount Hor ..." (Numbers 20:22). All that is known of this place is that it was on the southern border of Edom. There is a mountain there upon which the Arabs have a mosque, allegedly over the site of the grave of Aaron. Kadesh is also mentioned here; and there are no less than three Kadesh's in the Sinaitic area. Conflicting opinions about which is which are generally unconvincing. "Mount Hor cannot now be identified."[16] Smick mentioned: Kadesh-barnea, Kadesh-naphtali, and Kadesh on the Orontes."[17]

"And Aaron died there ..." (Numbers 20:28). The difficulty cited by many is that Deuteronomy 10:6 states that "Aaron died in Moserah ..." (Deuteronomy 10:6). The only difficulty here is that nobody knows where either Hor or Moserah was located; so the natural conclusion is that both sites are only different designations of one place. Another possibility is that the children of Israel took the body of Aaron with them from Hor (if the places are different) and reburied it at Mosereth, in which case "there" in Deuteronomy 10:6 would apply only to the second burial of Aaron and not to his death. A slight emendation of the text would allow such a translation. After all, Israel went to great lengths to transfer both the bodies of Jacob and of Joseph to the land of Canaan, and in Joseph's case, long after his death and burial. There is no reason why a similar thing might not lie behind the problem here. Also, the fact that this would give Aaron two graves corresponds absolutely with the fact that both Jonah and Jesus Christ had two graves each! Aaron, it will be remembered was a "type" of Jesus Christ.

"The whole congregation ..." (Numbers 20:1,22). "This may indicate a reassembling of the tribes scattered in the wilderness."[18]

This terrible chapter is marked by death. Miriam died in the first month, and Aaron died in the fifth month of that tragic fortieth year. Moses too would very shortly join his brother and his sister in death. Moses had yet to deliver speeches of warning and admonition to Israel, and then he, like Aaron, would be gathered to his fathers. "Aaron died on the first day of the fifth month in the fortieth year of the Exodus at age 123: see Numbers 33:38,39."[19]

Another of the many unanswered questions regarding these events is that which raised the query if Aaron, like Moses, was buried by God Himself. Whitelaw observed "that otherwise, both Moses and Eleazar would have been unclean under the Law (Leviticus 21:11; Numbers 19:11)."[20] Such questions only demonstrate how extremely abbreviated is the sacred narrative throughout.