Numbers 20:21

Translations

King James Version (KJV)

Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: why Israel turned away from him.

American King James Version (AKJV)

Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: why Israel turned away from him.

American Standard Version (ASV)

Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.

Basic English Translation (BBE)

So Edom would not let Israel go through his land; and Israel went in another direction.

Webster's Revision

Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.

World English Bible

Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border, so Israel turned away from him.

English Revised Version (ERV)

Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.

Definitions for Numbers 20:21

Wherefore - Why?; for what reason?; for what cause?

Clarke's Numbers 20:21 Bible Commentary

Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border - Though every king has a right to refuse passage through his territories to any strangers; yet in a case like this, and in a time also in which emigrations were frequent and universally allowed, it was both cruelty and oppression in Edom to refuse a passage to a comparatively unarmed and inoffensive multitude, who were all their own near kinsmen. It appears however that it was only the Edomites of Kadesh that were thus unfriendly and cruel; for from Deuteronomy 2:29 we learn that the Edomites who dwelt in Mount Seir treated them in a hospitable manner. This cruelty in the Edomites of Kadesh is strongly reprehended, and threatened by the Prophet Obadiah, Obadiah 1:10, etc.