Water and Death: This concluding chapter of the middle section of the book suggests that the camp is ready to move again, but the events in chapter 20 delay any progress, and the loss of the exodus generation becomes more pressing with the deaths of two of its leaders. This chapter accounts for the exclusion of Moses and Aaron from the land. The movement of the wilderness generation is slow and painful, and frequently interrupted by trouble.

20:22–29 The concluding section of the chapter recounts the death of Aaron at Mount …