From Failure to Victory (20:1–21:35): Following the remedy for corpse impurity (chap. 19), we learn in chapter 20 that Miriam, Aaron, and Moses will share the fate of the adult generation by dying without entering Canaan. Miriam dies when the Israelites arrive (again?) at (the same or another) Kadesh (20:1). The text does not say why she is denied entrance to Canaan, but the last time we have heard from her is in Numbers 12, where she is punished with skin disease for undermining Moses.

Also at Kadesh, the reaction of Moses and Aaron to an uprising of the older generation (“br…