Numbers 27:12–14, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Numbers 27:12–14
Moses Is Told to View the Land and Prepare to Die
Moses may see the land he will not enter
The LORD tells Moses to go up into this mount Abarim and see the land which he has given to the children of Israel. When he has seen it, he shall be gathered to his people, as Aaron his brother was gathered.
Meribah is named again as rebellion, not as a private riddle
The reason is the same one spoken at the water: ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes. That is the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.
Moses is allowed sight without entry. The failure is still failure to sanctify God before the people at Meribah, the same charge given to both brothers. The unit does not explain someone else's death by this sentence, does not let a leader hide the failure, and does not make missing one goal the measure of a whole life.
How this should shape us
Let a leader look at unfinished work without rewriting the record of a public failure. Do not use Moses' exclusion to decode why another person dies, and do not shrink a long faithfulness to the one border he will not cross.
Teach it back
Explain Numbers 27:12–14 in your own words. Include its place in Numbers' movement from Sinai to Moab, both movements within this thought unit, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one use the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters debate source layers, motives, gender, institutional history, Moses' failure, Joshua's relation to Eleazar, and whether specific scenes defend or critique power. The text's own gaps require stated uncertainty. For “Moses Is Told to View the Land and Prepare to Die,” confidence is strongest in the received unit's stated sequence and literary function; source, date, demography, geography, mechanism, archaeology, and historical reconstruction remain probable, plausible, or uncertain as the evidence warrants.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Numbers 27:12–14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 27:12–14
Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, ritual, legal, number, name, poetic, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.
NET Bible Numbers PDF, complete 134-page PDF, translation and translator notes attached to 27:12–14
Supports: Moab movement, law, leadership transition, land, war, women, refuge, and compositional framing.
Yale Bible Study, Numbers Part 2, complete two-page study guide sections on Balaam, Baal Peor, second census, women and inheritance, war with Midian, Transjordan, itinerary, boundaries, Levite and refuge cities, and final inheritance, applied to Numbers 27:12–14
Supports: Women's successful legal petition, inheritance development, closing marriage restriction, agency, and patriarchal limits.
TheTorah, “Zelophehad's Daughters Challenge the Law—and Moses Is Speechless,” complete Numbers 27 and 36 discussion of petition, divine ruling, inheritance, tribal restriction, women, and later reception, applied to Numbers 27:12–14
Supports: Text's underexplained verdict on Moses and Aaron, material interpretive alternatives, leadership failure, and reception.
TheTorah, “Moses Strikes the Rock: His Sin Depends on Your Worldview,” complete survey of Numbers 20, Deuteronomic retellings, Psalm reception, and Jewish interpretive alternatives, applied to Numbers 27:12–14
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Numbers 27:12–14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Numbers
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project
Open Scriptures, release 2.2, 2021
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 27:12–14
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Numbers with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, source files dated 2026-08-08
Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, ritual, legal, number, name, poetic, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Numbers PDF, complete 134-page PDF, translation and translator notes attached to 27:12–14
Open source ↗modern critical open study guide
Numbers Part 2
Yale Bible Study
Yale Divinity School, 2023 course edition
Supports: Moab movement, law, leadership transition, land, war, women, refuge, and compositional framing.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Numbers Part 2, complete two-page study guide sections on Balaam, Baal Peor, second census, women and inheritance, war with Midian, Transjordan, itinerary, boundaries, Levite and refuge cities, and final inheritance, applied to Numbers 27:12–14
Open source ↗modern jewish scholarly open gender law and reception study
Zelophehad's Daughters Challenge the Law and Moses Is Speechless
Nehama Aschkenasy
TheTorah.com, 2024
Supports: Women's successful legal petition, inheritance development, closing marriage restriction, agency, and patriarchal limits.
Exact location: TheTorah, “Zelophehad's Daughters Challenge the Law—and Moses Is Speechless,” complete Numbers 27 and 36 discussion of petition, divine ruling, inheritance, tribal restriction, women, and later reception, applied to Numbers 27:12–14
Open source ↗modern jewish scholarly open history of interpretation
Moses Strikes the Rock: His Sin Depends on Your Worldview
TheTorah.com named scholarly contributor
TheTorah.com, 2024
Supports: Text's underexplained verdict on Moses and Aaron, material interpretive alternatives, leadership failure, and reception.
Exact location: TheTorah, “Moses Strikes the Rock: His Sin Depends on Your Worldview,” complete survey of Numbers 20, Deuteronomic retellings, Psalm reception, and Jewish interpretive alternatives, applied to Numbers 27:12–14
Open source ↗