“Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto 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 the Lord 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 in 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 mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.” Numbers 20:24–29

Mount Hor is situated “in the edge of the land of Edom” (Numbers 20:23 and 33:37) and was the scene of Aaron’s divestiture, death and burial. The exact location of Mount Hor has been the subject of debate, but based on the writing of Josephus, it has been identified with the Jebel Nebi Harun (“Mountain of the Prophet Aaron” in Arabic), a twin-peaked mountain 4780 feet above sea-level (6072 feet above the Dead Sea) in the Edomite Mountains on the east side of the Jordan-Arabah valley. On the summit is a shrine, the Tomb of Aaron, said to cover the grave of Aaron.

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Tony — Antonakis Maritis

Tony is an Executive Consultant for Research on Biblical Antiquities for Academia.edu and is published by WIPF and Stock Publishers, Amazon and Barnes & Noble