ABC:Numbers 33

Verse 19

TheThinkingAtheist.com claims the Bible is wrong about the following passage, and makes the following comments:

“ Numbers 33:38 And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of the LORD, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month.

Aaron died on Mount Hor.

Deuteronomy 10:6 And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera: there Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his stead.

Aaron died in Moserah.

”

The possibility exists that Moserah is near the location of Mount Hor in which case both passages would be correct. ChristianAnswers for example claims Moserah is associated with a fountain named el-Tayibeh at the base of Mount Hor. The location of Moserah, like many other waypoints for the Exodus, remains sharply disputed by scholars.

If we knew where Moserah was and that it was far from Mount Hor, only then could this definitely be called a contradiction. However, it could just be the name of the land Mount Hor was in, with the Deuteronomy passage simply referring to the region where Mount Hor was, in which case there would be no contradiction. In lieu of archaeological discovery, one certainly should not jump to assumptions here.