Mount Hor

“Hor” means “who conceives, or shows; a hill”Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary: “Hor, who conceives, or shows; a hill”

First named: Numbers 20:22

Mountain Sinai Wilderness Exodus/Wilderness

Location uncertain: A mountain on the border of Edom whose exact peak has not been confidently identified. A tradition places it at Jebel Harun near Petra, but that site lies inside Edom rather than on its border. A different, northern Mount Hor marks Israel's northern boundary (Numbers 34:7-8).

This map is not copyrighted — free to reuse. Base geometry © Natural Earth (public domain); locations from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0) Open in the map explorer →

The mountain on the border of Edom where Aaron died. After Edom refused Israel passage, the people traveled from Kadesh to Mount Hor, and the LORD told Moses that Aaron would not enter the promised land, because he and Moses had rebelled against God's command at the waters of Meribah (Numbers 20:14-24). Moses, Aaron, and Aaron's son Eleazar climbed the mountain in the sight of the whole congregation; Moses took off Aaron's priestly garments and put them on Eleazar, and Aaron died there on the summit, in the fortieth year after the exodus, at the age of 123. Israel mourned him for thirty days (Numbers 20:25-29; 33:38-39). Deuteronomy 10:6 records Aaron's death at Moserah, a place name from the same stage of the journey. God later pointed back to Aaron's death on Mount Hor when telling Moses he would die on Mount Nebo (Deuteronomy 32:50).

References: Numbers 20:22; Numbers 20:22-29; Numbers 21:4; Numbers 33:37-41; Deuteronomy 32:50

People connected to Mount Hor

Aaron (M) — died on the summit after his priestly garments were put on his son Eleazar
Numbers 20:25-28
Eleazar (M) — was clothed in his father Aaron's priestly garments here and became high priest
Numbers 20:25-28

View on the place connections graph →