and most parts of the region, including Edom, mentioned as a state ruled by a king, were not even inhabited by a sedentary population at that time, and thus no kings of Edom could have been there for the Israelites to meet. Finkelstein and Silberman concluded that sites mentioned in the Exodus narrative were unoccupied at the time they reportedly played a role in the events of the Israelites wanderings in the wilderness, and thus a mass Exodus did not happen at the time and in the manner described in the Bible. Commandments According to Maimonides Maimonides cited a verse in the parashah for 1 positive commandment: To prepare a Red Cow so that its ashes are ready According to Sefer ha-Chinuch According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 3 positive commandments in the parashah: The precept of the Red Cow The precept of the ritual uncleanness of the dead The precept of the lustral water, that it defiles a ritually clean person and purifies only one defined by the dead In the liturgy The people's murmuring and perhaps the rock that yielded water at Meribah of are reflected in which is in turn the first of the six Psalms recited at the beginning of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service. Haftarah Generally The haftarah for the parashah is Both the parashah and the haftarah involve diplomatic missions about land issues. In the parashah, Moses sent messengers and tried to negotiate passage over the lands of the Edomites and the Amorites of Sihon. In the haftarah, Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonites prior to hostilities over their land. In the course of Jephthah's message to the Ammonites, he recounted the embassies described in the parashah. And Jephthah's also recounted the Israelites' victory over the Amorites described in the parashah. Both the parashah and the haftarah involve vows. In the parashah, the Israelites vowed that if God delivered the Canaanites of Arad into their hands, then the Israelites would utterly destroy their cities. In the haftarah, Jephthah vowed that if God would deliver the Ammonites into his hand, then Jephthah would offer as a burnt-offering whatever first came forth out of his house to meet him when he returned. The haftarah concludes just before the verses that report that Jephthah's daughter was first to greet him, proving his vow to have been improvident. For parashah Chukat–Balak When parashah Chukat is combined with parashah