Numbers 21

Arad Conquered

1 When the Canaanite, the king of 1Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.
2 So 2Israel made a vow to the LORD and said, "If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities."
3 The LORD heard the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites; then they utterly destroyed them and their cities. Thus the name of the place was called 3Hormah.
4 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red * Sea, to 4go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey.
5 The people spoke against God and Moses, "5Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and 6we loathe this miserable food."

The Bronze Serpent

6 7The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and 8they bit the people, so that 9many people of Israel died.
7 10So the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; 11intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us." And Moses interceded for the people.
8 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a 12fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live."
9 And Moses made a 13bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
10 14Now the sons of Israel moved out and camped in Oboth.
11 They journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness which is opposite * Moab, to the east *.
12 15From there they set out and camped in Wadi Zered.
13 From there they journeyed and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites, 16for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
14 Therefore * it is said in the Book of the Wars of the LORD, "Waheb in Suphah, And the wadis of the Arnon,
15 And the slope of the wadis That extends to the site of 17Ar, And leans to the border of Moab."
16 18From there they continued to Beer, that is the well where the LORD said to Moses, "Assemble the people, that I may give them water."
17 19Then Israel sang this song: "Spring up, O well! Sing to it!
18 "The well, which the leaders sank, Which the nobles of the people dug, With the scepter and with their staffs." And from the wilderness they continued to Mattanah,
19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,
20 and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab, at the top of Pisgah which overlooks * * the wasteland.

Two Victories

21 20Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying,
22 "21Let me pass through your land. We will not turn off into field or vineyard; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the king's highway until * we have passed through your border."
23 22But Sihon would not permit Israel to pass through his border. So Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and came to 23Jahaz and fought against Israel.
24 Then 24Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon; for the 25border of the sons of Ammon was Jazer.
25 Israel took all these cities and 26Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all her villages.
26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.
27 Therefore * those who use proverbs say, "Come to Heshbon! Let it be built! So let the city of Sihon be established.
28 "27For a fire went forth from Heshbon, A flame from the town of Sihon; It devoured 28Ar of Moab, The 29dominant heights of the Arnon.
29 "30Woe to you, O Moab! You are ruined, O people of 31Chemosh! 32He has given his sons as fugitives, 33And his daughters into captivity, To an Amorite king, Sihon.
30 "But we have cast them down, Heshbon is ruined as far as 34Dibon, Then we have laid waste even to Nophah, Which reaches to Medeba."
31 Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.
32 Moses sent to spy out 35Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.
33 36Then they turned and went up by the way of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out with all his people, for battle at 37Edrei.
34 But the LORD said to Moses, "38Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon."
35 So 39they killed him and his sons and all his people, until there was no remnant left him; and they possessed his land.

Cross References 39

  • 1. Numbers 33:40; Joshua 12:14; Judges 1:16
  • 2. Genesis 28:20; Judges 11:30
  • 3. Numbers 14:45
  • 4. Deuteronomy 2:8
  • 5. Numbers 14:2, 3
  • 6. Numbers 11:6
  • 7. Deuteronomy 8:15
  • 8. Jeremiah 8:17
  • 9. 1 Corinthians 10:9
  • 10. Numbers 11:2; Psalms 78:34; Isaiah 26:16; Hosea 5:15
  • 11. Exodus 8:8; 1 Samuel 12:19; Acts 8:24
  • 12. Isaiah 14:29; Isaiah 30:6; John 3:14
  • 13. 2 Kings 18:4; John 3:14, 15
  • 14. Numbers 33:43, 44
  • 15. Numbers 33:45
  • 16. Numbers 22:36; Judges 11:18
  • 17. Numbers 21:28; Deut 2:9, 18, 29
  • 18. Numbers 33:46-49
  • 19. Exodus 15:1; Psalms 105:2
  • 20. Deuteronomy 2:26-37; Judges 11:19
  • 21. Numbers 20:16, 17
  • 22. Numbers 20:21
  • 23. Deuteronomy 2:32
  • 24. Amos 2:9
  • 25. Deuteronomy 2:37
  • 26. Amos 2:10
  • 27. Jeremiah 48:45
  • 28. Numbers 21:15
  • 29. Numbers 22:41; Isaiah 15:2; Isaiah 16:12
  • 30. Jeremiah 48:46
  • 31. Judges 11:24; 1 Kings 11:33; 2 Kings 23:13
  • 32. Isaiah 15:5
  • 33. Isaiah 16:2
  • 34. Numbers 32:3, 34; Jeremiah 48:18, 22
  • 35. Num 32:1, 3, 35; Jeremiah 48:32
  • 36. Deuteronomy 3:1-7
  • 37. Joshua 13:12
  • 38. Deuteronomy 3:2
  • 39. Deuteronomy 3:3, 4

Footnotes 21

Numbers 21 Commentaries

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