Numbers 21:20

20 and from Bamot to the valley that is in the field of Mo'av, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert.

Numbers 21:20 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 21:20

And from Bamoth, [in] the valley
Or rather "to the valley", as the Targum of Onkelos, since Bamoth signifies high places; though, according to the Jerusalem Talmud F15, Bamoth, Baal, which seems to be the same place, was in a plain:

that is in the country of Moab;
the valley belonged to Moab, into which Israel came:

to the top of Pisgah;
not that the valley reached to the top, nor did the children of Israel go to the top of it, only Moses, but rather to the bottom, which indeed is meant; for it intends the beginning of it, where Pisgah, which was an high mountain near the plains of Moab, began, and which was properly the foot of it:

which looketh towards Jeshimon;
that is, Pisgah, as Jarchi rightly interprets it, which looked over a place called Jeshimon; and which signifies a wilderness, and is no other indeed than the wilderness of Kedemoth, ( Deuteronomy 2:26 ) for from thence the following messengers were sent.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 Sheviith, fol. 38. 4.

Numbers 21:20 In-Context

18 The well, which the princes dug, Which the nobles of the people dug, With the scepter, [and] with their poles. From the wilderness [they journeyed] to Mattanah;
19 and from Mattanah to Nachali'el; and from Nachali'el to Bamot;
20 and from Bamot to the valley that is in the field of Mo'av, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert.
21 Yisra'el sent messengers to Sichon king of the Amori, saying,
22 Let me pass through your land: we will not turn aside into field, or into vineyard; we will not drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king's highway, until we have passed your border.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.