Numbers 21

Chapter 21

Arad Conquered

¹When the Canaanite, the king of ^aArad, who lived in the ¹Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of ²Atharim, then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

²So ^aIsrael made a vow to the Lord and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will ¹utterly destroy their cities.”

³The Lord heard the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites; then they ¹utterly destroyed them and their cities. Thus the name of the place was called ^2aHormah.

⁴Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the ¹Red Sea, to ^ago around the land of Edom; and the ²people became impatient because of the journey.

⁵The people spoke against God and Moses, “^aWhy have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no ¹food and no water, and ^2bwe loathe this miserable food.”

The Bronze Serpent

^6aThe Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and ^bthey bit the people, so that ^cmany people of Israel died.

^7aSo the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; ^bintercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.

⁸Then the Lord said to Moses, “¹Make a ^afiery 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.”

⁹And Moses made a ^abronze 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.

^10aNow the sons of Israel moved out and camped in Oboth.

¹¹They journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is opposite Moab, to the ¹east.

^12aFrom there they set out and camped in ¹Wadi Zered.

¹³From 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, ^afor the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

¹⁴Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord,

“Waheb in Suphah,

And the wadis of the Arnon,

¹⁵And the slope of the wadis

That extends to the site of ^aAr,

And leans to the border of Moab.”

^16aFrom there they continued to ¹Beer, that is the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Assemble the people, that I may give them water.”

^17aThen 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,

¹⁹and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,

²⁰and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab, at the top of Pisgah which overlooks the ¹wasteland.

Two Victories

^21aThen Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying,

²²“^aLet 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.”

^23aBut 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 ^bJahaz and fought against Israel.

²⁴Then ^aIsrael ¹struck 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 ^bborder of the sons of Ammon was ²Jazer.

²⁵Israel took all these cities and ^aIsrael lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all her ¹villages.

²⁶For 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.

²⁷Therefore those who use proverbs say,

“Come to Heshbon! Let it be built!

So let the city of Sihon be established.

²⁸“^aFor a fire went forth from Heshbon,

A flame from the town of Sihon;

It devoured ^bAr of Moab,

The ^1cdominant ²heights of the Arnon.

²⁹“^aWoe to you, O Moab!

You are ruined, O people of ^bChemosh!

^cHe has given his sons as fugitives,

^dAnd his daughters into captivity,

To an Amorite king, Sihon.

³⁰“But we have cast them down,

Heshbon is ruined as far as ^aDibon,

Then we have laid waste even to Nophah,

Which reaches to Medeba.”

³¹Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

³²Moses sent to spy out ^aJazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

^33aThen they turned and went up by the way of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out ¹with all his people, for battle at ^bEdrei.

³⁴But the Lord said to Moses, “^aDo 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.”

³⁵So ^athey ¹killed him and his sons and all his people, until there was no remnant left him; and they possessed his land.