Numbers 21 · Kingdoms of Scripture

1The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim. He fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

Notes (1)

Translation
Derekh ha-atarim is printed as the way of Atharim, a route. The same consonants can be read as the way of the scouts. The name is printed.

2Israel vowed a vow to Yahweh and said, If you give, give this people into my hand, I will devote their cities.

Notes (1)

Translation
Hacharamti is “I will devote,” the verb of a cherem, a devoted thing. The cities are set apart for destruction.

3Yahweh listened to Israel’s voice and gave them the Canaanite, and they devoted them and their cities. He called the name of the place Hormah.

Notes (1)

Translation
Hormah is the place. The name is the same word as the devoting in the vow.

4They set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Sea of Reeds, to go around the land of Edom, and the people’s throat grew short on the way.

Notes (1)

Translation
Vattiqtsar nefesh is the throat grew short, they could not bear the way. Yam suf is the Sea of Reeds.

5The people spoke against God and against Moses, Why did you bring us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and there is no water, and our throat is sick of this wretched bread.

Notes (1)

Translation
The complaint says Elohim, God, not the name Yahweh. Haqqeloqel is wretched, bread they despise. “Man” is not the word in this line.

6Yahweh sent the burning snakes among the people. They bit the people, and many people from Israel died.

Notes (1)

Translation
Hannechashim hasserafim are snakes, burning ones. The word seraph here names the snakes. It is not a later title for an attendant.

7The people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we spoke against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh, and let him take the snake away from us. Moses prayed for the people.

8Yahweh said to Moses, Make yourself a burning one, and set it on a pole. Everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, shall live.

Notes (1)

Translation
Saraf is a burning one, the same word as the snakes. Nes is a pole, a standard set up to be seen.

9Moses made a snake of bronze and set it on the pole. If a snake bit a man, and he looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

Notes (1)

Translation
Nachash and nechoshet sit next to each other: a snake, and bronze. The wordplay is in the Hebrew. Both words are printed.

10The sons of Israel set out and camped at Oboth.

11They set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness that is on the face of Moab, toward the sunrise.

12From there they set out and camped at the wadi Zered.

13From there they set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out from the border of the Amorite. For the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorite.

14Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Yahweh, Waheb in Suphah, and the wadis, the Arnon,

Notes (1)

Translation
Sefer milchamot Yahweh is the Book of the Wars of Yahweh. The next lines are compressed. Waheb and Suphah are printed as place names. The copy does not explain them, and no fuller poem is supplied.

15and the slope of the wadis that bends to the seat of Ar and leans on the border of Moab.

16From there to Beer. That is the well of which Yahweh said to Moses, Gather the people, and I will give them water.

17Then Israel sang this song: Rise, well. Answer it.

Notes (1)

Translation
Ali be’er is “rise, well.” Enu lah is “answer it,” sing back to it.

18The well the chiefs dug. The willing of the people hollowed it, with the ruler’s staff, with their staves. And from the wilderness to Mattanah.

Notes (1)

Translation
Nedivei ha-am are the willing ones of the people. Mechokek is a ruler’s staff. The line then names Mattanah, and the next verse continues from that place. “A gift” is the other sense of the same word, and it is not printed here.

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

20and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, the top of the Pisgah, and it looks down on the face of the wasteland.

Notes (1)

Translation
Rosh ha-pisgah is the top of the Pisgah, the ridgeline. Yeshimon is the wasteland, the bare country it looks over.

21Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorite, saying,

22Let me pass through your land. We will not turn into field or vineyard. We will not drink water from a well. We will go by the king’s road until we have passed your border.

23Sihon would not let Israel pass through his border. Sihon gathered all his people and went out to meet Israel in the wilderness. He came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.

24Israel struck him with the mouth of the sword and took possession of his land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon, for the border of the sons of Ammon was strong.

25Israel took all these cities, and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorite, in Heshbon and in all its daughter-towns.

Notes (1)

Translation
Banoteyha, “its daughters,” are the towns that belong to Heshbon.

26For Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorite. He had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land from his hand, as far as the Arnon.

27Therefore the verse-speakers say, Come to Heshbon. Let it be built, and let the city of Sihon be set firm.

28For fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from the town of Sihon. It consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the heights of Arnon.

29Woe to you, Moab. You are lost, people of Chemosh. He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to an Amorite king, to Sihon.

Notes (1)

Translation
Chemosh is the name as written. The verse does not describe him. Pelitim are fugitives, those who got away. Shevit is captivity.

30We shot them. Heshbon is lost as far as Dibon. We laid waste as far as Nophah, which reaches Medeba.

Notes (1)

Text
The song line is compressed. Vaniram is printed “we shot them.” “Their yoke” is another reading of the same consonants, and it is not printed. Vannashim is printed “we laid waste.” A dot stands over the word “which” in this copy. The word is printed. The dot is not used to drop it.

31Israel lived in the land of the Amorite.

32Moses sent men to spy out Jazer, and they captured its daughter-towns, and he took possession of the Amorite who was there.

Notes (1)

Text
The written consonants are ויירש, “and he took possession.” The Masoretic reading is ויורש, “and he dispossessed.” The written form is printed. The verb is singular, as written.

33They turned and went up by the way of Bashan. Og king of Bashan came out to meet them, he and all his people, for battle at Edrei.

34Yahweh said to Moses, Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people and his land. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorite, who lived at Heshbon.

35They struck him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left, and they took possession of his land.

1The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim. He fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

Notes (1)

Translation
Derekh ha-atarim is printed as the way of Atharim, a route. The same consonants can be read as the way of the scouts. The name is printed.

2Israel vowed a vow to Yahweh and said, If you give, give this people into my hand, I will devote their cities.

Notes (1)

Translation
Hacharamti is “I will devote,” the verb of a cherem, a devoted thing. The cities are set apart for destruction.

3Yahweh listened to Israel’s voice and gave them the Canaanite, and they devoted them and their cities. He called the name of the place Hormah.

Notes (1)

Translation
Hormah is the place. The name is the same word as the devoting in the vow.

4They set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Sea of Reeds, to go around the land of Edom, and the people’s throat grew short on the way.

Notes (1)

Translation
Vattiqtsar nefesh is the throat grew short, they could not bear the way. Yam suf is the Sea of Reeds.

5The people spoke against God and against Moses, Why did you bring us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and there is no water, and our throat is sick of this wretched bread.

Notes (1)

Translation
The complaint says Elohim, God, not the name Yahweh. Haqqeloqel is wretched, bread they despise. “Man” is not the word in this line.

6Yahweh sent the burning snakes among the people. They bit the people, and many people from Israel died.

Notes (1)

Translation
Hannechashim hasserafim are snakes, burning ones. The word seraph here names the snakes. It is not a later title for an attendant.

7The people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we spoke against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh, and let him take the snake away from us. Moses prayed for the people.

8Yahweh said to Moses, Make yourself a burning one, and set it on a pole. Everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, shall live.

Notes (1)

Translation
Saraf is a burning one, the same word as the snakes. Nes is a pole, a standard set up to be seen.

9Moses made a snake of bronze and set it on the pole. If a snake bit a man, and he looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

Notes (1)

Translation
Nachash and nechoshet sit next to each other: a snake, and bronze. The wordplay is in the Hebrew. Both words are printed.

10The sons of Israel set out and camped at Oboth.

11They set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness that is on the face of Moab, toward the sunrise.

12From there they set out and camped at the wadi Zered.

14Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Yahweh, Waheb in Suphah, and the wadis, the Arnon,

Notes (1)

Translation
Sefer milchamot Yahweh is the Book of the Wars of Yahweh. The next lines are compressed. Waheb and Suphah are printed as place names. The copy does not explain them, and no fuller poem is supplied.

15and the slope of the wadis that bends to the seat of Ar and leans on the border of Moab.

16From there to Beer. That is the well of which Yahweh said to Moses, Gather the people, and I will give them water.

17Then Israel sang this song: Rise, well. Answer it.

Notes (1)

Translation
Ali be’er is “rise, well.” Enu lah is “answer it,” sing back to it.

18The well the chiefs dug. The willing of the people hollowed it, with the ruler’s staff, with their staves. And from the wilderness to Mattanah.

Notes (1)

Translation
Nedivei ha-am are the willing ones of the people. Mechokek is a ruler’s staff. The line then names Mattanah, and the next verse continues from that place. “A gift” is the other sense of the same word, and it is not printed here.

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

20and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, the top of the Pisgah, and it looks down on the face of the wasteland.

Notes (1)

Translation
Rosh ha-pisgah is the top of the Pisgah, the ridgeline. Yeshimon is the wasteland, the bare country it looks over.

21Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorite, saying,

22Let me pass through your land. We will not turn into field or vineyard. We will not drink water from a well. We will go by the king’s road until we have passed your border.

23Sihon would not let Israel pass through his border. Sihon gathered all his people and went out to meet Israel in the wilderness. He came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.

24Israel struck him with the mouth of the sword and took possession of his land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon, for the border of the sons of Ammon was strong.

25Israel took all these cities, and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorite, in Heshbon and in all its daughter-towns.

Notes (1)

Translation
Banoteyha, “its daughters,” are the towns that belong to Heshbon.

26For Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorite. He had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land from his hand, as far as the Arnon.

27Therefore the verse-speakers say, Come to Heshbon. Let it be built, and let the city of Sihon be set firm.

28For fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from the town of Sihon. It consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the heights of Arnon.

29Woe to you, Moab. You are lost, people of Chemosh. He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to an Amorite king, to Sihon.

Notes (1)

Translation
Chemosh is the name as written. The verse does not describe him. Pelitim are fugitives, those who got away. Shevit is captivity.

30We shot them. Heshbon is lost as far as Dibon. We laid waste as far as Nophah, which reaches Medeba.

Notes (1)

Text
The song line is compressed. Vaniram is printed “we shot them.” “Their yoke” is another reading of the same consonants, and it is not printed. Vannashim is printed “we laid waste.” A dot stands over the word “which” in this copy. The word is printed. The dot is not used to drop it.

31Israel lived in the land of the Amorite.

32Moses sent men to spy out Jazer, and they captured its daughter-towns, and he took possession of the Amorite who was there.

Notes (1)

Text
The written consonants are ויירש, “and he took possession.” The Masoretic reading is ויורש, “and he dispossessed.” The written form is printed. The verb is singular, as written.

33They turned and went up by the way of Bashan. Og king of Bashan came out to meet them, he and all his people, for battle at Edrei.

34Yahweh said to Moses, Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people and his land. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorite, who lived at Heshbon.

35They struck him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left, and they took possession of his land.