Numbers21chapter 21

Numbers 21:5

“Against God - Against Christ, their chief conductor, whom they tempted, 1 Cor. x, 19. Thus contemptuously did they speak of Manna, whereas it appears it yielded excellent nourishment, because in the strength of it they were able to go so many and such tedious journeys.”

Numbers 21:6

“The only known remedy consists in sucking the wound, or, in the case of cattle, in the application of ammonia. The exact species of serpents that caused so great mortality among the Israelites cannot be ascertained. They are said to have been "fiery," an epithet applied to them either from their bright, vivid color, or the violent inflammation their bite occasioned.”

Numbers 21:7

“This peculiar method of cure was designed, in the first instance, to show that it was the efficacy of God's power and grace, not the effect of nature or art, and also that it might be a type of the power of faith in Christ to heal all who look to Him because of their sins (Joh 3:14, 15; see also on 2Ki 18:4).”

Numbers 21:8

“Many things were done in figure which were done in former times. For when he said that the fathers who were bitten by serpents in the desert could not be healed in any other way except that Moses hung up a brazen serpent, and when this was seen, those deadly bites and injurious effects of the poison were cured, he added: But these things were done in figure to instruct us (1 Corinthians 10:6).”

Numbers 21:9

“That brazen serpent was hung up as a remedy for the biting serpents, not as a type of him that suffered for us but as a contrast. It saved those that looked upon it, not because they believed it to live but because it was killed, and killed with it were the powers that were subject to it, being destroyed as it deserved. And what is the fitting epitaph for it from us? "O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" You are overthrown by the cross.”

Numbers 21:10

“The earlier stations in this part of their journey were Zalmonah and Punon Num 33:41-42. Oboth was north of Punon, east of the northern part of Edom, and is pretty certainly the same as the present pilgrim halting-place el-Ahsa. Ije (“ruinous heaps”) of Abarim, or Iim of Abarim, was so called to distinguish it from another Iim in southwestern Canaan Jos 15:29. Abarim denotes generally the whole upland country on the east of the Jordan. The Greek equivalent of the name is Peraea.”

Numbers 21:11

“And they journeyed from Oboth,.... How long they stayed there is not certain: and pitched at Ijeabarim; which, according to Bunting (k), was sixteen miles from Oboth; Jarchi says it was the way that passengers pass by Mount Nebo to the land of Canaan, and which divides between the land of Moab and the land of the Amorites: in the wilderness which is before Moab; called the wilderness of Moab, Deu 2:8. towards the sunrising; the east side of the land of Moab, Jdg 11:18. (k) Ut supra. (Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. 83.)”

Numbers 21:12

“From thence they removed, and pitched in the valley of Zered. Or the brook Zered, as in Deu 13:14 that is near it: this seems to be the same station with Dibongad, Num 33:45, and which, according to the above writer, was sixteen miles from Ijeabarim.”

Numbers 21:13

“The Arnon, now the Wady Mojeb, an impetuous torrent, divided the territory which remained to the Moabites from that which the Amorites had wrested from them, Num 21:26.”

Numbers 21:14

“The brooks - The brook, the plural number for the singular, as the plural number rivers is used concerning Jordan, Psalm 7iv, 15, and concerning Tigris, Nahum ii, 6, and concerning Euphrates, Psalm 1xxxvii, 1, all which may be to called because of the several little streams into which they were divided.”

Numbers 21:15

“To the dwelling of Ar - Ar (compare Num 21:28; Isa 15:1) was on the bank of the Arnon, lower down the stream than where the Israelites crossed. Near the spot where the upper Arnon receives the tributary Nahaliel Num 21:19, there rises, in the midst of the meadow-land between the two torrents, a hill covered with the ruins of the ancient city (Jos 13:9, Jos 13:16; compare Deu 2:36).”

Numbers 21:16

“WE have remarked in our reading that the children of Israel were continually changing their places and that there was usually a great difference between one station and the next. So, also, we are constantly varying in our experience, and the variations are sometimes exceedingly remarkable. You observe, in the neighborhood of the text, that the people pitched their tents at one time by the brooks of Arnon. There appears to have been an exceedingly abundance of water where they then were, but nevertheless they removed into the wilderness where there was not a single drop to quench their thirst. So is it with us. At one time we are abounding in every good thing, rejoicing "with joy unspeakable and full of glory." And at another time we discover how great our weakness is—faith is at a very low ebb—and joy seems as though the frost of doubt had nipped its root. But, great as the changes of our experience certainly are, our necessities never change. Whether they found water or not, the people always needed water. The great camp must always have a supply, or perish for the lack of it. So, at all hours, and in all places, Believers need the Divine Grace which only their Lord can give them. They carry no stores with them—they are daily dependent upon their God. "All my springs are in You," said David, and every heir of Heaven must experimentally learn this Truth of God. Now there is one thing certain, that although our experiences vary and our necessities remain the same, yet there is something that does not change, namely, the supply which God has provided for our needs. Our experience may be high or low, bright or dark, but JEHOVAH-JIREH is still the name of our God. In the mountain of the Lord it shall be seen, and in the valley, too, that the Lord will provide. As our day, so shall our strength be.”

Numbers 21:17

“This song, recognized by all authorities as dating from the earliest times, and suggested apparently by the fact that God in this place gave the people water not from the rock, but by commanding Moses to cause a well to be dug, bespeaks the glad zeal, the joyful faith, and the hearty cooperation among all ranks, which possessed the people. In after time it may well have been the water-drawing song of the maidens of Israel.”

Numbers 21:18

“The princes digged the well - with their staves - This is not easily understood. Who can suppose that the princes dug this well with their staves? And is there any other idea conveyed by our translation? The word חפרו chapharu, which is translated they digged, should be rendered they searched out, which is a frequent meaning of the root; and במשענתם bemishanotham, which we render with their staves, should be translated on their borders or confines, from the root שען shaan, to lie along. With these corrections the whole song may be read thus: - Spring up, O well!”

Numbers 21:20

“In the country of Moab - Rather, in the field of Moab: the upland pastures, or flat downs, intersected by the ravine of Wady Waleh. Pisgah, which looketh toward Jeshimon - Or, “toward the waste.” See Num 33:47. Pisgah was a ridge of the Abarim mountains, westward from Heshbon. From the summit the Israelites gained their first view of the wastes of the Dead Sea and of the valley of the Jordan: and Moses again ascended it, to view, before his death, the land of promise.”

Numbers 21:21

“And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites,.... Who were one of the nations of the Canaanites, and a principal and powerful one, and who were devoted to destruction, and their land designed for the people of Israel; see Gen 15:16, at this time Sihon was their king, to whom Moses, in the name of Israel, sent a very peaceable message from the wilderness of Kedemoth, which lay near his country, Deu 2:26, saying; as follows.”

Numbers 21:22

“Let me pass through thy land,.... Through some part of it, which would have been a shorter way to the river Jordan, over which Israel was to pass into the land of Canaan; the terms proposed, or things to be observed in their passage, which they would bind themselves strictly to, are the same that were made to the king of Edom. See Gill on Num 20:17.”

Numbers 21:23

“And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border,....”

Numbers 21:24

“Jabbok (now Wady Zerka: compare Gen 32:22) runs eastward under Rabbah of the children of Ammon, thence westward, and reaches the Jordan, 45 miles north of the Arnon. It was between Rabbah and Gerasa that it formed the Ammonite boundary.”

Numbers 21:25

“And Israel took all these cities,.... Which lay between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok; their particular names may be seen in Num 32:3, and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites; being given to the Reubenites and Gadites, who inhabited them, as their possession and inheritance, Num 32:2, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof; or "daughters thereof" (q).”

Numbers 21:26

“For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, etc. - It appears therefore that the territory now taken from Sihon by the Israelites was taken from a former king of Moab, in commemoration of which an epikedion or war song was made, several verses of which, in their ancient poetic form, are here quoted by Moses.”

Numbers 21:27

“Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say,.... The historical writers of those times, among the Amorites, who were usually poets, and wrote the history of the wars between the Moabites and Amorites in verse; as Homer among the Greeks wrote the wars of Troy; and the compositions of those ancient bards were short and compendious, and wrapped up in proverbial sayings, and enigmatical and figurative expressions, that they might be the better retained in memory, and therefore were called proverbialists.”

Numbers 21:28

“A fire - The fury of war, which is fitly compared to fire. Out of Heshbon - That city which before was a refuge and defense to all the country, now is turned into a great annoyance.”

Numbers 21:29

“Chemosh - The national God of the Moabites (compare the marginal references). The name probably means “Vanquisher,” or “Master.” The worship of Chemosh was introduced into Israel by Solomon 1Ki 11:7; 2Ki 23:13. It was no doubt to Chemosh that Mesha, king of Moab, offered up his son as a burnt-offering 2Ki 3:26-27. In the first six lines Num 21:27-28 the poet imagines for the Amorites a song of exultation for their victories over Moab, and for the consequent glories of Heshbon, their own capital.”

Numbers 21:30

“Though you feeble Moabites, and your God too, could not resist Sihon, we Israelites, by the help of our God, have shot, with success and victory, at them, at Sihon and his Amorites. Heshbon - The royal city of Sihon, and by him lately repaired, Is perished - Is taken away from Sihon, and so is all his country, even as far as Dibon.”

Numbers 21:31

“Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. Not the land of the Moabites; and by those means before mentioned; by conquering Sihon their king, they came into the possession of it, and took up their dwelling in it; this was the beginning of the conquest of the Canaanites, and an earnest and pledge of inheriting their land promised unto them; the Israelites that dwelt here were the tribes of Reuben and Gad.”

Numbers 21:32

“Jaazer - To he identified probably with the ruins Sir or es-Sir 10 miles north of Heshbon. The occupation of it by the Israelites virtually completed their conquest of the Amorite kingdom; and prepared the way for the pastoral settlements in it which they not long after established Num 32:35.”

Numbers 21:33

“In these apparently unimportant words is contained the record of the Israelite Num 32:39 occupation of Gilead north of the Jabbok; a territory which, though populated, like southern Gilead, by the Amorites (Deu 3:9; Jos 2:10, etc.), formed part of the domain of Og king of Bashan, who was himself of a different race Deu 3:2; Jos 12:5; Jos 13:11. We are not told whether they were led there by express warrant of God, or whether their advance upon Bashan was provoked by Og and his people.”

Numbers 21:34

“And the Lord said unto Moses, fear him not,....”

Numbers 21:35

“So they smote him, and his sons - There is a curious note of Dr. Lightfoot here, of which I should think it wrong to deprive the reader. “Sihon and Og conquered, A. M. 2553. Of the life of Moses, 120. From the Exodus, 40. It is now six and twenty generations from the creation, or from Adam to Moses; and accordingly doth Psalm 136, rehearse the durableness of God’s mercy six and twenty times over, beginning the story with the creation, and ending it in the conquest of Sihon and Og.”