The Fourth Book of Moses: Numbers

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- Kapitel 21 -

The king of the city of Arad lived in the area where the Canaanites lived, in the southern Judean wilderness. He heard a report that the Israelites were approaching on the road to Atharim village. So his army attacked the Israelites and captured some of them.

Then the Israelites declared this solemnly, “Yahweh, if you will help us to defeat these people, we will completely destroy all their towns.”

Yahweh heard what they requested, and he enabled them to defeat the army of this Canaan people group. The Israelite soldiers killed all the people and destroyed their towns. Ever since that time, that place has been called Hormah which means “destruction.”

The Bronze Serpent

Then the Israelites left Mount Hor and traveled on the road toward the Sea of Reeds, in order to go around the land of Edom. But the people became impatient along the way,

and they began to grumble against God and against Moses. They said, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in this desert? There is nothing to eat here, and nothing to drink. And we detest this lousy manna food!”

So Yahweh sent poisonous snakes among them. Many of the people were bitten by the snakes and died.

Then the people came to Moses and cried out, saying, “We now know that we have sinned against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh, asking that he will take away the snakes!” So Moses prayed for the people.

Then Yahweh told him, “Make a model of a poisonous snake, and attach it to the top of a pole. If those who are bitten by the snakes look at that model, they will recover.”

So Moses made a snake from bronze and attached it to the top of a pole. Then, when those who had been bitten by a snake looked at the bronze snake, they recovered!

The Journey to Moab

Then the Israelites traveled to Oboth and camped there.

Then they left Oboth and went to Iye Abarim in the wilderness on the eastern border of Moab.

From there they traveled to the valley where the Zered riverbed is, and camped there.

Then they traveled to the north side of the Arnon River. That area is in the wilderness next to the land where the Amorites live. The Arnon River is the boundary between Moab and where the Amorites live.

That is why it is written down in the book of the wars of Yahweh, “Waheb in Suphah, and the ravines there, and the Arnon River

and the ravines there, which extend as far as Ar village on the border of Moab.”

From there the Israelites traveled to Beer. There was a well there where Yahweh previously had said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.”

There the Israelites sang this song: “O well, give us water! Sing about this well!

Sing about this well which our leaders dug; they dug out the dirt with their royal scepters and their walking sticks.” Then the Israelites left that wilderness and went through Mattanah.

The Israelites also went throught Nahaliel, and Bamoth village.

Then they went to the valley in Moab where Mount Pisgah rises above the wilderness.

The Defeat of Sihon

(Deuteronomy 2:24–37)

Then the Israelites sent messengers to Sihon, the king of the Amor people group. This was the message that they gave him,

“Allow us to travel through your country. We will stay on the king’s highway, the main road that goes from the south to the north, until we have finished traveling through your land. We will not walk through any field or vineyard, or drink water from your wells.”

But King Sihon refused. He would not allow them to walk through his land. Instead, he sent his whole army to attack the Israelites in the desert. They attacked the Israelites at Jahaz village.

But the Israelites completely defeated them and occupied their land, from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north. They stopped at the border of the land where the Ammon people group lived, because the Ammon army was defending the border strongly.

So the Israelites occupied all the cities and towns where the Amorites lived, and some of the Israelites began to live in them. They occupied the city of Heshbon and the nearby villages.

Heshbon was the capital of the country. It was the city where King Sihon ruled. His army had previously defeated the army of the king of Moab, and then his people had begun to live in all of the land of Moab as far as the Arnon River in the south.

For that reason, one of the poets wrote long ago, “Come to Heshbon, the city where King Sihon ruled. We want the city to be restored.

A fire blazed from Heshbon. It burned down the city of Ar in Moab. It destroyed everything on the hills along the Arnon River.

You people of Moab, terrible things have happened to you! You people who worship your god Chemosh have been annihilated! The men who worshiped Chemosh have run away and are now refugees, and the women who worshiped him have been captured by the army of Sihon, the king of the Amor people group.

But we have defeated those descendants of Amor, all the way from Heshbon in the north to the city of Dibon in the south. We have completely obliterated them as far as the cities of Nophah and Medeba.”

The Defeat of Og

(Deuteronomy 3:1–11)

So the Israelite people began to live in the land where the Amorites lived.

After Moses sent some men to explore the area near the city of Jazer, Israelite people began to live in all the towns in that region and expelled the Amor people group who lived there.

Then they turned north toward the region of Bashan, but King Og of Bashan and all his army attacked them at the city of Edrei.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Do not be afraid of Og, because I am going to enable your men to defeat him and his army, and to take possession of all his land. You will do to him what you did to Sihon, the king of the Amor people group, who ruled in Heshbon.”

And that is what happened. The Israelites defeated Og’s army, and killed King Og and his sons and all his people. Not a person survived! And then the Israelites began to live in their land.

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

Israel vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, “If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.”

The LORD listened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. The name of the place was called Hormah.(a)

The Bronze Serpent

They traveled from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. The soul of the people was very discouraged because of the journey.

The people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, there is no water, and our soul loathes this disgusting food!”

The LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and they bit the people. Many people of Israel died.

The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed for the people.

The LORD said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

Moses made a serpent of bronze, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of bronze, he lived.

The Journey to Moab

The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in Oboth.

They traveled from Oboth, and encamped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrise.

From there they traveled, and encamped in the valley of Zered.

From there they traveled, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

Therefore it is said in The Book of the Wars of the LORD , “Vaheb in Suphah, the valleys of the Arnon,

the slope of the valleys that incline toward the dwelling of Ar, leans on the border of Moab.”

From there they traveled to Beer; that is the well of which the LORD said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.”

Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, well! Sing to it,

the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, and with their poles.” From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah;

and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth;

and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert.

The Defeat of Sihon

(Deuteronomy 2:24–37)

Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,

“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn away into field or 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.”

Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his border, but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Jahaz. He fought against Israel.

Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was fortified.

Israel took all these cities. Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages.

For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even to the Arnon.

Therefore those who speak in proverbs say, “Come to Heshbon. Let the city of Sihon be built and established;

for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.

Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites.

We have shot at them. Heshbon has perished even to Dibon. We have laid waste even to Nophah, Which reaches to Medeba.”

The Defeat of Og

(Deuteronomy 3:1–11)

Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

Moses sent to spy out Jazer. They took its villages, and drove out the Amorites who were there.

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

The LORD said to Moses, “Don’t fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, with all his people, and his land. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”

So they struck him, with his sons and all his people, until there were no survivors; and they possessed his land.

Fußnoten

(a)21:3 “Hormah” means “destruction”.