Numbers 21
35 verses
The bronze serpent (nehustan), crafted by Moses in response to the people's serpent plague, becomes 'a sign of healing' where the bitten people 'looked at the bronze serpent, and lived'—a mechanism of deliverance that is paradoxically a replica of the instrument of death, teaching that faith and obedience (looking toward the prescribed remedy) overcome the poison's lethal power. The serpent becomes a permanent object of veneration (preserved in the temple until King Hezekiah destroys it as an idol in 2 Kings 18:4), and Jesus appropriates the image in John 3:14 ('Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up'), establishing a typological connection between the bronze serpent and Christ's cross. The victories against Sihon and Og—the Amorite and Bashanite kings—mark Israel's first military conquests, transforming the people from wanderers into warriors and establishing the wilderness's final phase as one of territorial acquisition. The poetic fragment ('Come to Heshbon, let it be rebuilt; let Sihon's city be restored,' verses 27–30) preserves what may be an ancient victory song, embedding pre-Israelite or Israelite martial tradition within the Numbers narrative. The settlement pattern—Israel takes possession of the land east of the Jordan, establishing Transjordan as Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh's future inheritance—anticipates the tribal distribution chapters and establishes that the wilderness wandering is concluding. The chapter's pivot from wilderness death (serpent plague) through divine healing (bronze serpent) to military victory (Sihon and Og) to territorial possession models the trajectory of Numbers as a whole: judgment giving way to restoration, wandering culminating in conquest, death followed by life.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
The imagery here is agricultural — the original audience would have immediately understood the metaphor of sowing, waiti...
1
And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners.
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2
And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.
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3
And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.
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4
And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
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5
And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
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6
And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
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7
Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
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8
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
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9
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
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10
And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in Oboth.
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11
And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ije–abarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising.
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12
From thence they removed, and pitched in the valley of Zared.
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13
From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites: for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
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Today it speaks comfort; a year ago it spoke conviction.. Following God is costly, but the reward is eternal.. God is fa...
14
Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,
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15
And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.
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16
And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water.
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17
Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it:
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18
The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves. And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah:
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19
And from Mattanah to Nahaliel: and from Nahaliel to Bamoth:
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20
And from Bamoth in the valley, that is in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looketh toward Jeshimon.
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21
And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,
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22
Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king’s high way, until we be past thy borders.
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23
And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness: and he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel.
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When we read this alongside the surrounding chapters, the narrative arc becomes clear: God is always working redemption,...
24
And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon: for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.
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We bring nothing; He provides everything.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. It implies covenant loyalty, steadfas...
25
And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof.
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26
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 unto Arnon.
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27
Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared:
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28
For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon.
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29
Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites.
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30
We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba.
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31
Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites.
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32
And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there.
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33
And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.
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34
And the Lord said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.
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35
So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none left him alive: and they possessed his land.
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