OET-RV NUM Chapter 21

21 When Kanaanite king of Arad who lived by the wilderness, heard that Yisrael was coming on the Atarim road, he attacked them and captured some prisoners.[ref] 2 Then the Israelis promised Yahweh, “If you help us defeat them, then we’ll completely destroy their towns (instead of looting them) as a way of offering them to you.” 3 Yahweh listened to what they said and enabled them to defeat those Kanaanites, then they dedicated the towns to Yahweh and destroyed them, and they named that area ‘Hormah’ (which means ‘Destruction’).

4 Then they all left Mt. Hor by the road going towards the Red Sea to go around Edom, but the people became impatient on the way[ref] 5 and they started to grumble against God and against Mosheh, “Why did you two bring us out of Egypt just to die in the wilderness, because there’s no bread and no water, and our insides detest that tasteless ‘stuff’?”[ref] 6 So Yahweh sent poisonous snakes into the people, and many Israelis were bitten and died.

7 The people came to Mosheh and begged, “We’ve done wrong by speaking out against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh for us to get him to take the snakes away.” So Mosheh prayed on the peoples’ behalf, 8 and Yahweh told him, “Make a model of a snake and put it up on a pole, and so that anyone who gets bitten, can see it and live.” 9 So Mosheh made a snake out of bronze and attached it to the top of a pole, and anyone who was bitten by a snake would recover when they looked towards the bronze snake.[ref]

10 Then the Israelis set off and camped at Ovot. 11 When they left Ovot, they camped at Iye-Haavarim in the wilderness near Moav’s eastern border. 12 From there they set off and camped by the Zared riverbed, 13 before moving on and camping at the north side of the Arnon river, in the wilderness that extends from the Amorite border. (The Arnon is the border between Moav and the Amorites. 14 That’s why it says in the book about Yahweh’s battles:

“Vahev in Sufah, and the riverbeds there, and the Arnon River

15 and the sloping valleys there,

that extend to Ar village along Moav’s border.”)

16 From there they went to the well at Be’er (which means ‘Well’), where Yahweh told Mosheh, “Gather the people, and I’ll give them water.” 17 That’s where the Israelis sang this song:

“Come on, well,

sing for this well.

18 the well dug by the leaders,

≈ the top citizens dug it out.

with their sceptres and their staffs.”

From that wilderness, the people went on to Mattanah, 19 then through Nahaliel and on to Bamot 20 and from there to the valley in the Moav countryside where Mt. Pisgh rises above the desert.

21 Then Yisrael semt messengers to the Amorite King Sihon, 22 “Let us pass through your country. We won’t turn off into any field or vineyard. We won’t take water from any well. We’ll stay on the king’s highway until we’ve exited at your northern border.” 23 However King Sihon refused them permission, then he took his whole army into the wilderness to meet Yisrael, and they attacked them at Yahats village. 24 Nevertheless, Yisrael defeated them in battle and took possession of his land from the Arnon river up as far as Yabok where the Ammonites’ border was well fortified. 25 So Yisrael took those Amorite cities including Hesbon and the surrounding villages, and started living in them. 26 (Heshbon was where the Amorite King Sihon lived, as he’d previously fought against the former king of Moav and captured all his land down as far as the Arnon river. 27 That was why the poets say,

“Come to Heshbon—let it be rebuilt.

≈ Let King Sihon’s city be established

28 because fire went out from Hesbon,

≈ flame from Sihon’s city.

It consumed Ar in Moav,

and the citizens on Arnon’s hilltops.[ref]

29 Moav, you won’t end well.

≈ Kemosh’s people have perished.

He’s made his sons into fugitives,

≈ and given his daughters over to captivity

by the Amorite King Sihon.

30 We’ve overpowered them.

Hesbon has perished as far as Divon

≈ and shattered Nofah as far as Medeva.)

31 So the Israelis lived in the Amorite region 32 and Mosheh sent some men to spy out Yazer, and the captured its villages and drove the Amorites out from there.

33 Then they turned and went up the road towards Bashan, but Bashan’s King Og came out with his army to meet them, and attacked them at Edrei. 34 Yahweh said to Mosheh, “Don’t be afraid of him because I’ve given him and all his people and his land to you, and you’ll be able to do to him what you did to the Amorite King Sihon who lived at Heshbon.” 35 So they overcame King Og and his sons and all his people until there were no remaining survivors, then they took possession of their land.