21
📚And when king Arad the Canaanite, who lived in the south, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. 2 📚And Israel made a vow to the LORD and said, “If you completely deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities”. 3 📚And the LORD listened 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.The bronze snake
4 📚And they set out from mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom; and the mind of the people was very vexed on the way.
21:4 Deut 2:8. Impatience can be one cause of grievous sin (Israel – Ex 32:1; Moses – Num 20:10-11; Saul – 1 Sam 13:8-13. See also Ps 37:7-8; Jam 1:2-4).⚜
5 📚And 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, and there is no water, and our soul loathes this miserable food”.
21:5 Num 11:4-6; 14:2-3; 16:41; 20:2-5. In the desert the Israelites complained about their difficulties, their food, the strength of their enemies, God’s judgments, and conditions in the desert. In other words, they complained about God’s leading for them, God’s provision for them, God’s choice of a place for them, and God’s appointed leader for them. Such complaining is a very grievous sin.⚜
6 📚And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many people of Israel died. 7 📚Therefore the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, so that he will take away the serpents from us”. And Moses prayed for the people.
8 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and put it up on a pole. And it will come about that anyone who is bitten will live when he looks at it”. 9 📚And Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and it happened that if a serpent bit anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent he lived.
21:6-9 Sin brings judgment. Sin is like the poison of a snake. All men have been bitten by the “serpent” of Rev 12:9, and have the poison of sin in their natures and are in a state of death (Gen 2:17; 3:1-8; Eph 2:1-5). For the snake-bitten Israelites in the desert there was one and only one remedy for their condition. They had to believe what God said and look at the serpent of brass on the pole.
All this speaks of God’s remedy for sin through Christ, as He Himself said (see John 3:14-15). Our sins were laid on Him and he was “made sin” for us (Rom 8:3; 2 Cor 5:21). The remedy in the desert was revealed to the Israelites when they confessed their sin and cried for help (v 7). So it will be now with God’s remedy in Christ for our sin. When we recognize our sin and our need and call to God for salvation He hears us. Simply looking in repentance and faith at Christ on the cross bearing our sins brings salvation. Salvation is by grace and received through faith (Rom 3:22-25; 10:10-13; Eph 2:8-9; Col 1:21-23).⚜
The journey to Moab
10 📚And the children of Israel set out and camped in Oboth. 11 And they set out from Oboth, and camped at Ijeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward sunrise. 12 📚They moved on from there and camped in the valley of Zered. 13 📚They moved on from there and camped on the other side of the Arnon river, in the wilderness that extends from the territory of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. 14 📚Therefore 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,
21:14 Nothing is known about this book, and the Hebrew of verses 14,15 is somewhat obscure in meaning.⚜
15 📚and at the slope of the ravine that goes down to the site of Ar, and lies on the border of Moab”.
16 📚And from there they went to Beer. That is the well about which the LORD spoke to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water”.
21:16 God knew their need and would supply it, so there was never a reason for them to complain (compare Phil 4:19).⚜
17 📚Then Israel sang this song, “Spring up, O well! Sing to it! 18 📚The leaders dug the well, the nobles of the people sank it with their staves at the word of the lawgiver”. And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah; 19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; 20 📚and from Bamoth in the valley that is in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks toward Jeshimon.
The defeat of Sihon and Og
21 📚And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,
21:21 The Amorites were a people whose sin was now full and ripe for God’s judgment (Gen 15:16; Ex 23:23; note at Gen 6:7).⚜
22 📚“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards. We will not drink the water of the wells; but we will travel by the king’s highway until we pass through your territory”.
23 📚But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory, but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out into the wilderness against Israel; and he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 24 📚And Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from Arnon to Jabbok, as far as the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was fortified. 25 📚And Israel took all these cities, and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its surrounding villages. 26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites. He had fought against the former king of Moab and captured all his land from his hand, as far as the Arnon.
27 📚Therefore those who speak in proverbs say,
“Come to Heshbon,
let the city of Sihon be built
and established!
28 📚For a fire has gone
out of Heshbon,
a flame from the city of Sihon.
It has consumed Ar of Moab,
and the lords of the high places
of Arnon.
29 📚Woe to you, Moab!
You are undone,
O people of Chemosh 📖.
He has given his sons
and his daughters
who escaped into captivity
to Sihon king
of the Amorites.
30 📚But we have overthrown them.
Heshbon is ruined
as far as Dibon,
and we have laid them waste
as far as Nophah,
which reaches to Medeba”.
Israel Conquers Og of Bashan
31 📚So Israel lived in the land
of the Amorites.
32 📚And Moses sent men to spy out Jaazer, and they captured its villages, and drove out the Amorites who were there. 33 📚And they turned and ascended by way of Bashan; and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.
34 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon”.
35 📚So they struck him down along with his sons, and all his people, until there was none of his left alive; and they took possession of his land.
21:35 The victory over these two mighty kings, Sihon and Og, was much celebrated and remembered in Israel (Deut 31:3-6; Neh 9:22; Ps 135:10-12; 136:18-20). This event struck fear into the hearts of the people living in Canaan (Josh 2:10; 9:10).⚜