Numbers 21

Arad Conquered

1When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

2So Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.”

3The Lord heard the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites; then they utterly destroyed them and their cities. Thus the name of the place was called Hormah.

4Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey.

5The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.”

The Bronze Serpent

6The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.

7So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.

8Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.”

9And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.

10Now the sons of Israel moved out and camped in Oboth.

11They journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness which is opposite Moab, to the east.

12From there they set out and camped in Wadi Zered.

13From there they journeyed and camped 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.

14Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord,

“Waheb in Suphah,

And the wadis of the Arnon,

15And the slope of the wadis

That extends to the site of Ar,

And leans to the border of Moab.”

16From there they continued to Beer, that is the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Assemble the people, that I may give them water.”

17Then Israel sang this song:

“Spring up, O well! Sing to it!

18“The well, which the leaders sank,

Which the nobles of the people dug,

With the scepter and with their staffs.”

And from the wilderness they continued to Mattanah,

19and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,

20and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab, at the top of Pisgah which overlooks the wasteland.

Two Victories

21Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying,

22“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn off into field or vineyard; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the king's highway until we have passed through your border.”

23But Sihon would not permit Israel to pass through his border. So Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.

24Then Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon; for the border of the sons of Ammon was Jazer.

25Israel took all these cities and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all her villages.

26For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.

27Therefore those who use proverbs say,

“Come to Heshbon! Let it be built!

So let the city of Sihon be established.

28“For a fire went forth from Heshbon,

A flame from the town of Sihon;

It devoured Ar of Moab,

The dominant heights of the Arnon.

29“Woe to you, O Moab!

You are ruined, O people of Chemosh!

He has given his sons as fugitives,

And his daughters into captivity,

To an Amorite king, Sihon.

30“But we have cast them down,

Heshbon is ruined as far as Dibon,

Then we have laid waste even to Nophah,

Which reaches to Medeba.”

31Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

32Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

33Then they turned and went up by the way of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out with all his people, for battle at Edrei.

34But the Lord said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”

35So they killed him and his sons and all his people, until there was no remnant left him; and they possessed his land.