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    Numbers · 35 verses

    Numbers 21

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    The chapter

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    A bronze snake is raised on a pole, and the bitten live by looking at it; the story offers the cure with splendid confidence and no explanation at all.

    A vow, a plague, and an unexpected remedyvv. 1–9

    The king of Arad attacks Israel on the road to Atharim and captures prisoners. Israel vows that, if delivered, it will devote the Canaanite cities to destruction; the LORD hears, delivers the Canaanites, and the place is named Hormah. Then, while travelling round Edom, the people complain about the wilderness, the bread, the water, and the wretched food, whereupon venomous snakes arrive. The people confess and Moses intercedes. The remedy is a fiery serpent on a pole: look at it and live. Moses makes the object in bronze, and the arrangement works exactly as announced.

    A journey with a well in itvv. 10–20

    Israel moves by stages through Oboth, Iye-abarim, the Valley of Zered, and the wilderness beyond the Arnon, whose border is carefully described. At Beer, the LORD tells Moses to gather the people for water, and Israel answers with a song inviting the well to spring up. The song credits princes and nobles with digging it using scepters and staffs, which is a wonderfully ceremonial sort of excavation. The journey continues through Mattanah, Nahaliel, and Bamoth to the valley in Moab beneath the top of Pisgah.

    The polite request that became a kingdomvv. 21–35

    Israel asks Sihon for nothing more dramatic than passage through his territory, promising not to enter fields or vineyards or drink from wells. Sihon answers with his whole army at Jahaz, and loses both the battle and his land, including Heshbon and its villages. The poets then give the victory a blazing song, in which Heshbon's fire consumes Ar of Moab and Moab's people lament. Israel settles in the Amorite land, captures the villages of Jazer, and drives out the Amorites there. At Edrei, Og king of Bashan brings out his army; the LORD tells Moses not to fear him, and Israel strikes down Og, his sons, and the whole army.

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Num 21:1When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked Israel and captured some prisoners.

    2. Num 21:2So Israel made a vow to the LORD: “If You will deliver this people into our hands, we will devote their cities to destruction.”

    3. Num 21:3And the LORD heard Israel’s plea and delivered up the Canaanites. Israel devoted them and their cities to destruction; so they named the place Hormah.

    4. Num 21:4Then they set out from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, in order to bypass the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient on the journey

    5. Num 21:5and spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!”

    6. Num 21:6So the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.

    7. Num 21:7Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Intercede with the LORD so He will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses interceded for the people.

    8. Num 21:8Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.”

    9. Num 21:9So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. If anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze snake, he would live.

    10. Num 21:10Then the Israelites set out and camped at Oboth.

    11. Num 21:11They journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim in the wilderness opposite Moab to the east.

    12. Num 21:12From there they set out and camped in the Valley of Zered.

    13. Num 21:13From there they moved on and camped on the other side of the Arnon, in the wilderness that extends into the Amorite territory. Now the Arnon is the border between the Moabites and the Amorites.

    14. Num 21:14Therefore it is stated in the Book of the Wars of the LORD: “Waheb in Suphah and the wadis of the Arnon,

    15. Num 21:15even the slopes of the wadis that extend to the site of Ar and lie along the border of Moab.”

    16. Num 21:16From there they went on to Beer, the well where the LORD said to Moses, “Gather the people so that I may give them water.”

    17. Num 21:17Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well, all of you sing to it!

    18. Num 21:18The princes dug the well; the nobles of the people hollowed it out with their scepters and with their staffs.” From the wilderness the Israelites went on to Mattanah,

    19. Num 21:19and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,

    20. Num 21:20and from Bamoth to the valley in Moab where the top of Pisgah overlooks the wasteland.

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

    22. Num 21:22“Let us pass through your land. We will not turn aside into any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will stay on the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.”

    23. Num 21:23But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory. Instead, he gathered his whole army and went out to confront Israel in the wilderness. When he came to Jahaz, he fought against Israel.

    24. Num 21:24And Israel put him to the sword and took possession of his land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok—but only up to the border of the Ammonites, because it was fortified.

    25. Num 21:25Israel captured all the cities of the Amorites and occupied them, including Heshbon and all its villages.

    26. Num 21:26Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land as far as the Arnon.

    27. Num 21:27That is why the poets say: “Come to Heshbon, let it be rebuilt; let the city of Sihon be restored.

    28. Num 21:28For a fire went out from Heshbon, a blaze from the city of Sihon. It consumed Ar of Moab, the rulers of Arnon’s heights.

    29. Num 21:29Woe to you, O Moab! You are destroyed, O people of Chemosh! He gave up his sons as refugees, and his daughters into captivity to Sihon king of the Amorites.

    30. Num 21:30But we have overthrown them; Heshbon is destroyed as far as Dibon. We demolished them as far as Nophah, which reaches to Medeba.”

    31. Num 21:31So Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

    32. Num 21:32After Moses had sent spies to Jazer, Israel captured its villages and drove out the Amorites who were there.

    33. Num 21:33Then they turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og king of Bashan and his whole army came out to meet them in battle at Edrei.

    34. Num 21:34But the LORD said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, along with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”

    35. Num 21:35So they struck down Og, along with his sons and his whole army, until no remnant was left. And they took possession of his land.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 285 passages were voted onto 32 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 8John 3:14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
    • 9Hebrews 12:2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
    • 9John 6:40For it is My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
    • 92 Kings 18:4He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.
    • 61 Corinthians 10:9We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes.
    • 9John 12:32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to Myself.”
    • 7Acts 8:24Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”
    • 9Isaiah 45:22Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
    • 4Exodus 6:9Moses relayed this message to the Israelites, but on account of their broken spirit and cruel bondage, they did not listen to him.
    • 6Jeremiah 8:17“For behold, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the LORD.
    • 6Deuteronomy 8:15He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.
    • 8Psalms 106:43–45Many times He rescued them, but they were bent on rebellion and sank down in their iniquity.
    • 9Romans 8:3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,
    • 4Judges 11:18Then Israel traveled through the wilderness and bypassed the lands of Edom and Moab. They came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, since the Arnon was its border.
    • 92 Corinthians 5:21God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
    • 7Exodus 8:8Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people. Then I will let your people go, that they may sacrifice to the LORD.”

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