Numbers 21:1-35
21 * And the Canaanite, the king of ʽArad, who lived in the South, head that the Israelites were coming by the Atharim road; and they attacked the Israelites and took some of them prisoners.
2 And the Israelites made a vow to Jehovah, “If you will give this people into our hands we will destroy their cities without quarter.”
3 And Jehovah complied and gave the Canaanites up, and they destroyed them and their cities without quarter and named the place Hormah.
4 And they marched from Mount Hor on the Red Sea road to go round Edom; and the people grew impatient at the march.
5 And the people talked at God and at Moses, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? because there is no bread and no water, and we are sick of the flitting bread.”
6 And Jehovah turned loose on the people the wildfire-snakes, and they bit the people and many people of Israel died.
7 And the people came to Moses and said “We did wrong to talk at Jehovah and at you; pray to Jehovah and get him to take the snakes off us.” And Moses prayed for the people,
8 and Jehovah said to Moses “Make yourself a wildfire-snake and place it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten and sees it shall get well.”
9 And Moses made a bronze snake and placed it on a pole, and if the snakes had bitten a man and he looked at the bronze snake he got well.
10 And the sons of Israel marched, and camped at Oboth.
11 And they marched from Oboth and camped at ʽIjim across the river in the wilderness to the east of Moab.
12 From there they marched and camped at Zered Arroyo.
13 * From there they marched and camped on the other side of the wilderness course of the Arnon that comes out of the Amorite territory; for the Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
14 That is why it says in the Book of Jehovah’s Wars
“Vaheb in Suphah, and the arroyos of the Arnon,
15 And the arroyo-steep that slants toward the site of ʽAr
And abuts on the border of Moab.”
16 * And from there to Beer; that is the well of which Jehovah said to Moses “Bring the people together and I will give them water.”
17 Then Israel sang this song:
“Come up, well!sing to it!
18 * Well that captains dug,the nobles of the people sank,With a baton, with their staves,from wilderness a gift.”
19 And from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,
20 and from Bamoth to the valley in the Moabite countryside at the head of the Pisgah that faces the Jordan.
21 And the Israelites sent envoys to King Sihon of the Amorites with the message
22 “Let us pass through your country: we will not turn off into field or vineyard, we will not drink well water, we will go by the public road till we are past your territory.”
23 But Sihon would not grant the Israelites passage through his territory; and Sihon brought together all his people and came out to the wilderness meet the Israelites, and came to Jahas and fought the Israelites.
24 An the Israelites defeated him, giving no quarter, and took possession of his country from the Arnon to the Jabbok up to the Bene-ʽAmmon (for Jaʽzer is the boundary of the Bene-ʽAmmon).
25 And the Israelites took all these cities, and the Israelites settled in all the Amorite cities, in Heshbon and all its dependencies,
26 because Heshbon was the capital of King Sihon of the Amorites and he made war on the former king of Moab and took all his country out of his hands up to the Arnon.
27 This is why ballad-singers say
“Come to Heshbon, let it be built upand Sihon’s city be set firm,
28 Because a fire has gone out from Heshbon,a flame from Sihon’s town,It has devoured ʽAr of Moab,the holders of the heights of the Arnon.
29 Alas for you, Moab!lost you are, people of Kemosh!He has given his sons to be fugitivesand his daughters to go into slaveryto King Sihon of the Amorites.
30 *** And their lamp is lost,Heshbon to Dibon,And wasted to Nophahis the steep of Medeba.”
31 And the Israelites settled in the Amorite country.
32 And Moses send to reconnoiter Jaʽzer; and they took its dependencies and dispossessed the Amorites there.
33 And they turned around and went up toward the Bashan, and King ʽOg of the Bashan came out to meet them, he and all his people, to battle at Edreʽi.
34 And Jehovah said to Moses “Do not be afraid of him, because I have given him and all his people into your hands, and his country, and you shall do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, whose capital was Heshbon.”
35 And they defeated him and all his people and killed them till they had left no survivor to him, and took possession of his country.
Footnotes
^ 21:1 Conj. the Canaanites who lived in the South heard
^ 21:13 Lit. the wilderness Arnon that comes
^ 21:16 Beer is Hebrew for well
^ 21:18 Var. and from a wilderness to Mattanah Var. and from Beer to Mattanah (Mattanah is Hebrew for gift)
^ 21:30 Susp.
^ 21:30 Codd.* And we shot at them, Heshbon perished, to Dibon
^ 21:30 Codd. And we wasted (or crashed them down) to Nophah which is to Medeba
