Numbers 21

Numbers 21:1 When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

Numbers 21:2 And Israel pledged a solemn pledge to Yahveh and said, “If you will really give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.”

Numbers 21:3 And Yahveh heeded the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction. So, the name of the place was called Hormah.

Numbers 21:4 From Mount Hor, they advanced by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the throats became impatient on the way.

Numbers 21:5 And the people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the open country? Because there is no food and no water, and our souls loathe this worthless food.”

Numbers 21:6 Then Yahveh sent fiery snakes among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died.

Numbers 21:7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahveh and you. Pray to Yahveh that he takes away the snakes from us.” So, Moses prayed for the people.

Numbers 21:8 And Yahveh said to Moses, “Make a fiery snake and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it will live.”

Numbers 21:9 So Moses made a bronze snake and set it on a pole. And if a snake bit anyone, he would look at the bronze snake and live.

Numbers 21:10 And the people of Israel advanced and camped in Oboth.

Numbers 21:11 And they advanced from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the open country that is opposite Moab, toward the sunrise.

Numbers 21:12 From there they advanced and camped in the Valley of Zered.

Numbers 21:13 From there, they advanced and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the open country that extends from the border of the Amorites, for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

Numbers 21:14 Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Yahveh, “Waheb in Suphah, and the valleys of the Arnon,

Numbers 21:15 and the slope of the valleys that extends to the seat of Ar and leans to the border of Moab.”

Numbers 21:16 And from there they continued to Beer; that is the well of which Yahveh said to Moses, “Gather the people together, so that I may give them water.”

Numbers 21:17 Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well! — Sing to it! —

Numbers 21:18 the well that the princes made, that the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter and with their staffs.” From the open country, they went on to Mattanah,

Numbers 21:19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,

Numbers 21:20 and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah that looks down on the desert.

Numbers 21:21 Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, and this is what he said,

Numbers 21:22 “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into a field or vineyard. We will not drink the water from a well. We will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.”

Numbers 21:23 But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his people together and went out against Israel to the open country and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.

Numbers 21:24 But Israel defeated him by the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites, because the border of the Ammonites was strong.

Numbers 21:25 And Israel took all these cities, and Israel took possession of all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and all its villages.

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

Numbers 21:27 Therefore the ballad singers say, “Come to Heshbon, let it be built; let the city of Sihon be established.

Numbers 21:28 Because fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It devoured Ar of Moab and swallowed the heights of the Arnon.

Numbers 21:29 Tragedy has come to you, O Moab! You have perished, O people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives and his daughter’s captives to an Amorite king, Sihon.

Numbers 21:30 So we overthrew them; Heshbon, as far as Dibon, perished; and we laid waste as far as Nophah; fire spread as far as Medeba.”

Numbers 21:31 This is how Israel came to possess the land of the Amorites.

Numbers 21:32 And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

Numbers 21:33 Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. And Og, the king of Bashan, came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.

Numbers 21:34 But Yahveh said to Moses, “Do not fear him, because I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land. And you will do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”

Numbers 21:35 So they defeated him and his sons and all his people until he had no remaining survivor. And they possessed his land.

Numbers 21 quotes:

“With the beginning of chapter 21, a new chapter in the story of Israel’s wanderings begins. Up to this point, all the threats to God’s people’s forward progress have been internal (feuds, fights, despair) or, if external (as with Edom in Num. 20), fairly easily avoided. Indeed, the key reason for Israel’s circuitous wanderings, which take up ten verses at the heart of Numbers 21 (vv. 10-20), is its desire, at least while on the east bank of the river Jordan, to “pass through” this territory without a fight. But here, at this point in the journey, the resistance to this priestly nation’s transit in the world stiffens, and its swords are for the first time unsheathed—not against rebels and malcontents in its own ranks, but against a series of three enemies without. They are in order: the king of Arad (“the Canaanite,” 2:1), and the kings of the Amorites and of Bashan, King Sihon and — King Og.”

Boyce Richard Nelson. Leviticus and Numbers. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 194.

“This initial victory was won at the place of earlier defeat. The Lord was assuring them that, in coming days, things would be different. When the Lord gave the Canaanites over to them (3) it was an immense boost to their morale. This first conquest became the precursor of later triumphs (21:21-35). On the threshold of Canaan, the Lord was assuring them that, by his grace and in his power, life could be different.”

Brown Raymond. The Message of Numbers : Journey to the Promised Land. InterVarsity Press 2002. p. 183.

“God did not argue with them. He just acted. What He did was to send fiery serpents among them. When bitten by these serpents, many of the people died. This was all part of the judgment of God.”

Gutzke, Manford George. Plain Talk on Leviticus and Numbers. Zondervan Pub. House., 1981. p. 115.

“The people sought relief and confessed their sin to Moses, asking him to pray to remove the snakes. Moses prayed for them, and God answered by instructing Moses to make a snake and put it up on a pole. Whoever looked at the pole would recover from the snakebite. The Lord had them construct the bronze snake as “an emblem of healing rather than an object of veneration” (Harrison, 278). But later the Israelites, probably under the influence of Canaanite religion, worshiped and burned incense to this object. Still later, godly King Hezekiah destroyed the serpent (2 Kgs. 18:4).”

Martin, Glen, and Max E. Anders. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Broadman & Holman, 2002. p. 332.

“Here is the Gospel, preached in plainest language, by object-lesson again. The Israelites were bitten by the serpent, and were dying. God lifted up the remedy, upon which if they would but look, they might live. Just so, the old Serpent has bitten everyone of the human race and they are dying. God lifted up the remedy — Christ Jesus, upon whom if one but looks with the eye of faith he lives.

Saxe, Grace. Studies in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Grace Saxe, 1921. p. 45.

Numbers 21 links:

a hopeful walk
bless us with boring
faith to destroy
having life, or awaiting wrath
recover, remember
Spring up, Oh Well
The dead will hear, and come out
The desert snake
when his enemies attack

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Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, May 4, 2021

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The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library

Numbers 20

Numbers 20:1 And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the open country of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there.

Numbers 20:2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they collected themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

Numbers 20:3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “We should have expired when our brothers expired at the face of Yahveh!

Numbers 20:4 Why have you brought the congregation of Yahveh into this open country, that we die here, both we and our animals?

Numbers 20:5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.”

Numbers 20:6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the congregation to the entrance of the conference tent and fell on their faces. And the impressive appearance of Yahveh appeared to them,

Numbers 20:7 and Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,

Numbers 20:8 “Take the staff, and collect the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock in the sight of their eyes to yield its water. So, you will bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their animals.”

Numbers 20:9 And Moses took the staff from in the sight of Yahveh, as he commanded him.

Numbers 20:10 Then Moses and Aaron collected the congregation together in the sight of the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: must we bring water for you out of this rock?”

Numbers 20:11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out copiously, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

Numbers 20:12 And Yahveh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you will not bring this congregation into the land that I have given them.”

Numbers 20:13 This is the water of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with Yahveh, and through them he showed himself holy.

Numbers 20:14 Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “This is what your brother Israel says: You know all the hardship that we have encountered:

Numbers 20:15 how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. And the Egyptians treated us and our fathers cruelly.

Numbers 20:16 And when we cried to Yahveh, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory.

Numbers 20:17 Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from a well. We will go along the King’s Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.”

Numbers 20:18 But Edom said to him, “You will not pass through, or else I will come out with the sword against you.”

Numbers 20:19 And the people of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.”

Numbers 20:20 But he said, “You will not pass through.” And Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force.

Numbers 20:21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory, so Israel turned away from him.

Numbers 20:22 And they advanced from Kadesh, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.

Numbers 20:23 And Yahveh said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom,

Numbers 20:24 “Let Aaron be gathered to his people, because he will not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the water of Meribah.

Numbers 20:25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up to Mount Hor.

Numbers 20:26 And strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron will be gathered to his people and will die there.”

Numbers 20:27 Moses did as Yahveh commanded. And they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.

Numbers 20:28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

Numbers 20:29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron had expired, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.

Numbers 20 quotes:

“What’s bad news for Moses is good news te us. Why? If one of the leaders (in contrast to subordinates and future leaders like Joshua and Caleb?) had managed to make it over the Jordan by his or her merit alone, then the challenge to be holy as the Lord is holy would simply come to us at face value. But even Moses fails, and even Moses is remembered more for his “attitude” toward God (“whom the Lord knew face to face”; Deut. 34:10) than for his “aptitude for holiness.” All of our lives and actions are meant to reflect the holiness of the Lord in our midst, and yet this remains a bar too high for any of us to attain.”

Boyce Richard Nelson. Leviticus and Numbers. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 190.

“Israel’s leader must have faced many a day with a heavy heart. These biblical characters did not belong to a make-believe world where, because they loved God, everything automatically went well for them. Their experience hardly supports the optimistic euphoria of the ‘prosperity theology’ people, with their assurance of health and wealth. The Bible is more realistic and more honest.”

Brown Raymond. The Message of Numbers : Journey to the Promised Land. InterVarsity Press 2002. p. 173.

“The higher up a person is, the heavier the blow falls. Those who belong to congregations have pastors and officers, who carry extra responsibility. These leaders are not as free as others. Because of the load that is on them, they must walk carefully.”

Gutzke, Manford George. Plain Talk on Leviticus and Numbers. Zondervan Pub. House., 1981. p. 113.

“Instead of speaking to the rock as God had instructed him, Moses struck the rock twice with his staff. He thundered at them for their wrangling: Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock? He uncharacteristically disobeyed the clear instructions of the Lord. Moses, it appeared, was angrier than God with the complaining throngs. Water flowed from the rock and the people drank, but the damage was done. The Lord pronounced a sentence on Moses and told him he would not enter the promised land with the people. The place was therefore named Meribah, meaning “to strive.”

Martin, Glen, and Max E. Anders. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Broadman & Holman, 2002. p. 331.

“It would seem that Moses perfectly understood these instructions, and followed them exactly (vv. 9, 10) until he stands before the assembled multitude ; but as he beholds the people, and perhaps remembers how, from the time they started from Egypt, they have blamed him for everything that went wrong, he seems to be carried away in a perfect storm of pride and passion, and instead of speaking to the rock he speaks to the people, and takes his own rod, and smites the rock twice (v. 10).”

Saxe, Grace. Studies in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Grace Saxe, 1921. p. 44.

Numbers 20 links:

“To be gathered to his people”
a hopeful walk
all about a Promise (part 1)
Excursus- “To Be Gathered”
great miracle, great tragedy
last climb
request refused

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Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, May 4, 2023

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The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library

Numbers 19

Numbers 19:1 Then Yahveh spoke to Moses and Aaron, and this is what he said,

Numbers 19:2 “This is the prescription of the instruction that Yahveh has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a perfect red heifer, in which there is no flaw, and on which a yoke has never been placed.

Numbers 19:3 And you will give it to Eleazar, the priest, and it will be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in the sight of him.

Numbers 19:4 And Eleazar the priest will take some of its blood with his finger and spritz some of its blood toward the front of the conference tent seven times.

Numbers 19:5 And the heifer will be burned in his sight. Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, will be burned.

Numbers 19:6 And the priest will take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn and toss them into the fire burning the heifer.

Numbers 19:7 Then the priest will wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward, he may come into the camp. But the priest will be contaminated until evening.

Numbers 19:8 The one who burns the heifer will wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and will be contaminated until evening.

Numbers 19:9 And a man who is pure will gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a pure place. And they will be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a failure offering.

Numbers 19:10 And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer will wash his clothes and be contaminated until evening. And this will be a permanent prescription for the people of Israel and for the foreign guest who sojourns among them.

Numbers 19:11 “Whoever touches the dead throat of any human will be contaminated seven days.

Numbers 19:12 He will purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be pure. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and the seventh day, he will not become pure.

Numbers 19:13 Whoever touches a dead throat of any human who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of Yahveh, and that throat will be eliminated from Israel; because the water for impurity was not tossed on him, he will be contaminated. His contamination is still on him.

Numbers 19:14 “This is the instruction when a human dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be contaminated for seven days.

Numbers 19:15 And every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is contaminated.

Numbers 19:16 Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally or touches a human bone or a grave will be contaminated for seven days.

Numbers 19:17 For the contaminated they will take some ashes of the burnt failure offering, and fresh water will be added in a vessel.

Numbers 19:18 Then a pure person will take hyssop and dip it in the water and spritz it on the tent and all the furnishings and on the throats who were there and on whoever touched the bone, or the slain or the dead or the grave.

Numbers 19:19 And the pure person will spritz it on the contaminated on the third day and the seventh day. Thus, on the seventh day, he will purify him, and he will wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and in the evening, he will be pure.

Numbers 19:20 “If the man who is contaminated does not purify himself, that throat will be eliminated from the midst of the collected assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahveh. Because the water for impurity has not been tossed on him, he is contaminated.

Numbers 19:21 And it will be a permanent prescription for them. The one who spritzes the water for impurity will wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity will be contaminated until evening.

Numbers 19:22 And whatever the contaminated person touches will be contaminated, and any throat who touches it will be contaminated until evening.”

Numbers 19 quotes:

“But now, all the people — priests, Levites, and Nazirites included—find themselves in a camp with 14,700 corpses (Num. 16:49), plus the ashes of the 250 (16:35), and Korah and crowd underfoot (16:31-33)! How will any of them ever approach the Lord in this state, without making further additions to the casualties?”

Boyce Richard Nelson. Leviticus and Numbers. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 184.

“With such a recurrent emphasis on death it is natural that, at this point in the story, some instruction should be given to the Israelite people about how they should react to the presence of a dead body.”

Brown Raymond. The Message of Numbers : Journey to the Promised Land. InterVarsity Press 2002. p. 162.

“Many times people will wonder whether a person may be completely forgiven for having done wrong. Any person not only can be forgiven, but he can be completely cleansed, as was done here.

Gutzke, Manford George. Plain Talk on Leviticus and Numbers. Zondervan Pub. House., 1981. p. 109.

“A red heifer ritual cleansed the Israelites from ceremonial defilement.”

Martin, Glen, and Max E. Anders. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Broadman & Holman, 2002. p. 329.

“In chapter 19 God gives a standing ordinance for the purification of all uncleannesses, in the water of separation made of the ashes of a red heifer. By comparing Heb. 9:11-13 we see that this sacrifice, like all the others, pointed to Christ. This ceremony showed the purifying effect of the ashes of the sin-offering when applied to man by water, and typified the purifying effect which the remembrance of our Sin-offering (Christ) has, when applied by the Spirit.”

Saxe, Grace. Studies in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Grace Saxe, 1921. p. 43.

Numbers 19 links:

a maintained walk
contaminated by death
Dead souls, dying souls
looking beyond death

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Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, May 3, 2021
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, May 1, 2019

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The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library