Numbers Chapter 21 — The Bronze Serpent and Victories

¹The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the South, heard that Israel came by the way of Atharim. He fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.

²Israel vowed 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 listened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. The name of the place was called Hormah.*“Hormah” means “destruction”.

⁴They traveled from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. The soul of the people was very discouraged because of the journey.

⁵The 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, there is no water, and our soul loathes this disgusting food!”

⁶The LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and they bit the people. Many people of Israel died.

⁷The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed for the people.

⁸The LORD said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

⁹Moses made a serpent of bronze, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of bronze, he lived.

¹⁰The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in Oboth.

¹¹They traveled from Oboth, and encamped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrise.

¹²From there they traveled, and encamped in the valley of Zered.

¹³From there they traveled, and encamped 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, “Vaheb in Suphah, the valleys of the Arnon,

¹⁵the slope of the valleys that incline toward the dwelling of Ar, leans on the border of Moab.”

¹⁶From there they traveled to Beer; that is the well of which the LORD said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.”

¹⁷Then Israel sang this song:

¹⁸the well, which the princes dug,

¹⁹and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth;

²⁰and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert.

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

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

²³Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his border, but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Jahaz. He fought against Israel.

²⁴Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was fortified.

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

²⁶For 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, even to the Arnon.

²⁷Therefore those who speak in proverbs say,

²⁸for a fire has gone out of Heshbon,

²⁹Woe to you, Moab!

³⁰We have shot at them.

³¹Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

³²Moses sent to spy out Jazer. They took its villages, and drove out the Amorites who were there.

³³They turned and went up by the way of Bashan. Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.

³⁴The LORD said to Moses, “Don’t fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, with all his people, and his land. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”

³⁵So they struck him, with his sons and all his people, until there were no survivors; and they possessed his land.