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Numbers 21

Numbers 21 places Israel’s rebellion and confession within an account of God’s judgment, provision, and victories over opposing kings.

The king of Arad attacks Israel and takes captives; Israel vows to destroy his cities, and YHWH grants victory. As the people go around Edom, discouragement turns into speech against God and Moses. YHWH sends venomous snakes, then provides a means of survival after the people confess. Israel continues through the wilderness, sings at a well where God promises water, and defeats Sihon and Og, taking their lands. These victories include the destruction of cities and their people.

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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.
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.
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: “Spring up, well! Sing to it,
18the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, and with their poles.” From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah;
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,
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.
27Therefore those who speak in proverbs say, “Come to Heshbon. Let the city of Sihon be built and established;
28for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.
29Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites.
30We have shot at them. Heshbon has perished even to Dibon. 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. 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.
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Key verses
Numbers 21:5The people’s contempt for their food turns their discouragement into an accusation against God and Moses.
Numbers 21:7Their confession names the wrong they have done, and Moses prays for the people who spoke against him.
Numbers 21:8God provides a way for bitten people to live, making survival depend on the remedy he commands.
Where this chapter reaches

Deuteronomy recounts the defeats of Sihon and Og, and Joshua recalls those victories as news that reached other peoples before Israel crossed the Jordan. John connects Moses lifting up the serpent with the Son of Man being lifted up, linking that event with life through faith.

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After reading the whole chapter

What changes between the people’s accusation in verse 5 and their confession in verse 7?

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How does the song at the well affect your reading of Israel’s earlier complaint about water?

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Questions people ask about Numbers 21

Why did God send snakes in Numbers 21?

YHWH sends venomous snakes after the people speak against him and Moses, accusing them of bringing Israel into the wilderness to die and expressing contempt for their food. The people then confess that their speech was sin. The sequence presents the snakes as divine judgment on that rebellion.

What does the bronze serpent mean in Numbers 21?

The bronze serpent is the means God commands Moses to provide for people bitten by snakes. Those who look at it live, according to God’s promise. The account locates this provision in God’s command and mercy. John later connects Moses lifting up the serpent with the Son of Man being lifted up.

What is the Book of the Wars of YHWH?

Numbers 21 names this book as the source of a short passage about places near the Arnon, the boundary between Moab and the Amorites. Its title suggests a collection concerning YHWH’s battles. The chapter does not identify its author or date, and no complete copy is known to survive.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).