King Arad is overcome. The people murmur and are punished with fiery serpents: they are healed by the brazen serpent. They conquer the kings Sehon and Og.
Israelites at the first encounter with the Chananeites hauing the worse, after their vow kil the King of Arad, and destroy his cities. 4. The people againe murmuring are stricken with firie serpents, 7. but confessing their fault, Moyses by Gods commandment setteth vp a brasen serpent for a remedie. 10. They march through diuers places. 17. and sing a Canticle at a wel which God gaue them. 21. They kil Sehon King of the Amorreites, and conquer his land. 33. Likwise Og King of Basan.
1And when king Arad the Chanaanite, who dwelt towards the south, had heard this, to wit, that Israel was come by the way of the spies, he fought against them, and overcoming them carried off their spoils.Or il re di Arad Cananeo, il quale abitava verso mezzodì, avendo udito come gl'Israeliti erano venuti per la strada degli esploratori, diede loro battaglia, e li vinse, e ne riportò della preda.VVHICH when the Chananeite king of Arad, who dwelt toward the south, had heard, to wit, that Israel was come by the way of the spies, he fought against them, and being victour, he tooke the pray of them.Quod cum audisset Chananæus rex Arad, qui habitabat ad meridiem, venisse scilicet Israël per exploratorum viam, pugnavit contra illum, et victor existens, duxit ex eo prædam. 2But Israel binding himself by vow to the Lord, said: If thou wilt deliver this people into my hand, I will utterly destroy their cities.Allora Israele fece voto al Signore, e disse: Se tu darai nelle mie mani questo popolo, io distruggerò le sue città.But Israel binding himself, by vow to our Lord, said: If thou wilt deliuer this people into my hand, I wil destroy their cities.At Israël voto se Domino obligans, ait: Si tradideris populum istum in manu mea, delebo urbes ejus. 3And the Lord heard the prayers of Israel, and delivered up the Chanaanite, and they cut them off and destroyed their cities: and they called the name of that place Horma, that is to say, Anathema.E il Signore esaudì le preghiere d'Israele, e diegli in suo potere il Cananeo, il quale egli uccise, distrasse le sue città, e pose a quel luogo il nome di Horma, vale a dire Anatema.And our Lord heard the prayers of Israel, and deliuered the Chananeite, whom they slew ouerthrowing their cities: and they called the name of that place Horma, that is to say, Anathema.Exaudivitque Dominus preces Israël, et tradidit Chananæum, quem ille interfecit subversis urbibus ejus: et vocavit nomen loci illius Horma, id est, anathema. 4And they marched from mount Hor, by the way that leadeth to the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom. And the people began to be weary of their journey and labour:E partirono poi dal monte Hor per la strada, che conduce al mar Rosso per fare il giro della terra di Edom. E il popolo cominciò ad annoiarsi del viaggio, e delle fatiche:And they marched also from the mountaine Hor, by the way that leadeth to the Redde sea, that they might compasse the land of Edom. And the people began to be wearie of the iourney and labour:Profecti sunt autem et de monte Hor, per viam quæ ducit ad mare Rubrum, ut circumirent terram Edom. Et tædere cœpit populum itineris ac laboris:
5And speaking against God and Moses, they said: Why didst thou bring us out of Egypt, to die in the wilderness? There is no bread, nor have we any waters: our soul now loatheth this very light food.E parlarono contro Dio, e contro Mosè, e dissero: Perché ci hai tu tratti fuor dell'Egitto, affinché morissimo in un deserto? Ci manca il pane, non ci è acqua: ci fa già nausea questo leggerissimo cibo.and speaking against God and Moyses, they said: Why didst thou bring vs out of Aegypt, to die in the wildernesse? There wanteth bread, waters there are none: our soule now lotheth at this most light meate.locutusque contra Deum et Moysen, ait: Cur eduxisti nos de Ægypto, ut moreremur in solitudine ? deest panis, non sunt aquæ: anima nostra jam nauseat super cibo isto levissimo. 6Wherefore the Lord sent among the people fiery serpents, which bit them and killed many of them.Per la qual cosa il Signore mandò contro del popolo serpenti, che bruciavano, e moltissimi essendo piagati da questi, e morendo,Wherfore our Lord sent vpon the people firie serpentes, at whose plagues and the deathes of verie manie,Quam ob rem misit Dominus in populum ignitos serpentes, ad quorum plagas et mortes plurimorum, 7Upon which they came to Moses, and said; We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and thee: pray that he may take away these serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.Andò il popolo da Mosè, e disse: Abbiam peccato, perché abbiam parlato contro il Signore, e contro te: pregalo, che allontani da noi i serpenti. E Mosè fece orazione pel popolo,they came to Moyses, and said: We haue sinned, because we haue spoken against our Lord and thee Pray that he take from vs the serpentes. And Moyses prayed for the people,venerunt ad Moysen, atque dixerunt: Peccavimus, quia locuti sumus contra Dominum et te: ora ut tollat a nobis serpentes. Oravitque Moyses pro populo, 8And the Lord said to him: Make a brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign: whosoever being struck shall look on it, shall live.E il Signore gli disse: Fa' un serpente di bronzo, e ponlo come segno: chiunque essendo ferito lo mirerà, avrà vita.and our Lord spake to him: Make a brasen serpent, and sette in for a signe: he that being striken looketh on it, shal liue.et locutus est Dominus ad eum: Fac serpentem æneum, et pone eum pro signo: qui percussus aspexerit eum, vivet. 9Moses therefore made a brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign: which when they that were bitten looked upon, they were healed.Fece adunque Mosè un serpente di bronzo, e lo pose come segno: e mirandolo quelli che eran piagati, ricuperavan la sanità.Moyses therfore made A BRASEN SERPENT, and set it for a signe: whom when they that were striken, looked on, they were healed.Fecit ergo Moyses serpentem æneum, et posuit eum pro signo: quem cum percussi aspicerent, sanabantur.
10And the children of Israel setting forwards camped in Oboth.E partiti i figliuoli d'Israele posero il campo in Oboth.And the children of Israel marching camped in Oboth.Profectique filii Israël castrametati sunt in Oboth. 11And departing thence they pitched their tents in Jeabarim, in the wilderness, that faceth Moab toward the east.E sloggiati da questo luogo piantaron le tende in Jeabarim nella solitudine, che guarda Moab verso l'oriente.Whence departing they pitched their tentes in Ieabarim, in the wildernesse, that looketh toward Moab against the east part.Unde egressi fixere tentoria in Jeabarim, in solitudine quæ respicit Moab contra orientalem plagam. 12And removing from thence, they came to the torrent Zared:E si mossero di là, e giunsero al torrente Zared.And remouing from thence, they came to the Torrent Zared.Et inde moventes, venerunt ad torrentem Zared. 13Which they left and encamped over against Arnon, which is in the desert and standeth out on the borders of the Amorrhite. For Arnon is the border of Moab, dividing the Moabites and the Amorrhites.Lasciato il quale andarono ad accamparsi dirimpetto al fiume Arnon, che è nel deserto, e sta sui confini degli Amorrei: perocché l'Arnon è il confine di Moab, e divide i Moabiti dagli Amorrei.Which they forsaking camped against Arnon, which is in the desert, & standeth out in the borders of the Amorrheite. For Arnon is the border of Moab, diuiding the Moabites & the Amorrheites.Quem relinquentes castrametati sunt contra Arnon, quæ est in deserto, et prominet in finibus Amorrhæi. Siquidem Arnon terminus est Moab, dividens Moabitas et Amorrhæos. 14Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord: As he did in the Red Sea, so will he do in the streams of Arnon.Quindi si dice nel libro delle guerre del Signore: Come ei fece al mar Rosso, così farà nel torrente Arnon.Wherof it is said in the booke of the warres of our Lord: As he did in the Redde sea, so wil he doe in the streames of Arnon.Unde dicitur in libro bellorum Domini: Sicut fecit in mari Rubro, / sic faciet in torrentibus Arnon. 15The rocks of the torrents were bowed down that they might rest in Ar, and lie down in the borders of the Moabites.I sassi de' torrenti si ruotolano per fermarsi in Ar, e posarsi su' confini de' Moabiti.The rockes of the torrentes were bowed, that they might rest in Ar, and lie in the borders of the Moabites.Scopuli torrentium inclinati sunt, ut requiescerent in Ar, / et recumberent in finibus Moabitarum.
16When they went from that place, the well appeared whereof the Lord said to Moses: Gather the people together, and I will give them water.Di lì andando innanzi si vide il pozzo, di cui avea detto il Signore a Mosè: Rauna il popolo, e io darogli dell'acqua.From that place appeared the wel, wherof our Lord spake to Moyses: Gather the people together, and I wil geue them water.Ex eo loco apparuit puteus, super quo locutus est Dominus ad Moysen: Congrega populum, et dabo ei aquam. 17Then Israel sung this song: Let the well spring up. They sung thereto:Allora Israele cantò quell'inno: Scaturisca il pozzo. Cantavano essi:Then Israel sang this verse: Arise the wel. They sang therto:Tunc cecinit Israël carmen istud: Ascendat puteus. Concinebant: 18The well, which the princes dug, and the chiefs of the people prepared by the direction of the lawgiver, and with their staves. And they marched from the wilderness to Mathana.Il pozzo scavato dai principi, e preparato dai capi del popolo mediante il dator della legge, e mediante le loro verghe. Da quella solitudine andarono a Matthana.The wel, which the princes digged, and the captaines of the multitude prepared in the law geuer, and in their staues. And they marched from the wildernesse to Mathana.Puteus, quem foderunt principes / et paraverunt duces multitudinis / in datore legis, et in baculis suis. De solitudine, Matthana. 19From Mathana unto Nahaliel: from Nahaliel unto Bamoth.Da Matthana a Nahaliel: da Nahaliel a Bamoth.From Mathana vnto Nahaliel: from Nahaliel vnto Bamoth.De Matthana in Nahaliel: de Nahaliel in Bamoth. 20From Bamoth, is a valley in the country of Moab, to the top of Phasga, which looked towards the desert.Da Bamoth vi è una valle del paese di Moab sulla cima del Phasga, il quale è verso il deserto.From Bamoth is a valley in the countrie of Moab, in the toppe of Phasga, which looketh toward the desert.De Bamoth, vallis est in regione Moab, in vertice Phasga, quod respicit contra desertum. 21And Israel sent messengers to Sehon king of the Amorrhites, saying:E Israele spedì ambasciatori a Sehon re degli Amorrei per dirgli:And Israel sent messengers to Sehon King of the Amorrheites, saying:Misit autem Israël nuntios ad Sehon regem Amorrhæorum, dicens: 22I beseech thee that I may have leave to pass through thy land: we will not go aside into the fields or the vineyards, we will not drink waters of the wells, we will go the king’s highway, till we be past thy borders.Io ti supplico, che mi lasci passare per la tua terra: noi non ci svieremo pei campi, né pelle vigne, non beremo acque de' pozzi, anderemo per la strada maestra, sino a tanto che abbiam trapassati i tuoi confini.I besech thee that I may haue licence to passe through thy land: we wil not goe aside into the fieldes and the vineyardes, we wil not drinke waters of the welles, we wil goe the kinges high way, til we be past thy borders.Obsecro ut transire mihi liceat per terram tuam: non declinabimus in agros et vineas; non bibemus aquas ex puteis: via regia gradiemur, donec transeamus terminos tuos.
23And he would not grant that Israel should pass by his borders: but rather gathering an army, went forth to meet them in the desert, and came to Jasa and fought against them.Ma quegli non volle permettere, che Israele passasse pel suo paese; anzi, raunato un esercito, andogli incontro nel deserto, e giunse a Jasa, e venne con esso a battaglia.Who would not grant that Israel should passe by his borders: but rather gathering an armie, went forth to meete them in the desert, and came vnto Iasa, and fought against them.Qui concedere noluit ut transiret Israël per fines suos: quin potius exercitu congregato, egressus est obviam in desertum, et venit in Jasa, pugnavitque contra eum. 24And he was slain by them with the edge of the sword, and they possessed his land from the Arnon unto the Jeboc, and to the confines of the children of Ammon: for the borders of the Ammonites, were kept with a strong garrison.Ma fu messo a fil di spada, e il suo paese fu conquistato da Israele dall'Arnon fino a Jaboc, e fino a' figliuoli di Ammon: perocché i confini degli Ammoniti eran difesi da un forte presidio.Of whom he was strooken in the edge of the sword, and his land was possessed from Arnon vnto Ieboc, and to the children of Ammon: for the borders of the Ammonites were kept with a strong garrison.A quo percussus est in ore gladii, et possessa est terra ejus ab Arnon usque Jeboc, et filios Ammon: quia forti præsidio tenebantur termini Ammonitarum. 25So Israel took all his cities, and dwelt in the cities of the Amorrhite, to wit, in Hesebon, and in the villages thereof.Israele adunque occupò tutto quel paese, e abitò nelle città degli Amorrei, vale a dire in Hesebon, e nelle altre minori,Israel therfore tooke al his cities, and dwelt in the cities of the Amorrheite, to wit, in Hesebon, and the villages therof.Tulit ergo Israël omnes civitates ejus, et habitavit in urbibus Amorrhæi, in Hesebon scilicet, et viculis ejus. 26Hesebon was the city of Sehon the king of the Amorrhites, who fought against the king of Moab: and took all the land, that had been of his dominion, as far as the Arnon.La città di Hesebon era di Sehon re degli Amorrei, il quale avea fatto guerra col re di Moab, e si era impadronito di tutto il dominio di questo fino ad Arnon.The citie Hesebon was Sehons the king of the Amorrheite, who fought against the king of Moab: and tooke al the land, that had bene of his dominion, as farre as Arnon.Urbs Hesebon fuit Sehon regis Amorrhæi, qui pugnavit contra regem Moab: et tulit omnem terram, quæ ditionis illius fuerat usque Arnon.
27Therefore it is said in the proverb: Come into Hesebon, let the city of Sehon be built and set up:Onde si dice per proverbio: Venite a Hesebon, si edifichi, e si ristori la città di Sehon:Therfore it is said in the prouerbe: Come into Hesebon, let the citie of Sehon be built and erected:Idcirco dicitur in proverbio: Venite in Hesebon: ædificetur, et construatur civitas Sehon: 28A fire is gone out of Hesebon, a flame from the city of Sehon, and hath consumed Ar of the Moabites, and the inhabitants of the high places of the Arnon.Un fuoco venne fuori da Hesebon, una fiamma dalla città di Sehon, e divorò Ar de' Moabiti, egli abitatori dei luoghi eccelsi dell'Arnon.A fire went forth from Hesebon, a flame from the towne of Sehon, and deuoured Ar of the Moabites, and the inhabitantes of the high places of Arnon.ignis egressus est de Hesebon, flamma de oppido Sehon, / et devoravit Ar Moabitarum, et habitatores excelsorum Arnon. 29Woe to thee Moab: thou art undone, O people of Chamos. He hath given his sons to flight, and his daughters into captivity to Sehon the king of the Amorrhites.Guai a te, o Moab; tu sei andato in rovina, popolo di Chamos. Questi ha fatto che si dessero alla fuga i suoi figliuoli, e le sue figlie fossero schiave di Sehon re degli Amorrei.Wo to thee Moab, thou art vndone people of Chamos. He hath geuen his sonnes into flight, and his daughters into captiuitie to Sehon the King of the Amorrheites.Væ tibi Moab; peristi popule Chamos. / Dedit filios ejus in fugam, et filias in captivitatem regi Amorrhæorum Sehon. 30Their yoke is perished from Hesebon unto Dibon, they came weary to Nophe, and unto Medaba.La loro dominazione è svanita da Hesebon fino a Dibon, arrivarono trafelati a Nophe, e fino a Medaba.Their yoke is perished from Hesebon vnto Dibon, they came wearie into Nophe, and vnto Medaba.Jugum ipsorum disperiit ad Hesebon usque Dibon: / lassi pervenerunt in Nophe, et usque Medaba. 31So Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorrhite.Israele adunque abitò nel paese dell'Amorreo.Israel therfore dwelt in the Land of the Amorrheite.Habitavit itaque Israël in terra Amorrhæi. 32And Moses sent some to take a view of Jazer: and they took the villages of it, and conquered the inhabitants.E Mosè spedì esploratori a Jazer: e presero i piccoli luoghi di essa, e miser le mani addosso agli abitatori.And Moyses sent some to take a view of lazer: Whose villages they tooke, and possessed the inhabitantes.Misitque Moyses qui explorarent Jazer: cujus ceperunt viculos, et possederunt habitatores.
33And they turned themselves, and went up by the way of Basan, and Og the king of Basan came against them with all his people, to fight in Edrai.E rivoltisi in altra parte andarono per la via di Basan, e andò loro incontro Og re di Basan con tutta la sua gente fino ad Edrai per dar loro battaglia.And they turned them selues, and went vp by the way of Basan, and Og the King of Basan came against them with al his people, to fight in Edrai.Verteruntque se, et ascenderunt per viam Basan, et occurrit eis Og, rex Basan, cum omni populo suo, pugnaturus in Edrai. 34And the Lord said to Moses: Fear him not, for I have delivered him and all his people, and his country into thy hand: and thou shalt do to him as thou didst to Sehon the king of the Amorrhites, the inhabitant of Hesebon.E il Signore disse a Mosè: Non lo temere; perocché io ho dato in tuo potere lui e tutto il suo popolo, e tutto il suo paese: e lo tratterai, come hai fatto a Sehon re degli Amorrei, che abitava in Hesebon.And our Lord said to Moyses: Feare him not, for into thy hand I haue deliuered him, and al his people, and land: and thou shalt doe to him as thou didst to Sehon the King of the Amorrheites, the inhabiter of Hesebon.Dixitque Dominus ad Moysen: Ne timeas eum, quia in manu tua tradidi illum, et omnem populum ac terram ejus: faciesque illi sicut fecisti Sehon, regi Amorrhæorum habitatori Hesebon. 35So they slew him also with his sons, and all his people, not letting any one escape, and they possessed his land.Uccisero adunque anche lui co' suoi figliuoli, e con tutta la sua gente dal primo fino all'ultimo, e conquistarono il suo dominio.They therfore smote him also With his sonnes, and al his people vnto vtter destruction, and they possessed his land.Percusserunt igitur et hunc cum filiis suis, universumque populum ejus usque ad internecionem, et possederunt terram illius.
21:1
Year of the World 2552.
Haydock
Arad. This was either the name of the king, or of his city, which was situated in the southern parts of Chanaan, and which fell to the share of Hobab, in the tribe of Juda. (Haydock)
When this king heard, by means of his spies, or was informed that Israel intended to make an irruption into his country like spies, without declaring war, or by the way which their spies had marked out either just before, or in the second year after their exit; or in fine, by the road, which the Septuagint leave untranslated, Athrim, and which means "of the spies," he resolved to be beforehand with them; and, coming suddenly upon them, took some spoils, or, according to the Hebrew, Septuagint, etc., "captives." These, by the ancient laws of war, he might either sell or put to death. Vendere cum possis captivum, ocidere noli. (Horace) (Grotius, Jur. 3:7.) The Rabbins pretend that this king took fresh courage on account of the death of Aaron, and the consequent disappearance of the cloud, and that he drove the Israelites seven encampments back, as far as Mosera, which they confound with Haseroth.
21:2
Cities. Hebrew, "I will subject their cities to anathema, or utter destruction." This vow they probably made at the place called Horma, or "Anathema," which was anciently called Saphaad, Judges 1:17. They fully executed their threat under Josue, who defeated the king of Hered, (Josue 12:14,) though they destroyed, at present, whatever they could. Arad was afterwards rebuilt by Hobab.
21:3
Challoner
Anathema. That is, a thing devoted to utter destruction. (Challoner)
Haydock
The explanation of Horma is inserted by St. Jerome. (Haydock)
21:4
Calmet
Edom, one of the princes, had refused them a passage; upon which they went by Salmona to Phunon, (chap. 33:37, 42,) where they probably murmured, (chap. 5.,) and were bitten by the serpents, as we read in this chapter. (Calmet)
21:5
God. They had before often directed their complaints against the two brothers. Now, Aaron being no more, they attack God himself, who had always resented the injury done to his ministers.
Challoner
Food. So they call the heavenly manna: thus worldlings loathe the things of heaven, for which they have no relish. (Challoner)
Haydock
Septuagint, "our soul is indignant at this most empty bread," which has no solidity in it, nor support. Many translate the Hebrew, "most vile bread." Thus, in the blessed eucharist, the substance of bread is removed, and the accidents only appear; so that to the worldly receiver, it seems very empty and light, though in reality it be supersubstantial; containing Christ himself, who fills the worthy communicant with grace and comfort, and enables him to go forward, on the road to heaven, without fainting. (Haydock)
21:6
Challoner
Fiery serpents. They are so called, because they that were bitten by them were burnt with a violent heat. (Challoner)
Calmet
Hence they are called seraphim, by which name an order of angels is known. The Egyptians adored a serpent which they called serapis, at Rome; and they represented their god serapis, with a serpent entwining a monstrous figure, composed of a lion, a dog, and a wolf. (Macrob. Saturn 1:20.) The seraph was a winged serpent, Isaias 14:29. 30:6. Such often infested Egypt, in spring, coming from Arabia, unless they were intercepted by the ibis. Their wings resembled those of bats. (Herodotus, 2:76.; Mela, etc.) God probably sent some of this description into the camp of the Israelites. (Calmet)
Haydock
Some call them proester, (Pliny, [Natural History?] 24:13,) from their burning; others the hydra, or, when out of water, the chershydra, the venom of which is most dangerous. The Septuagint style them simply, "the destroying, or deadly serpents." See Bochart, T. 2:B. 3:13.; Deuteronomy 8:15.; Wisdom 16:5, 10.) (Haydock)
21:8
Haydock
Brazen. Hebrew, "fiery." But in the following verse, it is said to have been "of brass." We might translate, "make a seraph, and fix it upon a standard," (Calmet) in which form it would resemble one suspended on a cross. It was placed at the entrance of the tabernacle. (St. Justin Martyr, First Apology) Ezechias afterwards destroyed it, because it was treated with superstitious honours, 4 Kings 18:4. Thus the best things are often abused. (Haydock)
Worthington
God commands this image to be erected, while he forbids all images of idols. (Worthington)
By comparing the different passages of Scripture, we may discern the true import of them. Pictures may often prove very useful and instructive. They serve the ignorant instead of books. But then the ignorant must be carefully instructed not to treat them with improper respect, as St. Gregory admonishes. And is not the same caution requisite for those who read even the word of God, lest they wrest it to their own destruction, as both the unlearned and the unstable frequently do, 2 Peter 3:16. If every thing must be rejected which is liable to abuse, what part of the creation will be spared? The Bible, the sacraments, all creatures must be laid aside. For we read, (Romans 8:20, 22,) the creature was made subject to vanity
Haydock
every creature groaneth. (Haydock)
Calmet
It is probable that Moses represented on the standard, such a serpent, as had been the instrument of death. This was not intended for a charm or talisman, as Marsham would impiously pretend. (Chron. 10. p. 148.) Such inventions proceed from the devil; and the Marsi were famous for curing the bites of serpents, by giving certain plates of brass. (Arnob. ii.) See Psalm 58:5. But this image was set up by God's express command; and the Book of Wisdom (xvi. 5, 7) assures us, that the effect was entirely to be attributed to him, the figure of a brazen serpent being rather calculated to increase than to remove the danger. (Kimchi; Muis) Hence Jonathan well observes, that only those were healed who raised their hearts to God. (Calmet)
21:9
Calmet
A brazen serpent. This was a figure of Christ crucified, and of the efficacy of a lively faith in him, against the bites of the hellish serpent, John 3:14. (Challoner) (St. Ambrose; Apol. 1:3.) As the old serpent infected the whole human race, Jesus Christ gives life to those that look at him with entire confidence. (Theodoret, q. 38.) The brazen serpent was destitute of poison, though it resembled a most noxious animal; so Jesus Christ assumed our nature, yet without sin. (Calmet)
21:10
Oboth, where Obodas, an ancient king of the Nabatheans, was adored. Hither they came from Phunon, celebrated for its copper-mines, where Bochart believes the Hebrews were bitten by the serpents, though others say that judgment was inflicted upon them at Salmona; which may be derived from tselem enu, "our image."
21:11
Haydock
Jeabarim, means "the ford, (of Zared, ver. 12,) or the straits of passages, passengers, or Hebrews; or the hills Abarim," which extended over the eastern parts of Moab. It was the 38th station, (Calmet) at the southern extremity of Mount Abarim. (Haydock)
Haydock
After which Moses specifies those of Zared, (ver 12,) Mathana, Nahaliel, Bamoth, Arnon, (ver. 19,) Dibon-gad, and Helmon-dablataim, (Calmet) all on the sides of that mountain, before they came to the summit, which was also called Phasga and Nabo, chap. 33:45, etc. But Pococke reckons only the two last among the stations, and makes those of Abarim and Shittim the 41st and 42d. The Septuagint read, "they encamped in Achelgai, on the other side, in the desert." (Haydock)
Eusebius and St. Jerome call this station of Jee, Gai or Hai, which they place near Petra, Jeremias 49:4.
East. The Samaritan here inserts, (Deuteronomy 2:9,) "And the Lord said to Moses, Fight not," etc.
21:12
Zared. The Israelites passed over this torrent, 38 years after the murmur at Cades-barne, (Deuteronomy 2:14,) when God ordered Moses not to attack the Moabites.
21:13
Year of the World 2553.
Calmet
Against. Hebrew, "on the other, or on this side of (the river, ver. 14) Arnon," which runs from the east, almost in the same direction as the torrent of Zared, but empties itself into the Dead Sea higher up, near the mouth of the Jordan. (Calmet)
Calmet
It divides the Moabites from their brethren, the children of Ammon, who lay to the north-east. The Hebrews encamped on the south side of this river, in the desert of Cademoth, (Deuteronomy 2:26,) whence they sent to ask leave of Sehon to pass through his dominions; but, on his refusal, God ordered them to cross the Arnon by force. (Calmet)
21:14
Challoner
The book of the wars, etc. An ancient book, which, like several others quoted in Scripture, has been lost. (Challoner)
Haydock
St. Augustine (q. 42) thinks this book was written by one of that country. Others believe that Moses wrote a more detailed account of the wars which he had to wage with the Amalecites, (Exodus 17:14,) and these other nations, out of which he has only inserted some of the heads in the Pentateuch. But whether these two verses were taken from another work of Moses, or from the history of some other person, they are now of divine authority. Saul says to David, (1 Kings 18:17,) fight the battles of the Lord,....and the children of God and of Ruben pass all armed for war before the Lord, (chap 32:29.; Calmet) whence it appears, that the wars of the Hebrews were attributed to God. Tostat is of opinion, that the Book of the Just, is the same with that to which Moses here refers. See Josue 10:13., and 2 Kings 1:18. But Theodoret thinks rather, that the former was a more extensive account of the transactions of Josue, out of which the book which bears his name was compiled. Such records certainly existed, to which the sacred historians frequently refer: and it is very probable, that a work of this nature was compiled in the days of Moses, or perhaps before his time. (St. Augustine, City of God xviii.) As it contained a prediction, respecting the future wars, in which the Hebrews were about to engage, it could not but make a suitable impression upon them. It might already be in every one's mouth, and the Hebrew may insinuate, that it would be handed down to the latest posterity: "Wherefore in the history, or account of the wars of the Lord, this also shall be mentioned," jamor, dicetur. According to this interpretation, it would not be necessary to suppose, that Moses refers to any more ancient book, as sepher means also, "a narration" by word of mouth; and Rabbi Menachem believes, that God had revealed this event to Moses, encouraging him with the assurance, that he would give him the victory over the nations bordering upon the Arnon, as he had done over the Egyptians and Amalecites at the Red Sea. See Sixt. Senens. (Haydock)
Haydock
Of Arnon, the waters of which are supposed to have given the Hebrews a passage, as the Chaldean asserts on the authority of Psalm 73:15. Habacuc 3:13 also mentions that several rivers were dried up by God. The Hebrew text is almost unintelligible, "From, or against, Vaheb to Supha." As there is no verb, some translate, "he (Sehon) fought against Vaheb (Grotius reads Moab) at Supha, or he came to Veb." Some render this word, he made, "a whirlpool in the torrents of Arnon." But Calmet would substitute Zared instead of Vaheb: "The encamped at the torrent of Zared, and came to Supha, (Deuteronomy 1:1, where we read the Red Sea) to the torrent of Arnon." Protestants translate, "What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon, (16) and at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab." (Haydock)
21:15
Calmet
The rocks. Some assert, that the rocks fell upon the enemy: others, that they gave way and opened a passage for the Hebrews, while the rivers were also dried up. Hebrew, "They encamped on the stream of the torrents, which bends towards the dwelling (or city) of Ar, and rests upon the frontiers of Moab." Thus the book to which Moses alludes, confirms his account of these different encampments. (Calmet)
Haydock
The Septuagint give rather a different turn of these two verses: "Hence it is said in a book, The war of the Lord has burnt Zoob and the torrents of Arnon---and has sent the torrents to inhabit Er: and it lies upon the borders of Moab." The river, it seems, had been removed out of its bead by a subterraneous fire or earthquake, and deluged the city of Ar, belonging to Moab. The mighty hand of God terrified those nations, while all nature fought against the wicked and the unwise, Wisdom 5:21. (Haydock)
Worthington
Rocks were hurled upon the heads of the Amorrhites, and the waters conveyed their dead bodies into the vale of Moab. (Worthington)
21:16
Haydock
Well. Hebrew Beer. (Haydock)
Calmet
This station is not mentioned under the same name at least, chap. 33. Probably the inhabitants had covered up this well with sand, and God having discovered it to Moses, he informed the princes, who pushed their staves down. Upon which the waters appearing, the people sung a hymn of thanksgiving and joy. Water is very scarce, and, of course, of course, of great value in those deserts, where, even still, the Arabs conceal their wells, and often fight to hinder passengers from taking any of the water. (Calmet)
21:17
They sung. Hebrew, "sing ye unto it," in chorus, men and women. Septuagint, "commence a canticle unto it. This well the princes dug, the kings of nations hewed in the rock, in their kingdom, while they held dominion."
21:18
Mathana. Perhaps they did not stop here, though all the encampments are not specified, chap. 33. Nahaliel, "God my torrent," and Bamoth, "the heights," are also situated upon the Arnon.
21:20
Desert. Hebrew and Chaldean, "Yeshimon," (Josue 13:28; Ezechiel 25:9,) a city of the Moabites.
21:21
Eusebius † AD 339
Messengers, not from the city of Cademoth, which was in the midst of Phasga, but from a desert of the same name, situated out of the dominions of Sehon, Deuteronomy 2:24. (Eusebius)
Calmet
God had already promised this country to Abraham, and though Moses did not intend to attack the king at present, being eager to fall upon the Chanaanites on the other side of the Jordan, God punishes the refusal of Sehon, to let his people pass, by a swifter destruction. (Calmet)
Haydock
The measure of his crimes was full, though the mere denial of a passage to such a vast multitude might even by justified by sound policy. (Haydock)
21:22
Calmet
Wells. We shall content ourselves with the torrents. They had only to travel about thirty miles. (Calmet)
21:23
21:24
Haydock
Garrison, either against Sehon, or against the Hebrews, whom God did not, as yet, authorize to attack the Ammonites, (Calmet) though the latter knew it not. (Haydock)
21:26
Grotius
Arnon. Hence this territory, which formerly belonged to Moab, being taken in a just war, the Moabites could not lawfully retain it, as they attempted to do under Jephte, Judges 11:13. (Grotius, Jur. 3:6.)
Hesebon, or Esbus, was the capital, and lay over-against Jericho, twenty miles from the Jordan.
21:27
Calmet
Proverb. Hebrew Moshelim: "Those who speak proverbs, or enigmas, say." Those were the ancient poets of the Amorrhites, who composed this canticle on the victory of Sehon. (Calmet)
Haydock
Moses inserts it in his work, as an additional proof, that the country was entirely lost to Moab, and as a denunciation of the evils which still hung over the head of that people, and would be inflicted upon them by David, etc., (2 Kings 10:1.; 4 Kings 3:16.; Amos 1:13.) (Haydock)
21:28
A fire and flame, denote the horrors of war, (Judges 9:20.)
Ar. Samaritan and Septuagint read ad, "hath consumed even the country of the Moabites and the lords (or pillars, Septuagint) of Bamoth, (the heights mentioned in ver. 18, 19,) on the Arnon." These lords may be the principal men, priests, or gods of the city. Jeremias 48:45 reads this passage in a different manner, "it (the flame) shall devour part of Moab, and the crown of the head of the children of tumult." The city of Ar (which some confound with Aroer) always continued in the hands of the Moabites, so that the efforts of Sehon against it, seem to have proved abortive, Deuteronomy 2:9, 18, 29. (Bonfrere) See (Numbers 24:17.)
21:29
Calmet
He. Chamos, the idol of Moab, is upbraided as too weak to defend his people. The pagans generally formed their judgments of the power of their gods, by the event; and, if that proved unfortunate, they were ever ready to consign the idols to the flames. Chamos was probably the sun. (Calmet)
Menochius
Some say he was Bacchus, whom the Greeks call Komas. (Menochius)
21:30
Calmet
Hesebon in the north, to Dibon in the southern extremity of the conquered country, near the Arnon, where Moses places the station of Dibon-gad. The yoke, or dominion of the Moabites, was ruined in all those parts. (Calmet)
Haydock
Hebrew, "We have shot at them; or their lamp, (children or power,) from Hesebon as far as Dibon is extinguished; and their wives (or we have destroyed them) even unto Nophe and Medaba." Septuagint, "Their women have still kindled a fire against Moab." Nophe is probably the Nabo of Isaias, (xv. 2,) in the environs of Medaba, where the fainting Moabites had time to breathe. The fire, which the Septuagint say the women enkindled against Moab, might seem to indicate that the war was commenced on their account, like that which brought on the destruction of Troy. They entailed a still heavier destruction upon their country, when, by alluring the Hebrews to sin, they enkindled God's indignation, chap. 25. With this verse the quotation, from the Amorrhite proverbial writers, concludes, ver. 27. (Haydock)
21:32
Calmet
Jazer, a famous city, 15 miles from Hesebon, given afterwards to the Levites. Moses "took the Amorrhites who were there" prisoners, according to the Hebrew; or, "drove them away," (Septuagint) putting to death those who continued to make resistance. (Calmet)
21:33
Year of the World 2553.
Og, the king of the most fertile country of Basan, was of gigantic stature, Deuteronomy 3:11. The Rabbins relate many fables concerning him.
Haydock
Edrai was 15 miles to the north of the torrent Jeboc, (Calmet) which was the southern extremity of this territory. (Haydock)
21:3
Anathema.... That is, a thing devoted to utter destruction.
21:5
Very light food.... So they call the heavenly manna: thus worldlings loathe the things of heaven, for which they have no relish.
21:6
Fiery serpents.... They are so called, because they that were bitten by them were burnt with a violent heat.
21:9
21:14
The book of the wars, etc.... An ancient book, which, like several others quoted in scripture, has been lost.
21:8
God forbidding images of idols, yet commandeth to make an image for a good purpose.
21:9
Christ expoundeth this erecting of the brasen serpent, of him self to be crucified. Ioan. 3.
21:14
As the Aegyptians were drowned in the sea; so the Amorrheites were oppressed by the rockes falling vpon them, & the waters caried their carcases into the valley of Moab.
21:4
Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 10
… Why, again, did the same Moses, after the prohibition of any “likeness of anything,” set forth a brazen serpent, placed on a “tree,” in a hanging posture, for a spectacle of healing to Israel, at the time when, after their idolatry,
Tertullian † AD 220 Appendix: Against All Heresies 2
… for they magnify the serpent to such a degree, that they prefer him even to Christ Himself; for it was he, they say, who gave us the origin of the knowledge of good and of evil. His power and majesty (they say) Moses perceiving, set up the brazen serpent; and whoever gazed upon him obtained health.
21:5
Tertullian † AD 220 On Baptism 20
… “Then,” some one will say, “it becomes us , too, rather to fast after baptism.” Well, and who forbids you, unless it be the necessity for joy, and the thanksgiving for salvation? But so far as I, with my poor powers, understand, the Lord figuratively retorted upon Israel the reproach they had cast on the Lord .
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 54.4
… both miserable through sin, and both obtaining the mercy they required. We may further borrow an illustration here, from the fact that the manna given to the ancient people of God tasted in each man’s mouth as he desired that it might.
21:6
St Barnabas † AD 61 The Epistle of Barnabas 12
… For since transgression was committed by Eve through means of the serpent, [the Lord] brought it to pass that every [kind of] serpents bit them, and they died,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.61
… the people then confessed their sins, and, through Moses, besought the Lord to take away from them this poison; accordingly, Moses, at the Lord’s command, lifted up a brazen serpent in the wilderness, and admonished the people that every one who had been serpent-bitten should look upon the uplifted figure. When they did so they were immediately healed.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 12.11
… Now Moses was ordered by the Lord to make a brazen serpent, and to raise it on a pole in the wilderness, and to admonish the people Israel, that, when any had been bitten by a serpent, he should look to that serpent raised up on the pole. This was done: men were bitten; they looked and were healed.
21:7
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Enchiridion 44
… for the singular number is often put for the plural, as when the poet says, “They fill its belly with the armed soldier,” though in the case here referred to there were many soldiers concerned. And we read in our own Scriptures: “Pray to the Lord, that He take away the serpent from us.”
21:8
St Justin Martyr † AD 165 The First Apology 60
… and that Moses, by the inspiration and influence of God, took brass, and made it into the figure of a cross, and set it in the holy tabernacle, and said to the people, “If ye look to this figure, and believe, ye shall be saved thereby.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.2.8
… Let them not therefore ascribe to the law the unbelief of certain [among them]. For the law never hindered them from believing in the Son of God; nay, but it even exhorted them
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.22
… For He adds: “Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them.” The form, however, of the brazen serpent which the Lord afterwards commanded Moses to make, afforded no pretext for idolatry, but was meant for the cure of those who were plagued with the fiery serpents.
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 260.8
8. For a sign that shall be spoken against . By a sign, we properly understand in Scripture a cross. Moses, it is said, set the serpent “upon a pole.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 74.4
… If death is from the serpent, the rod in the ser pent is Christ in death. Therefore also when by serpents in the desert they were being bitten and being slain, the Lord commanded Moses to exalt a brazen serpent in the desert, and admonish the people that whosoever by a serpent had been bitten, should look thereupon and be made whole.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 74.6
… but under one threshing-drag the one is broken up, the other is purged. How great a good hath God bestowed upon us by the evil of Judas the traitor! By the very ferocity of the Jews how great a good was bestowed upon believing Gentiles! Christ was slain in order that there might be on the Cross One for him to look to who had been stung by the serpent.
21:9
St Barnabas † AD 61 The Epistle of Barnabas 12
… And Moses spake unto them, saying, “When any one of you is bitten, let him come to the serpent placed on the pole; and let him hope and believe, that even though dead, it is able to give him life, and immediately he shall be restored.”
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Smyrnæans: Shorter and Longer Versions 2
… The Word, when His flesh was lifted up, after the manner of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, drew all men to Himself for their eternal salvation.
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 14
… So Adam was a type of “Him that was to come.” Typically, “That rock was Christ;” and the water a type of the living power of the word; as He says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” The manna is a type of the living bread that came down from heaven; and the serpent on the standard,
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 13.20
20. This was the figure which Moses completed by fixing the serpent to a cross, that whoso had been bitten by the living serpent, and looked to the brasen serpent, might be saved by believing
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 45
… So much we have said of Christ; the greater part of what we might say shall be reverenced with silence. But that brazen serpent
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 3.4
4. Bonosus, your friend, or, to speak more truly, mine as well as yours, is now climbing the ladder foreshown in Jacob’s dream. He is bearing his cross, neither taking thought for the morrow nor looking back at what he has left. He is sowing in tears that he may reap in joy. As Moses in a type so he in reality is lifting up the serpent in the wilderness.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 3.10
… as Jacob, when he had seen the dream, upon waking up did with the stone, which when asleep he had under his head. Sometimes a thing is made in the same kind, for the mere purpose; so as either to continue a little while in existence, as that brazen serpent was able to do which was lifted up in the wilderness,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.59
… and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 74.10
… For not in vain came Christ, or in vain was Christ slain, or in vain did the corn fall into the ground; but it fell that it might rise manifold. A serpent was lifted up in the desert, in order that it might cure of the poison him that was smitten.
21:22
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 3
… and may ye never be entangled in the snares of the wicked that go round about, or bound with the chain of your sins. May the Word in you never be smothered with cares of this life and so ye become unfruitful: but may ye walk in the King’s Highway, turning aside neither to the right hand nor to the left,
21:24
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 41.24
… Did I not, when food was lacking to thee passing through the desert, supply a rain of food, and nourishment around thee, whithersoever thou wentest? Did I not, after subduing all thine enemies, bring thee into the region of Eshcol? Did I not deliver up thee Sihon, King of the Amorites
21:1
1. THE KING OF CANAAN, ARAD, DWELT ON THE SOUTH — of the land of Canaan. For the Canaanite, Scripture is accustomed to designate positions and regions of the world. NAMELY THAT ISRAEL HAD COME BY THE WAY OF THE SPIES; — thus also the Chaldean, Vatablus and others commonly, that is to say, When Arad learned that the Hebrews had come by that way by which formerly in the second year after their departure from Egypt, the twelve spies of theirs had passed into the land of Canaan, Numbers XIII, then from this he gathered, and persuaded himself with certainty that they were heading through his dominion into Canaan: for he saw them now entering the same way. The Septuagint translates, by the way of Atarem; for they retain the Hebrew name as if it were a proper name of a place.
21:2
2. AND ISRAEL, BINDING HIMSELF BY A VOW TO THE LORD, SAID: IF THOU WILT DELIVER THIS PEOPLE INTO MY HAND, I WILL UTTERLY DESTROY THEIR CITIES. — In Hebrew it is, I will cut down and anathematize them. For this was a vow of cherem (concerning which I spoke in Leviticus, last chapter, verse 20), by which they devoted to God hostile cities and cities hostile to God. Hence the name of the place was called Cherem and Chorma; or, as Our author and others pronounce it, Herem and Horma, that is, anathema. Abelensis notes, in Question IV, that the Hebrews had three kinds of horma, or anathema: first, by which both men and cattle, and all things that were in a hostile city, were consumed, and nothing went to the use either of the people or of the temple. And such an anathema God commanded to be made of the cities of the Hebrews apostatizing from God to idols, namely that with all men and cattle slain, all the goods of the city were gathered in the street, and there the whole was burned, Deut. XIII, 15, and such this appears to have been. Second, by which men and cattle with goods perished, yet gold, silver, iron and bronze were reserved for the uses of the Sanctuary: such horma was Jericho, Joshua VI, verse 24; for there it was unlawful for the Hebrews to steal anything for themselves. Third, by which only men were slain, but cattle and goods went to the victorious Hebrews: such horma was the city of Hai, Joshua chapter VIII, 27.
21:4
4. AND THE PEOPLE BEGAN TO BE WEARIED WITH THE JOURNEY. — In Hebrew, and the people was shortened in soul, that is, fatigued began to lose heart, to languish and to be wearied. This is a new murmuring of the people, on account of so long a journey of so many years, namely forty, panting for rest and a stable dwelling and home. For otherwise, as I said above, God diminished the labor of the journey, so that they scarcely felt fatigue.
21:5
5. OUR SOUL NOW LOATHES THIS VERY LIGHT FOOD — over the manna. Rabbi Solomon reports that manna was a very light food, which did not burden the stomach, nor did it produce anything in evacuation: whence the Hebrews feared lest it should rot within their bowels, and thus they would die, and for this reason they murmured. But these are his customary complaints. For there is no food which does not have something impure, which nature does not convert into its own substance, but rejects and sends to evacuation: therefore the same must be said of manna. Thus Abulensis. Another therefore was the cause of murmuring about the manna, which I gave in Numbers XI, 6.
21:6
6. WHEREFORE THE LORD SENT AMONG THE PEOPLE FIERY SERPENTS. — The Lord here was both God the Father and God the Son, namely Christ, as the Apostle teaches, I Corinthians X, 9. Whence it is evident against the Arians and Servetus, that Christ is the true God and Lord of all. These serpents are called fiery, not because they were fiery by nature, but from their effect, in that by their bite they induced such heat that those bitten by them seemed to themselves to be burning; whom therefore Pliny calls presteres: for these in Greek are the same as in Hebrew seraphim; whence Vatablus translates it as burning: for in Hebrew it is seraphim, by which name the first order of angels is called, from the ardor of charity. God raised up these serpents from the very desert of Arabia: for there, as also in Libya, they abound. Whence in Deuteronomy VIII, 15, it is said: "Thy conductor was in the great and terrible wilderness, wherein was the serpent burning with his breath, and the scorpion, and the dipsa." Hence also Cato in Lucan, book IX, concerning the serpents of the Libyan desert says: The serpent, thirst, heat, sands / Are sweet to virtue; patience rejoices in hardships. Moreover, serpents, or dragons, are sometimes reported by Historians to have been seen fiery, that is, vomiting fire. Lesley, in his Scotland, in the year of the Lord 1558, relates that in the March and Laudonia, a certain dragon vomited such great fires that it burned the crops and fruits; wherefore the colonists had to keep watch so as to extinguish them continually. Note: Fittingly serpents punish those who imitate the virulence of serpents. For murmurers and detractors "have sharpened their tongue like a serpent," says the Psalmist, and bite in secret like a serpent. Justly therefore the serpent rules over them as an executioner. On the contrary, the humble, meek and obedient Anthony was feared and fled by serpents, as St. Athanasius testifies in his Life. And the Boa serpent obeyed the pious St. Hilarion: for when it was devouring men and cattle (whence it was called Boa), St. Hilarion commanded it "to prepare a pyre, and having sent up a prayer to Christ, he commanded the called-forth creature to climb the pile of wood; then he himself applied fire and burned the monstrous beast," as St. Jerome says in his Life. Thus Abbot Paul held asps, serpents and scorpions in his unharmed hands, and cut them in half. When asked how he had received this grace, he answered: "If anyone possesses purity, all things are subject to him, as to Adam when he was in paradise before the transgression of the divine commandment," as is found in the Lives of the Fathers, book VI, title 2, number 11.
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8. MAKE A SERPENT. — In Hebrew make a saraph (whence seraphim already mentioned verse 6), that is a fiery serpent, that is, one which has the likeness of a fiery and burning serpent, such as a serpent made from bronze: for bronze glows and rather reddens like fire. Thus Vatablus. Second, it was made from bronze: for if it had been made from gold or silver, it would have been of immense and monstrous value: for it was immense, as I shall presently say.
AND SET IT FOR A SIGN. — In Hebrew, set it upon a standard (for this is what the Hebrew nes signifies), as if to say: Set it upon a pole, or standard pole, so that it may be like a sign and standard, which can be seen by all. Whence it follows that this brazen serpent ought to have been immense, and raised up very high, and, as Christ says, exalted, so that namely throughout all the camps, which were very vast and easily extended for six miles, it could be easily seen by the wounded on all sides. WHOEVER WAS STRUCK (by the fiery serpents) AND LOOKED UPON IT, SHALL LIVE — that is, shall be preserved in life and shall be healed. Not because this brazen serpent had any natural power of healing them: for this is impossible, as Abulensis demonstrates at length here; but because God, this sign being seen, would miraculously heal them. This serpent was therefore a sign, and at the same time a moral instrument of this healing. But a brazen serpent was a fitting sign, rather than an ox or sheep: because the Hebrews were bitten, not by oxen or sheep, but by serpents, and those fiery; and bronze has a fiery color, and is forged by fire.
The allegorical and principal reason was that this serpent erected on wood signified Christ erected on the cross, as if noxious and wicked, by the sight of whom through faith and contrition we are healed from the lethal bites of sins. For just as this serpent had the form of a serpent but not venom, so Christ assumed the form of a sinner but not sin; this is indeed what Christ says of himself, John cap. III, 14: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up (on the cross), that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting." Thus Theodoret, Quaest. XXXIX, and Nyssenus in De Vita Mosis, near the end, and St. Augustine, serm. 101 De Tempore, and Tertullian, lib. De Idololatria, cap. V: "The image," he says, "of the brazen serpent suspended designated the figure of the Lord's cross, which was to free us from serpents, that is from the angels of the devil, while through itself it suspended the devil, that is the serpent, slain." Whence also the ancient Hebrews taught that the bite inflicted through the ancient serpent upon Adam and us was to be healed in the days of the Messiah. "Do not be reluctant," says St. Bernard, "to see the serpent hanging on the gallows, if you wish to see the king sitting on the throne." St. Anthony the Great, an athlete against the assaults of demons, when asked by his disciples what arms could powerfully and certainly repel diabolical attacks, answered: "The sign of the cross and burning faith in Christ are impregnable to men dedicated to God and a brazen wall against the machinations of demons." Witness is St. Athanasius in his Life. The Blessed Magdalen in her cave doing penance, tempted by the specters of demons, invoked Jesus. St. Michael appeared who put them to flight and erected a cross at the mouth of the cave, saying: "Fear not, the Most High is thy keeper." Having therefore embraced the cross and praying to the cross, and contemplating Christ her salvation in it, she joyfully and piously did penance there for thirty years.
"The cross," says St. Augustine, in a sermon on Good Friday, "is the cause to us of all blessedness: it freed us from the blindness of error; it restored us from darkness to light; it brought the vanquished to rest; it joined the estranged to God; it showed the pilgrims to be citizens. It is the cutting off of discord, the firmament of peace, the abundance of all goods." Piously St. Bernard, serm. 5 in Cantica: "How sweetly, Lord Jesus," he says, "didst thou converse with men! how abundantly didst thou bestow many great goods upon men! how mightily didst thou suffer such unworthy, such harsh and hard things for men! harsh words, harsher blows, harshest torments. O hard and hardened and obdurate sons of Adam, whom such a flame doth not soften, such kindness, such immense ardor of love, such a vehement lover, who for vile burdens expended such precious goods!" The same, serm. De Passione Dom.: "In the passion of the Lord," he says, "three things especially befit us to consider: the work, the manner, the cause. For in the work indeed patience, in the manner humility, in the cause charity is commended: singular patience, admirable humility, but inestimable charity."
St. Augustine adds that this serpent was brazen in order to signify first the divinity and eternity of Christ: for bronze is the hardest, incorruptible, and as it were eternal; secondly, the brightness and glory of Christ's cross, which pervaded all nations: for brazen vessels, among all metals, are wont to produce the greatest sound and ringing; thirdly, the fiery charity both of God and of Christ on the cross, both in pain and in love of us roasted and burned; for this brazen serpent was a seraph, that is burning, as I said. And this is what St. John, cap. III, vers. 16, immediately adds, saying: "For God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him may not perish but may have life everlasting." Which words each one impart a new argument and stimulus of love, as is evident to one weighing them. I have expounded them to Titus III, 4. Christ therefore crucified is a seraph, that is burning, burning, kindling, and consuming us with his charity. "Fittingly therefore was the brazen serpent suspended on wood, that the Lord might be signified both dead in the serpent and eternal in the air; namely, that it might be indicated dead through humility and as it were brazen through divinity," says St. Ambrose, Ansbert, lib. V in Apoc., after the beginning.
For this reason that Seraphim appearing in the form of the Crucified to St. Francis impressed upon him in his hands, feet, and side the five wounds of Christ, as it were sacred stigmata, and transformed him wholly into the love of Christ crucified, and made him a seraph, nay fixed to the cross with Christ, so that thereafter with new ardor of mind, with new martyrdom of body he felt almost nothing else, thought nothing else, loved nothing else, said nothing else than: Grant, O Lord, that I may die of love for thy love, who didst deign to die of love for my love. See St. Bonaventure in his Life.
The Hebrews carried this bronze serpent with them through the desert into Chanaan in memory of so great a benefit, and it remained there until the times of Ezechias, king of Juda, who, because it was beginning to be held and worshipped by the people in place of the divine, ordered it to be broken, and called it nechoset, that is bronze, by diminution and contempt nechustan, or noestan, that is a little bronze thing, as if to say: What do you think, O wretched Jews, that you have so little bronze to have divinity? this little serpent to be God? IV Kings XVIII, 4. "Today the cross is fixed, and the world is sanctified. Today the cross is fixed, and demons are scattered. Today the cross is fixed, and death is overthrown. Today the cross conquered, and death was conquered. Today the devil is bound, man is loosed, and God is glorified." The same, in the book On Virginity: "Behold," he says, "the wounds of him hanging, the blood of him dying, the price of him redeeming, the scars of him rising. He has his head inclined for kissing, his heart opened for loving, his arms extended for embracing, his whole body exposed for redeeming. Consider how great these things are, weigh them in the balance of your hearts, that he who was wholly fixed on the cross for us may be wholly fixed in your hearts."
— [This section continues the allegorical exposition begun above.]
21:11
11. WHENCE THEY DEPARTED AND PITCHED THEIR TENTS IN JEABARIM — In Hebrew it is beile haabarim, which the Chaldean takes not as a proper name but as an appellative, and translates it, according to the ford of those passing through, namely into the desert.
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14. WHEREFORE IT IS SAID IN THE BOOK OF THE WARS OF THE LORD. — This was an ancient book written before the Pentateuch, but it perished, as also the books of Henoch, Gad, Nathan; I add, and of many others, which Scripture mentions. Thus St. Augustine, Question XLII, and Rabanus. Whence it is clear that this book was prophetic; for it prophesies the future victory under Moses against the Amorrheans, as will appear in verse 24. Yet someone could and perhaps more truly say that this book was written later, so that "thus he will do," verse 14, is the same as "thus he did": for these things seem to have been interwoven by another, who arranged these diaries of Moses, as I said in the preface to Genesis. For thus the Proverbs of Solomon, written by him in scattered fashion, collected by another, and arranged into one book of Proverbs, is sufficiently clear from chapter XXV of Proverbs, verse 1. Therefore Eugubinus translated incorrectly, "therefore it will be said in the commemoration of the wars of the Lord." Allegorically, Rupertus takes this book as heavenly, namely the knowledge of God, in which the faith of the Gospel is written; and by the torrents opposed to it, Arnon, he takes the eloquence of heretics. For Arnon signifies their curse.
AS HE DID IN THE RED SEA, SO WILL HE DO IN THE TORRENTS OF ARNON. — Vatablus translates, the city Vaheb (namely God destroyed or conquered it) in a whirlwind, and the torrents which adjoin Arnon. The Septuagint favors him; for they translate, "Therefore it is said in the book: The war of the Lord burned Zoob, and the torrents of Arnon." Where note: For Vaheb, the Septuagint read Zoob, namely for vau they read the related zain, and that with other points. But our translator renders it better, and the Chaldean agrees with him: for vaheb is put for iaheb, that is gave. Thus therefore the Hebrew has it word for word, which gave, or did in the Red Sea, thus (for vau is a copulative, when it connects similar things, it signifies thus, as) the same in the torrents of Arnon, supply will do. The first sense, already omitting the variety of meanings, is, as if to say: As the Lord fought for Israel against the Egyptians in the Red Sea: so also will he do, that is did, in Arnon, fighting for the Hebrews and conquering Sehon king of the Amorrheans, as if to say: Therefore I rightly said in verse 13, that Arnon projects in the borders of the Amorrhean, because there Sehon the Amorrhean was slain, and you, O Hebrews, occupied his dominion, even to the confines of Moab, as appears in verse 24.
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Verse 15. THE ROCKS OF THE TORRENTS OF ARNON WERE INCLINED (are inclined) THAT THEY MIGHT REST (and they rest) IN AR (for thus it must be read with the Hebrew, Chaldean, Septuagint, not Arnon, as the Royal and Plantin Bibles read: which city is of the Moabites, as is evident from Deuteronomy II, 29; and therefore they recline) IN THE BORDERS OF THE MOABITES — that is to say, The rocks of Arnon are conterminal, and project into Ar, the city of Moab: whence it is evident that Arnon and the Amorites are conterminal with the Moabites; and consequently, that you, O Hebrews, by occupying Arnon and the dominion of Sehon the Amorite, reach even to the confines of Moab: for all these things depend upon that statement in verse 13: "For Arnon is the border of Moab, dividing the Moabites and the Amorites," and they explain it. Secondly, The Hebrews, whom Lyra, Abulensis, Hugo, Adrichomius and others follow, relate that the Amorites lay in ambush for the Hebrews in these rocks of Arnon, while they were passing through; but that God miraculously inclined these rocks, and they fell upon the Amorites themselves, and thus with them crushed, the Hebrews escaped free, and this is signified by these words, the rocks of the torrents were inclined, etc. But I would wish to have an older authority for this tradition: for it seems strange that Moses should pass over so great a miracle in silence, especially since he himself recounts the battle and victory over the Amorites in verse 23. Thirdly, Vatablus translates the Hebrew esced as effusions, that is to say, God conquered the effusions of the torrents, that is the region of the Amorites, through which the rivers are poured forth and flow, from Arnon to Ar, and flow down into the region of the Moabites. But it is rather to be believed with St. Jerome and the Hebrews, who translate esced as rocks. Therefore the first sense appears plain and genuine.
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16. FROM THAT PLACE — understand having departed; whence in Hebrew it is, and from thence to the well, namely they came. A WELL APPEARED, CONCERNING WHICH THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSES: GATHER THE PEOPLE TOGETHER, AND I WILL GIVE THEM WATER. — Hence it appears that the people suffered from thirst and lack of water; whence Moses besought the Lord for its relief, who being entreated showed him a well, saying: Gather the people to this well, and from it I will give them water. Similar Hebrew aposiopeses are frequent in Scripture.
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17. THEN ISRAEL SANG THIS SONG: LET THE WELL ASCEND. — "The well," that is the water of the well, that is to say, Let the water continually bubble up and ascend from the bottom of the well, that all of us may drink from it, as well as our beasts. This is a song of rejoicing and exultation over so great a benefit and miracle, of which there are many in Scripture. THEY SANG TOGETHER. — Take this by way of parenthesis and understand it: for it interrupts the song itself; for what immediately follows are the words of the song already begun, and complete it. The Chaldean, however, the Septuagint and the moderns, for anu la, that is they sang together concerning it, read with other pointing enu la, that is sing to it, that is to say, Rejoice in this well, and applaud it, and sing a hymn to it; and thus these words pertain to the song.
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18. THE WELL, WHICH THE PRINCES DUG, AND WHICH THE LEADERS OF THE PEOPLE PREPARED, WITH (that is with) THE GIVER OF THE LAW (that is Moses) AND WITH (that is with) THEIR STAVES. — Hence it appears that God showed Moses a spring, or vein of waters, which Moses and the princes of the people, with their staves, that is with pickaxes, digging around the earth, enlarged and made deeper, so that it was like a well. FROM THE WILDERNESS, MATTHANA — that is to say, From the wilderness in Matthana the Hebrews set out, as the Royal and Plantin Bibles add, and it is evident from what follows.
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19 and 20. FROM MATTHANA INTO NAHALIEL: FROM NAHALIEL INTO BAMOTH. BAMOTH IS A VALLEY IN THE REGION OF MOAB, ON THE SUMMIT OF PHASGA (that is, from Bamoth begins the valley of Moab, which is in, that is, near, the summit of Mount Phasga), WHICH (Phasga) LOOKS OUT AGAINST THE DESERT — as if to say, the Hebrews had now come to the borders of the desert, namely to the valley of the region of Moab, which is near Pisgah. Tropologically, says Rupertus, those are signified here who make progress in merits and grace. For Matthana in Hebrew is the same as a gift descending, namely from the Father of lights: from which they first ascend into Nahaliel, that is, into the inheritance, or possession of God, through the virtue of the active life; then into Bamoth, that is, into the heights, namely of the contemplative life. From Bamoth this is a valley, namely of humility: for this is born from the consideration and contemplation both of God and of oneself, and it is near the summit of Phasga, that is, near the high wisdom and eloquence: for humility teaches this (for Phasga in Hebrew is the same as a mouth much), and this against the desert, that is, against the empty lies of the devil the deserter. Hence also there is a proverb among the Hebrews, from Nahaliel Bamoth, that is, from virtue and piety arises loftiness and glory. For virtue is as it were the inheritance and possession of God, which Nahaliel signifies. Furthermore, the Chaldean takes these, not as proper names, but as appellatives, and refers them to the well, of which verse 16. For Matthana in Hebrew is the same as given, or a gift. Nahaliel is a torrent. Bamoth are hills; thus therefore the Chaldean translates: "From the time when the well was given to them, he descended with them to the torrents, and from the torrents he ascended with them to the hill, and from the hill to the valley, which is in the fields of Moab," as if this well miraculously followed the Hebrews everywhere. The Chaldean is followed, and by it many others defend themselves, who say that the rock giving waters like a fountain, or well, truly accompanied the Hebrews, and this signifies the Apostle, I Cor. X, when he says: "And they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them," concerning which I spoke there. Certainly to the most learned Bellarmine and others it seems that this is a Jewish fable.
21:21
21, 22 and 23. AND ISRAEL SENT MESSENGERS TO SEHON KING OF THE AMORRHEANS, SAYING: I BESEECH THEE THAT I MAY PASS THROUGH THY LAND, etc.; WHO WOULD NOT GRANT IT. — Deut. cap. II, vers. 24 and seq., where these things are narrated more fully, it is said that God hardened Sehon, so that he would not grant passage. For God wished to give to Israel the region of Sehon, as well as that of Og king of Basan: for he had promised both to the Hebrews, Genesis XV, 20. For there by the land of Raphaim, he understands the land of Og the giant. It is to be noted, says St. Augustine, Questions XL, "how just wars were waged here by the Hebrews: for innocent passage was denied to them, which by the most equitable right of human society ought to be open;" although here it was only a pretext and occasion for war. For the true cause was the promise and gift of God, of which I have already spoken. 23 and 24. And he (Sehon) fought against him (Israel), BY WHOM HE WAS SMITTEN IN THE MOUTH OF THE SWORD — that is, in the line of the sword. For the line of the sword is to a man what the mouth is. Secondly, "in the mouth," that is, in the slaying, that is, by the slaying of the sword; thus the Septuagint. For just as the mouth devours bread, so the sword devours, kills and consumes men. 24. And his land (was possessed by Israel) FROM ARNON UNTO JEBOC, AND THE CHILDREN OF AMMON: BECAUSE THE BORDERS OF THE AMMONITES WERE HELD WITH STRONG GARRISON. — Note the because, as if to say, Therefore the Israelites, occupying the dominion of Sehon, did not invade the neighboring Ammonites, but remained there: because the Ammonites had fortified themselves against the Israelites with strong garrison. There was also another more powerful cause, namely because God had forbidden them to be invaded, Deut. II, 9.
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25. Therefore Israel took (from Sehon he took, and transferred into his dominion) ALL HIS CITIES, AND DWELT IN THE CITIES OF THE AMORRHEAN (by that division among the twelve tribes, which will be recounted cap. XXXII), NAMELY IN HESEBON, AND IN HIS VILLAGES. — In Hebrew, and in his daughters. For the Hebrews call cities subject to a metropolis daughters, by metaphor, because they depend on their metropolis, as daughters on a mother.
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26. THE CITY OF HESHBON WAS OF SIHON KING OF THE AMORITES, WHO FOUGHT AGAINST THE KING OF MOAB — and by fighting he extorted from him Heshbon and his other cities, as far as the Arnon, is clear from the Hebrew. Moses here meets a tacit objection; for someone will say: How did the Hebrews occupy Heshbon, a city of the Moabites, when God forbade them to fight against the Moabites? He answers that Heshbon was no longer of the Moabites, but of the Amorites: for Sihon had taken it from them by right of war, by which by right of nations dominion is transferred, just as by sale, as is clear in the Digest, On Justice and Law, in the law "From this right." Hence, however, the king of Moab, after three hundred years, sought a title to recover Heshbon and these other cities from Jephthah; but Jephthah rightly answered him, first, that he had received them not from the Moabites, but from the Amorites; secondly, that he had possessed them peacefully for three hundred years, and thus by the title of prescription he claimed them for himself; and when the king of Moab and Ammon would not acquiesce, and sought to recover them by arms, he was routed and crushed by Jephthah, as is clear in Judges XI. Thus Abulensis.
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27. WHEREFORE IT IS SAID IN A PROVERB: COME TO HESHBON. — This proverb is a proverbial song, or a song of victory, such as soldiers or other poets are wont to compose concerning cities or conquered enemies, especially in tragedy, such as that concerning David conquering Goliath: "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands," I Kings XVIII. LET THE CITY OF SIHON BE BUILT AND ESTABLISHED — that is to say, Let the city of Heshbon be built, which taken from the Moabites, captured and laid waste by Sihon king of the Amorites, be established, so that Sihon might establish therein his kingdom for himself and the Amorites. For from verse 30 it is clear that the Moabites had ruled over the city of Heshbon, and had therein their garrison soldiers; but Sihon slew them and drove them out, and made himself absolute king of Heshbon, and thence as it were fire spread forth, and burned, laid waste, and subjected to himself all Moab. See Jeremiah cap. XLVIII, 45; whence also follows:
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28. A FIRE IS GONE OUT OF HESHBON, A FLAME FROM THE CITY OF SIHON, AND HATH DEVOURED AR OF THE MOABITES, AND THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIGH PLACES (who dwelt in high places) OF THE ARNON — that is to say, The victory, oppression and overthrow of Sihon, laying waste all Heshbon, spread abroad round about, as far as the city of Ar, which is in Moab, and as far as the Arnon, which borders upon it. Here therefore Heshbon is called the city of Sihon, as it were of the victor; for after the manner of Hebrew and poetic rhythm, this verse says and repeats the same thing, but in other words; for it is the same thing to say "a fire is gone out of Heshbon," as "a flame from the city of Sihon."
21:29
29. WOE TO THEE, MOAB! THOU ART UNDONE, O PEOPLE OF CHAMOS. — that is to say, Ye are undone, O Moabites, who worship the idol Chamos, III Kings XI, 5; nor could your Chamos deliver you from this calamity. Note: Sihon did not lose, nor did he subdue all the Moabites: for Balak at the same time still reigned in Moab, as will be said in the following cap., verse 4; but he only lost Heshbon and the places near to it, and their inhabitants, who were before subject to the Moabites. Learned men in languages think that Chamos was Bacchus, the god of drunkenness, whence the Greek komos is said, and the Latin comessari and comoedia. See the remarks on Romans XIII, 13. GAVE — namely Chamos, that is, gave, allowed to be taken and slain the sons of Moab, devoted to him, by Sihon king of the Amorites.
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30. Their yoke (of the Moabites, which they had imposed on the inhabitants of Heshbon) PERISHED FROM HESHBON AS FAR AS DIBON. — The Chaldean translator renders it, the kingdom ceased from Heshbon, power was taken away from Dibon. The Hebrew texts have, the lamp, that is the glory of their kingdom, of the Moabites, perished from Heshbon. WEARY THEY CAME TO NOPHE — weary namely from flight. For in Hebrew it is, fleeing (namely from the calamity brought upon Heshbon by Sihon) they came to Nophe. For the Hebrew nasim, if written with sin (which is the same as samech), signifies fleeing; if written with schin, signifies wives; and thus the Septuagint read it. Thirdly, the Chaldeans and later scholars derive nascim from shamam, that is, he laid waste, he devastated, and render it we have laid waste, namely Moab as far as Nophe. Here ends the rhythm, or the song of victory concerning Heshbon captured and Moab conquered by Sihon.
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32. AND MOSES SENT TO EXPLORE JAZER, AND THEY TOOK THE VILLAGES THEREOF, AND POSSESSED THE INHABITANTS. — "Possessed," that is, subdued by slaying or putting to flight the inhabitants or dwellers of Jazer; for the Hebrews could not receive them in surrender. For God had commanded that all the Canaanites be slain and exterminated, Deut. XX, 16; whence the Chaldean and Septuagint render it, they cast out: for the Hebrew iaras is from verbs of contrary signification; whence it signifies both to possess and to inherit, and to cast out and to deprive of inheritance.
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33 and 35. Og king of Basan met them, etc.: AND THEY SMOTE HIM ALSO WITH HIS SONS, AND ALL HIS PEOPLE UNTO UTTER DESTRUCTION — that is to say, so that they left not any one alive that was a survivor, as the Hebrew and Septuagint have it. Masius notes in Joshua XII that the Chaldean regularly translates Basan as Matan or Matanan, because it put the letter mem for beth (for both are labial letters, and therefore akin and interchangeable), which is also not uncommon among the Greeks. Second, for shin it put tau, which is customary among the Chaldeans. Hear here, and laugh at the amusing, or rather foolish, fable of the Talmudists concerning the immense size of this Og and his slaughter. Og, they say, was the greatest giant, who, when the Hebrews were approaching, uprooted a mountain of two leagues and placed it on his head, so that he might bury all the Hebrews with a single cast of this mountain: but God sent ants, which, boring through the mountain, caused it to descend upon his shoulders; soon, as his teeth grew to ten cubits, he was not able to cast the mountain from himself. Seeing this, Moses, who was ten cubits tall, took an axe of ten cubits, and leaped upon Og to ten cubits, and reached the joint of his shin with his foot, and there struck and killed him, the mountain falling upon him at the same time. For Og was of such great bulk that when a deer entered into the shin of his dead body, it wandered in it for half a day, which the hunter pursued it in this shin. Lyran and Abulensis report these things, Question XXVII. See here how true of the Jews is that saying of David, Psalm LXVIII, 23: "Let their table become a snare before them, and a retribution, and a stumbling block: let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
21:1
HORMA (Hebrew Hormāh). - A Canaanite city, originally Sephaath, but, by anticipation, always referred to by the name, applied by the Israelites, of H. from the "extermination" (herem, v.) carried out there during the occupation (Num. 21:1-3; Judg. 1:17).
… The principal cities of the N. are listed in Ios. 15, 21-32 and among the principal ones are remembered Kadesh-barnea (Gen. 20, 1), Beersheba (Ios. 15, 28), Ziklag (ibid. 15, 31), Arad (Num. 21, 1).
RIFUGIO, City of. - One of the Mosaic laws dating from the period of the stay in the "steppes of Moab" (Num. 21:1 ff.; 35:1 ff.) prescribes for Israel's future settlement in its lands the choice of the "Levitical cities" (ibid. 35:1-5) and, among them, of six cities, three east and three west of the …
21:4
… Since the people had repented, God, through Moses' intercession, indicated the remedy in a b. s., which was to be erected on a pole: whoever had been bitten and looked upon it would be healed; and so it happened (Num. 21:4-9). The symbolism does not seem difficult to grasp: it is chosen in harmony with the setting. …
Seraphim (Heb. Iāraph, pl. Iēraphim)
… The Hebrew term, according to the most probable opinion, is connected with the root iārāph "to burn, to be burning." This concept can also be applied to the serpents, which kill the rebellious Israelites in the desert (Num. 21:4-7; Deut. 8:15); because of their deadly venom they would be conceived as "breathing fire." No allusion of Isaiah, however, permits the supposition that the beings he saw also had some …
21:8
… what is on the earth, nor of what is in the depths of the abysses." In reality, this prohibition was never absolute, at least in a certain period; consider, for example, the cherubim of the ark of the covenant and the bronze serpent (Ex. 25:18; 37:7-9; Num. 21:8-9; Reg. 7:25). It is in the time after the exile, especially in the age of the Maccabees, that Judaism begins to proscribe any image for fear of idolatry.
21:11
… the great Syro-Arabian desert by means of a large strip called "the desert of M." (Deut. 2:8, 13; Judg. 11:17), along which Israel went up, so as not to touch the country of M. The brook Zered (Wādi el-Hesā) clearly marked its southern boundary (Num. 21:11 ff.; 33:43 ff.); to the west, the Dead Sea and the lower course of the Jordan. …
21:13
The A. marked the boundary between the territory of the Amorites (v.) with capital Hesebon, then of the Ammonites (v.), to the north, and that of the Moabites, to the south (Num. 21, 13-15;
… stratum probably in the 4th millennium, the most recent (the "Amorites", v.) ca. the year 2000. Sometimes, however, the Old Testament distinguishes between Canaanites and Amorites, calling Amorites not only the pre-Israelite inhabitants of Transjordan (cf. Num. 21, 13, 31; Deut. 3, 8; 4, 47 ff.; 31, 4; Ios. 2, 10; 9, 10; 12, 2; 13, 10; Iudc. 10, 8), but also a part of the inhabitants of Palestine proper, that is, those dwelling in the mountain (Deut. …
21:15
Ar ('Ar, Moabite form for 'Ir "City", or 'Ar "Vulture") of Moab
AR ('Ar, Moabite form for 'Ir "City", or 'Ar "Vulture") of Moab. - Capital of the Moabites (Num. 21:15, 28; Deut. 2:9, 18, 29). God forbade the Israelites to take it (Deut. 2:9). Its history merges with that of Moab (v.) or represents it.
21:21
… the regions by the great sea" (cf. Deut. 1:44; Josh. 10:6; 11:3); hence the "mountain of the A." was the southern Palestinian massif (Deut. 1:7, 19, 20; cf. Num. 13:30). At Israel's entry, the Transjordanian kingdoms of Heshbon and Bashan are Amorite (Num. 21:21 ff.). …
The tribe of R. obtained from Moses, even before the occupation of the land of Canaan, lower Transjordan, dividing with the tribe of Gad the territory wrested from Sihon king of the Amorites (Num. 21:21-35; 32:1-38). Its borders ran from the Arnon in the south up to the Wādī Hesbān (Heshbon) in the north, and from the Dead Sea to the desert of Moab (Josh. 13:15-23; cf. Num. 32:34-38). …
… Since the king had refused passage to the Hebrews, they decided to open the way by arms: in a few actions S. was overwhelmed, was killed, and his territories remained an Israelite conquest (Num. 21:21 ff.; 32:33; Deut. 1:4; 2:24 ff.; 3:2-6; 4:46; 29:7; 31:4; cf. Josh. 2:10 etc.).
21:24
… Bēnē-ʿAmmōn "children of Ammon," twice [1 Sam. 11:11; Ps. 83 Hebr., 8] only ʿAmmōnī, gentilic adjective ʿammōnī; Septuagint υἱοὶ Ἀμμών and Ἀμμάνι; Num. 21:24 Ἀμμάνιται; Assyrian Bit-Ammāni) descended from Ammon (v.) and therefore brother to the Moabites, with whom it is closely associated in its history and culture, and related to Israel. …
bon) as well as the northern frontier of the Ammonites (Num. 21:24; Deut. 2:37; 3:16. Cf. Flavius Josephus, Antiq. …
21:25
… the strip adjoining the Jordan and the Dead Sea was taken from them by the Amorites, led by King Sihon, who drove them farther east, and then taken from the Amorites by the Israelites, who divided it among the tribes of Reuben and Gad (Judg. 11:19-22; Num. 21:25 ff.; Josh. 13:15-28).
Heshbon (Hebrew: Heshbōn; Septuagint: Ἐσβοῦς)
… The capital of the Amorite kingdom of Sihon, it was occupied by the Hebrews (Num. 21:25-34) and repopulated by the tribe of Reuben after the extermination (Num. 32:3, 37). Being situated on the border of Gad (v.), it was taken by the latter tribe and assigned to the Levites …
… The stele of Mesha (v.), the claims of Jephthah, the allusions of Isaiah and Jeremiah nevertheless show that M. had in time recovered its settlements north of the Arnon (Num. 21:25-32; Deut. 2:24, 36; Josh. 13:25; Judg. 18:18, 22; Is. 15:4; Jer. 48:21; F.-M. …
21:26
who is presented as the first king of Moab (Num. 21:26): he was perhaps the predecessor of B. or B. himself. …
… Even before their arrival from the desert to Canaan, the Israelites had conquered certain territories between the Jordan, the Jabbok and the Arnon, inhabited by Ammonites and Moabites (Num. 21:26-30; Judg. 11:15 ff.). …
21:27
… Some rare fragments (Gen. 4:23-24; Num. 21:27-28; I Sam. 1:18-27) testify that poetry on profane subjects was not unknown to the Hebrews.
21:28
Mention is still made of the "land of S. the Amorite," to denote regions formerly under his dominion, in the Solomonic age (1 Kings 4:19) and probably still in the age of Jeremiah (Jer. 48:45, alluding to Num. 21:28: in Jeremiah, instead of "from the midst [mibbên] of S.," one should probably read "of the house" [mibbêth], that is, "city or region of S.").
21:29
CHAMOS (Hebrew Kéméf). - National and principal god of the Moabites (Judg. 11:24; 1 Kings 11:7, 33; 2 Kings 23:13), who were therefore called the "people of C." (Num. 21:29; Jer. 48:46). King Mesha is called "son of C.," and to him, as to a god of war, in order to be delivered from the grip of his enemies, he offers his own son on the city walls (2 …
21:30
… It is mentioned for the first time in a victory song of the Amorites over the Moabites (Num. 21:30), together with Heshbon and Dibon, so that it already seems to be a place of importance. …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.