Numbers 21:13

13 From there they set out and encamped beyond Arnon, which [is] in the desert that goes out from the boundary of the Amorites, because Arnon [is] the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

Numbers 21:13 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 21:13

From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of
Arnon
A river on the borders of Moab:

which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the
Amorites;
according to Jarchi, they went round the land of Moab, all to the south and east, and came not into the border of Moab, as Jephthah said, ( Judges 11:18 ) but before they came hither they had a station at Almondiblathaim, ( Numbers 33:46 Numbers 33:47 )

for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites;
a river which divided these two countries, and bounded them; and Moses is the more particular in this account, to show that the Israelites took nothing from the Moabites, but what the Amorites had taken from them, they being charged not to distress the Moabites and Ammonites, ( Deuteronomy 2:9 Deuteronomy 2:19 ) , see Jephthah's defence, ( Judges 11:15-27 ) .

Numbers 21:13 In-Context

11 They set out from Oboth and encamped at Iye Abarim in the desert, which [was] in front of Moab {toward the sunrise}.

12 From there they set out and encamped at the valley of Zered.

13 From there they set out and encamped beyond Arnon, which [is] in the desert that goes out from the boundary of the Amorites, because Arnon [is] the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

14 Therefore thus it is said in the scroll of the Wars of Yahweh, "Waheb in Suphah, and the wadis of Arnon,

15 and the slope of the wadis that spreads out to the dwelling of Ar and lies at the boundary of Moab."

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew "Amorite"
• [b]. Hebrew "Amorite"