Numbers 21:14

14 Therefore it is said in a book, A war of the Lord has set on fire Zoob, and the brooks of Arnon.

Numbers 21:14 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 21:14

Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord
A history of wars in former times, which the Lord had suffered to be in the world; and which, as Aben Ezra thinks, reached from the times of Abraham and so might begin with the battle of the kings in his time, and take in others in later times, and particularly those of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and his conquests of some parts of Moab; and to this book, which might be written by some one of those nations, Moses refers in proof of what he here says:

what he did in the Red sea;
that is, what Sihon king of the Amorites did, or the Lord by him, "at Vaheb in Suphah", as the words may be rendered; either against a king, or rather city, of Moab, whose name was Vaheb, in the borders of the land of Moab, or how he destroyed that city Vaheb with a storm or terrible assault ^F12:

and in the brooks of Arnon:
some places situated on the streams of that river, which were taken by the Amorites from the Moabites, as the book quoted plainly testified.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Vid. L'Empereur. Not. in Mosis Kimchi (odoiporia) p. 195.

Numbers 21:14 In-Context

12 And thence they departed, and encamped in the valley of Zared.

13 And they departed thence and encamped on the other side of Arnon in the wilderness, which extends from the coasts of the Amorites; for Arnon is the borders of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

14 Therefore it is said in a book, A war of the Lord has set on fire Zoob, and the brooks of Arnon.

15 And he has appointed brooks to cause Er to dwell ; and it lies near to the coasts of Moab.

16 And thence the well; this the well of which the Lord said to Moses, Gather the people, and I will give them water to drink.