Numbers 21:20

20 And Moses sent ambassadors to Seon king of the Amorites, with peaceable words, saying,

Numbers 21:20 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 21:20

And from Bamoth, [in] the valley
Or rather "to the valley", as the Targum of Onkelos, since Bamoth signifies high places; though, according to the Jerusalem Talmud ^F15, Bamoth, Baal, which seems to be the same place, was in a plain:

that is in the country of Moab;
the valley belonged to Moab, into which Israel came:

to the top of Pisgah;
not that the valley reached to the top, nor did the children of Israel go to the top of it, only Moses, but rather to the bottom, which indeed is meant; for it intends the beginning of it, where Pisgah, which was an high mountain near the plains of Moab, began, and which was properly the foot of it:

which looketh towards Jeshimon;
that is, Pisgah, as Jarchi rightly interprets it, which looked over a place called Jeshimon; and which signifies a wilderness, and is no other indeed than the wilderness of Kedemoth, ( Deuteronomy 2:26 ) for from thence the following messengers were sent.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 Sheviith, fol. 38. 4.

Numbers 21:20 In-Context

18 the princes digged it, the kings of the nations in their kingdom, in their lordship sank it in the rock: and from the well to Manthanain,

19 and from Manthanain to Naaliel, and from Naaliel to Bamoth, and from Bamoth to Janen, which is in the plain of Moab from the top of the quarried that looks toward the wilderness.

20 And Moses sent ambassadors to Seon king of the Amorites, with peaceable words, saying,

21 We will pass through thy land, we will go by the road; we will not turn aside to the field or to the vineyard.

22 We will not drink water out of thy well; we will go by the king's highway, until we have past thy boundaries.