Numbers 21:2

2 Then the people of Israel made this vow to the LORD : “If you will hand these people over to us, we will completely destroy all their towns.”

Numbers 21:2 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 21:2

And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord
The Israelites made supplication to the Lord for help against their enemies, and that he would give them victory over them, and made promises to him:

and said, if thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand;
certainly and entirely deliver them, so as that a complete victory shall be obtained over them:

then will I utterly destroy their cities;
or "anathematize", or devote them to utter destruction ^F15; slay man and beast, burn their houses and take their goods, not for a spoil, for their own private use, but reserve them for the service of God; all which is implied in the vow made, as was done to Jericho, ( Joshua 6:21 Joshua 6:24 ) and so it is a vow, as Abendana observes, of what they would do when they came to the land of Canaan.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 (ytmrxhw) "et anathematisabo", Montanus; "devovebo", Tigurine version.

Numbers 21:2 In-Context

1 The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that the Israelites were approaching on the road through Atharim. So he attacked the Israelites and took some of them as prisoners.

2 Then the people of Israel made this vow to the LORD : “If you will hand these people over to us, we will completely destroy all their towns.”

3 The LORD heard the Israelites’ request and gave them victory over the Canaanites. The Israelites completely destroyed them and their towns, and the place has been called Hormah ever since.

4 Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey,

5 and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!”

Footnotes

• [a]. The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; also in 21:3 .