Numbers 21:20

20 and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah which looks down upon the desert.

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.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 Sheviith, fol. 38. 4.

Numbers 21:20 In-Context

18 the well which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people delved with the scepter and with their staves." And from the wilderness they went on to Mat'tanah,
19 and from Mat'tanah to Nahal'iel, and from Nahal'iel to Bamoth,
20 and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah which looks down upon the desert.
21 Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,
22 "Let me pass through your land; we will not turn aside into field or vineyard; we will not drink the water of a well; we will go by the King's Highway, until we have passed through your territory."
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.