Numbers 21:20

20 And from Bamoth [in] the valley, that [is] in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looketh towards Jeshimon.

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 princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by [the direction of] the lawgiver, with their staffs. And from the wilderness [they went] to Mattanah:
19 And from Mattanah to Nahaliel: and from Nahaliel to Bamoth:
20 And from Bamoth [in] the valley, that [is] in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looketh towards Jeshimon.
21 And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,
22 Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink [of] the waters of the well: [but] we will go along by the king's [high]-way, until we have past thy borders.
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