Numbers 21:30

30 So we overthrew them; Heshbon, as far as 1Dibon, perished; and we laid waste as far as Nophah; fire spread as far as 2Medeba."[a]

Numbers 21:30 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 21:30

We have shot at them
Either the Amorites at the Moabites, or else the Israelites at the Amorites; for, according to Aben Ezra, these are the words of Moses, though they, with ( Numbers 21:29 ) , seem rather to be a continuation of the song of the old Amorite bards, describing the ruin of the country of Moab by them; and this clause may be rendered with the next, "their light, or lamp, is perished from Heshbon" F18; or their yoke, as Jarchi, and so the Vulgate Latin version; that is, their kingdom, and the glory of it, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan interpret it, and so Jarchi:

even unto Dibon;
which was another city in the land of Moab; see ( Isaiah 15:2 ) :

and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which [reached] unto
Medeba;
Nophah perhaps is the same with Nebo, mentioned along with Medeba, ( Isaiah 15:2 ) , however, they were both places in Moab, and are mentioned to show how far the desolation had or would spread; and the whole is observed to prove, that this part of the country of Moab, now possessed by the Israelites, was taken from them, not by them, but by the Amorites, a people Israel now conquered, and so had a right to what they found them in the possession of.


FOOTNOTES:

F18 (Nwbvx dba Mryn) "lucerna eorum, Heshbon (seilicet) periit", Tigurine version; "regnum eorum periit a Chesbon", Pagninus, Vatablus; "imperium eorum", Munster.

Numbers 21:30 In-Context

28 For fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It devoured Ar of Moab, and swallowed the heights of the Arnon.
29 Woe to you, O Moab! You are undone, O people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives, and his daughters captives, to an Amorite king, Sihon.
30 So we overthrew them; Heshbon, as far as Dibon, perished; and we laid waste as far as Nophah; fire spread as far as Medeba."
31 Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.
32 And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Numbers 32:3; Joshua 13:17; Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 48:18; [Numbers 33:45, 46]
  • 2. 1 Chronicles 19:7; Isaiah 15:2

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Compare Samaritan and Septuagint; Hebrew and we laid waste as far as Nophah, which is as far as Medeba
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.