Numbers 21:20

20 and from Bamoth to the valley that [is] in the territory of Moab, [by] the top of Pisgah, which overlooks the surface of the wasteland.

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 Well water that the princes dug, that the leaders of the people dug, with a staff [and] with their rods." And from [the] desert [they continued to] Mattanah,

19 and from Mattanah [to] Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel [to] Bamoth;

20 and from Bamoth to the valley that [is] in the territory of Moab, [by] the top of Pisgah, which overlooks the surface of the wasteland.

21 Israel sent messengers to Sihon, the king of the Amorites, saying,

22 "Let us go through your land; we will not turn aside into a field or vineyard; we will not drink well water along the way of the king until we have gone through your territory."