Numbers 21:20

20 and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah that overlooks 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.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 Sheviith, fol. 38. 4.

Numbers 21:20 In-Context

18 the well that the leaders sank, that the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, with the staff." From the wilderness to Mattanah,
19 from Mattanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth,
20 and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah that overlooks the wasteland.
21 Then Israel sent messengers to King Sihon 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 any well; we will go by the King's Highway until we have passed through your territory."

Footnotes 1

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, 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.