Bamidbar 21:14

14 Wherefore it is said in the Sefer Michamot Hashem, Vahev v’sufah and in the Vadis Arnon,

Bamidbar 21:14 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 21:14

Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord
A history of wars in former times, which the Lord had suffered to be in the world; and which, as Aben Ezra thinks, reached from the times of Abraham and so might begin with the battle of the kings in his time, and take in others in later times, and particularly those of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and his conquests of some parts of Moab; and to this book, which might be written by some one of those nations, Moses refers in proof of what he here says:

what he did in the Red sea;
that is, what Sihon king of the Amorites did, or the Lord by him, "at Vaheb in Suphah", as the words may be rendered; either against a king, or rather city, of Moab, whose name was Vaheb, in the borders of the land of Moab, or how he destroyed that city Vaheb with a storm or terrible assault F12:

and in the brooks of Arnon:
some places situated on the streams of that river, which were taken by the Amorites from the Moabites, as the book quoted plainly testified.


FOOTNOTES:

F12 Vid. L'Empereur. Not. in Mosis Kimchi (odoiporia) p. 195.

Bamidbar 21:14 In-Context

12 From thence they removed, and encamped in the Wadi Zered.
13 From thence they removed, and encamped on the other side of Arnon, which is in the midbar encroaching the Emori; for Arnon is the border of Moav, between Moav and the Emori.
14 Wherefore it is said in the Sefer Michamot Hashem, Vahev v’sufah and in the Vadis Arnon,
15 And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the site of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moav.
16 And from thence they went to Beer; that is the Well whereof Hashem spoke unto Moshe, Gather the people together, and I will give them mayim.
The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.