Bamidbar 21:30

30 Down they have been cast; Chesbon is perished even unto Divon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophach, which reacheth unto Meidva.

Bamidbar 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.

Bamidbar 21:30 In-Context

28 For there is a fire gone out of Cheshbon, a flame from the city of Sichon; it hath consumed Ar of Moav, and citizens of the heights of Arnon.
29 Woe to thee, Moav! Thou art undone, O people of Kemosh; he hath given his banim as fugitives, and his banot, captives unto Sichon Melech Emori.
30 Down they have been cast; Chesbon is perished even unto Divon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophach, which reacheth unto Meidva.
31 Thus Yisroel dwelt in Eretz HaEmori.
32 And Moshe sent to spy out Yazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out HaEmori that were there.
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