Numbers 21:18

with the ruler's wand, with their staves These do not seem to be implements suitable for digging a well. But it is suggested by Budde that there is -an allusion to a custom by which when a well had been discovered it was lightly covered over, and then, on a subsequent occasion, solemnly opened with a symbolic action of the sceptre-like staves of the Sheikhs"; see Gray, Numb.p. 289, where parallels are cited for the practice of singing to a well. R.V. marg. -by order ofthe lawgiver" retains the improbable interpretation of the A.V. [Note:.V. The Authorised Version.]

The historical setting in which the song has been placed obscures its real nature. Popular snatches of song were sung during the intervals of labour in the field, or in honour of the vine at the vintage, or in honour of a well or spring at the time of drawing water. The present stanza appears to be of the latter class. Wells were highly prized; and the songs would, as it were, persuade them to yield up their precious contents.

And from the wilderness[they journeyed to] Mattanah The clause is doubtful, for (1) they had already left the wilderness (of Numbers 21:13) when they moved to Beer, and (2) the Lucianic recension of the LXX. omits -and from Mattanah" in Numbers 21:19. Mattanah, if it was the name of a place, is unknown; but the word means -a gift," and Budde ingeniously suggests that the clause forms the last line of the song -from the wilderness a gift," omitting the initial -and" (ו). The LXX. translators appear to have felt the difficulty of -from the wilderness" and to have removed it by reading -And from Beerto Mattanah."

The Targ. of Onkelos on this verse contains a legend according to which the well followed the Israelites on their journeys over hill and dale. In 1 Corinthians 10:4 S. Paul refers to the legend but combines with it a reference to the rock which produced water (Numbers 20:11).