Numbers 21:9

Moses made a serpent of bronze] The removing of a pest by means of a bronze image of it finds parallels in ancient Europe. See Gray, Numb. p. 276.

Numbers 21:10. P

Stages in the journey to the east of Moab

11 .The site of Oboth is unknown; -somewhere on the flinty plateau to the east of Edom, the Ard Suwwan or Flint Ground, Arabia Petraea" (G. A. Smith, H. G.[Note:. G. Historical Geography of the Holy Land.] 557). Iye-abarim (Heb. -Iyyê-hâ-abhârîm, -the Ruins of the -Abharim") is stated to lie -over against Moab, on the sunrise (i.e. the eastern) side." -The - Abharim" means -the parts on the other side," a name which was given to the district on the east of the Dead Sea, looked at from the point of view of a dweller in Palestine: cf. Numbers 27:12; Numbers 33:47 f. The name distinguishes it from the Iyim of Joshua 15:29, which was in Judah, close to the Edomite border.

Many writers assign Numbers 21:10 to P, since the names Oboth and Iye-abarim recur in the list in ch. 33, which is from the hand of a priestly writer, and are found nowhere else in the O.T. According to that list (41 44) the itinerary was as follows: Mt Hor, Zalmonah, Punon, Oboth, Iye-abarim. The sites of Zalmonah and Punon are quite unknown. But the writer of 33, who clearly intends to trace the journey as completely as possible, omits all reference to the detour by the way to the Red Sea. If, therefore, Mt Hor is the modern Jebel Madurah (see on Numbers 20:22) on the west of Edom, and Iye-abarim is somewhere on the eastern border of Moab, it seems probable that the priestly traditions represented Israel as marching straight through Edom. Whether the account of the hostility of the king of Edom was unknown to P, or whether it was, for some reason, intentionally omitted, we cannot say. But it is noteworthy that in Dt. also there is no mention of it.