Numbers 21:32

_THUS ISRAEL DWELT IN THE LAND OF THE AMORITES._ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES....

21-35 Sihon went with his forces against Israel, out of his own borders, without provocation, and so ran upon his own ruin. The enemies of God's church often perish by the counsels they think most wisely taken. Og, king of Bashan, instead of being warned by the fate of his neighbours, to make peace with Israel, makes war with them, which proves in like manner his destruction. Wicked men do their utmost to secure themselves and their possessions against the judgments of God; but all in vain, when the day comes on which they must fall. God gave Israel success, while Moses was with them, that he might see the beginning of the glorious work, though he must not live to see it finished. This was, in comparison, but as the day of small things, yet it was an earnest of great things. We must prepare for fresh conflicts and enemies. We must make no peace or truce with the powers of darkness, nor...

JAAZER - To he identified probably with the ruins Sir or es-Sir 10 miles north of Heshbon. The occupation of it by the Israelites virtually completed their conquest of the Amorite kingdom; and prepared the way for the pastoral settlements in it which they not long after established Numbers 32:35....

EXPOSITION THE END OF JOURNEYS, THE BEGINNING OF VICTORIES (Numbers 21:10 Numbers 22:1). NUMBERS 21:10 THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SET FORWARD, and pitched in Oboth. In the list of Numbers 33:1, there occur two other stations, Zahnonah and Phunon, between Mount Hor and Oboth. Phunon may be the Pinou of Genesis 36:41, but it is a mere conjecture. All we

AND MOSES SENT TO SPY OUT JAAZER,.... Or Jazer, as it is called in Isaiah 16:9, another city that belonged to the Amorites, and which they had taken from the Moabites; and which came into the hands of the latter again, after the captivity of the ten tribes, as appears from the above places; according to Jerom s, it was fifteen miles distant from Heshbon: AND THEY TOOK THE VILLAGES THEREOF; not the spies, as Jarchi, but the Israelites under Moses; who upon the return of the spies, and the report they made, marched towards it, and took it, and all the towns and villages round about it; for it seems to have been a principal city: AND DROVE OUT THE AMORITES THAT WERE THERE; that dwelt there, and were in possession of it; otherwise they would not have attacked it, had it, and its villages, been in the hands of the Moabites. s De locis Heb. fol. 92

CHAPTER 21 Murmuring and Conquest _ 1. Opposition of King Arad (Numbers 21:1)_ 2. Murmuring and the fiery serpents (Numbers 21:4) 3. The serpent of brass (Numbers 21:8) 4. Journeying and singing again (Numbers 21:10) 5. Sihon and Og (Numbers 21:21) The first victory is here recorded. The Lord delivered Canaanites into the hands of Israel, and according to their vow they utterly destroyed them and their cities. But in spite of this victory the people became again discouraged because of the w

THE CONQUEST OF THE AMORITES. This narrative presupposes the position reached in Numbers 21:13 (not in Numbers 21:20), for the embassy to Sihon would naturally be despatched before the Amorite border was crossed. Numbers 21:23. Jahaz: the Jahzah of Jeremiah 48:21, probably not far from Dibon. Numbers 21:24. Jabbck: the modern Nahr ez-Zerka. WAS STRONG: read (LXX) was Jazer (Numbers 21:32)....

_The victories over Sihon and Og_. See the parallel account in Deuteronomy 2:24 to Deuteronomy 3:13. The previous verses have described the Israelites" march through the territory occupied by the Amorites on the north of the Arnon, and their arrival at one of the glens which cleave the western edge of the plateau, close to the spot where it ran into the Jordan valley. The narrative now returns to the earlier point, described in Numbers 21:13, when they were still on the eastern border of the Amorites. Since the town of Heshbon commanded the glens, it would have been impossible to penetrate into them unless the town had first been captured; but the writer has arranged his material in the present order for

AND MOSES SENT TO SPY OUT JAAZER— Another city belonging to Moab, but now in the possession of the Amorites, which the Israelites did not take at first. It should seem, from ch. Numbers 32:1. 2 Samuel 24:5 and 1 Chronicles 26:31 to have been situated not far from mount Gilead. St. Jerome places it about fifteen miles distant from Heshbon. After the captivity of the ten tribes, it fell again into the hands of the Moabites, Jeremiah 48:32....

H. VICTORY OVER SIHON AND OG vv. 21-35 TEXT Numbers 21:21. And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, 22. Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king's high way, until we be past thy borders. 23. And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness: and he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 24. And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon to Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon: for the border of the children of Ammon was strong. 25. And Israel took all these cities; and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out