Numbers 21

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 21:5

And the people spake against God ,.... Who went before them in the pillar of cloud and fire, for leading them in such a way; that is, against Christ, as the apostle has taught us to interpret it, 1 Corinthians 10:9 , and is no inconsiderable proof of the deity of Christ; and so the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it,"and the people thought in their heart, and spake against the Word of the Lord,'the essential Word and Son of God: and against Moses ; his servant, for obeying the orders of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 21:6

And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people ,.... Of which there were great numbers in the deserts of Arabia, and about the Red sea; but hitherto the Israelites were protected from them by the cloud about them, but sinning, the Lord suffered them to come among them, to punish them; these are called fiery, either from their colour, for in Arabia, as there were serpents of a golden colour, as Aelianus F18 De Animal. l. 10. c. 13. relates, to which the brazen serpent, after made,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 21:7

Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, we have sinned ,.... Being bitten with serpents, and some having died, the rest were frightened, and came and made an humble acknowledgment of their sins to Moses: for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee ; murmuring at their being brought out of Egypt, and because they had no better provision in the wilderness; concluding they should die there for want, and never enter into the land of Canaan, of which evils they were now... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 21:8

And the Lord said unto Moses ,.... Out of the cloud; or, it may be, Moses went into the sanctuary, and there prayed, and the Lord answered him from between the cherubim: make them a fiery serpent ; not a real one, but the likeness of one, one that should very much resemble the fiery serpents Israel had been bitten with: and set it upon a pole ; a standard, banner, or ensign, as the word signifies; perhaps meaning one of the poles on which their ensigns were carried: the Targum of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 21:9

And Moses made a serpent of brass ,.... Which was the most proper metal to make it of, that it might resemble the fiery serpents, whether of a golden or scarlet colour: and Diodorus Siculus F4 Bibliothec. l. 17. p. 560. speaks of some of the colour of brass, whose bite was immediately followed with death, and by which, if anyone was struck, he was seized with terrible pains, and a bloody sweat flowed all over him; and this was chosen also, because being burnished and bright, could be... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 21:10

And the children of Israel set forward ,.... From Zalmonah, and came to Punon, which, according to the above writer, was twenty miles from it; though here indeed, some think, the brazen serpent was set up, here being, as before observed, brass mines to furnish with that metal: and pitched in Oboth ; which was twenty four miles from Punon, as says the same writer: the word signifies bottles; perhaps here the Israelites got water and filled their bottles, or, as others think, they filled... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 21:11

And they journeyed from Oboth ,.... How long they stayed there is not certain: and pitched at Ijeabarim ; which, according to Bunting F11 Ut supra. (Travels of the Patriarchs, &c.; 83.) , was sixteen miles from Oboth; Jarchi says it was the way that passengers pass by Mount Nebo to the land of Canaan, and which divides between the land of Moab and the land of the Amorites: in the wilderness which is before Moab ; called the wilderness of Moab, Deuteronomy 2:8 . towards... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 21:12

From thence they removed, and pitched in the valley of Zered. Or the brook Zered, as in Deuteronomy 13:14 that is near it: this seems to be the same station with Dibongad, Numbers 33:45 , and which, according to the above writer, was sixteen miles from Ijeabarim. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 21:13

From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon ,.... A river on the borders of Moab: which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites ; according to Jarchi, they went round the land of Moab, all to the south and east, and came not into the border of Moab, as Jephthah said, Judges 11:18 but before they came hither they had a station at Almondiblathaim, Numbers 33:46 . for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites ; a river... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible 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... read more

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