Numbers 21 Modern English Version
Arad Destroyed
21 When King Arad the Canaanite, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel came by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive. 2 Israel vowed a vow to the Lord and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” 3 The Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities, and he called the name of the place Hormah.
The Bronze Serpent
4 They journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom, and the soul of the people was very discouraged because of the way. 5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread or water, and our soul loathes this worthless manna.”
6 So the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many children of Israel died. 7 So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, and He will take away the serpents from us.” And Moses prayed for the people.
8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and put it on a pole, and it will be, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, will live.” 9 Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole, and if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the bronze serpent he lived.
The Journey to Moab
10 The children of Israel set out and camped in Oboth. 11 They journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iye Abarim in the wilderness, which is before Moab toward the sunrise. 12 From there they journeyed and camped in the Valley of Zered. 13 From there they journeyed and camped on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the borders of the Amorites, for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. 14 Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord:
“Zahab in Suphah, and in the brooks
of Arnon, 15 and at the stream of the brooks
that goes down to the dwelling of Ar,
and lies on the border of Moab.”
16 From there they went to Beer. That is the well of which the Lord spoke to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.”
17 Then Israel sang this song:
“Spring up, O well!
sing to it—
18 the leaders dug the well;
the nobles of the people dug,
by the lawgiver, with their staffs.”
And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah, 19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, 20 and from Bamoth in the valley that is in the country of Moab to the top of Pisgah, which looks toward Jeshimon.
King Sihon Defeated
21 Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,
22 “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn into the fields nor into the vineyards. We will not drink of the waters of the well. But we will go along by the king’s highway until we are past your borders.”
23 Sihon would not allow 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 Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword and possessed his land from Arnon to Jabbok, all the way to the children of Ammon, because the border of the children of Ammon was strong. 25 Israel took all these cities, and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. 26 Because Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, to Arnon.
27 Therefore they that speak in proverbs say:
“Come into Heshbon; let it be built,
and let the city of Sihon be established,
28 because a fire went out of Heshbon,
a flame from the city of Sihon;
it has devoured Ar of Moab
and the masters of the high places of Arnon.
29 Woe to you, Moab!
You have perished, O people of Chemosh!
He has made his sons fugitives,
and his daughters captives,
to Sihon king of the Amorites.
30 “We have overthrown them;
Heshbon is perished to Dibon,
and we have desolated them to Nophah,
which reaches to Medeba.”
31 Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.
King Og Defeated
32 Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they took its villages and drove out the Amorites who were there. 33 They turned and went up by the way of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.
34 The Lord said to Moses, “Do not fear him because into your hand I have given him, and all his people, and his land, and you will do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.”
35 So they killed him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was not a survivor left to him alive, and they possessed his land.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.