Numbers Chapter 21

This chapter is about Arad being destroyed, a bronze snake, a journey to Moab, & the defeat of Sihon & Og. It’s a fairly lengthy chapter. Enjoy y’all!

There was a Canaanite king, King of Arad, who lived in the Negev, and heard that the Israelites were coming down the road to Atharim. He, the king, decided to attack & captured some of the Israelites.

Israel made a vow to God: If You help us out here, we’ll totally & utterly destroy their cities. Good heard them. (Imagine that!?!) The Canaanites were defeated. The Israelites completely destroyed everything (think scorched earth). The place was then called: Horman (which means destruction).

The Israelites traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea (Or Sea of Reeds, depending on your version of the Bible, or translation.). They went this way to go around Edom. (See Numbers Chapter 20, the whole chapter!)

Buckle up, buckaroos! The Israelites become cry babies, AGAIN! “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Blah, blah, blah.” So God sent some venomous snakes amongst the Israelites. The venomous snakes started doing what venomous snakes do: started hitting people. Lots of Israelites died.

The Israelites came to Moses, again. “We sinned when we talked crap! We’re SO sorry! Can you tell the big guy upstairs to make the snakes go somewhere else? Like where we aren’t.” So Moses went & prayed.

God tells Moses to make a snake & put it on a pole. (This kinda sounds like idolatry to me. In Exodus, we have the golden calf & that’s a no-go. But since God said it’s ok, then it’s TOTALLY fine. Contradictory, I say!) Anyone who’s bitten can just look at the snake & live. (I wanna know what in the wizarding world of Harry Potter is this unholy magic!? Because there’s nothing I can think of, EVER in human history, has there been something you can just look at & you’ll be fine after a venomous snake bite!) Moses built a bronze snake & put it on a pole. (Also interesting, there are no dimensions to this bronze snake. Everything important has dimensions, this seems a little important.) Anyone who got bitten just had to look at the bronze snake & they were fine.

The Israelites did a bit of traveling after this: Oboth, Iye Abarim, the Zered Valley, Arnon, & Beer. When they get to Beer, God tells Moses to get everyone together. There’s water on the way! The Israelites burst into song. (Verse 14 mentions the Book of the Wars of the Lord. We’ve never heard of this particular book. If anyone reading this has any knowledge of said book, please let us know in the comments!)

Away they went again: Mattanah, Nahaliel, Bamoth, & the Moab Valley. Israel sent messengers to King Sihon, king of the Amorites. The message was pretty consistent with what was sent to Edom.

King Sihon had the same answer as the Edomites did: You shall not pass! (Yes, that’s a LOTR reference!) King Sihon got an army together, went to Jahaz, & fought the Israelites.

Israel has their stuff together, they killed Sihon. They took over his land, from Arnon to Jabbok, only as far as the Ammonites. They even occupied Sihon’s own city! So this is where the Israelites decided to settle.

Moses sent spies to Jazer. The Israelites captured its surrounding settlements. They, the Israelites, drove out the Amorites, who were there.

They turned & went toward Bashan. King Og of Bashan brought his whole army to Edrei. God told Moses not to worry. God let Moses know that the Israelites were gonna get Og’s land too! So do to King Og what they did to King Sihon.

So they killed King Og, his sons, & his entire army. They left NO survivors! Not even the 1 guy to tell the tale, you know, to tell the women & children left behind. (Think about that.) They took over Og’s land.