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The battle of the Israelites with the Canaanite king Arad. - Murmur of the people. – An unusual abundance of poisonous snakes. - Copper serpent. - Movement to the borders of the Amorite king Sihon. - The embassy to the latter with a request for unhindered passage. - Refusal. - Occupation of the Amorite kingdom. – Occupation of Vasana. Numbers 21:1. The Canaanite king Arad, living to the south, hearing that Israel was coming by the road from Afarim, entered into battle with the Israelites and took several of them captive. The small kingdom of Arad was located in the south of Canaan. The tract, now known as Tel Arad, perhaps indicates the place where Arad once existed. Numbers 21:2. And Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said: If you deliver this people into my hands, then I will put a curse on [them and] their cities. Numbers 21:3. The Lord heard the voice of Israel and delivered the Canaanites into his hands, and he put a spell on them and on their cities and called the name of the place Hormah 1 Ancient Khorma (or Tsepath, see Judges 1:17) is identified with the Rakhma tract, which lies not far from the gorge leading from Wadi el-Arab to the hills of the southeastern outskirts of Canaan. Numbers 21:4. From Mount Hor they set out by the Red Sea to pass through the land of Edom. And the people on the way began to become faint-hearted, “By the way of the Red Sea” - “by the way of the plain from Elath and Ezion-geber” (northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba, Deut. 2.8), having on the left - Idumea, on the right - the Arabian desert. Numbers 21:8. And the Lord said to Moses: Make yourself a [copper] serpent and display it on a banner, and [if the serpent bites any person], the one who is bitten, looking at it, will remain alive. “Looking at him” with faith in the healing power of the almighty and all-good Lord. “Not by prophetic things,” notes the wise one, “by sight, but by Thy word, O Lord, which healeth all things. The mercy of the Lord came and healed them” (Wis. 16:7, 10-11). The transformative meaning of the brass serpent is clearly expressed in the words of the Savior: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3.14–15). Explaining the details of the prototype, Blessed. Theodoret notes: “Like the copper serpent was an image of serpents, but did not have snake venom; so the Only Begotten Son had a human body, but did not have the stain of sin. How those bitten by serpents, looking at the copper serpent, received salvation; so those wounded by sin, undoubtedly believing in the suffering of our Savior, turn out to be conquerors of death, acquiring eternal life” (Interpretation of the book of Numbers, issue 38). As an indisputable monument to the miraculous manifestation of God's mercy, the copper serpent was preserved among the people until the time of the Jewish king Hezekiah. Noticing the Jews' tendency towards pagan adoration of the monument, Hezekiah ordered the serpent to be destroyed (2 Kings 18.4). Numbers 21:10. And the children of Israel departed and stopped at Oboth; Numbers 21:11. and they departed from Oboth, and stopped at Iye-Abarim, in the wilderness opposite Moab, toward the rising of the sun; Numbers 21:12. They set off from there and stopped at the Zared valley; Numbers 21:13. departing from here, they stopped at that part of the Arnon in the desert, which flows outside the borders of the Amorites, for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. Having passed from west to east (perhaps through the Wadi el-Ifm gorge), bypassing the mountains of Edom, the Israelis turn north-east towards the Moabite valleys, walking, as Espin notes, the same road along which caravans from Mecca to Damascus still move today. From Numbers 33.41–42 it is clear that before arriving at Oboth, the Israelites had camps in Shalman and Punon. It is believed that Ovof is the current site of El-Akhsa. The small stream of Wadi el-Akhsa now forms the boundary between the two regions of Jebal and Kerak, as in ancient times it perhaps served as the boundary between Edom and Moab. Regarding the valley of Zared book. Deuteronomy 2.14–16 report that on the way between the said valley and Ar, the last Israelites from the generation that was doomed to die in the desert died. The Arnon stream is currently called: in the upper reaches - Seil es Said, in the lower reaches - Wadi Mojeb (Vlastov). Numbers 21:14. That is why it is said in the book of the warfare of the Lord: “The Book of the Wars of the Lord,” that is, the book in which the stories about the wars of the people of God were recorded. Numbers 21:16. From here they [went] to Be'er **; This is the well about which the Lord said to Moses: Gather the people, and I will give them water. The well of Be'er is identified with the well of "Be'er Elim" (well of the knights) in the land of Moab (Isaiah 15.8). Numbers 21:20. from Bamoth to Ai, which is in the land of Moab, on the top of Mount Pisgah, facing the wilderness. Pisgah is the name of one of the heights of the Abarim mountain range. Numbers 21:24. And Israel smote him with the sword, and took possession of his land from Arnon to Jabbok, even to the borders of the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was strong; The Jabbok stream is currently called “Zerka”, i.e. “Blue”. The distance between Arnon and Jabbok is 45 miles, or 68 versts. Numbers 21:25. and Israel took all these cities, and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all that depended upon him; Numbers 21:26. for Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, and he fought with the former king of Moab and took out of his hand all his land as far as Arnon. Heshbon was located on an elevated plateau, on the same parallel with the mouth of the Jordan, 20 miles (30 miles) east of it. Its ruins are still called Esbon (Vlastov, Holy Years). Numbers 21:29. Woe to you, Moab! You are lost, people of Chemosh! His sons fled, and his daughters became captives of the Amorite king Sihon; Chemosh is a pagan deity honored by the Moabites, similar to Baal and Molech. Numbers 21:30. We struck them with arrows; Heshbon perished as far as Divon; we devastated them as far as Nopha, which is near Medeva. Medeva, now Madeba (mentioned in the famous inscription of the Moabite king Mesha), is located 4 miles (6th century) southeast of the ruins of Esbon (Heshbon - Vlastov). Numbers 21:33. And they turned and went to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan, himself and all his people, came out against them to fight towards Edrei. The kingdom of Bashan extended from the Jabbok stream to the north, along the river. Jordan, to Mount Hermon (Deut. 3.8). You might be interested in: