Numbers 21:1-2

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Numbers 21:1 sn This chapter has several events in it: the victory over Arad (vv. 1-3), the plague of serpents (vv. 4-9), the approach to Moab (vv. 10-20), and the victory over Sihon and Og (vv. 21-35). For information, see D. M. Gunn, “The ‘Battle Report’: Oral or Scribal Convention.” JBL 93 (1974): 513-18; and of the extensive literature on the archaeological site, see EAEHL 1:74-89.
2. Numbers 21:1 sn The name Arad probably refers to a place a number of miles away from Tel Arad in southern Israel. The name could also refer to the whole region (like Edom).
3. Numbers 21:1 tn Or “the south”; “Negev” has become a technical name for the southern desert region and is still in use in modern times.
4. Numbers 21:2 tn The Hebrew text uses a cognate accusative with the verb: “Israel vowed a vow.” The Israelites were therefore determined with God’s help to defeat Arad.
5. Numbers 21:2 tn The Hebrew text has the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense of נָתַן (natan) to stress the point—“if you will surely/indeed give.”
6. Numbers 21:2 tn Heb “my.”
7. Numbers 21:2 tn On the surface this does not sound like much of a vow. But the key is in the use of the verb for “utterly destroy”—חָרַם (kharam). Whatever was put to this “ban” or “devotion” belonged to God, either for his use or for destruction. The oath was in fact saying that they would take nothing from this for themselves. It would simply be the removal of what was alien to the faith or to God’s program.