Numbers 21:5-20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”(A) 6 Then the Lord sent poisonous[a] serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.(B) 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.(C) 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous[b] serpent, and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it upon a pole, and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.(D)
The Journey to Moab
10 The Israelites set out and camped in Oboth.(E) 11 They set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness bordering Moab toward the sunrise.(F) 12 From there they set out and camped in the Wadi Zered.(G) 13 From there they set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon, in[c] the wilderness that extends from the boundary of the Amorites, for the Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. 14 Wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord,
“Waheb in Suphah and the wadis.
The Arnon 15 and the slopes of the wadis
that extend to the seat of Ar
and lie along the border of Moab.”[d](H)
16 From there they continued to Beer;[e] that is the well of which the Lord said 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 well that the leaders sank,
that the nobles of the people dug,
with the scepter, with the staff.”
From the wilderness to Mattanah, 19 from Mattanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth, 20 and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah that overlooks the wasteland.[f]
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