Verses 1-3 – Chapter 21 is by its very construction an unusual chapter. After 30 days of mourning the death of Aharon Yisra’el is attacked by King Arad – H6166 – wild donkey – sovereign of the Kena’anites attacked Yisra’el because he had heard that they were coming on the way to Atharim and even took some captives. The interesting part of this story is “on the way to Atharim – אֲתַָרִים : the phrase should really read “the way of the spies”. This is alluding to “the way of the spies” when they went into the Promised Land to spy out the land. This probably relates to a military strategy of posting lookouts on the route that the spies took in case they ever returned by the same route. I am sure at this point that King Arad thought that the Yisra’elites had strengthened their army enough that they were now ready to invade Kena’an.

In Verse 2 we see the nation of Yisra’el make a vow to YHVH in that they would “utterly destroy” (H2763 – charam – חרם) men, women children and livestock if He delivered them into their hands. YHVH honored the vow and the cities were “put under the ban”. So the name of the place was called Hormah – חרמה – H2767 – “devoted” as in devoted to destruction. BUT LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

Verses 4-5 – The Children of Yisra’el left Mt. Hor by the way of the Sea of Reeds, grew impatient and grumbled. Once again they called what was set-apart loathsome: our being loathes this light bread.”Why was this so bad? Look at the definition for the Hebrew word used for “light”: H7052 – קלקל – qelôqêl – BDB Definition:1) contemptible, worthless. They did not understand what this bread represented: Joh 6:51 “I am the living bread which came down out of the heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And indeed, the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

Joh 6:55 “For My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink.

Joh 6:56 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood stays in Me, and I in him.

Joh 6:57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me shall live because of Me.

Joh 6:58 “This is the bread which came down out of the heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and died. He who eats this bread shall live forever.”

Psa 78:22 Because they did not believe in Elohim, Neither did they trust in His deliverance.(H3444)

Psa 78:23 Yet He had commanded the clouds above, And opened the doors of the heavens,

Psa 78:24 And He rained down manna on them to eat, And He gave them the grain of the heavens.

Psa 78:25 Men ate bread of the mighty; He sent them provisions to satisfaction.

Psa 105:39 He spread a cloud for a covering, And fire to give light in the night.

Psa 105:40 They asked, and He brought quail, And satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

Psa 105:41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out; It ran in the dry places, a river.

Neh 9:14 “And You made known to them Your set-apart Sabbath, and You commanded them commands and laws and Torot, by the hand of Mosheh Your servant.

Neh 9:15 “And You gave them bread from the heavens for their hunger, and brought them water out of the rock for their thirst, and said to them to go in to possess the land which You had sworn to give them.

Once again the Children of Yisra’el called Good Evil and evil good: Isa 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Verse 6 – And יהוה sent(H853) fiery serpents among the people, and they bit(H853) the people.

Verses 7-9 – The people repented and asked Mosheh to pray to YHVH for them. So, rather than taking away the snakes He had Mosheh Make a serpent of bronze and to put it on a pole and if someone who had been biten (by sin) could look up upon the bronze serpent on the pole and be healed: Joh_3:14 “And as Mosheh lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Aḏam has to be lifted up,

Verse 10-12 – We need to take a close look at the camping sites of the Children of Yisrael carefully because verse 10 cuts it short. Let’s look carefully at the recounting of sites: Num 33:40 And the sovereign of Araḏ, the Kena‛anite, who dwelt in the South in the land of Kena‛an, heard of the coming of the children of Yisra’ěl.

Num 33:41 So they departed from Mount Hor and camped at Tsalmonah.

Num 33:42 And they departed from Tsalmonah and camped at Punon.

Num 33:43 And they departed from Punon and camped at Oḇoth.

Num 33:44 And they departed from Oḇoth and camped at Iyě Ha-Aḇarim, at the border of Mo’aḇ.

So, between Mount Hor and the place where they encountered the fiery serpents they made other stops. Let’s look at the first: H6758 – צלמנה – tsalmônâh – BDB Definition: Zalmonah = “shady”, shadiness, shadow, ((You know like shady people or shadow of death.))

From Tsalmonah they went to Punon: H6325 – פּוּנן – pûnôn – BDB Definition: Punon = “darkness”

Looking at the words, it appears that after Aharon died and was mourned that the Children of Yisra’el went from Mt. Hor – H2023 – mountain; down to a shady place and then afterward descended in to darkness in their faith and had to deal with fiery serpents.

Now, at Oboth, I believe the Children of Yisra’el got some relief because of the name of the campground, Oboth – H88 – waterskins – and camped at Iye Ha-Abarim – H5863 – עיּי העברים – ‛iyêy hâ̇‛ăbârı̂ym – BDB Definition: Ije-abarim = “ruins of Abarim”. This word is not unique to Hebrew. We have one in English in the Southwest United States and it is Anasazi which refers to the ancients that had passed that way before in ancient times. This is the same type of meaning conveyed by these words. They then went from Iye Ha-Abarim towad the sunrise and camped at Wadi Zered.

Verses 12-20 – This next section is very controversial and I am quite sure that I am not going to shed any new light on the debate. In verse 14 we are introduced to the name of another scroll (סֵפֶר מִלְחֲמֹת יהוה) The Scroll or Book of the Battles of YHVH. We may have seen this book referenced here: Exo 17:14 And יהוה said to Mosheh, “Write this for a remembrance in the book and recite it in the hearing of Yehoshua, that I shall completely blot out the remembrance of Amalěq from under the heavens.”

I won’t bore you with all the possible combinations and transmutations of books people believe are being referenced here. Some believe the original ancient Book of Yasher is actually the one referred to here, not the Medieval Book of Yasher that we have today. Some even believe that the Book of Bemidbar may be the book referred to in this case.

Verses 21-32 – The battle with Sihon. Once again Yisra’el asked a king, in this case Sihon king of the Amorites (giants) for permission to pass through the land but he refused. Sihon gathered his people on the border and fought with Yisra’el and lost and the cities of the Amorites were destroyed. The Yisra’elites dwelt in the former cities of Heshbon. It was while dwelling in the cities of the Amorites that Mosheh sent out spies to Yazer and drove the Amorites out of those cities.

Verses 33-35 – Next the Children of Yisra’el came to the beautiful land of Bashan, a land of giants ruled by King Og. The land of Bashan included Mt. Hermon, the place where the angels came down to Earth to take human women as wives. This is also the same mountain upon which Yeshua was transfigured and which He claimed for His Father’s Kingdom: Mat 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Kěpha, and on this rock I shall build My assembly, and the gates of She’ol shall not overcome it.

The next reference is not telling us how tall Og was but it is describing a war trophy: Deu 3:11 “For only Oḡ sovereign of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Repha’ites. See, his bedstead was an iron bedstead. Is it not in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the cubit of a man. (13.5’L x 6’W)

This bed is also described in Sumerian writings as the bedstead in ancient Babylon under Nimrod, upon which Marduk and Astarte would have sexual relations in the Spring to insure fertility of the crops. This was capturing the bed of pagan gods and it was probably destroyed.

Ahavah vberakhot