From Mount Hor to the Plains of Moab
Condemnation of a whole generation, including its leaders, and the death of its first high priest: Israel had reached the nadir of its wilderness wanderings. Their predicament would soon brighten.
Israel’s odyssey in the wilderness provided the Hebrew name for the Book of Numbers: bemidbar. The book had begun in the first year in the wilderness with much promise at Mount Sinai: Israel faithfully prepared itself, their camp, and the Tabernacle for their military adventure into Canaan in Numbers 1:1-10:10 (ca. 1450 or 1250 BCE, depending on one’s view of the exodus). But in the second year, from Sinai to Kadesh, Israel would rebel time and time again throughout Numbers 10:11-19:22, and the entire generation was consigned to death in the wilderness. After the better part of forty years of wandering in the desert wastes of Arabia, Israel returned to Kadesh, where Miriam would die, and Aaron and Moses would be condemned for not making the name of YHWH holy among the people (Numbers 20:1-13). Israel began its movement toward the land of Canaan: they would have to go around Edom, Aaron would die at Mount Hor, and his son Eleazar would succeed him as high priest (Numbers 20:14-29).
At some point around this time in the narrative, a Canaanite leader of Arad brought his army against Israel, fought them, and took some Israelites as prisoners (Numbers 21:1). Israel vowed to YHWH they would devote their cities to destruction if they were delivered into their hands; YHWH delivered them up and they destroyed them and their cities, naming the place Hormah (Numbers 21:2-3).
We do well to note how this experience represents a significant reversal from the events of Numbers 14:40-45: earlier Israel, in its attempt at “repentance” for rebelling against YHWH in the matter of the spies, went up into the land around this area, and were attacked as far as Hormah. This time, the Israelites were themselves attacked; they sought YHWH and made their vows to Him; they were granted success and fulfilled their vows.
After these things the Israelites traveled from Mount Hor around the land of Edom, and so likely southeast near the Gulf of Aqaba (Numbers 21:4). While traveling, the people again spoke against God and Moses, asking why they were brought up from Egypt to die in the wilderness without bread or water, and they were tired of the manna (Numbers 21:5). YHWH sent “fiery serpents,” or venomous snakes, among the people and many died; “fiery” was an apt description of the experience of envenomation (Numbers 21:6).
This would seem to be a standard Israelite experience in the wilderness and an indication not much had changed. But then the people came to Moses and confessed their sins, and asked Moses to pray to YHWH to take the snakes away from them (Numbers 21:7). Moses thus prayed for them. YHWH would not take the snakes away, but He did command Moses to make a copper or bronze snake and set it on a pole, and anyone who looked at the pole after getting bitten would live, and Moses did so (Numbers 21:8-9).
“Bronze” or “copper” snake in Hebrew seems to feature a play on words (nehash nehoshet), but also represents a common motif throughout the ancient Near Eastern world. Snakes were often associated with magic, healing, and defense; to this day, the caduceus and the Rod of Aesculapius feature staffs and snakes and are signs used to represent medicine. We should not be surprised to discover this copper/bronze serpent would be named Nehushtan and incense would be offered to it in later days, leading Hezekiah king of Judah to destroy it around 700 BCE (2 Kings 18:4).
We have to make sense of how the God who commanded Israel to make no graven image of any animal also told Moses to make a copper or bronze snake for Israel to look upon and be healed (Exodus 20:4, Numbers 21:8). This experience would become a type for what God would accomplish in Jesus: Jesus would refer to Numbers 21:5-9 in John 3:13-15, making a parallel between Israel finding healing by looking up to the uplifted serpent and Israel, and all people, finding salvation by looking up to the uplifted Son of Man.
The journey of Israel from the road to the Red Sea to near Mount Pisgah in Moab was detailed in Numbers 20:10-20, a predominantly northern journey. Moses, or perhaps a later editor, made reference to the Book of the Wars of YHWH when describing the Moabite-Ammonite borderlands in which Israel encamped in Numbers 21:13-15. This is the only reference to the Book of the Wars of YHWH in the Bible, and we know nothing else about it; beyond the short poetic description found in Numbers 21:14-15, none of the rest of its contents have been preserved, and anything we might say about it would prove speculative. Its citation does bear witness to the existence of other sources regarding Israel’s origins beyond what has been preserved in the Torah/Pentateuch. This section also preserves a song Israel composed celebrating YHWH opening the well of Beer in Numbers 21:16-18.
Israel then made appeal to Sihon king of the Amorites to allow them to pass through his land (Numbers 21:21-22). Sihon not only did not allow Israel to do so, but also gathered his forces and fought against Israel at Jahaz (Numbers 21:23). Sihon chose foolishly: the Israelites defeated him and took possession of Sihon’s land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, and Israel would settle in the cities and villages of the Amorites, especially Heshbon, Sihon’s capital (Numbers 21:24-25). Moses, or a later editor, felt compelled to explain how Sihon had come into possession of that land, since it was formerly Moabite territory; a poem from “those who speak in proverbs” was recorded, likely an Amorite war taunt, bearing witness to Sihon’s victory over Moab in Numbers 21:26-30.
Israel then expanded within the Amorite land of the Transjordan: they spied out and conquered Jaazer and dispossessed the Amorites who lived there (Numbers 21:31-32). Israel proceeded up the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan and his army met Israel and fought against them at Edrei; YHWH promised Moses He would deliver them into the hands of the Israelites to do what was done unto Sihon, and it was done, and no survivors remained (Numbers 21:33-35).
The Amorites represented a Bronze Age people who spoke a Northwest Semitic language. In the wake of the collapse of the Akkadian Empire and the long-term effects of the 4.2 Kiloyear Event, the Amorite people of the margins were able to overrun parts of Mesopotamia and were responsible for founding Babylon and its Old Babylonian Empire around 1900 BCE; they founded the Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt around 1800 or 1700 BCE and also were probably a part of the Hyksos invaders who overran all of Lower Egypt by 1650 BCE. The Amorites had already appeared in the area of Canaan and the Levant by the days of Abraham around 2000 BCE; when God spoke to Abraham regarding the sojourn of his descendants, He promised they would return to the land of Canaan, but only after the “sin of the Amorites” reached its limit according to Genesis 15:13-16. By the days of Moses around 1450 or 1250 BCE, the Amorite kingdoms may not have been as powerful as they had been before, but they manifestly maintained their integrity in Canaan and the Levant.
But YHWH would judge and condemn the Amorites wherever they endured during the Late Bronze Age and in the collapse of the Bronze Age, and Israel was His chosen instrument against the Amorites in Canaan and the Transjordan area. Ever afterward, the Israelites, Ammonites, and Moabites would contest the former lands of Sihon and Og in the Transjordan area (e.g. Judges 11:12-14).
After their success against Sihon and Og, the Israelites camped in the rift valley plains of Moab along the Jordan across from Jericho, and here would remain their base until Joshua would lead them into Canaan (Numbers 22:1; cf. Joshua 3:1).
In this way all the wilderness wanderings of Israel came to an end; Israel now found itself almost at the point of crossing over and obtaining all YHWH had promised their ancestors. Much would still take place; Israel would not be the same people by the time they would cross the river as they were when they arrived. But they were also not the same people who had arrived at Kadesh in Numbers 20:1. They had reached the nadir of their experience in the wilderness, but had now tasted of YHWH’s blessing and victory in war. While they had not yet stopped their complaining, they had at least learned to apologize and repent of it. And they had begun conquering the land YHWH was giving them, overcoming the Amorite kings Sihon and Og, and striking fear in the heart of all the Canaanites (cf. Joshua 2:10). May we gain insight and understanding regarding how we can faithfully serve God from the example of Israel, and obtain eternal life in God in Christ through the Spirit!
Ethan R. Longhenry
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