Numbers 21:18

Num 21:18 The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by [the direction of] the lawgiver, with their staves. And from the wilderness [they went] to Mattanah:

Ver. 18. The princes digged the well.] Called therehence Beerelim, i.e., the well of the mighty ones. {Isa 15:8} Nunquam vilior erat annona Romae, quam cum terram colerent iidem qui remp. regerent: quasi gauderet terra laureato vomere scilicet, et aratore triumphali. {a}

With their staves.] Those ensigns of their honour they made to be instruments of the common good. See the Epist. Dedicat. set before my notes upon John.

{a} Plin.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21:18b-20 After moving north of the Arnon, the Hebrews left the wilderness on the eastern side of Moab and the recently conquered Amorite territory (see study note on 21:21-35). They turned westward toward the ridgeline that rises up from the Jordan Rift Valley, then traveled north to Pisgah Peak (see also 23:14; Deut 3:17, 27; 34:1, 5).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Moses and Aaron heads of the people only smote the rock with the rod or staff, which gave water as a well that were deep digged.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 18. The princes digged the well - with their staves.] This is not easily understood. Who can suppose that the princes dug this well with their staves? And is there any other idea conveyed by our translation? The word חפרו chapharu, which is translated they digged, should be rendered they searched out, which is a frequent meaning of the root; and במשענתם bemishanotham, which we render with their staves, should be translated on their borders or confines, from the root שען shaan, to lie along. With these corrections the whole song may be read thus: -

Spring up, O well! Answer ye to it.

i.e. Repeat the other part of the song.

The well, the princes searched it out.

This is the answer.

The nobles of the people have digged it.

By a decree, upon their own borders.

This was the chorus.

This is the whole of the quotation from what is called the book of the wars of the Lord. But see Dr. Kennicott's remarks at the end of this chapter.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) By the direction of the lawgiver.—Better, with the ruler’s staff. The same word occurs in Gen_49:10, where it stands in parallelism to “the sceptre.” (See Note in loc.)

And from the wilderness they went to Mat-tanah.—The Targums interpret this and Num_21:19-20 of the well, And from the wilderness it was given to them for a gift, and from thence it was given to them in Mattanah, &c. The Targum of Onkelos is as follows: “And from the time that it was given to them, it descended with them to the rivers, &c.” The Targum of Palestine is—“And from the wilderness, &c.” (as above).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. with the ruler’s wand, with their staves] These do not seem to be implements suitable for digging a well. But it is suggested by Budde that there is ‘an allusion to a custom by which when a well had been discovered it was lightly covered over, and then, on a subsequent occasion, solemnly opened with a symbolic action of the sceptre-like staves of the Sheikhs’; see Gray, Numb. p. 289, where parallels are cited for the practice of singing to a well. R.V. marg. ‘by order of the lawgiver’ retains the improbable interpretation of the A.V. [Note: .V. The Authorised Version.]

The historical setting in which the song has been placed obscures its real nature. Popular snatches of song were sung during the intervals of labour in the field, or in honour of the vine at the vintage, or in honour of a well or spring at the time of drawing water. The present stanza appears to be of the latter class. Wells were highly prized; and the songs would, as it were, persuade them to yield up their precious contents.

And from the wilderness [they journeyed to] Mattanah] The clause is doubtful, for (1) they had already left the wilderness (of Num_21:13) when they moved to Beer, and (2) the Lucianic recension of the LXX. omits ‘and from Mattanah’ in Num_21:19. Mattanah, if it was the name of a place, is unknown; but the word means ‘a gift,’ and Budde ingeniously suggests that the clause forms the last line of the song—‘from the wilderness a gift,’ omitting the initial ‘and’ (ו). The LXX. translators appear to have felt the difficulty of ‘from the wilderness’ and to have removed it by reading ‘And from Beer to Mattanah.’

The Targ. of Onkelos on this verse contains a legend according to which the well followed the Israelites on their journeys over hill and dale. In 1Co_10:4 S. Paul refers to the legend but combines with it a reference to the rock which produced water (Num_20:11).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth. All the Targums interpret this, and the following verse, not of the journeying of the children of Israel, but of the motion of the well, that that, from the place from whence it was given them, descended with them into the valleys, and from thence to the high places, as these words signify: and indeed those places are not mentioned in the journeys of the children of Israel, Num 33:1 and were not stations where they pitched, but places they passed through before they came to Abarim, and the wilderness of Kedemoth.

and were not stations where they pitched, but places they passed through before they came to Abarim, and the wilderness of Kedemoth.

Numbers 21:20

num 21:20

num 21:20

num 21:20And from Bamoth, in the valley,.... Or rather "to the valley", as the Targum of Onkelos, since Bamoth signifies high places; though, according to the Jerusalem Talmud (o), Bamoth, Baal, which seems to be the same place, was in a plain:

that is in the country of Moab; the valley belonged to Moab, into which Israel came:

to the top of Pisgah; not that the valley reached to the top, nor did the children of Israel go to the top of it, only Moses, but rather to the bottom, which indeed is meant; for it intends the beginning of it, where Pisgah, which was an high mountain near the plains of Moab, began, and which was properly the foot of it:

which looketh towards Jeshimon; that is, Pisgah, as Jarchi rightly interprets it, which looked over a place called Jeshimon; and which signifies a wilderness, and is no other indeed than the wilderness of Kedemoth, Deu 2:26 for from thence the following messengers were sent.

(o) Sheviith, fol. 38. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mathana. Perhaps they did not stop here, though all the encampments are not specified, chap. xxxiii. Nahaliel, "God my torrent," and Bamoth, "the heights," are also situated upon the Arnon.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The princes digged; either by themselves, or by others whom they commanded to do it. By the direction of the lawgiver, or, with the lawgiver, i.e. Moses; they together with Moses, or they by Moses’s direction and appointment, which is signified Num 21:16.

Their staves are here mentioned, either,

1. As the ensigns of their authority, Jdg 5:14, by which they gave this command of digging.

2. As the instruments of their work; not that they, did formally and effectually dig the well or receptacle for the water, for which spades were more proper than staves, but that as Moses smote the rock with his rod, so they struck the earth with their staves, making only some small impression for form sake, or as a sign that God would cause the water to flow forth out of the earth where they smote it, as he did before out of the rock.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Mattanah cannot be identified. Le Clerc suggests that it may be the same as the mysterious Vaheb, (Num_21:14, note,) since its meaning in Arabic is the same as that of Mattanah in Hebrew. Neither this nor the other names occurring in this context are found in the catalogue of stations in chap. 33. This discrepancy may arise from the fact that the same station had several names, or from two contiguous stations being occupied at the same time. Kurtz thinks that the object of the writer in the thirty-third chapter is statistical, that is, to set forth, not all the halting places but the regular camps where the tabernacle was erected, while in earlier passages the object is historical. Hence more places are enumerated, as in Num_21:11 and Num_22:1, seven places are mentioned between Ije-abarim and the plains of Moab; in Num_33:44-48, only three places.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By the direction of the lawgiver, qqejomBi. Literally, "by the lawgiver," or, as some prefer, "with the scepter." The meaning of michokek is disputed, (see on Gen_49:10) but in either ease the meaning must be practically as in the A.V It speaks of the alacrity with which the leaders of Israel, Moses himself amongst them, began the work even with the insignia of their office. And from the wilderness... to Mattanah. Beer was still in the desert country eastward of the cultivated belt: from thence they crossed, still on the north of Arnon, and probably leaving it somewhat to the south, into a more settled country.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

With their staves - Probably as Moses smote the rock with his rod, so they struck the earth with their staves, as a sign that God would cause the water to flow out of the earth where they smote it, as he did before out of the rock. Perhaps they made holes with their staves in the sandy ground, and God caused the water immediately to spring up.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

באר חפרוה THE WELL, [PRINCES] DIGGED IT means: This is the well which the princes, Moses and Aaron, digged (cf. Targum Jonathan on).

במשענתם means WITH THE STAFF.

וממדבר מתנה AND FROM THE WILDERNESS was it given them [as a מתנה, a gift].

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

UMIMIDBAR MATANAH.’ The meaning of this is as Onkelos rendered it [“and from the wilderness it was given to them”], this being an elliptical expression that is common in songs. Thus it is saying that “from the wilderness, which is a land of drought and thirst, was this gift [the well] given to us; and from this gift [of the well which descended] unto the brooks, and from these brooks [ascended] to the heights until Pisgah, which looks down upon the land which is a complete howling wilderness — there was no other brook, nor any other spring of water except for this one.” This was the Well of Miriam in the opinion of our Rabbis, or a well which came out by word of Moses at the command of the Almighty, which Israel had not asked for. For when G-d told Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water, streams overflowed from it [the well], and continued unto distant places.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.