Numbers 21:20

Num 21:20. Pisgah — This was the top of those high hills of Abarim.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(20) And from Bamoth in the valley.—Better, and from Bamoth to the valley that is . . . The country (or, rather, field) of Moab was a portion of the table-land which stretches from Rabbath Ammân to the Arnon. The valley in this table-land was upon the height of Pisgah—i.e., the northern part of the mountains of Abarim.

Toward Jeshimon.—Or, across the waste (or, desert).

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

20. the valley that is in the region of Moab, [om. to] the top of the Pisgah] The two expressions are placed somewhat awkwardly in apposition; but they appear to mean: the valley which is in that part of the region of Moab known as the top of the Pisgah.

the valley] was a glen (gay’, distinct from naḥal, Num_21:14) which cut through the hills and emerged at the Jordan, perhaps the present Wâdy ‘Ayûn Mûsa (‘Moses’ springs’) which runs into the Jordan valley some four or five miles north of the northern end of the Dead Sea, the torrent then flowing with a south-westerly curve into the Sea.

the region of Moab] denotes the region which properly belonged to Moab, but of which the Amorites were in possession at the moment.

the top of the Pisgah] ‘The Pisgah’ seems to have been the name applied to the broken edge of the Moabite plateau where it falls steeply to the Dead Sea and the Jordan valley; and ‘the top, or head, of the Pisgah’ (Num_23:14, Deu_3:27; Deu_34:1) is a collective term for the projections or promontories slightly lower than the main plateau and standing out from the western slopes. The word is derived from a root which in Aram. and late Heb. signifies ‘to cleave’; and it may describe the appearance of the range as seen from the west, standing out in a series of separate peaks.

which looketh down upon the Jeshimon] The name, which denotes ‘arid or desert land,’ is used of the deserts through which Israel passed in their journey from Egypt (Deu_32:10, Psa_68:7 &c.), and of the waste land on the east of Judah, north of the Dead Sea (1Sa_23:19; 1Sa_23:24; 1Sa_26:1; 1Sa_26:3 marg.). But here the verb ‘looketh down,’ which is chiefly used of men looking down from a window (Gen_26:8, 2Sa_24:20, Son_6:10), or of God looking down out of heaven (Psa_102:19), seems to point to a district more immediately below the Pisgah, which must be the barren tract north of the Dead Sea and east of the Jordan (see G. A. Smith, H. G. [Note: . G. Historical Geography of the Holy Land.] 564 note).

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.

Let me pass through thy land,.... Through some part of it, which would have been a shorter way to the river Jordan, over which Israel was to pass into the land of Canaan; the terms proposed, or things to be observed in their passage, which they would bind themselves strictly to, are the same that were made to the king of Edom. See Gill on Num 20:17.

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Numbers 21:23

num 21:23

num 21:23

num 21:23And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border,.... Because he could not trust them, and confide in the promises they made, and thought it not safe to let such a body of people into any part of his dominions, Jdg 11:20 and chiefly because his heart was hardened by the Lord, that he might be delivered into the hands of Israel, as was determined, Deu 2:30,

but Sihon gathered all his people together; all that were able to bear arms out of his cities, and which made no doubt a very numerous and powerful army; but then these being defeated, as they were, it became more easy to the Israelites to take their cities, where there were none left but women and children:

and went out against Israel into the wilderness; the wilderness of Kedemoth; not content to reject a peaceable message, he went out in an hostile manner against Israel, even out of his own dominions; so that he was the aggressor and unprovoked, which made his ruin appear the more just, and the children of Israel to have a better claim to his country conquered by them:

and he came to Jahaz; a frontier town in the land of Moab, see Isa 15:4 and which, according to Bunting (p), was sixteen miles from Abarim:

and fought against Israel; at the above place, where they had a pitched battle.

(p) Travels of the Patriarchs, p. 83.

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

In the country of Moab - Rather, in the field of Moab: the upland pastures, or flat downs, intersected by the ravine of Wady Waleh.

Pisgah, which looketh toward Jeshimon - Or, “toward the waste.” See Num 33:47. Pisgah was a ridge of the Abarim mountains, westward from Heshbon. From the summit the Israelites gained their first view of the wastes of the Dead Sea and of the valley of the Jordan: and Moses again ascended it, to view, before his death, the land of promise. The interest attaching to the spot, and the need of a convenient name for it, has led Christians often to designate it as “Nebo,” rather than as “the mountain of, or near to, Nebo;” but the latter is the more correct: Nebo denoted the town Isa 15:2; Jer 48:1, Jer 48:22 on the western slope of the ridge.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Desert. Hebrew and Chaldean, "Yeshimon," (Josue xiii. 28; Ezechiel xxv. 9,) a city of the Moabites.

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).

In the valley; or, the valley, which might be called Bamoth, not because it was a place naturally high, but from divers other reasons, which may be easily guessed. Or, to the valley, or to that valley, that famous or rather infamous valley, to wit, of Abel-shittim, Num 33:49, where they committed those foul abominations recorded Num 25

Pisgah was the top of these high hills of Abarim; of which see Deu 3:17,27; 32:49; 34:1,6.

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

20. In the valley — Rather, to the valley, which is in the fields of Moab upon the top of Pisgah. The height of Pisgah is in grammatical apposition with the field of Moab, a portion of the perfectly treeless table-land stretching from Rabbath Ammon to the Arnon. Among biblical problems on the east of the Jordan the solution of none has enlisted deeper interest than the identification of long-lost Pisgah. The great mistake for ages was in the attempt to find some peak higher than the general level of the table-land of Moab, from which all the Land of Promise can be seen. But Dr. J.L. Porter, on the south bank of Wady Hesban, about seven miles west of Heshbon, recently noticed some projecting swells of the range, not higher than others, but shooting out farther west, so as to command the Jordan Valley, and suggested that one of these might be Nebo. Professor Paine, in the third statement of the Palestine Exploration Society, in 1873, in an elaborate monograph of nearly ninety pages, entitled, The Identification of Pisgah, cogently argues, after a month’s investigation of all the district, that a double peaked hill or swell called Jebel Siaghah is the true Pisgah. The view from the southwest peak, 2,360 feet above the sea, extending from Dan on the north to the far distant Negeb, fulfils every requisite of the view which Moses beheld from Pisgah, unless it be all Judah unto the Mediterranean Sea, for which there is no peak east of the Jordan high enough. See Bibliotheca Sacra, Jan., 1876. Dr. Ridgaway dissents from the conclusion of Professor Paine, and sides with Tristram and M. de Saulcy, in the identification of Jebel Neba as the true Pisgah, chiefly because this affords an eastward view, which Jebel Siaghah does not. See Deu_3:27. “My own impression is, that Abarim was the name of the whole cluster of hills immediately overlooking the Jordan in this region, as the term signifies ‘borders;’ that Nebo was the title of a particular mountain, with one or more peaks, and that Pisgah was the special summit of Nebo. I remember very clearly that its top looked, as we rode by, just like a hill, and seemed relatively so little elevated, as we approached from the east, that we hardly thought it worth while to go on to it. Taking the itinerary of Israel, as given in Num_33:46-48, nothing can seem more natural.” — Ridgaway.

Jeshimon — Literally, the wilderness. It is doubtful whether it is a proper or a common noun.

Edersheim says that it is the tract of land which extends to the northeastern shore of the Dead Sea. Tristram identifies it with “the barren plain of the Ghor,” about the mouth of the Jordan. But Professor Paine, from every mention of the place, comes to the following conclusion: “So Jeshimon is the wilderness where a line drawn to the north from Maon (1Sa_23:24) intersects another drawn west from Pisgah, and just there is a region every way worthy of the name.”

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

And from Bamoth in the valley, that is in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah. The original runs simply thus: "And from Bamoth the valley which in the field Moab the top Pisgah." It may therefore be read, "And from the heights to the valley that is in the field of Moab, viz., the top of Pisgah." The "field" of Moab (Septuagint, en tw pediw ) was no doubt the open, treeless expanse north of Arnon, drained by the Wady Waleh, which had formerly belonged to Moab. Pisgah ("the ridge") was a part of the Abarim ranges west of Heshbon, from the summit of which the first view is gained of the valley of Jordan and the hills of Palestine. (cf. Num_33:47 Deu_3:27 Deu_34:1) Which looketh toward Jeshimon. Jeshimon, or "the waste," seems to mean here that desert plain on the north-east side of the Salt Sea now called the Ghor el Belka, which included in its barren desolation the southernmost portion of the Jordan valley.

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

Pisgah - This was the top of those high hills of Abarim.

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

ומבמות הגיא אשר בשדי מואב AND FROM THE HEIGHTS (it descended finally) INTO THE VALLEY THAT IS IN THE FIELD OF MOAB, for there Moses died, and there the well finally ceased to flow. Another explanation is: כרוה נדיבי עם THE NOBLES OF THE PEOPLE HOLLOWED IT — each prince of the tribes when they encamped took his staff and drew a line on the ground from the well to his banner and encampment, and the waters of the well ran by way of that mark and came before the camping place of each tribe (Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 21).

במחקק THROUGH THE LAWGIVER — by command of Moses who is called the מחוקק, the Lawgiver, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 33:21) “for there is the portion of the lawgiver (Moses’ grave) concealed”. But why is Moses not expressly mentioned by name in this song? Because he was punished through the well! And since Moses’ name is not mentioned, the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, is also not mentioned. A parable! It may be compared to the case of a king whom his subjects invited to a feast. He said: If my friend will be there, I, too, will be there, but if not, I will not go (Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 21).

ראש הפסגה — Understand this as the Targum has it: to the top of the height.

פסגה denotes “high”, just as (Psalms 48:14) פסגו ארמנותיה, which means “make high its palaces”.

ונשקפה AND IT LOOKS — this height looks towards the place whose name is ישימון, which word describes the wilderness because that is waste (שמם with which the word ישימון may be linguistically associated). Another explanation is: ונשקפה AND IT LOOKS — the well looks על פני ישימון towards the front of ישימון, the wilderness, for it was hid (emptied) itself in the sea of Tiberias, and anyone who stood by the wilderness may look and see a kind of sieve in the sea, and that was the well!. Thus did R. Tanchuma (Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 21) expound this passage.

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.