Help QuickNav Adv. Options
ESV

ESV

Click to Change

Return to Top

Return to Top

Printer Icon

Print

Copy
Copy Options
Format by: Verse Paragraph
Strong's
Red Letter
Audio Bibles
Copy Options
Cite Print
The Blue Letter Bible

Numbers 21 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Choose a new font size and typeface
Audio Bibles

Arad Destroyed

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:1

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:1 - When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:2

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:2 - And Israel vowed a vow to the LORD and said, “If you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.”[fn]

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:3

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:3 - And the LORD heeded the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction. So the name of the place was called Hormah.[fn]

The Bronze Serpent

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:4

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:4 - From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:5

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:5 - And 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 loathe this worthless food.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:6

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:6 - Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:7

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:7 - And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:8

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:8 - And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:9

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:9 - So Moses made a bronze[fn] serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

The Song of the Well

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:10

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:10 - And the people of Israel set out and camped in Oboth.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:11

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:11 - And they set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness that is opposite Moab, toward the sunrise.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:12

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:12 - From there they set out and camped in the Valley of Zered.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:13

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:13 - From there they set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites, for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:14

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:14 - Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the LORD,
“Waheb in Suphah, and the valleys of the Arnon,

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:15

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:15 - and the slope of the valleys
that extends to the seat of Ar,
and leans to the border of Moab.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:16

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:16 - And from there they continued to Beer;[fn] that is the well of which the LORD said to Moses, “Gather the people together, so that I may give them water.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:17

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:17 - Then Israel sang this song:
“Spring up, O well!—Sing to it!—

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:18

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:18 - the well that the princes made,
that the nobles of the people dug,
with the scepter and with their staffs.” And from the wilderness they went on to Mattanah,

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:19

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:19 - and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:20

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:20 - and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah that looks down on the desert.[fn]

King Sihon Defeated

(Deu 2:26–37 )

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:21

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:21 - Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:22

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:22 - “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard. We will not drink the water of a well. We will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:23

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:23 - But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his people together and went out against Israel to the wilderness and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:24

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:24 - And Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was strong.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:25

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:25 - And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:26

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:26 - For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:27

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:27 - Therefore the ballad singers say,
“Come to Heshbon, let it be built;
let the city of Sihon be established.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:28

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:28 - For fire came out from Heshbon,
flame from the city of Sihon.
It devoured Ar of Moab,
and swallowed[fn] the heights of the Arnon.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:29

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:29 - Woe to you, O Moab!
You are undone, O people of Chemosh!
He has made his sons fugitives,
and his daughters captives,
to an Amorite king, Sihon.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:30

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:30 - So we overthrew them;
Heshbon, as far as Dibon, perished;
and we laid waste as far as Nophah;
fire spread as far as Medeba.”[fn]

King Og Defeated

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:31

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:31 - Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:32

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:32 - And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.
(Deu 3:1–22 )

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:33

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:33 - Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:34

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:34 - But the LORD said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box Num 21:35

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 21:35 - So they defeated him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left. And they possessed his land.
See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
ESV Footnotes
That is, set apart (devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); also verse 3
Hormah means destruction
Or copper
Beer means well
Or Jeshimon
Septuagint; Hebrew the lords of
Compare Samaritan and Septuagint; Hebrew and we laid waste as far as Nophah, which is as far as Medeba
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

BLB Searches
Search the Bible
ESV
  [?]

Advanced Options

Other Searches

Multi-Verse Retrieval
x
ESV
Daily Devotionals
x

Blue Letter Bible offers several daily devotional readings in order to help you refocus on Christ and the Gospel of His peace and righteousness.

Daily Bible Reading Plans
x

Recognizing the value of consistent reflection upon the Word of God in order to refocus one's mind and heart upon Christ and His Gospel of peace, we provide several reading plans designed to cover the entire Bible in a year.

One-Year Plans

Two-Year Plan

Numbers Chapter 21 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras