Israelite Songs in Numbers 22

Numbers 21:17–18, 27–30

ca. 1200–332 BCE

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Two short songs were inserted into this chapter about the Israelites’ journey through Transjordan on their way to the Promised Land. The first is in verses 17–18, at the point when they come to a well; and the second is in verses 27–30, when they settle in the town of Heshbon, which belonged to Sihon, king of the Amorites.

¹⁷Then Israel sang this song:

Spring up, O well—sing to it—

¹⁸The well which the chieftains dug,

Which the nobles of the people started

With maces, with their own staffs.

²⁷Therefore the bards would recite:

“Come to Heshbon; firmly built

And well founded is Sihon’s city.

²⁸For fire went forth from Heshbon,

Flame from Sihon’s city,

Consuming Ar of Moab,

The lords of Bamoth by the Arnon.

²⁹Woe to you, O Moab!

You are undone, O people of Chemosh!

His sons are rendered fugitive

And his daughters captive

By an Amorite king, Sihon.”

³⁰Yet we have cast them down utterly,

Heshbon along with Dibon;

We have wrought desolation at Nophah,

Which is hard by Medeba.

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Credits

Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

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About This Entry

Two short songs were inserted into this chapter about the Israelites’ journey through Transjordan on their way to the Promised Land. The first is in verses 17–18, at the point when they come to a well; and the second is in verses 27–30, when they settle in the town of Heshbon, which belonged to Sihon, king of the Amorites.

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