Go to Related Reading
About this book

LXX Numbers

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 21

1 And Arad the Canaanite king who lived by the wilderness, heard that Israel came by the way of Atharim; and he made war on Israel, and carried off some of them captives. 2 And Israel vowed a vow to the Lord, and said, If you will deliver this people into my power, I will devote it and its cities to you. 3 And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel, and delivered the Canaanite into his power; and Israel devoted him and his cities, and they called the name of that place Anathema. 4 And having departed from mount Or by the way leading to the Red Sea, they went around the land of Edom, and the people lost courage by the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, saying, Why have you brought us out of Egypt to kill us in the wilderness? for there is no bread nor water; and our soul loathes this light bread. 6 And the Lord sent among the people deadly serpents, and they bit the people, and many people of the children of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against you: pray therefore to the Lord, and let him take away the serpent from us. And Moses prayed to the Lord for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, Make yourself a serpent, and put it on a signal-staff; and it will happen that whenever a serpent shall bite a man, every one so bitten that looks upon it shall live. 9 And Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a signal-staff: and it happened that whenever a serpent bit a man, and he looked on the bronze serpent, he lived. 10 And the children of Israel departed, and encamped in Oboth. 11 And having departed from Oboth, they encamped in Achalgai, on the farther side in the wilderness, which is opposite Moab, toward the east. 12 From there they departed, and encamped in the valley of Zered. 13 And they departed from there and encamped on the other side of Arnon in the wilderness, the country which extends from the borders of the Amorites; for Arnon is the borders of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. 14 Therefore it is said in a book, A war of the Lord has set on fire Zoob, and the brooks of Arnon. 15 And he has appointed brooks to cause Er to dwell there; and it lies near to the borders of Moab. 16 And from there they came to the well; this is the well of which the Lord said to Moses, Gather the people, and I will give them water to drink. 17 Then Israel sang this song at the well, Begin to sing of the well; 18 the princes dug it, the kings of the nations in their kingdom, in their lordship sank it in the rock: and they went from the well to Mattanah, 19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, 20 and from Bamoth to the glen which is in the plain of Moab as seen from the top of the quarried rock that looks toward the wilderness. 21 And Moses sent ambassadors to Sihon king of the Amorites, with peaceful words, saying, 22 We will pass through your land, we will go by the road; we will not turn aside to the field or to the vineyard; we will not drink water out of your well; we will go by the king's highway, until we have passed your boundaries. 23 And Sihon did not allow Israel to pass through his borders, and Sihon gathered all his people, and went out to set the battle in array against Israel into the wilderness; and he came to Jahaz, and set the battle in array against Israel. 24 And Israel struck him with the slaughter of the sword, and they became possessors of his land, from Arnon to Jabbok, as far as the children of Ammon, for Jazer is the borders of the children of Ammon. 25 And Israel took all these cities, and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all cities belonging to it. 26 For Heshbon is the city of Sihon king of the Amorites; and he formerly fought against the king of Moab, and they took all his land, from Aroer to Arnon. 27 Therefore say they who deal in dark speeches, Come to Heshbon, that the city of Sihon may be built and prepared. 28 For a fire has gone forth from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon, and has consumed as far as Moab, and devoured the pillars of Arnon. 29 Woe to you, Moab; you are lost, you people of Chemosh: their sons are sold for preservation, and their daughters are captives to Sihon king of the Amorites. 30 And their seed shall perish from Heshbon to Dibon;⁠ and their women have yet farther kindled a fire against Moab. 31 And Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites. 32 And Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and they took it, and its villages, and cast out the Amorite that lived there. 33 And having returned, they went up the road that leads to Bashan; and Og the king of Bashan went forth to meet them, and all his people to war to Edrei. 34 And the Lord said to Moses, Do not fear him; for I have delivered him and all his people, and all his land, into your hands; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. 35 And he struck him and his sons, and all his people, until he left none of his to be taken alive; and they inherited his land.

Texts in conversation

Compare Numbers 21:30 and LXX Numbers 21:30

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

Share:

Summary

Numbers 21 uses military language to describe Israel’s victory over Moab. The Greek Septuagint translation appears to have struggled with its source and replaced some of the military imagery with a scene where women ignite a fire against Moab.

Passages

Numbers 21:30

Hebrew Bible
28 For fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has consumed Ar of Moab and the lords of the high places of Arnon. 29 Woe to you, Moab. You are ruined, O people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives, and his daughters the prisoners of King Sihon of the Amorites. 30 We have overpowered them; Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon. We have shattered them as far as Nophah, which reaches to Medeba.” 31 So the Israelites lived in the land of the Amorites.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

LXX Numbers 21:30

Septuagint
28 For a fire has gone forth from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon, and has consumed as far as Moab, and devoured the pillars of Arnon. 29 Woe to you, Moab; you are lost, you people of Chemosh: their sons are sold for preservation, and their daughters are captives to Sihon king of the Amorites. 30 And their seed shall perish from Heshbon to Dibon; and their women have yet farther kindled a fire against Moab. 31 And Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Numbers

References

"... What Dr. Kohn calls 'a wonderful example of how badly the Greek interpreters understood the Samaritan Codex' is found in Numbers 21:30, which is rendered by the English Versions, 'We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba.' It may be observed in passing that, with regard to the first clause, the Samaritan and the Massoretic are agreed practically, save that the Masoretic, by dropping the 'he' at the end of 'abadh, has made Heshbon, contrary to Hebrew usage, masculine. In the latter clause, the differences are that the Samaritan reads 'fire,' instead of asher, 'which,' 'upon,' instead of 'to.' The rendering of the LXX is very different from either. 'And their seed shall perish from Esebon unto Daibon; and their women have yet kindled a fire against Moab.' While it is true that the word translated 'we have shot at them' is identical, consonantally, with a word that would mean 'their lamp,' and it is also true that in regard to David, and David alone, it is used four times (1 Kings 11:36, 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19; 2 Chronicles 21:7) in a sense that indirectly means 'progeny,' we doubt if this be the true occasion of the LXX rendering. We would venture to hazard another explanation. In the script of the Assouan papyri, nun is not unlike zain, and yodh is like ain; the reader, when a manuscript, an ancestor of that used for the translation into Greek, was being transcribed, unable to understand the rare word before him, resolved it into zaram, 'their seed.' The Samaritan Targum derives the word in question from 'to lift up,' and renders 'we have lifted up to destroy Heshbon unto Dibon.' Dr. Kohn, assuming without any evidence that the Samaritan reads venashim, 'and women,' instead of vannashim, 'we laid waste,' holds that the LXX followed it ..."
J. E. H. Thomson, The Samaritans: Their Testimony to the Religion of Israel (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1919), 338.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Tags

Your feedback

Numbers 21:30 and LXX Numbers 21:30

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library