Numbers 21:4

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁴Then they set out from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, in order to bypass the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient on the journey⁵and spoke against God and against Moses: "Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!" ⁶So the LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died. ⁷Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Intercede with the LORD to take the snakes away from us." So Moses interceded for the people. ⁸Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live." ⁹So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. If anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze serpent, he would recover.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

mount Hor: Numbers 20:22, Numbers 20:23, Numbers 20:27, Numbers 33:41

by the way: Numbers 14:25, Deuteronomy 1:40

compass: Numbers 20:18-21, Deuteronomy 2:5-8, Judges 11:18

the soul: Numbers 32:7, Numbers 32:9, Exodus 6:9, Acts 14:22, 1 Thessalonians 3:3, 1 Thessalonians 3:4

discouraged: or, grieved, Heb. shortened, Exodus 6:9

Reciprocal: Numbers 33:37 - Kadesh Numbers 33:40 - General Deuteronomy 2:1 - we compassed Deuteronomy 6:16 - tempted him 2 Kings 3:8 - the wilderness of Edom

Cross-References

Genesis 21:10
and she said to Abraham, "Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!"

Genesis 21:12
But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.

Genesis 21:22
At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, "God is with you in all that you do.

Genesis 21:23
Now, therefore, swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or descendants. Show to me and to the country in which you reside the same kindness that I have shown to you."

Exodus 12:48
If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the LORD's Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it.

Leviticus 12:3
And on the eighth day the flesh of the boy's foreskin is to be circumcised.

Deuteronomy 12:32
See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

Luke 1:6
Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and decrees of the Lord.

Luke 1:59
On the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were going to name him after his father Zechariah.

Luke 2:21
When the eight days until His circumcision had passed, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He had been conceived.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they journeyed from Mount Hor,.... After the battle with the king of Arad, and the defeat of him:

by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom; which lay by it, and from whence it had the name of the Red sea, Edom signifying red; and by the way of that the Israelites must needs go, to go round that country:

and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way; because it was going back instead of going forward to Canaan's land, and because of the length of the way; it was a round about way they were going; when, could they have been admitted to have passed through the country of Edom, the way would have been short; or had they pursued their victory over the Canaanite, they would have gone directly into the land; and this perhaps was what fretted, vexed, and discouraged them, that they were obliged to go back, and take such a circuit, when they had such an opportunity of entering; and they might be distressed also with the badness and the roughness of the way, the borders of Edom being rocky and craggy: it is in the original text, "their soul or breath was short" p; they fetched their breath short, being weary and faint with travelling, or through anger, as angry persons do, when in a great passion: so the people of God travelling through the wilderness of this world are often discouraged, because of the difficulties, trials, and troubles they meet with in the way, from sin, Satan, and the world, and are fretful and impatient; but though they are led about and walk in a round about way, and in a rough way, yet in a right way to the city of their habitation, Psalms 107:7.

p ותקצר נפש "et abbreviata est anima", Montanus, Munster, Fagius, Vatablus; "decurtata", Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The direct route to Moab through the valleys of Edom being closed against them Numbers 20:20-21, they were compelled to turn southward. Their course lay down the Arabah; until, a few hours north of Akaba (Ezion-Geber) the Wady Ithm opened to them a gap in the hostile mountains, allowed them to turn to their left, and to march northward toward Moab Deuteronomy 2:3. They were thus for some days (see Numbers 22:1 note) in the Arabah, a mountain plain of loose sand, gravel, and detritus of granite, which though sprinkled with low shrubs, especially near the mouths of the wadys and the courses of the winter-torrents, furnishes extremely little food or water, and is often troubled by sand-storms from the shore of the gulf. Hence, “the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.”