Numbers 21:14

21:14 This is why it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord,

“Waheb in Suphah ¹  and the wadis,

the Arnon

Numbers 31:14

The Death of the Midianite Women

31:14 But Moses was furious with the officers of the army, the commanders over thousands and commanders over hundreds, who had come from service in the war.

Numbers 31:27

31:27 Divide the plunder into two parts, one for those who took part in the war – who went out to battle – and the other for all the community.

Numbers 32:6

Moses’ Response

32:6 Moses said to the Gadites and the Reubenites, “Must your brothers go to war while you ²  remain here?

Numbers 32:27

32:27 but your servants will cross over, every man armed for war, to do battle in the Lord’s presence, just as my lord says.”

Numbers 10:9

10:9 If you go to war in your land against an adversary who opposes ³  you, then you must sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved ⁴  from your enemies.

Numbers 21:33

21:33 Then they turned and went up by the road to Bashan. And King Og of Bashan and all his forces ⁵  marched out against them to do battle at Edrei.

Numbers 31:21

31:21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone into the battle, “This is the ordinance of the law that the Lord commanded Moses:

Numbers 31:49

31:49 and said to him, ⁶  “Your servants have taken a count ⁷  of the men who were in the battle, who were under our authority, ⁸  and not one is missing.

Numbers 32:20

32:20 Then Moses replied, ⁹  “If you will do this thing, and if you will arm yourselves for battle before the Lord,

Numbers 31:28

31:28 “You must exact ¹⁰  a tribute for the Lord from the fighting men who went out to battle: one life out of five hundred, from the people, the cattle, and from the donkeys and the sheep.

Numbers 32:29

32:29 Moses said to them: “If the Gadites and the Reubenites cross the Jordan with you, each one equipped for battle in the Lord’s presence, and you conquer the land, ¹¹  then you must allot them the territory of Gilead as their possession.

¹ tc The ancient versions show a wide variation here: Smr has “Waheb on the Sea of Reeds,” the Greek version has “he has set Zoob on fire and the torrents of Arnon.” Several modern versions treat the first line literally, taking the two main words as place names: Waheb and Suphah. This seems most likely, but then there would then be no subject or verb. One would need something like “the Israelites marched through.” The KJV, following the Vulgate, made the first word a verb and read the second as “Red Sea” – “what he did in the Red Sea.” But subject of the passage is the terrain. D. L. Christensen proposed emending the first part from אֶת וָהֵב (’et vahev) to אַתָּה יְהוָה (’attah yehvah, “the Lord came”). But this is subjective. See his article “Num 21:14-15 and the Book of the Wars of Yahweh,” CBQ 36 (1974): 359-60.

² tn The vav (ו) is a vav disjunctive prefixed to the pronoun; it fits best here as a circumstantial clause, “while you stay here.”

³ tn Both the “adversary” and “opposes” come from the same root: צָרַר (tsarar), “to hem in, oppress, harass,” or basically, “be an adversary.”

⁴ tn The Niphal perfect in this passage has the passive nuance and not a reflexive idea – the Israelites would be spared because God remembered them.

⁴ tn Heb “people.”

⁵ tn Heb “to Moses”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn Heb “lifted up the head.”

⁷ tn Heb “in our hand.”

⁶ tn Heb “said to them.”

⁷ tn The verb is the Hiphil, “you shall cause to be taken up.” The perfect with vav (ו) continues the sequence of the instructions. This raised offering was to be a tax of one-fifth of one percent for the Lord.

⁸ tn Heb “and the land is subdued before you.”