Numbers 14:25

14:25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites were living in the valleys.) ¹  Tomorrow, turn and journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”

Numbers 14:45

14:45 So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped ²  down and attacked them ³  as far as Hormah. ⁴ 

Numbers 33:40

33:40 The king of Arad, the Canaanite king who lived in the south of the land of Canaan, heard about the approach of the Israelites.

Numbers 13:29

13:29 The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the banks ⁵  of the Jordan.” ⁶ 

Numbers 14:43

14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.”

Numbers 21:1

Victory at Hormah

21:1 ⁷ When the Canaanite king of Arad ⁸  who lived in the Negev ⁹  heard that Israel was approaching along the road to Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoner.

Numbers 21:3

21:3 The Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, ¹⁰  and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of the place was called ¹¹  Hormah.

[14:25]  ¹ sn The judgment on Israel is that they turn back to the desert and not attack the tribes in the land. So a parenthetical clause is inserted to state who was living there. They would surely block the entrance to the land from the south – unless God removed them. And he is not going to do that for Israel.

[14:45]  ² tn Heb “came down.”

[14:45]  ³ tn The verb used here means “crush by beating,” or “pounded” them. The Greek text used “cut them in pieces.”

[14:45]  ⁴ tn The name “Hormah” means “destruction”; it is from the word that means “ban, devote” for either destruction or temple use.

[13:29]  ³ tn Heb “by the side [hand] of.”

[13:29]  ⁴ sn For more discussion on these people groups, see D. J. Wiseman, ed., Peoples of Old Testament Times.

[21:1]  ⁴ sn This chapter has several events in it: the victory over Arad (vv. 1-3), the plague of serpents (vv. 4-9), the approach to Moab (vv. 10-20), and the victory over Sihon and Og (vv. 21-35). For information, see D. M. Gunn, “The ‘Battle Report’: Oral or Scribal Convention.” JBL 93 (1974): 513-18; and of the extensive literature on the archaeological site, see EAEHL 1:74-89.

[21:1]  ⁵ sn The name Arad probably refers to a place a number of miles away from Tel Arad in southern Israel. The name could also refer to the whole region (like Edom).

[21:1]  ⁶ tn Or “the south”; “Negev” has become a technical name for the southern desert region and is still in use in modern times.

[21:3]  ⁵ tc Smr, Greek, and Syriac add “into his hand.”

[21:3]  ⁶ tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject, and so here too is made passive. The name “Hormah” is etymologically connected to the verb “utterly destroy,” forming the popular etymology (or paronomasia, a phonetic wordplay capturing the significance of the event).