Numbers 21:3

"Israel vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, “If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.”"

Key Reflection

In Numbers 21:3, Israel makes a solemn vow to the Lord, promising that if He delivers them victorious in battle against their enemies, they will fully destroy the conquered cities. This vow reflects the common ancient practice of offering conditional promises or oaths to deities, where the people pledge to perform certain acts as tokens of gratitude for divine intervention. The cultural context highlights the intensity of Israel's commitment and the expectation that victory would come through divine favor rather than their own military prowess alone.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

He called the name of the place -Render it as: “the name of the place was called.” The transitive verb here is, by a common Hebrew idiom, equivalent to an impersonal one. Hormah -i. e. “Ban.” SeeNumbers 14:45and note. InJudges 1:17, we read that the men of Judah and Simeon “slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it;” and further, that “the name of the city was called Hormah.” But it does not follow that the name “Hormah” was first bestowed in consequence of the destruction of the place in the time of the Judges, and that in Numbers its occurrence is a sign of a post-Mosaic date of composition.

More from Numbers 21

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Go deeper with Bible.talk - your AI Bible study companion