Mattanah · conjunction + preposition + proper noun, a place name
Nahaliel
נַחֲלִיאֵ֑לna.cha.li.'El
H5160
Nachaliel · proper noun, a place name
Nahaliel
וּמִנַּחֲלִיאֵ֖לu.mi.na.cha.li.'El
H5160
Nachaliel · conjunction + preposition + proper noun, a place name
Bamoth
בָּמֽוֹתba.Mot
H1120
Bamoth or Bamoth-Baal · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 21:10-20
We have here an account of the several stages and removals of the children of Israel, till they came into the plains of Moab, out of which they at length passed over Jordan into Canaan, as we read in the beginning of Joshua. Natural motions are quicker the nearer they are to their centre. The Israelites were now drawing near to the promised rest, and now they set forward, as the expression is, Num 21:10. It were well if we would do thus in our way to heaven, rid ground in the latter end of our journey, and the nearer we come to heaven be so much the more active and abundant in the work of the Lord. Two things especially are observable in the brief account here given of these removals: -
1.…
Then Israel sang--This beautiful little song was in accordance with the wants and feelings of travelling caravans in the East, where water is an occasion both of prayer and thanksgiving. From the princes using their official rods only, and not spades, it seems probable that this well was concealed by the brushwood or the sand, as is the case with many wells in Idumea still. The discovery of it was seasonable, and owing to the special interposition of God.
John Gill on Numbers 21:19
And from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth. All the Targums interpret this, and the following verse, not of the journeying of the children of Israel, but of the motion of the well, that that, from the place from whence it was given them, descended with them into the valleys, and from thence to the high places, as these words signify: and indeed those places are not mentioned in the journeys of the children of Israel, Numbers 33:1 and were not stations where they pitched, but places they passed through before they came to Abarim, and the wilderness of Kedemoth.
John Calvin on Numbers 21:4-20
Numbers 21:4-20
4. And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
4. Et profecti sunt de Hor monte per viam maris Suph, ut circuirent terram Edom: et angustiis affecta est anima populi in via.
5. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
5. Itaque loquutus est populus contra Deum et Mosen, Ut quid ascendere nos fecistis ex Aegypto, ut moreremur in deserto? Non est enim panis neque aqua. Et taedet animam nost…
The Church Fathers
After these things "they set out," he says, "from the well to Mattanah, and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, and from Bamoth to the grove which is in the field of Moab, from the top of the hewn mountain that looks toward the face of the desert." These names, which appear to be the designations of places, seem — from their significations, which they denote in their own tongue — to display the sequence of things rather mystical rather than merely a naming of places. "For having set out," he says, "from the well they come to Mattanah." For Mattanah is interpreted "their gifts." You see, then, that if anyone has drunk from this well which the kings and princes dug, he straightway advances to this, that he has gifts to offer to God. But what is it that a person offers to God? This very thing which is written in the law: "my gifts, my offerings." From those things, therefore, which God has given, human beings nonetheless make offerings to God. What did God give to man? Knowledge of himself. What does man offer to God? His faith and his affection. This is what God seeks from man. And indeed it is thus written: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, except that you fear the Lord your God, and walk in his ways, and love him, and keep all his commandments, and serve the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul?" These are the gifts, these the offerings which ought to be given to the Lord. And we give to the Lord these gifts of our heart after we have come to know him and have drunk from the depth of his well the knowledge of his goodness. Observe, however, how the prophet said: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you?" Let these words put to shame those who deny that it lies within man's choice that he be saved. For how would God ask of man, unless man had within his own power that which he ought to offer to God who asks? There are, then, things which are given by God, and there are things which are furnished by man. For example, it lay within the man to make one mina into ten minas, or one mina into five minas; but it was from God that the man had a mina from which he could make ten minas. But when he offered from himself the ten minas, he received in turn from God no longer money, but power and rule over ten cities. Again God asks of Abraham that he offer to him his son Isaac upon a…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Bamoth — Heights, the forty-seventh station of the Israelites (Num. 21:19, 20) in the territory of the Moabites.
Bamothbaal — (heights of Baal), a sanctuary of Baal in the country of Moab (Joshua 13:17) which is probably mentioned in (Numbers 21:19) under the shorter form of Bamoth, or Bamoth-in-the-ravine (20), and again…
Mattanah — A gift, a station of the Israelites (Num. 21:18, 19) between the desert and the borders of Moab, in the Wady Waleh.
Nahaliel — Possession, or valley of God, one of the encampments of the Israelites in the wilderness (Num. 21:19), on the confines of Moab. This is identified with the ravine of the Zerka M’ain, the ancient…
Bamoth · A — A
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · To Nahaliel — To Nahaliel
Mattanah · A station of Israel — A station of Israel
Nahaliel · A station (stopping place) of the Israelites — A station (stopping place) of the Israelites
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
March of Israel round Edom and Moab, to the Heights of Pisgah in the Field of Moab (cf. Num 33:41-47). - Num 21:10. From the camp in the Arabah, which is not more particularly described, where the murmuring people were punished by fiery serpents, Israel removed to Oboth. According to the list of stations in Num 33:41., they went from Hor to Zalmonah, the situation of which has not been determined; for C. v. Raumer's conjecture (der Zug der Israeliten, p. 45), that it was the same place as the modern Maan, has no firm basis in the fact that Maan is a station of the Syrian pilgrim caravans. From Zalmonah they went to Phunon, and only then to Oboth. The name Phunon is no doubt the same as Phino…
21:18b-20 After moving north of the Arnon, the Hebrews left the wilderness on the eastern side of Moab and the recently conquered Amorite territory (see study note on 21:21-35). They turned westward toward the ridgeline that rises up from the Jordan Rift Valley, then traveled north to Pisgah Peak (see also 23:14; Deut 3:17, 27; 34:1, 5).
Rashi on Numbers 21:19
וממתנה נחליאל — Understand this as the Targum does: And after it had been given them, it descended into the valley.
