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The role of Numbers 21\u201325, conveying the wilderness sojourn of the second generation, is crucial for understanding how Israel was matured by God and made ready for life in the land\u2014even in spite of the apostasy at Baal Peor, a disastrous failure remedied through the young priest Phinehas. These chapters also deal with the responses of the nations to Israel\u2019s progress toward possessing the land, along with Israel\u2019s reaction in turn. Both the battles and the seductions to sexual immorality and idolatry would prove to be recurring threats to life in the land among the nations. The second generation\u2019s experience of conflicts, victories and failures in its engagement with the nations not only foreshadow the later history of Israel, but also underline YHWH\u2019s faithfulness as the key to their hope of triumph and blessing, forgiveness and healing. In terms of narrative movement, dramatic tension heightens as Israel approaches the land of inheritance, only to face the nations\u2019 hostility and opposition\u2014even sorcery and seduction\u2014at every turn. Will Israel ever make it out of the wilderness? These chapters present, as it were, the final test of Israel: when opposed by the powers of the world, God\u2019s people must mature in looking to YHWH for strength and help, trusting that his promises will indeed come to fruition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the largely stark section of chapters 16\u201320, pervaded by rebellion and death, Numbers 21 signals a new, more optimistic turn as the second generation of Israel grows in its relationship with and reliance on YHWH. As they journey ever closer to the land, Israel experiences the faithful shepherding of YHWH, who preserves his people by healing them, giving them water and granting them victory upon victory over hostile nations. Israel\u2019s two experiences of setbacks early in the chapter, with some being taken captive by the Canaanites in battle (Numb. 2:1\u20133) and many being bitten by snakes in divine judgment (Numb. 21:4\u20139), serve to mature the people in their trust of YHWH. Both hindrances become the backdrop to YHWH\u2019s provision of victory and preservation of life, bearing fruit in the rest of the chapter as Israel experiences victory over the attacks of the Amorite kings Sihon and Og, possessing their lands. By the third account (Numb. 21:10\u201320), which forms a transition from wilderness to land, the setbacks and murmuring are past and YHWH leads Israel, providing for their needs (Numb. 21:16) and granting them victory and possession of land, completely apart from any response to his people\u2019s setback or complaints (Numb. 21:24\u201325, 34\u201335). In Numbers 21, YHWH\u2019s kingship, especially as displayed in his sovereign control over life and death, is evident. Just as prophecy was a major theme for chapters 11\u201315, and priesthood for chapters 16\u201320, so kingship dominates the concern of chapters 21\u201325\u2014adumbrated in chapter 20\u2019s display of YHWH\u2019s kingship, and with the book\u2019s first use of the root m-l-k <\/em>(Numb. 20:14, 17), which occurs fourteen times in chapters 21\u201325 (Numb. 21:1, 21, 22, 26 [twice], 29, 33, 34; 22:4, 10; 23:7, 21; 24:7 [twice]; cf. also Numb. 26:33, 45 [twice]; 27:1; 31:8 [twice]; 32:33 [four times]; 33:40; 36:11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The four stories (Numb. 21:1\u20133, 4\u20139, 10\u201320, 21\u201335), simply in terms of verse count, display an escalation in form (from 3 to 6 to 11 to 15 verses), matched by increasing optimism and blessing as Israel moves from an initial setback at the hands of Canaanites (Numb. 21:1) to the conquest of mighty Amorite strong- holds and possession of their lands (Numb. 21:33\u201335). Israel\u2019s vow and victory (Numb. 21:1\u20133), a prologue and microcosm of the whole chapter, transitions from captivity to victory through Israel\u2019s dependence on YHWH. The story with the bronze serpent (Numb. 21:4\u20139) marks a transition from rebellion and judgment to repentance and healing\u2014to life, the last word being \u2018he lived\u2019 (h\u0323a\u0304y<\/em>). Just as the \u2018captivity\u2019 of the prologue likely recalls Israel\u2019s Egyptian bondage, so the story of the brazen serpent is marked by an abundance of Egyptian motifs, and the second generation\u2019s deliverance from the deadly poison of serpents may be intended as their own experience of deliverance out of Egypt\u2014never more is the question heard, \u2018Why did you cause us to ascend out of Egypt?\u2019 In the third section, on Israel\u2019s journeys (Numb. 21:10\u201320), the transition from wilderness to land by the second generation is recorded, along with YHWH\u2019s unprompted provision of water as Israel\u2019s faithful shepherd. Here, Israel sings a song by the well, just as the first generation had done by the sea (Exod. 14). In Israel\u2019s conquest and possession of Amorite lands (Numb. 21:21\u201335), YHWH grants Israel spectacular victories over mighty strongholds, and gives their lands for a possession, a foretaste of the conquest and possession of the land of Canaan. In Numbers 32 (cf. Deut. 3:12\u201320; Josh. 1:12\u201316; 12:6), these lands east of the Jordan will be granted to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, to the south in Sihon\u2019s former region, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh northward in Og\u2019s former territory. These conquests were long celebrated by future generations of Israel, praising God for his faithful love (see Pss 135:11; 136:19\u201320; cf. Neh. 9:22). The chapter, as tabulated in Table 2, forms a summary of Israel\u2019s movement from Egypt to the land of Canaan, from bondage to victory and possession of land, as the second generation\u2014Israel redivivus\u2014<\/em>relives the experiences of the first generation, but with a successful end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n