ויסעו מהר ההר דרך ים סוף, “they journeyed from Hor Hahar in the direction of the sea of reeds, ...making a long detour around the Land of Edom, and the people’s state of mind became very short tempered.” Their dissatisfaction was not caused by the journey, but by the fact that they traveled in the opposite direction of their objective, i.e. crossing the river Jordan. This was as hard for them to swallow as if they had been sentenced to death. They had felt until recently that they were close to their objective and would soon taste the fruit of the Holy Land and they now saw all their hopes as dissolving like an illusion. To the question what they had to complain about as long as they had manna and water, the answer is that once one has set one’s sights on something that can be enjoyed by the senses, eyes, ears, taste buds, feeling it with one’s hands and one’s sense of smell, the sameness and predictability of the manna, instead of being a sign of how G–d provided for them, became something of insignificance, קלקל, “lightweight” for them. The Torah therefore told us already in Numbers 11,8 that the manna, far from being so insubstantial, lightweight, insignificant, lent itself to grinding between stones, pounding, in a mortar, boiling in a pot, making into cakes. Moreover, it tasted like cream. [It is human nature that familiarity breeds contempt. After forty years of the same diet without getting to the destination they were seeking, the people’s reaction is understandable, although it had been due to their having displayed themselves as not yet worthy to dislodge the Canaanites from their homeland. Ed.] The pleasant taste of treated manna is also described in Numbers 11,8.

עשה לך שרף, “make for yourself a fiery serpent, etc.” the reason why G–d instructed Moses to construct a serpent, the symbol of everything negative since time immemorial, was to demonstrate that this very negative symbol would miraculously heal them from snake bites if used in the proper manner. It is only the Lord Who can use destructive instruments equally well for constructive purposes.

ויחנו באובות, “they encamped at a place called Ovot. This was located between almost at the border of Moav, as we know from Numbers 33,44. This is where the plague of snakes had occurred.

משם נסעו, “from there they journeyed onwards;” from the place called iyyey havavarim. The next place they encamped was called nachal zered. In Parshat Massey, that place is referred to as divon Gad (Numbers 33,45. According to some commentators the differences in the names of the encampments is due to their sometimes being referred to according to the brooks of water there, and in others according to the names thy had been known as. They are called here as their sources of water, seeing that was most important to them.

ויחנו מעבר ארנון, “they encamped across the river Arnon. They encamped on the bank that used to belong to King Sichon after having made a detour around the land of Moav. They had not been allowed by G–d to cross the territory belonging to Moav at that time. They were only allowed to straddle its border, without crossing it. (Compare Judges, 11,17) where Yiftach recounts the history of the people’s wanderings. They had approached that spot coming from the east, leaving the land of Moav on their west, bordered by the territory that belonged to King Sichon.

כי ארנון גבול מואב בין מואב ובין האמורי, “for the river Arnon was the border between Moav and the Emorite.” In practice this means that the river separated the borders from one another. Originally, both banks of the river were part of the land of Moav, but Sichon had conquered all the land on the north bank of that river. The Israelites took possession of all the formerly Moabite lands that Sichon had conquered from them. That land was no longer considered out of bounds to them when they came out of Egypt. G–d rearranges nations’ boundaries from time to time, as He sees fit. The respective rulers during such warfare who appear as winners or losers are pawns in His hands.

על כן, “This is why, etc,” in G–d’s records of nations’ wars these changes of borders are recorded, just as we find such changes mentioned in the Book of Chronicles of the Bible.

את והב בסופה, “the word: “vahav, “ is one word, the letter ו at the beginning is not a conjunctive or prefix. It is similar to Genesis 45,1, where Joseph reveals his true identity to his brothers and we read: בהתודע יוסף, “when Joseph revealed himself.” That word should really have been ואתודע. Here too, the correct word should have been אתיהב למלך מואב בסופה וסערה, meaning that the King of Moav had been defeated by Sichon in battle when he lost this part of his land right up to the banks of the river Arnon.

ואשד הנחלים, “as well as its tributary wadis.” We find the word אשד also in Deuteronomy 3,17, i.e. אשדות (in the plural mode)

אשר נטה לשבת ער, “stretched along settled country.” Seeing that these valleys seemed to overhang territory belonging to Moav, that latter began to settle in it. At any rate, at the time of writing these lines both banks of the river Arnon were populated. [The reason why this is all spelled out become clear when we read about how the Jewish people had been saved by an earthquake turning fatal for the Emorites who had planned an ambush in the clefts of the protruding rocks. [Compare the Midrashim on verses 17-19 of this chapter. Ed]

ומשם בארה, “and from there to a place called “Be-er.” The well mentioned here appears to have emanated in the place they came to immediately afterwards. It was water gushing out of a rock.

אז ישיר ישראל, At that point Israel broke out in a song of thanksgiving; when the people took possession of this well their hearts were full of gratitude, as they had previously been afraid of if not dying from thirst themselves, their livestock dying due to a shortage of drinking water. According to Rashi, Moses did not join in that song, seeing that according to Onkelos as well as Targum Yonathan ben Uzziel, Moses and Aaron had dug that well. (Compare verse 20)

עלי באר ענו לה, “arise O well sing unto it” The verb ענה, is used in a similar manner Deuteronomy 27,14: וענו הלויים, “the Levites responded at the top of their voices.”

באר חפרהו שרים, “a well dug by princes.” This well was not like other wells in the Bible which had been dug by servants of slaves, as we know from Genesis 26,25, but it was especially honoured through having been dug by Moses, Aaron, as well as the elders of Israel.

במחוקק במשענותם, “with their scepters and their staffs.” In other words, this well was not dug with ordinary tools like ordinary wells, but by employing a rod given Moses by G–d, something that had served as an instrument of producing miracles repeatedly in the past. This serves as proof, that G–d had never objected to Moses hitting the rock in chapter 20 at the waters of strife. Had He objected to that how could the people have rejoiced jubilantly over something that G–d had shown them that He objected to? According to some commentators the “lawgiver,” referred to here is not Hashem but Moses just as it is in Deuteronomy 33,21. Compare the Targum there.

וממדבר מתנה, and from a place called Midbar to Matanah. This is a hint that the well just discussed was so powerful that it turned the surrounding desert area into “a gift.”

וממתנה נחליאל, and from Matanah to Nachliel. This well was not like the other wells which supplied a steady amount of water, but it increased as time went on so that it was easily accessible even when the Israelites crossed elevations in the ground on their way.

ומבמות הגיא, “and from the elevated ground back to the valley.” It continued to flow until it came to the summit which looked down on a district known as the face of the wasteland. Compare chapter 32,10. This was a source of great joy as they could see that even in the distance and in that wasteland there was plenty of water to provide water for their herds and flocks. In the Talmud, tractate Eyruvin, folio 54 the Talmud concluded that the words וממדבר מתנה, the point that the Torah was making is a figure of speech, i.e. that if one allows oneself to be trampled on by others as they trample the ground in the desert, one will be rewarded with acquiring a great deal of Torah knowledge as if it had been given to one as a gift. Seeing that it had been come by as a gift, it will become almost a hereditary gift, and being so that person will eventually attain considerable stature among his peers, i.e. ומנחליאל במות, “and due to gifts from the Lord he hill rise to lofty heights.” On the other hand, if he starts out in life with a haughty attitude, he will ultimately wind up very low, like the גיא, valley, at the bottom of the lofty hills, במות. If he will then change his attitude, the Lord will raise him up again, i.e. כל גיא ינשא, “every valley will be uplifted,” (Isaiah 40,4) [The passage is understood as a synopsis of Jewish history. Ed.]

עד אשר נעבור גבולך, “until we cross your borders. (on the walk past it).” They had not even asked to traverse Sichon’s territory. They were going to walk around close to the borders. The same was the case with walking around the territory of the land of Edom. This is why they could refer to having had no objections from the Edomites, or for that matter from the Moabites (Compare Deuteronomy 2,29)

עד יבוק עד בני עמון, as far as Yabok (a river) as we know from Genesis 32,23) Sichon had conquered these parts of what was formerly a much larger land of Moav. The river had acted as a boundary.

כי חשבון עיר סיחון, “for Cheshbon had been Sichon’s city originally, prior to his having conquered large sections of the lands of Moav and the Bney Ammon. His reputation as a mighty warrior was based on those campaigns. When the Israelites are described in verse 31 as settling in the land of the Emorite, this is only to inform us that this is where Sichon had originated as a king. This was long before Balak became king of what remained of the kingdom of Moav.

'על כן יאמרו המושלים וגו, “this is why those who speak in parables used to say: “let the city of Sichon be firmly established.“ Many such people had taken up residence in Cheshbon, where they flattered its King.

'כי אש יצאה וגו, The entire line is a quotation of how the people speaking in parables flattered the powerful King of Cheshbon. The Torah describes all this in order to show the reader what a tremendous victory Moses had scored when he totally vanquished this empire, annihilating him and his people totally. Yiftach, in the Book of Judges 11,24, refers sarcastically to the claims of the king of Moav in his time, claiming that that the Israelites have to give him back the land that a former king had lost to Sichon.

נתן בניו פליטים, “He has given his sons as fugitives;” the reference is to the minors who were not old enough to fight and had therefore been spared by the sword. The use of the word נתן in our verse is similar to the use of the same word in Song of Songs 1,12: נרדי נתן ריחו, “my aromatic plant gave off its aroma.”

ונירם אבד חשבון, “when we shot at them Cheshbon was laid waste completely;” our author understands the word ונירם as a derivative of the noun ניר, as a reference to their king as their shining light, who had been completely extinguished. He quotes Kings I 11,36, where it has been used in this manner i.e. להיות ניר לדוד עבדי, “to be a lamp for My servant David.”

ויאמר ה' אל משה אל תירא אותו, Hashem said to Moses: “do not be afraid of him!” Rashi explains that there was a reason why G–d had to say this to Moses concerning Og, although He had not said this to him before joining battle with Sichon. Moses was afraid that Og had acquired a great merit by warning Avraham at the time that his nephew Lot had been taken prisoner by a King who had thought that he was Avraham, as he had meant to kill or capture Avraham. Compare Genesis 14,13, and the explanation in the Talmud tractate Niddah folio 61 on that verse. If you were to say that according to that statement in the Talmud, Og had actually meant to kill Avraham so that he could marry Sarah, i.e. hardly an intention qualifying for additional merit, the fact that he was instrumental in saving Avraham at that time and in saving Lot by Avraham coming to his rescue, was enough to make Moses fear him. [After all this Og was at least 500 years old if he had been a somebody already at that time. Ed.] The Talmud in tractate Sanhedrin folio 105 tells us that the 42 burnt offerings offered by Balak to Hashem at the direction of Bileam, was enough for him to be rewarded that Ruth the Moabite became descended from him. Balak had also intended only to cause Israel harm at that time, and nonetheless the sages of the Talmud felt that G–d had to reward him. Some sages understand the fact that Og was described –though indirectly- as a fugitive, in Genesis, this means that he had escaped not Nimrod, but that he had escaped the deluge and had managed to survive it somehow. This would be good reason for Moses to feel that he had G–d’s protection even at his time. He is also supposed to have been a brother of Sichon, giving him good reason to attack Moses who had killed his brother. Our author refers to what he had explained in Parshat Noach in the name of Rabbi Yehudah hachassid who had pointed out that the numerical value of the words אך נח in the line: וישאר אך נח, “only Noach survived,” is identical to the numerical value of the word עוג, i.e. 79. (Genesis 7,23) There is also a statement by Rabi Yechiel bar Yoseph, according to whom Og had been born before the onset of the deluge, his mother having been pregnant with him at the time, and having married one of Noach’s sons, her pregnancy having been caused by one of the people whom t*he Torah had described as בני האלוהים, usually understood as “fallen angels.”