Numbers 21:14

Summary

The verse introduces a quotation from an otherwise unknown source called the "Book of the Wars of Yehovah," citing a fragment that names the places Waheb, Suphah, and the wadis of Arnon. The quoted material as preserved in the Hebrew consists of place names linked by prepositions and object markers, without a finite verb of its own.

Key words

• ye.'a.Mar ("it is said", H0559) — niphal (passive) imperfect, third person masculine singular. The passive voice removes the subject who speaks; the verb form itself introduces a citation formula pointing to a named written source.
• Se.fer ("book of", H5612H) — masculine singular construct, linking to the following genitive phrase to form "book of the wars of Yehovah," a title for the cited source.
• mil.cha.Mot ("wars of", H4421) — feminine plural construct, continuing the construct chain begun by sefer; it depends grammatically on Yehovah as the following noun.
• 'et ("", H0853) — untranslated direct object marker, appearing twice (before Waheb and before ha-nechalim), marking these nouns as objects of an implied verb not present in the preserved Hebrew clause.
• ne.cha.Lim ("wadis", H5158N) — masculine plural noun with definite article, standing in apposition to the following proper name Arnon.

What the text says

The verse opens with the adverbial phrase 'al-ken ("therefore"), followed by ye'amar ("it is said"), a niphal imperfect that functions as a formulaic introduction to a citation, without naming who speaks or writes it. The cited source is identified through a double construct chain: sefer milchamot Yehovah, literally "book of wars of Yehovah." This construct chain treats the title as a fixed reference work being quoted, rather than a full sentence.

The quoted content that follows presents two place-name phrases each preceded by the object marker 'et: 'et-Vahev be-Suphah ("Waheb in Suphah") and ve-'et ha-nechalim Arnon ("and the wadis of Arnon"). Both are marked as if they were objects of a verb, yet no finite verb appears in the Hebrew clause itself. This creates a fragmentary construction: the object markers point toward an action that is presumed but not stated, likely because the quotation preserves only part of what stood in the source text.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew presents a verbless fragment naming Waheb, Suphah, and the wadis of Arnon. The LXX supplies a finite verb, ephlogisen ("he burned/set aflame"), attached to a place it renders as Zoob, differing from the Hebrew Waheb and reconstructing the missing action differently than the Hebrew word order suggests. The Vulgate diverges further, replacing the place names Waheb and Suphah entirely with a comparative statement — "as he did in the Red Sea, so he will do in the torrents of Arnon" — supplying both a past and future verb (fecit, faciet) absent from the Hebrew, and omitting the names Waheb and Suphah altogether. The BSB and SBLIBRE follow the Hebrew's fragmentary listing of place names without added verbs.