Numbers 21:30

Summary

The verse recounts the extent of a military victory over the Amorite territory: Heshbon is said to have "perished" as far as Dibon, and the destruction is reported to extend further, to Nophah, a place linked by a relative clause to Medeba. The Hebrew wording of two key verbs in this verse is unusually difficult, which is reflected in how the ancient versions render them differently.

Key words

• niRam ("we shot at", H3384A) — a qal narrative verb form with a 1st person plural subject and a 3rd person plural suffix ("them"); the root and vocalization are ambiguous, allowing for more than one reading.
• avad ("it has perished", H0006) — qal perfect, describing Heshbon's destruction as a completed state rather than an ongoing narrative action.
• nashim ("we have devastated", H8074G) — a hiphil (causative) narrative verb, 1st person plural, describing continued destructive action; the consonantal spelling is identical to the noun "women" (nashim, H802).
• asher ("which", H0834A) — relative particle linking Nophah to the following clause "which is to Medeba," specifying the location's extent.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of narrative verbs (va- prefixed forms) describing sequential military actions in first person plural — "we shot/struck them," followed by "we devastated" — bracketing a perfect-tense clause, avad Cheshbon ("Heshbon has perished"), which functions almost as a summary statement inserted into the action sequence rather than continuing the narrative chain. The two place-name pairs (Heshbon–Dibon, Nophah–Medeba) are each governed by the preposition ad ("to," H5704), marking the geographic extent of the devastation described. The relative clause introduced by asher clarifies that Nophah's location is not self-evident but must be defined by its relation to Medeba, a construction common in itineraries or boundary lists.

Differences between versions

The consonantal form behind niRam is read differently across traditions: the LXX renders it as "their seed" (σπέρμα αὐτῶν), suggesting a noun reading (perhaps "posterity" or "seed"), while the Vulgate reads "their yoke" (Jugum ipsorum), implying yet another root. The Hebrew grammatical data given here instead treats it as a verb, "we shot at." Similarly, the form nashim is read by the LXX as the noun "the women" (αἱ γυναῖκες), producing an image of women stoking fire against Moab, whereas the Hebrew data provided analyzes it as a hiphil verb, "we have devastated." The Vulgate's "lassi pervenerunt" ("weary, they arrived") diverges further, showing no verbal correspondence to either the "shooting" or "devastating" readings.