🔢WEB · Numbers 21:17
What does Numbers 21:17 mean?
"Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, well! Sing to it,"
— Numbers 21:17 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Therefore it is said in the book of the Wars of Yahweh, “Vaheb in Suphah, the valleys of the Arnon,
the slope of the valleys that incline toward the dwelling of Ar, leans on the border of Moab.”
From there they traveled to Beer; that is the well of which Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.”
Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, well! Sing to it,
the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, and with their poles.” From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah;
and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth;
and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert.
Explanation
Numbers 21:17 records a brief but joyful song of celebration: "Spring up, well! Sing to it." In its plain sense, this is Israel bursting into song because water has just appeared from a well in the wilderness. After long, difficult travel through dry and hostile
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