Bible Strands
Numbers 21:29
Woe to you, O Moab! You are destroyed, O people of Chemosh! He gave up his sons as refugees, and his daughters into captivity to Sihon king of the Amorites.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator pronounces judgment on Moab immediately after describing Sihon’s military conquest of Arnon. The declaration addresses the Moabite people and their deity Chemosh following the destruction of their cities.
The words — אָבַ֖דְתָּ ('a.Vad.ta) translates literally as "you have perished," while פְּלֵיטִם֙ (pe.lei.Tim) means "fugitives" or "survivors."
The thread — Jeremiah 48:46 repeats the "Woe to you, O Moab" formula and the exile of sons and daughters. Judges 11:24 mentions Chemosh but records Jephthah’s territorial argument to the Ammonite king, not a judgment oracle.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that human conquest serves as the mechanism for the stated destruction. It requires the reader to acknowledge the concrete outcome of the declared judgment without softening the historical claim.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites.
Cross-references
- Judges 11:24 Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh grants you? So also, we possess whatever the LORD our God has granted us.
- 2 Kings 23:13 The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
- Jeremiah 48:46 Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished; for your sons have been taken into exile and your daughters have gone into captivity.
- 1 Kings 11:7 At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.
- 1 Kings 11:33 For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did.
- Jeremiah 48:7 Because you trust in your works and treasures, you too will be captured, and Chemosh will go into exile with his priests and officials.
- Isaiah 15:5 My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.
- Isaiah 16:2 Like fluttering birds pushed out of the nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon:
- Jeremiah 48:13 Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was ashamed when they trusted in Bethel.
- 1 Corinthians 8:4 So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.