What Does Numbers 21:2 Mean?
And Israel vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, If you will surely give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Israel vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.THE KEY
“Deliver” begins with being given into a hand, while the vow binds that transfer to the total destruction of the cities.
THE MEANING
The verse puts the terms of the vow in one frame: the people are given into Israel’s hand, and their cities are marked for destruction. The requested deliverance is bound, in this sentence, to a promised act of total destruction. The vow lets you see both together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that “deliverance” here names a bloodless rescue: the vow explicitly attaches it to the destruction of cities.
THE ROOT
נָתֹן תִּתֵּן
nātōn tittēn
GROWS FROM
נתן
give, set, place
The Hebrew intensifies the verb with the construction nātōn tittēn, “surely give.” The verse pictures deliverance as placing the people into someone’s hand, making the transfer of power explicit.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: give, set, place
נָתַן
This verb’s range is present in the verse’s picture of the people being given into Israel’s hand.
mattānāh: gift
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root shows the broader language of what is given or placed in someone’s possession.
וְהַחֲרַמְתִּי
wehaḥaramti
GROWS FROM
חרם
place under the ban; devote to destruction
“devote to destruction” in this verse is wehaḥaramti. The root carries the idea of setting something apart under a ban, and in this conquest context that means total destruction. The vow names the cities for destruction, so the root’s dedicatory force does not soften the violence; it makes the promised outcome absolute.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāram: devote under a ban; destroy utterly
חָרַם
This verb expresses the force of the promise made about the cities.
ḥērem: a ban; a thing devoted under a ban
חֵרֶם
This noun reveals the status the verb places something into: set apart from ordinary use, here for destruction.
וַיִּדַּר נֶדֶר
wayyiddar neder
GROWS FROM
נדר
vow, make a vow
The Hebrew pairs a verb and noun from the same root in “vowed a vow.” The echo makes the promise itself sound binding before its terms name the destruction of the cities.
ALSO GROWS
nādār: to vow
נָדַר
This verb names the act Israel undertakes.
neder: a vow
נֶדֶר
This noun names the pledged undertaking paired with the verb.
THE PATTERN
A vow binds speech to an outcome, and the speaker’s chosen terms reveal what they are prepared to place at stake.
And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, If you will surely give the children of Ammon into my hands, Then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I turn back in wholeness from the children of Ammon, shall be the LORD's, and I will send it up as a burnt offering.When day came, certain of the Jews twisted themselves together and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had lifted Paul out of the way.THE THREAD
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will guard me on this way I go, and will give me bread to eat, and a garment to wear,The same Hebrew vow-root נדר (n-d-r, “vow”) appears in וַיִּדַּר (wayyiddar, “he vowed”) and נֶדֶר (neder, “vow”) in both verses. Genesis attaches the vow to presence and provision; Numbers attaches it to requested victory and the destruction of cities, showing how the terms change what the shared vow-form carries.
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