Numbers 21:10

And the children of Israel set forward,.... From Zalmonah, and came to Punon, which, according to the above writer, was twenty miles from it; though here indeed, some think, the brazen serpent was

And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in Oboth. The children of Israel set forward - along the eastern frontier of the Edomites, encamping in various stations.

Not immediately, but after two other stations, mentioned Numbers 33.

(10) And pitched in Oboth.—The intermediate stations between Mount Hor and Oboth were Zalmonah and Punon (Numbers 33:41-43). The former of these places is thought by some to have derived its name from the Hebrew word zelem (image, or likeness), and to have been the place at which the likeness of the serpents which bit the Israelites was set up.

9. Moses made a serpent of bronze] The removing of a pest by means of a bronze image of it finds parallels in ancient Europe. See Gray, Numb. p. 276. Numbers 21:10-11. P Stages in the journey to the east of Moab 11. The site of Oboth is unknown; ‘somewhere on the flinty plateau to the east of Edom, the Ard Suwwan or Flint Ground, Arabia Petraea’ (G. A. Smith, H. G. [Note: . G. Historical Geography of the Holy Land.] 557). Iye-abarim (Heb. ‘Iyyê-hâ‘abhârîm, ‘the Ruins of the ‘Abharim’) is stated to lie ‘over against Moab, on the sunrise (i.e. the eastern) side.’ ‘The ‘Abharim’ means ‘the parts on the other side,’ a name which was given to the district on the east of the Dead Sea, looked at from the point of view of a dweller in Palestine: cf. Numbers 27:12, Numbers 33:47 f. The name distinguishes it from the Iyim of Jos 15:29, which was in Judah, close to the Edomite border. Many writers assign Numbers 21:10-11 to P , since the names Oboth and Iye-abarim recur in the list in ch. 33, which is from the hand of a priestly writer, and are found nowhere else in the O.T. According to that list (41–44) the itinerary was as follows: Mt Hor, Zalmonah, Punon, Oboth, Iye-abarim. The sites of Zalmonah and Punon are quite unknown. But the writer of 33, who clearly intends to trace the journey as completely as possible, omits all reference to the detour by the way to the Red Sea. If, therefore, Mt Hor is the modern Jebel Madurah (see on Numbers 20:22) on the west of Edom, and Iye-abarim is somewhere on the eastern border of Moab, it seems probable that the priestly traditions represented Israel as marching straight through Edom. Whether the account of the hostility of the king of Edom was unknown to P , or whether it was, for some reason, intentionally omitted, we cannot say. But it is noteworthy that in Dt. also there is no mention of it.

The earlier stations in this part of their journey were Zalmonah and Punon Numbers 33:41-42.

10. Oboth — Hebrew, hollow passes. The exact site is unknown, but from the fact that the next station was in the border of Moab, it is probable that Oboth is east of Moab.