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“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,
Numbers 32:3 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,
  • KJV Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon,
  • NKJV “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Shebam, Nebo, and Beon,
  • NASB “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,
  • NLT “Notice the towns of Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sibmah, Nebo, and Beon.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

They named the cities of the region east of the Jordan that they desired.

Overview

The tribes listed specific towns in the fertile area they wished to claim. These places had been taken in Israel's recent conquests over Sihon and Og. Naming them showed how attractive and concrete their desire for this land had become.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 16

  • Jer 48:34There is a cry from Heshbon to Elealeh; they raise their voices to Jahaz, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim have dried up.
  • Num 32:34–38And the Gadites built up Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,
  • Isa 16:8–9For the fields of Heshbon have withered, along with the grapevines of Sibmah. The rulers of the nations have trampled its choicest vines, which had reached as far as Jazer and spread toward the desert. Their shoots had spread out and passed over the sea.
  • Josh 13:17to Heshbon and all its cities on the plateau, including Dibon, Bamoth-baal, Beth-baal-meon,
  • Jer 48:45“Those who flee will stand helpless in Heshbon’s shadow, because fire has gone forth from Heshbon and a flame from within Sihon. It devours the foreheads of Moab and the skulls of the sons of tumult.
  • Josh 13:19Kiriathaim, Sibmah, Zereth-shahar on the hill in the valley,
  • Judg 11:26For three hundred years Israel has lived in Heshbon, Aroer, and their villages, as well as all the cities along the banks of the Arnon. Why did you not take them back during that time?
  • Isa 15:6The waters of Nimrim are dried up, and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone, and the greenery is no more.
  • Num 21:28For a fire went out from Heshbon, a blaze from the city of Sihon. It consumed Ar of Moab, the rulers of Arnon’s heights.
  • Num 21:25–26Israel captured all the cities of the Amorites and occupied them, including Heshbon and all its villages.
  • Jer 48:32I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah, more than I weep for Jazer. Your tendrils have extended to the sea; they reach even to Jazer. The destroyer has descended on your summer fruit and grape harvest.
  • Jer 48:2There is no longer praise for Moab; in Heshbon they devise evil against her: ‘Come, let us cut her off from nationhood.’ You too, O people of Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will pursue you.
  • Isa 15:2–4Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.
  • Jer 48:22–23upon Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim,
  • Num 32:1Now the Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, surveyed the lands of Jazer and Gilead, and they saw that the region was suitable for livestock.
  • Neh 9:22You gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner of the land. So they took the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and of Og king of Bashan.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (21)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Numbers videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Numbers 32:3YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on NumbersMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.

How Numbers 32:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.