Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il>]

Numbers 21:27-30 contains a short poem celebrating the victory of the
Amorite King Sihon over the "first king of Moab" (v. 26). What Israelite
would be interested in writing a thing like that? This alone suffices to
argue for the authenticity of the poem, and for attributing it to a
non-Israelite, Amorite source. It would have entered the Israelite
stream of tradition only after the conquest of Sihon's kingdom,
presumably in the latter part of the 13th century BCE. The poem
resurfaces again in later Israelite tradition, such as Jer. 48:25 (where
part of the Fourth Oracle of Balaam also appears).
This was already pointed out by Menahem Haran (Diman) back in 1947.
Sincerely,
--
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Beit Berl Post Office
Israel