Numbers 21:30 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

We have shot at them— The Hebrew here is אבד ונירם vaniram abad, which Le Clerc and others render, and their light is perished: i.e. their valiant youth, who are the lights and ornaments of the state, and who are the light, i.e. the joy, of their parents: others, of whom Houbigant is one, render it their yoke; i.e. their oppressive power is perished; which appears most agreeable to the Hebrew. We only remark further, that, in all probability, this piece of Amoritish poetry made part of the ancient chronicle of the country. In the most distant times, the language of poetry was that of the historian, of the rhetorician, and in general of all who undertook to write. Whatever was composed for the instruction of the people, was composed in verse. "The Ancients," says Strabo, "considered poetry as a kind of first philosophy, proper to regulate the life from the tenderest infancy, to inculcate good manners, and to govern the human passions and actions in the most agreeable way. Thus," adds he, "the Greeks afterwards made use of poetry in their public academies for the instruction of the youth; not merely because this method was entertaining, but because they thought it proper to form their children to modesty." See Patrick.