<ALIGN="CENTER" John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

<ALIGN="CENTER" John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

<ALIGN="CENTER"John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

Numbers 36:1



INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 36



This chapter gives an account of an application made by the heads of the tribe of Manasseh, concerning the inheritances of the daughters of Zelophehad, which, should they marry into other tribes, would be removed thither, and so be a loss to theirs, Nu 36:1, which case was judged worthy of regard; and to remedy this inconvenience, they were ordered to marry into the family of their father's tribe, and this was to be a law to all heiresses for the future in other tribes,

Nu 36:5 and accordingly the daughters of Zelophehad married their father's brothers' sons, Nu 36:10.



Ver. 1. And the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead,.... The princes, as Aben Ezra; so the Septuagint version, which was the tribe of Manasseh, whose grandson Gilead was, as follows:



the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near; to the house of judgment, as the Targum of Jonathan, the sanhedrim or court of judicature, consisting of the following persons:



and spoke before Moses; the Septuagint version adds, "and before Eleazar the priest", as in Nu 27:2



and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel: the princes of the several tribes; or it may be rather the seventy elders.





Numbers 36:2



Ver. 2. And they said,.... One in the name of the rest:



the Lord commanded my lord; that is, Moses, whom they address in a very respectable manner, being the chief governor of the nation under God:



to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel; which command may be seen, in Nu 26:53:



and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother; or kinsman, being of the same tribe:



unto his daughters; who sued for it, and upon Moses's consulting the Lord about it, it was ordered they should have it, Nu 27:1 and which these princes observed was likely to be attended with the following inconvenience.





Numbers 36:3



Ver. 3. And if they be married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel,.... Which was not an unreasonable supposition, and perhaps was judged very probable and likely, if some method was not taken to prevent it; which they might conclude from the application of some young men of the other tribes unto them:



then shall their inheritance be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and shall be put to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received; for the inheritance given unto them would of course, the above being the case, descend to their sons, and whose fathers being of other tribes, it would be fixed there:



so shall it be taken from the lot of our inheritance; which gave them some concern; for though this was no personal injury to them, nor any detriment to their families and estates, yet, as it was a lessening of their tribe, they were uneasy at it; and the rather they might be, since half their tribe was to settle on that side Jordan, where they now were: and now all this, the suit of the daughters of Zelophehad for their father's inheritance, which was granted them, the address of young men to them as heiresses, the concern of the heads of the tribe of Manasseh on this account; all this, I say, being before they entered into the land, or it was conquered by them, or divided to them by inheritance, show their strong faith and assurance that they should possess it.





Numbers 36:4



Ver. 4. And when the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be,.... At which time inheritances were to be restored to the original proprietors of them; yet this would be of no service in the present case, but rather the contrary, since it would fix the inheritances of these daughters in another tribe or in other tribes into which they should marry; and so Aben Ezra and Jarchi interpret it, "though" there shall be a jubilee, that will be of no advantage; it will not remedy this inconvenience: for



then shall their inheritance be put unto the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received; it being one principal part of the business of the jubilee year to settle the inheritances of every tribe; and these daughters being married into another tribe, of consequence their inheritance would be placed there; or should it be sold by their husbands, or their sons, at the year of jubilee it would be restored to them as of such a tribe:



so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers; and thereby be a lessening of it; and every tribe being ambitious of preserving and increasing its grandeur, this affair sensibly affected the heads of this tribe.





Numbers 36:5



Ver. 5. And Moses commanded the children of Israel,.... Even all the tribes of Israel, whom the following law concerned, as well as the tribe of Manasseh:



according to the word of the Lord; whom no doubt he consulted on this occasion, as he did when the daughters of Zelophehad applied unto him about the inheritance of their father:



saying, the tribe of the sons of Joseph hath said well; in showing such a concern for the welfare of their tribe; the consideration of which would be of service to them all, and therefore was worthy of notice. Aben Ezra observes, that the heads of the fathers spoke for the sake of every tribe, what was for the good of them all, and therefore was well spoken.





Numbers 36:6



Ver. 6. This is the thing which the Lord doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad,.... Concerning this affair relative to them; the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases the words,



"not for the generations that rise up after the division of the land, but for the daughters of Zelophehad;''



as if this order only respected them, or what might happen before the land was divided, but not after; and this is the general opinion of the Jewish writers; but it seems, that as the following law not only concerns them, but all heiresses, so all such after as well as before the division of the land, since the reason of it holds good after as before:



saying, let them marry to whom they think best; whom they like best, who are most acceptable to them; as it was reasonable they should, and not have such forced upon them, whose persons were disagreeable to them:



only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry; they were to marry not only such as were of the tribe of Manasseh, but of their father's family in that tribe; they could only marry into the family of the Hepherites; see Nu 26:32.





Numbers 36:7



Ver. 7. So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe,.... Which shows that this concerns all the tribes of Israel, though yet not fully expressed, as it is afterwards:



for everyone of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers; or cleave {a} to a wife in that tribe for marriage; this word is used in the original institution of it, Ge 2:24 though they were not strictly obliged to marry in their own tribe; and frequently they did intermarry with other tribes, which, had it been unlawful, would not have been done, as it was by kings, and priests, and others; nor was there any danger of an inheritance going into another tribe by a man's marrying into it; wherefore this signifies only, that they were to be careful to keep their inheritances in their tribe; and therefore if any of them had no sons, only daughters, he was to marry them in his own tribe and family, that the inheritance might not remove, as follows



{a} wqbdy "adhaerebunt", Montanus, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius.





Numbers 36:8



Ver. 8. And every daughter that possesseth an inheritance in any tribe if the children of Israel,.... For the same law which gave the daughters of Zelophehad right to their father's inheritance, gave every other daughter in Israel a right to inherit where there were no sons,

Nu 27:8 and every such daughter, according to this law,



shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father; marry into her father's tribe and family; by which it appears that such who were not heiresses might marry persons of another family, and even of another tribe:



that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers; of his father's brethren, or of those that are near akin to him.





Numbers 36:9



Ver. 9. Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another,.... Which was one end of the year of jubilee, but that did not sufficiently secure it without this law, as this case shows:



but everyone of the tribes of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance; the chief view of which was, that it might clearly appear of what tribe and family the Messiah sprang when he came.





Numbers 36:10



Ver. 10. Even as the Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad. They married into, the family of their father's tribe, according to the following account.





Numbers 36:11



Ver. 11. For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah,.... The names of the daughters of Zelophehad, and the same as in

Nu 26:33, only the order a little varied, Tirzah and Noah here changing places; there they are according to their birth, here they are according to their marriage, as Aben Ezra thinks; though Jarchi is of opinion, that being thus differently placed shows that they were equal to one another, and one was not preferred to the other:



these were married unto their father's brothers' sons; so that they were first cousins.





Numbers 36:12



Ver. 12. And they were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh, the son of Joseph,.... The family of the Hepherites, of which they were. Aben Ezra observes, that their being married into families, and not a family, is a sign that their uncles' sons were not all of them brethren, or the sons of one man, but of more, though all sons of one or other of their father's, brethren:



and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father; by means of these marriages, even both in their father's tribe and family.





Numbers 36:13



Ver. 13. These are the commandments and the judgments,.... The judicial laws concerning the division of the land of Canaan, the case of inheritances in it, and the cities of refuge:



which the Lord commanded by, the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel, in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho; where the Israelites had been ever since they were first observed by Balak king of Moab, and where the various things had been done recorded in the preceding chapters from that time.



 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

Deuteronomy 1:1



INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY



This book is sometimes called "Elleh hadebarim", from the words with which it begins; and sometimes by the Jews "Mishneh Torah", the repetition of the law; and so in the Syriac version, with which agrees the Arabic title of it; and when the Greeks, and we after them, call it "Deuteronomy", it is not to be understood of a second, a new, or another law, but of the law formerly delivered, but now repeated, and also more largely explained; to which are likewise added several particular laws, instructions, and directions; all which were necessary, on account of the people of Israel, who were now a new generation, that either were not born, or not at an age to hear and understand the law when given on Mount Sinai; the men that heard it there being all dead, excepting a very few; and these people were also now about to enter into the land of Canaan, which they were to enjoy as long as they kept the law of God, and no longer, and therefore it was proper they should be reminded of it; and besides, Moses was now about to leave them, and having an hearty desire after their welfare, spends the little time he had to be with them, by inculcating into them and impressing on them the laws of God, and in opening and explaining them to them, and enforcing them on them, which were to be the rule of their obedience, and on which their civil happiness depended. And sometimes the Jews call this book "the book of reproofs", because there are in it several sharp reproofs of the people of Israel for their rebellion and disobedience; and so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem begin it by calling it the words of reproof which Moses spake, &c. That this book was written by Moses there can be no doubt, from De 1:1, only the eight last verses, which give an account of his death, and of his character, were wrote by another hand, equally inspired by God, as either Eleazar the priest, as some, or Samuel the prophet, as others; or, as it is the more commonly received opinion of the Jews, Ezra; though it is highly probable they were wrote by Joshua his successor. This book was written and delivered by Moses, at certain times in the last month of his life, and towards the close of the fortieth year of the children of Israel's coming out of Egypt. And that it is of divine authority need not be questioned, when the several quotations out of it are observed, as made by the apostles of Christ, in Ac 3:22

Heb 10:30 out of De 18:15 and by our Lord himself, Mt 18:16 from De 19:15. Yea, it is remarkable, that all the passages of Scripture produced by Christ, to repel the temptations of Satan, are all taken out of this book, Mt 4:7 compared with De 8:3, and the voice from heaven, directing the apostles to hearken to him, refers to a prophecy of him in De 18:15.



INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 1



The time and place when the subject matter of this book was delivered to the Israelites are observed by way of preface, De 1:1, and it begins with reminding them of an order to them to depart from Mount Horeb, and pass on to the land of Canaan, which the Lord had given them, De 1:6, and with observing the very great increase of their number, which made it necessary for Moses to appoint persons under him to be rulers over them, whom he instructed in the duty of their office, De 1:9, and he goes on to observe, that when they were come to the mountain of the Amorites, they were bid to go up and possess the land; but, instead of that, they desired men might be sent to search the land first, which was granted, De 1:19, and though these men upon their return brought of the fruits of the land, and a good report of it, particularly two of them; yet being discouraged by the report of the rest, they murmured, distrusted, and were afraid to enter, though encouraged by Moses, De 1:24, which caused the Lord to be angry with them, and upon it threatened them that they should die in the wilderness, and only two of them should ever see and enjoy the land, and therefore were bid to turn and take their journey in the wilderness, De 1:34, but being convinced of their evil, they proposed to go up the hill, and enter the land, which they attempted against the commandment of the Lord, but being repulsed by the Amorites, they fled with great loss, to their great grief, and abode in Kadesh many days, De 1:41.



Ver. 1. These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel,.... Not what are related in the latter part of the preceding book, but what follow in this; and which were spoken by him, not to the whole body of the people gathered together to hear him, which they could not do without a miracle; but to the heads of the people, the representatives of them, who were convened to hear what he had to say, in order to communicate it to the people; unless we can suppose that Moses at different times to several parties of them delivered the same things, until they had all heard them:



on this side Jordan; before the passage of the Israelites over it to the land of Canaan; for Moses never went in thither, and therefore it must be the tract which the Greeks call Persea, and which with respect to the Israelites when in the land of Canaan is called "beyond Jordan", for here now Moses was; and the children of Israel had been here with him a considerable time in the wilderness, the vast wilderness of Arabia, which reached hither:



in the plain; the plains of Moab, between Bethjeshimoth and. Abelshittim, where the Israelites had lain encamped for some time, and had not as yet removed; see Nu 33:49



over against the Red [sea]: the word "sea" is not in the text, nor is there anything in it which answers to "Red"; it should be rendered "opposite Suph", which seems to be the name of a place in Moab, not far from the plains of it, and perhaps is the same with Suphah in

Nu 21:14 for from the Red sea they were at a considerable distance:



between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab; these are names of places which were the boundaries and limits of the plains of Moab, or lay very near them; for Paran cannot be understood of the Wilderness of Paran, which was too remote, but a city or town of that name. Tophel and Laban we read of nowhere else; a learned man {a} conjectures Tophel is the name of the station where the Israelites loathed the manna as light bread, because of the insipidness of it, which he observes this word signifies; but that station was either Zalmonah, or Punon, or this station must be omitted in the account of their journeys, and besides was too remote. Jarchi helps this conjecture a little, who puts Tophel and Laban together, and thinks they signify their murmuring because of the manna, which was white, as Laban signifies; but the above writer takes Laban to be a distinct station, the same with Libnah, Nu 33:20, and Hazeroth to be the station between Mount Sinai and Kadesh, Nu 12:16. But both seem to be too remote from the plains of Moab; and Dizahab he would have to be the same with Eziongaber, Nu 33:35, which he says the Arabs now call Dsahab, or Meenah el Dsahab, that is, "the port of gold"; and certain it is that Dizahab has the signification of gold, and, is by Hillerus {b} rendered "sufficiency of gold", there being large quantities of it here; perhaps either through the riches of the port by trade, or by reason of a mine of gold at it, or near it; so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "where there is much gold", and the Septuagint version "golden mines", Catachrysea; and Jerom {c} makes mention of a place of this name, and says they are mountains abounding with gold in the wilderness, eleven miles from Horeb, where Moses is said to write Deuteronomy; elsewhere {d} he calls it Dysmemoab, i.e. the west of Moab, near Jordan, opposite Jericho.



{a} Clayton's Chronology of the Hebrew Bible, p. 471, &c. {b} Onomastic. Sacr. p. 67, 300. {c} De loc. Heb. fol. 92. A. {d} Travels, p. 319.





Deuteronomy 1:2



Ver. 2. There are eleven days' journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir, to Kadeshbarnea. Not that the Israelites came thither in eleven days from Horeb, for they stayed by the way at Kibrothhattaavah, a whole month at least, and seven days at Hazeroth; but the sense is, that this was the computed distance between the two places; it was what was reckoned a man might walk in eleven days; and if we reckon a day's journey twenty miles, of which See Gill on "Jon 3:3", the distance must be two hundred and twenty miles. But Dr. Shaw {e} allows but ten miles for a day's journey, and then it was no more than one hundred and ten, and indeed a camp cannot be thought to move faster; but not the day's journey of a camp, but of a man, seems to be intended, who may very well walk twenty miles a day for eleven days running; but it seems more strange that another learned traveller {f} should place Kadeshbarnea at eight hours, or ninety miles distance only from Mount Sinai. Moses computes not the time that elapsed between those two places, including their stations, but only the time of travelling; and yet Jarchi says, though it was eleven days' journey according to common computation, the Israelites performed it in three days; for he observes that they set out from Horeb on the twentieth of Ijar, and on the twenty ninth of Sivan the spies were sent out from Kadeshbarnea; and if you take from hence the whole month they were at one place, and the seven days at another, there will be but three days left for them to travel in. And he adds, that the Shechinah, or divine Majesty, pushed them forward, to hasten their going into the land; but they corrupting themselves, he turned them about Mount Seir forty years. It is not easy to say for what reason these words are expressed, unless it be to show in how short a time the Israelites might have been in the land of Canaan, in a few days' journey from Horeb, had it not been for their murmurings and unbelief, for which they were turned into the wilderness again, and travelled about for the space of thirty eight years afterwards. Aben Ezra is of opinion, that the eleven days, for the word "journey" is not in the text, are to be connected with the preceding words; and that the sense is, that Moses spake these words in the above places, in the eleven days they went from Horeb to Kadesh.



{e} De loc. Heb. fol. 92. I. {f} Pococke's Description of the East, vol. 1. p. 157.





Deuteronomy 1:3



Ver. 3. And it came to pass in the fortieth year,.... That is, of the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt:



in the eleventh month; the month Shebet, as the Targum of Jonathan, which answers to part of January and part of February:



in the first day of the month, that Moses spoke unto the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them; repeated to them the several commandments, which the Lord had delivered to him at different times.





Deuteronomy 1:4



Ver. 4. After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon,.... Either Moses, speaking of himself in the third person, or rather the Lord, to whom Moses ascribes the victory; of this king, and his palace, and the slaughter of him, see Nu 21:24,



and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei; or near Edrei; for Edrei was not the name of a country, in which Ashtaroth was, but of a city at some distance from it, about six miles, as Jerom says {g}; hither Og came from Ashtaroth his palace to fight with Israel, and where he was slain, see Nu 21:33. Ashtaroth was an ancient city formerly called Ashtaroth Karnaim, and was the seat of the Rephaim, or giants, from whom Og sprung, See Gill on "Ge 14:5", see also De 3:11. Jerom says {h} in his time there were two castles in Batanea (or Bashan) called by this name, nine miles distant from one another, between Adara (the same with Edrei) and Abila; and in another place he says {i} Carnaim Ashtaroth is now a large village in a corner of Batanea, and is called Carnea, beyond the plains of Jordan; and it is a tradition that there was the house of Job.



{g} De loc. Heb. fol. 87. I. {h} lbid. E. {i} De loc. Heb. fol. 89. M.





Deuteronomy 1:5



Ver. 5. On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab,.... On that side of Jordan in which the land of Moab was, and which with respect to the land of Canaan was beyond Jordan; this the Vulgate Latin version joins to the preceding verse:



began Moses to declare this law: to explain it, make it clear and manifest; namely, the whole system and body of laws, which had been before given him, which he "willed" {k}, as some render the word, or willingly took upon him to repeat and explain unto them, which their fathers had heard, and had been delivered unto them; but before he entered upon this, he gave them a short history of events which had befallen them, from the time of their departure from Horeb unto the present time, which is contained in this and the two next chapters:



saying; as follows.



{k} lyawh "voluit", Montanus; "placuit", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "statuit", Tigurine version.





Deuteronomy 1:6



Ver. 6. The Lord our God spoke unto us in Horeb,.... The same with Sinai, as Aben Ezra observes; while the Israelites lay encamped near this mountain, the Lord spoke unto them:



saying, ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: or near it; for hither they came on the first day of the third month from their departure out of Egypt, and they did not remove from thence until the twentieth day of the second month in the second year, Ex 19:1 so that they were here a year wanting ten days; in which space of time the law was given them, the tabernacle and all things appertaining to it were made by them, rulers both ecclesiastical and civil were appointed over them, and they were numbered and marshalled in order under four standards, and so ready to march; and all this being done, they must stay no longer, but set forward for the land of Canaan. It is well for persons that they are not to stay long under the law, and the terrors of it, but are directed to Mount Zion; Heb 12:18.





Deuteronomy 1:7



Ver. 7. Turn you and take your journey,.... That is, remove from Horeb, where they were, and proceed on in their journey, in which they had been stopped almost a year:



and go to the mount of the Amorites; where they and the Amalekites dwelt, in the south part of the land of Canaan, and which was the way the spies were sent, Nu 13:17,



and unto all the places nigh thereunto; nigh to the mountain. The Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi interpret them of Moab, Ammon, Gebal, or Mount Seir: "in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale"; such was the country near this mountain, consisting of champaign land, hills, and valleys:



and in the south; the southern border of the land of Canaan, as what follows describes the other borders of it:



and by the sea side: the Mediterranean sea, the western border of the land, which Jarchi out of Siphri explains of Ashkelon, Gaza, and Caesarea, and so the Targum of Jonathan:



into the land of the Canaanites; which was then possessed by them, the boundaries of which to the south and west are before given, and next follow those to the north and east:



and unto Lebanon; which was on the north of the land of Canaan:



unto the great river, the river Euphrates; which was the utmost extent of the land eastward, and was either promised, as it was to Abraham, Ge 15:18 or enjoyed, as it was by Solomon, 1Ki 4:21.





Deuteronomy 1:8



Ver. 8. Behold, I have set the land before you,.... Described it to them, and set its bounds, as well as had given them a grant of it:



go in and possess the land, which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and their seed after them: and which being thus made sure unto them, they had nothing more to do than to go and take possession of it.





Deuteronomy 1:9



Ver. 9. And I spake unto you at that time,.... About that time; for it was after the rock in Horeb was smitten, and before they encamped at Mount Sinai, that Jethro gave the advice which Moses took, and proceeded on it, as here related; see Ex 18:1



saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone; to rule and govern them, judge and determine matters between them. Jethro suggested this to Moses, and he took the hint, and was conscious to himself that it was too much for him, and so declared it to the people, though it is not before recorded; see Ex 18:18.





Deuteronomy 1:10



Ver. 10. The Lord your God hath multiplied you,.... Which was the reason why he could not bear them, or the government of them was too heavy for him, because they were so numerous, and the cases brought before him to decide were so many:



and, behold, you are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude; whereby it appeared that the promise to Abraham was fulfilled, Ge 15:5, they were now 600,000 men fit for war, besides women and children, and those under age, which must make the number of them very large.





Deuteronomy 1:11



Ver. 11. The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are,.... This prayer he made, or this blessing he pronounced on them, to show that he did not envy their increase, nor was any ways uneasy at it, but rejoiced in it, though he gave it as a reason of his not being able to govern them alone:



and bless you, as he hath promised you: with all kind of blessings, as he had often promised their fathers.





Deuteronomy 1:12



Ver. 12. How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?] His meaning is, that he could not hear and try all their causes, and determine all their law suits, and decide the strifes and controversies which arose between them; it was too heavy for him, and brought too much trouble and incumbrance upon him.





Deuteronomy 1:13



Ver. 13. Take ye wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes,.... Not only whose persons were well known, but their characters and qualifications, for their probity and integrity, for their wisdom and prudence in the management of affairs, for their skill and knowledge in things divine and human, civil and religious, and for their capacity in judging and determining matters in difference; see

Ex 18:21



and I will make them rulers over you; the people were allowed to choose their own officers, whom they were to bring to Moses, and present before him, to be invested with their office. A like method was taken in the choice and constitution of deacons in the Christian church, when the secular affairs of it lay too heavy upon the apostles, Ac 6:3.





Deuteronomy 1:14



Ver. 14. And ye answered me and said,.... As the speech of Moses to the people is not expressed before, so neither this answer of theirs to him:



the thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do; to look out for and present persons to him as before described; this they saw was for their own good and profit, as well as for the ease of Moses, and therefore readily agreed to it.





Deuteronomy 1:15



Ver. 15. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known,.... The principal persons among them, that were remarkable and well known for their wisdom and understanding, whom the people presented to him:



and made them heads over you; rulers of them, as follows:



captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens; see Ex 18:21



and officers among your tribes; which Jarchi interprets of such that bind malefactors and scourge them, according to the decree of the judges, even the executioners of justice; and so the Jews commonly understand them to be, though some have thought they were judges also.





Deuteronomy 1:16



Ver. 16. And I charged your judges at that time,.... When they were appointed and constituted, even the heads and rulers before spoken of; this charge is also new, and not recorded before:



saying, hear the causes between your brethren; hear both sides, and all that each of them have to say; not suffer one to say all he has to say, and oblige the other to cut his words short, as the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it; but give them leave and time to tell their case, and give the best evidence they can of it:



and judge righteously; impartially, just as the case really appears to be, and according to the evidence given:



between every man and his brother; between an Israelite and an Israelite:



and the stranger that is with him; between an Israelite and proselyte, whether a proselyte of the gate, or of righteousness; the same justice was to be done to them as to an Israelite.





Deuteronomy 1:17



Ver. 17. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment,.... Or pass judgment, and give sentence according to the outward appearances, circumstances, and relations of men; as whether they be friends or foes, rich or poor, old or young, men or women, learned or unlearned; truth and justice should always take place, without any regard to what persons are:



but you shall hear the small as well as the great; persons in low, life, and in mean circumstances, as well as great and noble personages; or little causes and of no great moment, as well as those of the utmost importance; all must be attended to, a cause about a "prutah" or a farthing, as well as one about a hundred pounds, in which Jarchi instances, and if that came first it was not to be postponed:



ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; of the frowns and threatenings of rich men, and of such as are in power and authority; not be awed or intimidated by them from doing justice; see Job 31:34,



for the judgment [is] God's; judges stand in the place of God, are put into their office by him, and act under him, and for him, and are accountable to him; and therefore should be careful what judgment they make, or sentence they pass, lest they bring discredit to him, and destruction on themselves:



and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it; which is said for their encouragement, as well as was an instruction to them not to undertake a cause too difficult for them; see Ex 18:22.





Deuteronomy 1:18



Ver. 18. And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do. Delivered to them all the laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which were then given him at Mount Sinai.





Deuteronomy 1:19



Ver. 19. And when we departed from Horeb,.... As the Lord commanded them to do, when they were obedient:



we went through all the great and terrible wilderness; the wilderness of Paran, called "great", it reaching from Mount Sinai to Kadeshbarnea, eleven days' journey, as Adrichomius {l} relates; and "terrible", being so hard and dry as not to be ploughed nor sown, and presented to the sight something terrible and horrible, even the very image of death; to which may be added the fiery serpents and scorpions it abounded with, De 8:15,



which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites; that is, in the way that led to the mountain:



as the Lord our God commanded us; to depart from Horeb, and take a tour through the wilderness towards the said mountain:



and we came to Kadeshbarnea; having stayed a month by the way at Kibrothhattaavah, where they lusted after flesh, and seven days at Hazeroth, where Miriam was shut out of the camp for leprosy during that time.



{l} Theatrum Terrae, p. 116.





Deuteronomy 1:20



Ver. 20. And I said unto you, you are come unto the mountain of the Amorites,.... Which was inhabited by them, and was one of the seven nations the Israelites were to destroy, and possess their land, and which lay on the southern part of the land of Canaan:



which the Lord our God doth give unto us; not the mountain only, but the whole country of that people, and even all the land of Canaan.





Deuteronomy 1:21



Ver. 21. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee,.... The land of Canaan, on the borders of which they then were;

See Gill on "De 1:8",



go up; the mountain, by that way of it which was the way the spies went, and up to which some of the Israelites presumed to go when forbidden, they not complying with the call of God:



and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; as in De 1:8,



fear not, neither be discouraged; though the people of the land were numerous and strong, and their cities large and walled.





Deuteronomy 1:22



Ver. 22. And ye came near unto me everyone of you,.... Not every individual of them, but the heads of their tribes, that represented them; this is not to be understood of the present generation personally, but of their fathers, who all died in the wilderness, save a very few of them; but they being the same people and nation, it is so expressed:



and said, we will send men before us; that is, they thought it was proper and prudent so to do, and came to Moses to consult him about it; for we are not to suppose that they had determined upon it, whether he approved of it or not:



and they shall search us out the land: that they might know what sort of land it was, whether good or bad, fruitful or not, and whether woody or not: see Nu 13:19



and bring us word again by what way we must go up; or, "concerning the way {m} in which we must go"; which is the best way of entering it, most easy and accessible, where the passes are most open and least dangerous:



and into what cities we shall come; which it would be the most proper to attack and subdue first.



{m} Krdh ta, "de via", Noldius, p. 117. No. 594. so the Arabic version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.





Deuteronomy 1:23



Ver. 23. And the saying pleased me well,.... Taking it to be a rational and prudent scheme, not imagining it was the effect of fear and distrust:



and I took twelve men of you out of a tribe; whose names are given in

Nu 13:4.





Deuteronomy 1:24



Ver. 24. And they turned and went up into the mountain,.... As they were ordered and directed by Moses, Nu 13:17



and came unto the valley of Eshcol; so called from the cluster of grapes they cut down there, as they returned:



and searched it out; the whole land, and so were capable of giving a particular account of it.





Deuteronomy 1:25



Ver. 25. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands,.... Besides the cluster of grapes, which was carried between two men on a staff; even pomegranates and figs, Nu 13:23,



and brought it down unto us; who lay encamped at the bottom of the mountain:



and brought us word again; what sort of a land it was:



and said, it is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us; that is, Caleb and Joshua, two of the spies, said this, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it, and so Jarchi; yea, all of them agreed in this, and said at first that it was a land flowing with milk and honey, Nu 13:27.





Deuteronomy 1:26



Ver. 26. Notwithstanding, ye would not go up,.... And possess it, as the Lord had bid them, and Moses encouraged them to do, as well as Joshua and Caleb, who were two of the spies sent into it:



but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God; disregarded the word of the Lord, and disobeyed his command, and thereby bitterly provoked him, which rebellion against him, their King and God, might well do.



Deuteronomy 1:27



Ver. 27. And ye murmured in your tents,.... Not in a private manner; for though the murmurs began there, they having wept all night after the report of the spies; yet it became general and public, and they gathered together in a body, and openly expressed their murmurs against Moses and Aaron, Nu 14:1,



and said, because the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt; a strange expression indeed! when it was such a plain amazing instance of his love to them, as could not but be seen by them; being done in such a remarkable and extraordinary manner, by inflicting judgments on their enemies in a miraculous way, giving them favour in their eyes, to lend them their clothes and jewels, and bringing them out with such an high hand, openly and publicly in the sight of them, where they had been in the most wretched slavery for many years; yet this is interpreted an hatred of them, and as done with an ill design upon them, as follows:



to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us; which now, under the power of their fears and unbelief, they thought would be quickly their case; see De 4:37.



Deuteronomy 1:28



Ver. 28. Whither shall we go up?.... What way can we go up into the land? where is there any access for us? the mountain we are come to, and directed to go up, is possessed by the Amorites, a strong and mighty people, who keep and guard the passes, that there is no entrance:



our brethren have discouraged our hearts; ten of the spies; for Joshua and Caleb encouraged them with very powerful arguments, which had they listened to, it would have been well for them:



saying, the people is greater and taller than we; more in number, larger in bulk of body, and higher in stature:



the cities are great, and walled up to heaven; an hyperbolical expression; their fears exaggerated the account of the spies; they told them they were great, large, and populous, walled, and strongly fortified; which appeared in their frightened imaginations as if their walls were so high as to reach up to heaven, so that it was impossible to scale them, or get possession of them:



and, moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakims there; the giants so called from Anak, the son of Arba, the father of them; their names are given, Nu 13:22.



Deuteronomy 1:29



Ver. 29. Then I said unto you, dread not, neither be afraid of them. With such like words he had exhorted and encouraged them before the spies were sent, and he still uses the same, or stronger terms, notwithstanding the report that had been made of the gigantic stature and walled cities of the Canaanites. This speech of Moses, which is continued in the two following verses, is not recorded in Nu 14:5, it is only there said, that Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, but no account is given of what was said by either of them.



Deuteronomy 1:30



Ver. 30. The Lord your God, which goeth before you,.... In a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night:



he shall fight for you; wherefore, though their enemies were greater and taller than they, yet their God was higher than the highest; and cities walled up to heaven would signify nothing to him, whose throne is in the heavens:



according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes: which is observed to encourage their faith in God; for he that wrought such wonders in Egypt for them, which their eyes, at least some of them, and their fathers, however, had seen, what is it he cannot do?



Deuteronomy 1:31



Ver. 31. And in the wilderness,.... Where he had fed them with manna, brought water out of rocks for them, protected them from every hurtful creature, had fought their battles for them, and given them victory over Amalek, Sihon, and Og:



where thou hast seen how the Lord thy God bare thee as a man doth bear his son; in his arms, in his bosom, with great care and tenderness:



in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place; supplying their wants, supporting their persons, subduing their enemies, and preserving them from everything hurtful to them; and therefore having God on their side, as appeared by so many instances, of his favour to them, they had nothing to dread or fear from the Canaanites, though ever so mighty.



Deuteronomy 1:32



Ver. 32. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God. That they might go up and possess the land at once, and that he would fight for them, and subdue their enemies under them; or notwithstanding the favours bestowed upon them, and because of them, they did not believe in the Lord their God, and which was a great aggravation of their unbelief, and was the cause of their not entering into the good land, Heb 3:19.



Deuteronomy 1:33



Ver. 33. Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in,.... For when the cloud was taken up they journeyed, and when that rested, there they pitched their tents; and hereby they were directed to places the most convenient for water for them and their flocks, or for safety from those that might annoy them:



in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go; which otherwise they could not have found in dark nights, in which they sometimes travelled, and in, a wilderness where there were no tracks, no beaten path, no common way:



and in a cloud by day; to shelter them from the scorching sun, where there were no trees nor hedges to shade them, only rocky crags and hills.



Deuteronomy 1:34



Ver. 34. And the Lord heard the voice of your words,.... Of their murmurings against Moses and Aaron, and of their threatenings to them, Joshua and Caleb, and of their impious charge of hatred of them to God for bringing them out of Egypt, and of their rash wishes that they had died there or in the wilderness, and of their wicked scheme and proposal to make them a captain, and return to Egypt again:



and was wroth, and sware; by his life, himself; see Nu 14:28,



saying; as follows.



Deuteronomy 1:35



Ver. 35. Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see the good land,.... The land of Canaan; not only not one of the spies that brought the ill report of that land, but of that body of people that gave credit to it, and murmured upon it:



which I sware to give unto your fathers; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; see De 1:8.



Deuteronomy 1:36



Ver. 36. Save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it,.... Enter into it, and enjoy it:



and Joshua also; who was the other spy with him, that brought a good report of the land; see De 1:38,



and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children: not the whole land of Canaan, but that part of it which he particularly came to and searched; and where the giants were, and he saw them, and notwithstanding was not intimidated by them, but encouraged the people to go up and possess it; and the part he came to particularly, and trod on, was Hebron, Nu 13:22 and which the Targum of Jonathan, Jarchi, and Aben Ezra, interpret of that; and this was what was given to him and his at the division of the land, Jos 14:13,



because he hath wholly followed the Lord; see Nu 14:24.



Deuteronomy 1:37



Ver. 37. Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes,.... Not at the same time, though, as some think, at the same place, near thirty eight years afterwards, they provoking him to speak unadvisedly with his lips; see Nu 20:10,



saying, thou shalt not go in thither: into the land of Canaan; and though he greatly importuned it, he could not prevail; see De 3:25.





Deuteronomy 1:38



Ver. 38. [But] Joshua, the son of Nun, which standeth before thee,.... His servant and minister, which this phrase is expressive of:



he shall go in thither: into the good land, instead of Moses, and as his successor, and who was to go before the children of Israel, and introduce them into it, as a type of Christ, who brings many sons to glory:



encourage him; with the promise of the divine Presence with him, and of success in subduing the Canaanites, and settling the people of Israel in their land; and so we read that Moses did encourage him, De 31:7



for he shall cause Israel to inherit it; go before them as their captain, and lead them into it; fight their battles for them, conquer their enemies, and divide the land by lot for an inheritance unto them; so the heavenly inheritance is not by the law of Moses, and the works of it, but by Joshua, or Jesus, the Saviour, by his achievements, victories, and conquests.





Deuteronomy 1:39



Ver. 39. Moreover, your little ones, which ye said should be a prey,.... To the Amorites, into whose hands they expected to be delivered, De 1:27 see Nu 14:3



and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil; not being at years of understanding, and which is a common description of children; it is particularly expressed "in that day", for now they were the very persons Moses was directing his speech unto, and relating this history, it being thirty eight years ago when this affair was, so that now they were grown up to years of discretion:



they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it: the relation of which now might serve greatly to encourage their faith, as well as it would be a fulfilment of the promise of the land made unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which was not made of none effect through the unbelief of the Israelites, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, since their posterity was to enjoy it, and did.





Deuteronomy 1:40



Ver. 40. But as for you, turn ye,.... From the mountain of the Amorites, the border of the land of Canaan:



and take your journey into the wilderness, by the way of the Red sea: see Nu 14:25. Jarchi says this wilderness was by the side of the Red sea, to the south of Mount Seir, and divided between the Red sea and the mount; so that now they drew to the side of the sea, and compassed Mount Seir, all the south of it, from west to east.





Deuteronomy 1:41



Ver. 41. Then ye answered, and said unto me,.... Not being willing to go into the wilderness again, though they wished they had died in it; nor to go the way of the Red sea, which was their way back again to Egypt, though they had been for appointing a captain, and returning thither; but now they repented of what they had said and done:



we have sinned against the Lord; by murmuring against his servants, and disobeying his commands:



we will go up and fight according to all that the Lord our God hath commanded us; which is more than they were bid to do; they were only ordered to go up and possess the land, and it was promised them the Lord would fight for them:



and when ye had girded on every man his weapon; his sword upon his thigh; a large number of them, for all of them were not so disposed, though many were:



ye were ready to go unto the hill; though before backward enough, when they were bid to do it. De Dieu, from the use of the word {n} in the Arabic language, renders it, "ye reckoned it easy to go up unto the hill"; before it was accounted very difficult, by reason the passes were kept and guarded by the Amorites; but now there was no difficulty, when they were bid to go another way, but were ready at once to go up, which comes to the same sense; he further observes, that the word, in another conjugation in the same language, signifies to make light of, or despise {o}; and so may be rendered, "and ye despised"; that is, rejected and despised the order given them to go into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea in the preceding verse, by their attempting to go up the hill; though the word so taken will bear another sense, agreeable to the first, that they now made a light matter of it, as if it was nothing, and there was no difficulty in it to go up the hill, which before was too hard and heavy for them.



{n} "levis et facilis fuit res", Golius, col. 2593. {o} "Contempsit", ib.





Deuteronomy 1:42



Ver. 42. And the Lord said unto me,.... When the people had armed themselves, and were in motion, or ready to set forward to ascend the hill:



say unto them, go not up, neither fight; neither go up the hill, and if they did, contrary to this order, and should meet with enemies, not fight them, but retreat:



for I am not among you: the ark of the covenant, the symbol of his presence, was then among them, but it did not go with them, it continued in the camp, Nu 14:44 nor did the Lord exert his power, or show himself present with them, or to be on their side, but left them to themselves, and to their enemies:



lest ye be smitten before your enemies; God not being with them to fight for them, protect and defend them, and give them victory.





Deuteronomy 1:43



Ver. 43. So I spake unto you,.... The words, the orders he had received from the Lord to deliver to them:



and ye would not hear; so as to obey them, and act according to them:



but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord: as before, by not going up when he would have had them gone, and now by attempting it when he forbid them:



and went presumptuously up into the hill; that is, of themselves, in their own strength, disregarding the commandment of God, and what they were threatened with; this they endeavoured to do, for they were not able to effect it; the Amorites, perceiving them to make up the hill, came pouring down upon them in great numbers, and stopped them, and obliged them to retreat; see Nu 14:45.





Deuteronomy 1:44



Ver. 44. And the Amorites which dwelt in the mountain,.... Elsewhere called Canaanites, being one, and a principal one of the seven nations of Canaan, and who were joined and assisted in the attack by the Amalekites, Nu 14:45



came out against you, and chased you, as bees do; which being disturbed in their hives come out in great numbers, and with great fury and ardour (for, though a small creature, it has a great deal of spirit); and pursue the aggressor, and leave him not till they have stung him, though thereby they lose their stings, and quickly their lives, at least their usefulness; so these Amorites, being irritated at the approach of the Israelites on their borders, came out in great numbers and with great wrath, and fell upon them and smote them, and pursued them a long way, as is after expressed, though these in the issue were destroyed themselves. The Syriac version renders it, "as bees that are smoked": or irritated by smoke; which is a method that has been used, and was anciently: to dispossess them of their hives, and get their honey, as Bochart {p} from various writers has shown, as from Virgil {q}, Ovid {r}, and others; and when they are too much smoked become exceeding angry as Aristotle {s} and Pliny {t} observe; and which same writers take notice of the strength and force of their stings, as that they will kill with them the largest animals, even horses have been killed by them; and, though such small feeble creatures, are not afraid to attack men and beasts; yea, sometimes people have been obliged to leave their habitations, and have been driven out of their country by them, of which Aelianus {u} gives an instance; all which shows the aptness and propriety of this simile; see Ps 118:12 and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah; pursued them as far as Mount Seir, even to another place on the borders of Edom, which was called Hormah, either from the destruction now or afterwards made here; See Gill on "Nu 14:45", though some take it not to be the proper name of a place, but an appellative, and render it, "even unto destruction"; so the Jerusalem Targum; that is, destroyed them with an utter destruction.



{p} Hierozoic, par. 2. l. 4. c. 10. col. 507. {q} "-----Fumosque manu", &c. Virgil. Georgic. l. 4. v. 230. {r} "Quid, cum suppositos", &c. Ovid. de Remed. Amor. l. 1. v. 185. {s} Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 40. {t} Nat Hist. l. 11. c. 16, 18. {u} De Animal. l. 17. c. 35.





Deuteronomy 1:45



Ver. 45. And ye returned and wept before the Lord,.... Those that remained when the Amorites left pursuing them, returned to the camp at Kadesh, where Moses and the Levites were, and the rest of the people; and here they wept at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and hence said to be "before the Lord"; they wept because of the slaughter that had been made among them, and because of their sin in going contrary to the will of God, and because they were ordered into the wilderness; and very probably they cried and prayed unto the Lord, that they might not be turned back, but that he would go with them, and bring them now into the promised land:



but the Lord would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you; was inexorable, and would not repeal the order to go into the wilderness again, where he had sworn in his wrath their carcasses should fall; the sentence was irrevocable.





Deuteronomy 1:46



Ver. 46. So ye abode in Kadesh many days,.... Yea, some years, as some think:



according to the days that ye abode there; that is, according to Jarchi, as they did in the rest of the journeys or stations; so that as they were thirty eight years in all at several places, they were nineteen years in Kadesh; the same is affirmed in the Jewish chronology {w}. Maimonides says {x} they were eighteen years in one place, and it is very probable he means this; but Aben Ezra interprets it otherwise, and takes the sense to be, that they abode as many days here after their return as they did while the land was searching, which were forty days, Nu 13:25, but without fixing any determinate time, the meaning may only be, that as they had been many days here before this disaster, so they continued many days after in the same place before they marched onward into the wilderness again.



{w} Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 24. {x} Moreh Nevochim. par. 3. c. 50.



 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

Deuteronomy 2:1



INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 2



In this chapter Moses goes on with his account of the affairs of the people of Israel, and what befell them, how they turned into the wilderness again; but passes over in silence their travels there, till they came to Mount Self, where having been some time they were bid to depart, De 2:1, and were directed not to meddle with the Edomites, or take anything from them, but pay them for what they should have of them, since they lacked not, De 2:4, nor to distress the Moabites, of whose country, as formerly inhabited, and also of Edom, some account is given, De 2:9, when they were bid to go over the brook Zered, to which from their coming from Kadeshbarnea was the space of thirty eight years, in which time the former generation was consumed, De 2:13 and now passing along the borders of Moab, they were ordered not to meddle with nor distress the children of Ammon, of whose land also, and the former inhabitants of it, an account is given, De 2:17, then passing over the river Arnon, they are bid to fight with Sihon king of the Amorites, and possess his land, De 2:24 to whom they sent messengers, desiring leave to pass through his land, and to furnish them with provisions for their money, as the Edomites and Moabites had done, De 2:26 but he refusing, this gave them an opportunity to attack him, in which they succeeded, slew him and his people, and took possession of his country, De 2:30.



Ver. 1. Then we turned,.... From Kadesh, where they had been many days, and so also their backs on the land of Canaan, on the borders of which they had been:



and took our journey into the wilderness, by the way of the Red sea, as the Lord spake unto me; De 1:40



and we compassed Mount Seir many days; many think by Mount Seir is meant the whole mountainous country of Edom, about which they travelled to and fro in the wilderness that lay near it for the space of thirty eight years, which they suppose are meant by many days; but I rather think they came to this mount towards the close of the thirty eight years, before they came to Kadesh, from whence they sent messengers to Edom, which they went round about for several days,





Deuteronomy 2:2



Ver. 2. And the Lord spake unto me,.... While about Mount Seir:



saying; as follows.





Deuteronomy 2:3



Ver. 3. Ye have compassed this mountain long enough,.... It was time to be gone from thence, as from Horeb, De 1:6,



turn you northward; from the southern border of Edom towards the land of Canaan, which lay north. It was from Eziongeber in the land of Edom, from whence the Israelites came to Kadesh, where they sent messengers to the king of Edom, to desire a passage through his land; see Nu 33:36.





Deuteronomy 2:4



Ver. 4. And command thou the people,.... Give them a strict charge:



saying, ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children or Esau: not through the midst of their country, for that the king of Edom would not admit of, but by or on the border of it:



and they shall be afraid of you; lest such a numerous body of people as Israel were should seize upon their country, and dispossess them of it, they having been so long, wanderers in a wilderness near them:



take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore; that they did not take any advantage of their fears, and fall upon them, and do them mischief, or that they did not provoke them to battle and overcome them.





Deuteronomy 2:5



Ver. 5 Meddle not with them,.... Contend not with them in battle, nor provoke them to it:



for I will not give you of their land, no not so much as a foot breadth; or as the sole of a man's foot can tread on, signifying that they should not have the least part of it, not any at all. Jarchi makes mention of an exposition of theirs, that he would give them nothing of it until should come the day of the treading of the sole of the foot in the mount of Olives, Zec 14:4, meaning not till the days of the Messiah, when Edom should be a possession of Israel; see Nu 24:18, Ob 1:19



because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession; and therefore not to be taken away from them; they have a right of inheritance of it; see Ge 36:8.





Deuteronomy 2:6



Ver. 6 Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat,.... That is, if they would, as Aben Ezra observes; for though they had manna daily, yet if they would they might buy other food when they had an opportunity, as they would now have of Edom; but then they were not to take it by force or stealth, but pay for it, which they were able to do. The same writer observes, that some read the words with an interrogation, "shall ye buy meat?" no, there is no need of it; for the Lord had blessed them with a sufficiency of it:



and ye shall also buy water of them for money; that ye may drink; which was usual in those hot countries; See Gill on "Nu 20:19" or dig water {y} that is, pay for digging of wells for water, or buy water out of wells dug in the land of Edom. Jarchi says in maritime places they express buying by this word, and so it is used in the Arabic language;

See Gill on "Ho 3:2".



{y} wrkt "fodietis", Montanus.





Deuteronomy 2:7



Ver. 7. For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thine hands,.... Had increased their cattle and substance, even though in a wilderness:



he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness; every step they took, and he owned them and prospered them in all things in which they were concerned:



these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee: not only to protect and defend them, but to provide all things necessary for them. This number of years was not fully completed, but the round number is given instead of the broken one:



thou hast lacked nothing: and since they had wherewith to pay for their food and drink, they are directed to do it, and not take anything from the Edomites in an unjust way; nor make themselves look poor when they were rich, as Jarchi says.





Deuteronomy 2:8



Ver. 8. And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Self,.... Along their coasts, by the borders of their country:



through the way of the plain; the wilderness of Zin, where Kadesh was:



from Elath and Eziongeber; the two ports on the shore of the Red sea in the land of Edom; it was from the latter they came to Kadesh; see

Nu 33:35. Elath was ten miles from Petra, the metropolis of Edom, to the east of it, as Jerom says {z}; it is by Josephus {a} called Aelana, and by the Septuagint here Ailon; from whence the Elanitic bay has its name; he speaks of it as not far from Eziongeber, which he says was then called Berenice:



we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab; the wilderness which is before Moab, towards the sun rising or the east, Nu 21:11.



{z} De loc. Heb. fol. 91. E. {a} Antiqu. l. 8. c. 6. sect. 4.





Deuteronomy 2:9



Ver. 9. And the Lord said unto me,.... When upon the borders of Moab:



distress not the Moabites, neither contend with than in battle; besiege not any of their cities, nor draw them into a battle, or provoke them to fight:



for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; at least not as yet, the measure of their sins not being fully up, and the time of their punishment not come; otherwise in David's time they were subdued, and became tributaries to him, and the Edomites also, 2Sa 8:2,



because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession; so the Moabites were, they sprung from Moab, a son of Lot by his firstborn daughter, Ge 19:37. Ar was the metropolis of Moab, called Ar of Moab, Isa 15:1 and is here put for the whole country of Moab; so Aben Ezra interprets it of Moab. Jarchi says it is the name of the province; in the Septuagint version it called Aroer.





Deuteronomy 2:10



Ver. 10. The Emims dwelt there in time past,.... We read of them as early as the times of Chedorlaomer, Ge 14:5 when their dwelling was in Kirjathaim, a city which Sihon king of the Amorites took from the Moabites, and which being taken from him, was with others given to the tribe of Reuben, Nu 32:37. These are by some thought to be the same with the Yemim which Anah found and met with in the wilderness, and defeated, which we render "mules", Ge 36:24. They had their name from the fear and terror they put men into because of their gigantic stature and great strength, as follows: it is probable they were the descendants of Ham:



a people great and many, and tall as the Anakims; who were very numerous, of a very bulky size of body, and of high stature, like the giants the spies had seen at Hebron, the sons of Anak, a noted giant there, Nu 13:22.





Deuteronomy 2:11



Ver. 11. Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims,.... Because of their bulky size and tall stature; or,



"the Rephaim were they accounted, even they as the Anakims;''



they were reckoned Rephaim, a name for giants in early times, even as the Anakims were; see Ge 14:5



but the Moabites called them Emims; to distinguish them from the Rephaim; so that it seems this name of Emims was not originally their name, but they are called so by a prolepsis, or anticipation, in

Ge 14:5 since they had it from the Moabites, a people of a later date.





Deuteronomy 2:12



Ver. 12. The Horims also dwelt in Seir before time,.... Which is the name of a mount, and so of the country, from it; so called from Seir the Horite, who dwelt in it before it was possessed by Esau and his sons; but who the Horim or Horites were, from whence they had their name, is difficult to say; they were as early as the times of Chedorlaomer, Ge 14:6. They seem to be so called from their dwelling in holes and caves in rocks, which the southern part of Edom or Idumea was full of, and to be the same the Greeks call Troglodytae:



but the children of Esau succeeded them; Esau and his sons marrying among them, made way for getting the country into their possession, as appears from Ge 36:2 and in which they afterwards settled themselves by the dint of sword, since it follows:



when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; even in Seir where they had dwelt, afterwards called Edom, from one of the names of Esau, Ge 36:8



as Israel did in the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them; because this is said before the Canaanites were drove out of their land, and it was possessed by the Israelites, some think this was written by Ezra, or some other hand; but there is no need to suppose that; Moses, by a spirit of prophecy, and in faith of the promises and prophecies of God relating to this affair, which were just now about to be fulfilled, might write this; besides, it may refer to what was already done to the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites; which had been taken from them, and given to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; and the above instances as well as this may be observed, to encourage the people of Israel that they should succeed in dispossessing the Canaanites, and settling in their land, in like manner as dispossessions of this kind had already been made.





Deuteronomy 2:13



Ver. 13. Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered,.... It is called the valley of Zered, Nu 21:12, the word used signifying both a valley and a brook; and it is very probable there were both a valley and a brook of the same name; it must be near Dibongad, since in one place it is said the Israelites came from Ijim and pitched in Zered; and in another place that they came from thence, and pitched in Dibongad, Nu 21:11 and Nu 33:45



and we went over the brook Zered; which was fordable, or perhaps at this time dried up.





Deuteronomy 2:14



Ver. 14. And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea,.... The space of time; or, "the days" {b}; the number of them:



until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; that is, from the time that the spies were sent and searched the land, and brought a report of it; for they were sent from Kadeshbarnea, Nu 32:8 unto the passage of the Israelites over Zered, were thirty eight years; so long they had been travelling in the wilderness, after they were come to the borders of the land:



until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host; all that were twenty years old and upwards, and fit to go out to war upon occasion, when the people were first numbered after they came out of Egypt; all that generation was now consumed within the above space of time, excepting two, Caleb and Joshua;



as the Lord sware unto them; Nu 14:21.



{b} Mymyhw "et dies", Montanus; "dies autem", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.





Deuteronomy 2:15



Ver. 15. For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them,.... His power was exerted in a way of wrath and vengeance on them, for their murmurings at the report of the spies; and therefore, it is no wonder they were consumed, for strong is his hand, and high is his right hand; and when lifted up it falls heavy, and there is no standing up under it, or against it: it smote them with one disease or another, or brought one judgment or another upon them: as the sword of Amalek, by which many were cut off, and the plague at Shittim in the plains of Moab, in which died 24,000; besides the destruction of Korah and his company, which was quickly after the affair of the spies, and the plague at that time, of which died 14,700; and thus, by one stroke after another, he went on to



destroy them from among the host until they were consumed, even all of them but two, as follows.





Deuteronomy 2:16



Ver. 16. So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed,.... By wasting diseases and judgments of one kind or another:



and dead from among the people; the rising and surviving generation.





Deuteronomy 2:17



Ver. 17. That the Lord spoke unto me,.... At the brook Zered, having passed that, or at Dibongad, which was their next station:



saying; as follows.





Deuteronomy 2:18



Ver. 18. Thou art to pass over through Ar,.... That is, over the river Arnon, by the city Ar of Moab, which was situated by it; see De 2:9 and so Moses and the people of Israel were to pass along by that,



and by the coast of Moab; for they were not admitted to enter the land and pass through it; only to travel on the borders of it, and that they were to begin to do this day; the day the Lord spake to Moses.





Deuteronomy 2:19



Ver. 19. And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon,.... Who dwelt near the Moabites, and were brethren, both descending from Lot, Ge 19:37



distress them not, nor meddle with them: lay no siege to any of their cities, nor provoke them to war, nor engage in battle with them:



for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; that is, any part of it which was now in their hands; otherwise half their land was given to the tribe of Gad; but then that was what Sihon king of the Amorites had taken from them, and which Israel retook from him, and so possessed it not as the land of the Ammonites, but of the Amorites, one of the seven nations, whose land they were to inherit; see Jos 13:25,



because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession; the Ammonites were the children of Lot by his second daughter, Ge 19:38.





Deuteronomy 2:20



Ver. 20. That also was accounted a land of giants,.... Ammon was so reckoned as well as Moab, De 2:10



giants dwelt therein in old time; the Rephaim dwelt there, as they did also in Ashteroth Karnaim, Ge 14:5



and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; they are thought to be the same with the Zuzims in Ge 14:5 who had their name, as Hillerus {c} thinks, from Mezuzah, a door post, from their tall stature, being as high as one; and for a like reason Saph the giant might have his name, 2Sa 21:18. The word Zamzummims, according to him {d}, signifies contrivers of evil and terrible things; they were inventors of wickedness, crafty and subtle in forming wicked and mischievous designs, which struck terror into people, and made them formidable to them.



{c} Onomastic. Sacr. p. 158, 288, 289. {d} Onomastic. Sacr. p. 161, 310, 428.





Deuteronomy 2:21



Ver. 21. A people great and many, and tall as the Anakims,.... As the Emims were, De 2:10 but the Lord destroyed them before them; destroyed the Zamzummims before the children of Amman; or otherwise they would have been an too much for them, being so numerous, and of such a gigantic stature:



and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead; and in this way, and by these means, he gave them their land for a possession, De 2:19.





Deuteronomy 2:22



Ver. 22. As he did to the children of Esau which dwelt in Seir,.... He did the like things for them as he did for the Ammonites:



when he destroyed the Horims from before them: which is repeated from De 2:12, other instances of the like kind being here recited:



and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead, even unto this day;

See Gill on "De 2:12".





Deuteronomy 2:23



Ver. 23. And the Avim, which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah,.... The same with the Avites, who appear to have inhabited some part of the land of the Philistines, in which Azzah or Gaza was, which was one of the five lordships of the Philistines, Jos 13:3. The word Hazerim signifies courts, and a learned man {e} interprets it of tents or huts placed in a square or circular form, so as to have an area in the middle; and in such the Avim may be supposed to dwell, while in Palestine, as far as Gaza:



the Caphtorim, which came from out of Caphtor, destroyed them; according to the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, these were Cappadocians, that came out of Cappadocia; but it seems manifest that they were originally of Egypt, see Ge 10:14 and Bochart {f} thinks they went from thence into that part of Cappadocia that was near Colchis; but things not answering their expectations, they returned, and drove out the Avim from their country:



and dwelt in their stead; See Gill on "Jer 47:4" see Gill on "Am 9:7". Though it seems as if they were not utterly destroyed, but some escaped into Assyria, and settled there, where was a place called Ava from them; and from whence they were sent by the king of Assyria to repeople the cities of Samaria, after the captivity of the ten tribes; see 2Ki 17:24. Now these several instances are observed to encourage the children of Israel to hope and believe that they should be able to dispossess the Canaanites, and inherit their land; such dispossessions having been very frequent, when it was the will of God they should take place.



{e} Clayton's Chronology of the Hebrew Bible, p. 65. {f} Phaleg. l. 4. c. 32. col. 291, 292.





Deuteronomy 2:24



Ver. 24. Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon,.... Which was on the border of Moab, and divided between Moab and the Amorites, Nu 21:13



behold, I have given into thy hand Sihon, the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; that is, he had determined to give it to the Israelites, for as yet it was not actually given; of this king, and the place he was king of, See Gill on "Nu 21:21 see Gill on "Nu 21:26" begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle; provoke him to war, fight with him, take his land from him, and enter upon the possession of it, hereby assuring of victory.





Deuteronomy 2:25



Ver. 25. This day will I begin to put the dread of thee,.... And so fulfil the prophecies delivered by Moses in Ex 15:14



and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven; not only the neighbouring nations, the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, and Canaanites, but nations more remote even throughout the whole world:



who shall report of thee; of what was done for Israel in Egypt, and at the Red sea, and in the wilderness; and particularly of the delivery of Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and of their kingdoms into their hands:



and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee; lest they should proceed on, and make conquests of their lands also; see Jos 2:9.





Deuteronomy 2:26



Ver. 26. And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth,.... A city in the tribe of Reuben, and given by them to the Levites in later times, having been taken from the Amorites with others; near this lay a wilderness, which took its name from it, and seems to be the same with Jeshimon, Nu 21:20. Aben Ezra takes it to be the wilderness of Matthanah, which according to Jerom {g} was situated on Arnon, twelve miles to the east of Medeba; see

Nu 21:18 from hence messengers were sent by Moses,



unto Sihon king of Heshbon, with words of peace; in a peaceable and respectful manner, desiring to be at peace and in friendship with him, and a continuance of it, which was done to leave him inexcusable; as afterwards a like method was ordered to be taken, when they came to any city, to proclaim peace, and if an answer of peace was given, no hostilities were to be committed, De 20:10,



saying; as follows.



{g} De loc. Heb. fol. 93. C.





Deuteronomy 2:27



Ver. 27. Let me pass through thy land,.... See Gill on "Nu 21:22",



I will go along by the highway; the king's highway, as in the place referred to, the public road:



I will neither turn to the right hand nor to the left; to go into his fields and vineyards, and gather the fruit, or tread down the corn and vines, or do any manner of mischief to them; see the above place.





Deuteronomy 2:28



Ver. 28. Thou shalt sell me meat for money, that I may eat,.... If they thought fit to have provision of them, they desired no other but to pay for it:



and give me water for money, that I may drink; see De 2:6,



only I will pass through on my feet; for they were all footmen, Nu 11:21, of the phrase,

See Gill on "Nu 20:19".





Deuteronomy 2:29



Ver. 29. As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did unto me,.... Which respects, as Jarchi observes, not the affair of passing through their land requested, for neither of them granted that, but buying food and drink; for though the Edomites at first seem not to have granted that, yet afterwards they did. The mountain of Seir, and the city Ar, are put for the whole countries of Edom and Moab:



until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the Lord our God giveth us; this is observed to remove any suspicion or jealousy of their seizing his country, and taking possession of it, and dwelling in it; since they only proposed to pass through it on their journey to the land of Canaan, which lay on the other side Jordan, over which they must pass in order to possess it, which they had a right unto by the gift of God.





Deuteronomy 2:30



Ver. 30. But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him,.... Or through his country, as was desired:



for the Lord had hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate; as he did Pharaoh's, for whom he will he hardens; so that he would not listen to the proposals made to him, nor grant the requests asked of him, but with pride and haughtiness of spirit despised and disdained Israel:



that he might deliver him into thine hand; that so an opportunity might offer of fighting with him, and taking his country from him; whereas, had he been peaceable and flexible, he had continued in the enjoyment of his land, and Israel would not have had that advantage against him; but God, who has the hearts of kings and of all men in his hands, so wrought upon him that he should take the steps he did, which made way for the delivery of him and his country into the hands of the Israelites:



as appeareth this day: for when Moses made this speech, the kingdom of Sihon was possessed by the Israelites, Nu 21:24.





Deuteronomy 2:31



Ver. 31. And the Lord said unto me,.... After or about the time when the messengers were sent to Sihon, perhaps when they had returned and had brought his answer:



behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee; by hardening his heart, which was a sure token of his ruin, and a leading step to the delivery of him into the hands of Israel:



begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his land; move towards it and enter into it, not fearing any opposition made by him.





Deuteronomy 2:32



Ver. 32. Then Sihon came out against us,.... Perceiving they were upon their march towards his land or into it, he gathered all his people and went out of Heshbon their capital city, where he resided:



he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz; a city which he had taken from the king of Moab, and which in later times, after the captivity of the ten tribes, came into their hands again, Isa 15:4,

See Gill on "Nu 21:21".





Deuteronomy 2:33



Ver. 33. And the Lord our God delivered him before us,.... With their lands:



and we smote him and his sons, and all his people; with the edge of the sword; slew them all: the Cetib or textual reading is "his son", though the Keri or margin is "his sons", which we follow. So Jarchi observes, it is written "his son", because he had a son mighty as himself, he says.





Deuteronomy 2:34



Ver. 34. And we took all his cities at that time,.... As Heshbon, and others mentioned in Nu 21:25,



and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones of every city, we left none to remain; for the Amorites were one of the seven nations who were devoted to destruction, the measure of whose iniquity was now full, and therefore vengeance was taken.





Deuteronomy 2:35



Ver. 35. Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves,.... These they did not destroy, but preserved alive for their own use and profit, and took them as their own property:



and the spoil of the cities which we took; as household goods, gold, silver, and whatever valuable was found by them; this they took as plunder, and shared it among themselves.





Deuteronomy 2:36



Ver. 36. From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river Arnon.... Upon the border of Moab, and the principal city of it; see Jer 48:19



and from the city that is by the river; or even the city that is in the midst of the river, the city Aroer, which seems to be meant; see

Jos 12:2. This river is afterwards called the river of Gad, 2Sa 24:5 in the midst of it Aroer was, perhaps because it was possessed by the tribe of Gad:



even unto Gilead; Mount Gilead and the country adjacent to it, which belonged to Og king of Bashan:



there was not one city too strong for us; that could hold out against them, when attacked and besieged by them, but presently surrendered:



the Lord our God delivered all unto us; Moses ascribes all the victories and success they had unto the Lord, not to their own might and power, but to the power of God with them, and his blessing on them.





Deuteronomy 2:37



Ver. 37. Only unto the land of the children of Ammon thou camest not,.... Which was then in their possession; otherwise what Sihon had took away from them, that the children of Israel came into and enjoyed, as before observed, De 2:19



nor unto any place of the river Jabbok; any town or city situated on this river, which was the border of the children of Ammon, De 3:16,

See Gill on "Ge 32:22",



nor unto the cities in the mountains; much less did they penetrate into the innermost parts of their country, the mountainous part thereof, and the cities there:



nor unto whatsoever the Lord our God forbad us: whether in Edom, Moab, or Ammon, particularly the latter, of which he is more especially and peculiarly speaking.

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

Deuteronomy 3:1



INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 3



In this chapter the account is carried on of the conquest of the Amorites by Israel, of Og king of Bashan, and his kingdom, De 3:1, and of the distribution of their country to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, De 1:12 and then the command to the said tribes is observed, to go out armed before their brethren, and assist them in the conquest of the land of Canaan, and then return to their possessions, De 3:18 and also that to Joshua not to fear, but to do to the Canaanitish kings and kingdoms what he had seen done to the two kings of the Amorites, De 3:21. After which Moses relates the request he made, to go over Jordan and see the good land, which was denied him, only he is bidden to look from the top of an hill to see it, De 3:23. And the chapter is closed with the charge he was to give Joshua, De 3:28 which was received in the valley where they abode, De 3:29.



Ver. 1. Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan,.... Which seems to have been higher than the kingdom of Sihon: this was a fine country for pasturage, for the breeding of cattle, larger and lesser, and was famous for its oaks: it is the same country which in Josephus and others goes by the name of Batanea:



and Og the king of Bashan came out against us; got his forces together, and came out from Ashteroth, the royal city where he dwelt:



he and all his people, to battle at Edrei; another city in his kingdom, about six miles from the former; see De 1:4.





Deuteronomy 3:2



Ver. 2. And the Lord said unto me,.... When Og was marching with all his forces against Israel:



fear him not, &c; See Gill on "Nu 21:34".





Deuteronomy 3:3



Ver. 3. So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also the king of Bashan, and all his people,.... As well as Sihon king of Heshbon:



and we smote him, till none was left to him remaining; or left alive, all were slain with the sword; See Gill on "Nu 21:35".





Deuteronomy 3:4



Ver. 4. And we took all his cities at that time,.... Not only Edrei where the battle was fought, and Ashteroth his capital city, but all the rest in his kingdom:



there was not a city which we took not from them; not one stood out, but all surrendered on summons; the number of which follows:



three score cities; which was a large number for so small a country, and shows it to be well inhabited:



all the region of Argob; which was a small province of



the kingdom of Og in Bashan: Aben Ezra and Jarchi observe, that it was called after a man, i.e. whose name was Argob; the Targum of Onkelos names it Tracona, and the Targum of Jonathan Targona, the same with Trachonitis in Josephus and other authors; see Lu 3:1, Jerom relates {h} that in his time, about Gerasa, a city of Arabia, fifteen miles from it to the west, there was a village which was called Arga, which seems to carry in it some remains of the ancient name of this country; and the Samaritan version, in all places where Argob is, calls it Rigobaah; and in the Misnah {i} mention is made of a place called Ragab, beyond Jordan, famous for its being the second place for the best oil.



{h} De loc. Heb. fol. 87. M. {i} Misn. Menachot, c. 8. sect. 3.





Deuteronomy 3:5



Ver. 5. All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars,.... That is, all the cities in the kingdom of Bashan; and though they were, it hindered not their falling into the hands of the Israelites; and this might serve to encourage them against those fears they were possessed of by the spies, with respect to the cities in the land of Canaan; see Nu 13:28



besides unwalled towns a great many; small towns and villages adjacent to the several cities, as is common.





Deuteronomy 3:6



Ver. 6. And we utterly destroyed them,.... Not the cities, but the inhabitants of them:



as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon; they did not destroy his cities, for they took them and dwelt in them; but the people that lived there, as follows here:



utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city; see De 2:34.





Deuteronomy 3:7



Ver. 7. But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities,.... The oxen and sheep, camels and asses; their gold and silver, and the furniture of their houses; their stores of corn, and of other fruits of the earth, even all their substance of whatsoever kind:



we took for a prey to ourselves; made them their own property, and used them for their own profit and service, whereby they became greatly enriched.





Deuteronomy 3:8



Ver. 8. And we took at that time out of the hands of the two kings of the Amorites,.... Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan;



the land that [was] on this side Jordan; where Moses then was, being in the plains of Moab, and was the country beyond Jordan, with respect to the land of Canaan, and when in that:



from the river of Arnon unto Mount Hermon; Arnon was a river which divided Moab and the Amorites, Nu 22:13 and Hermon was a mountain of Gilead, which ended where Lebanon began, and was the northerly border of this country. It was remarkable for the dew that fell on it;

See Gill on "Ps 133:3".





Deuteronomy 3:9



Ver. 9. Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion,.... Which name it has in Ps 29:6 a name the inhabitants of Sidon gave it, but for what reason it is not easy to say; however, that it was well known to Tyre and Sidon, appears from snow in summer time being brought to the former, as will be hereafter observed:



and the Amorites call it Shenir; in whose possession it was last. Bochart {k} thinks it had its name from the multitude of wild cats in it, Shunar in the Chaldee tongue being the name of that creature; but Jarchi says Shenir in the Canaanitish language signifies "snow"; so, in the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, it is called the mountain of snow; and the Hebrew who read to Jerom, and taught him, affirmed to him that this mountain hung over Paneas, from whence snow in summer time was brought to Tyre for pleasure {l}, and the same is confirmed by Abulfeda {m}. There is said to be upon the top of it a famous temple, which is used for worship by the Heathens, over against Paneas and Lebanon {n}; and it is highly probable there was one even at this time, when it was possessed by the Amorites, since it is called Mount Baalhermon, Jud 3:3, from the worship of Baal, or some other idol upon it, as it should seem. Besides these, it had another name, Mount Sion, De 4:48 but to be distinguished from Mount Zion near Jerusalem. The names of it in this place are very differently interpreted by Hillerus {o}; though he thinks it had them all on account of the snow on it, which was as a net all over it; for Hermon, he observes, signifies a net, a dragnet, and Shenir an apron, and Sirion a coat of mail, all from the covering of this mount with snow.



{k} Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 3. c. 14. col. 865. {l} De loc. Heb. fol. 88. B, C. {m} Apud Reland. Palestin. Illustrat. par. 2. p. 920. {n} De loc. Heb. fol. 88. B, C. {o} Onomastic. Sacr. p. 561, 562, 786, 929.





Deuteronomy 3:10



Ver. 10. All the cities of the plain,.... There was a plain by Medeba, and Heshbon and her cities were in a plain, with some others given to the tribe of Reuben, Jos 13:16



and all Gilead; Mount Gilead, and the cities belonging to it, a very fruitful country, half of which fell to the share of the Reubenites, and the rest to the half tribe of Manasseh:



and all Bashan; of which Og was king, called Batanea, a very fertile country, as before observed:



unto Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan; which seem to be frontier cities of the latter: see De 1:4. The former, Adrichomius {p} says, was situated by the city Geshur and Mount Hermon, and was the boundary of the country of Bashan to the north; and according to Benjamin of Tudela {q}, it was half a day's journey from Gilead: as Edrei seems to be its boundary to the south.



{p} Thestrum Terrae Sanct. p. 94. {q} Itinerar. p. 57.





Deuteronomy 3:11



Ver. 11. For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants,.... The meaning seems to be, either that he was the only one that was left of the race of the giants the Ammonites found when they took possession of this country, De 2:20 or that was left when the Amorites took it from the Ammonites; and who having by some means or other ingratiated himself into their affections, because of his stature, strength, and courage, and other qualifications they might discern in him, made him their king:



behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron: his body being so large and bulky, he might think it most proper and safest for him to have a bedstead made of iron to lie upon, or to prevent noxious insects harbouring in it; nor was it unusual to have bedsteads made of other materials than wood, as of gold, silver, and ivory;

See Gill on "Am 6:4". Some learned men {r} have been of opinion, that the beds of Typho in Syria, made mention of by Homer {s}, refer to this bedstead of Og:



is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? which was the royal city of the Ammonites, in the times of David, 2Sa 12:26, now called Philadelphia, as Jerom says {t}. This bedstead might be either sent thither by Og, before the battle at Edrei, for safety, or rather might be sold by the Israelites to the inhabitants of Rabbath, who kept it, as a great curiosity:



nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man; a common cubit, so that it was four yards and a half long, and two yards broad. Onkelos renders it, after the king's cubit; and the king's cubit at Babylon, according to Herodotus {u}, was larger by three fingers than the common one; such as the cubit in

Eze 40:5, which was a cubit and an hand's breadth; and this makes the dimensions of the bedstead yet larger. And by this judgment may be made of the tallness of Og's stature, though this is not always a sure rule to go by; for Alexander, when in India, ordered his soldiers to make beds of five cubits long, to be left behind them, that they might be thought to be larger men than they were, as Diodorus Siculus {w} and Curtius {x} relate; but there is little reason to believe that Og's bedstead was made with such a view. Maimonides observes {y}, that a bed in common is a third part larger than a man; so that Og, according to this way of reckoning, was six cubits high, and his stature doubly larger than a common man's; but less than a third part may well be allowed to a bed, which will make him taller still; the height of Og is reckoned by Wolfius {z} to be about thirteen feet eleven inches of Paris measure.



{r} Vid. Dickinson. Delph. Phaenieizant. c. 2. p. 12. {s} Iliad. z. {t} De loc. Heb. fol. 94. C. {u} Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 175. {w} Bibliothec. l. 17. p. 563. {x} Hist. l. 9. c. 3. {y} Moreh Nevochim, par. 2. c. 47. p. 325. {z} Apud Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 3. p. 401.





Deuteronomy 3:12



Ver. 12. And this land, which we possessed at that time,.... Or took possession of, having conquered it; for it still remained in their possession:



from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon: on the borders of Moab, from thence as far as Gilead was the land which was taken from Sihon king of Heshbon, De 2:36



and half Mount Gilead, and the cities thereof: which were taken from Og king of Bashan, De 3:10



gave I unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites; at their request, on certain conditions to be performed by them, afterwards repeated.





Deuteronomy 3:13



Ver. 13. And the rest of Gilead,.... The other half of the mount, with the cities belonging to it:



and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; see Nu 32:33



all the region of Argob, with all Bashan; the region of Trachonitis, in Bashan; see De 3:4,



which was called the land of giants; or of Rephaim; this Jarchi says is the country of the Rephaim given to Abraham, Ge 15:20.





Deuteronomy 3:14



Ver. 14. Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob,.... Or Trachonitis; the small towns belonging to Gilead, as in Nu 32:41



unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; these were little kingdoms in Syria, on which the country of Argob bordered, and had kings over them in the time of David, and came not into the possession of the Israelites; see Jos 13:13



and called them after his own name, Bashanhavothjair, unto this day; see Nu 32:41.





Deuteronomy 3:15



Ver. 15. And I gave Gilead unto Machir. The son of Manasseh; not to him personally, who cannot be thought to have been living at this time, but to his posterity, to the Machirites; see Nu 32:40.





Deuteronomy 3:16



Ver. 16. And unto the Reubenites, and unto the Gadites,.... The tribes of Reuben and Gad:



I gave from Gilead even unto the river Arnon: see De 3:12



half the valley and the border; or rather half the river, the river Arnon; and so it is rendered "the middle of the river", in Jos 12:2 and so here the middle of the torrent by the Vulgate Latin and Septuagint versions, and by Onkelos:



even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon; beyond which the land given to the tribes of Reuben and Gad reached not; see De 2:37.





Deuteronomy 3:17



Ver. 17. The plain also, and Jordan,.... The plain by Jordan, the plains of Moab on the side of it, together with the river:



and the coast thereof; the country adjoining to it:



from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, [even] the salt sea; that is, from Gennesaret, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, called the land of Gennesaret, Mt 14:34, from thence to the sea of Sodom, the sea of the plain, where the cities of the plain stood, Sodom, Gomorrah, &c. and the salt sea, so called from the salt and nitrous waters of it, the lake Asphaltites:



under Ashdothpisgah eastward; mentioned among the cities given to the tribe of Reuben, Jos 13:20 rendered "the springs of Pisgah", De 4:49, the word having the signification of effusions, pourings out; so the Targums.





Deuteronomy 3:18



Ver. 18. And I commanded you at that time,.... Not all Israel, but the tribes of Reuben and God, and the half tribe of Manasseh; for what follows only concerns them:



saying, the Lord your God hath given you this land to possess it; the land before described, lately in the hands of Sihon and Og; this at their request Moses gave them, by the direction of the Lord, on the following condition:



you shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all [that] are meet for the war; that is, they should pass over Jordan with the rest of the tribes, being armed to assist them in the conquest of Canaan: for this phrase, which we render "before your brethren", does not signify that they went in the forefront of them, only that they were present with them, and joined them in their war against their enemies; see Nu 32:29 and therefore should be rendered "with your brethren" {a}; even as many of them as were able to bear arms, at least as many as Joshua would choose to take of them; for he did not take them all by a great many; see Jos 4:13.



{a} Mkyxa ynpl "cum fratribus vestris", Noldius, p. 531, No. 1492.





Deuteronomy 3:19



Ver. 19. But your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle,.... These were to be left behind: for



I know that ye have much cattle; which made the countries of Gilead and Bashan, so famous for pasturage, agreeable to them; see Nu 32:1 these, under the care of servants, and also their wives and children,



shall abide in your cities which I have given you; and which they rebuilt and repaired, Nu 32:34.





Deuteronomy 3:20



Ver. 20. Until the Lord have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you,.... Rest from their enemies, and habitations to dwell quietly in; so the land of Canaan is called a rest, De 12:9 typical of the rest which remains for the people of God:



and until they also possess the land which the Lord your God hath given them beyond Jordan; for so Canaan was with respect to Moses and the people with him, who were then in the plains of Moab; otherwise the country in which he was with respect to Canaan is usually called beyond Jordan; this the Lord had given in promise to Israel, and they were just now ready to enter into and possess it, by virtue of his gift, and which made it sure unto them:



and then shall ye return every man unto his possession, which I have given you; as accordingly they did, Jos 22:1.





Deuteronomy 3:21



Ver. 21. And I commanded Joshua at that time,.... After the conquest of the two kings, and the assignment of their countries to the above tribes; and after Moses had it made known to him that he should quickly die, and Joshua should be his successor; then, by the direction of God, he gave him the following charge:



saying, thine eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto these two kings; Sihon and Og; how their kingdoms were taken from them, and given to Israel, and they slain with the sword; this Joshua was an eyewitness of, and was, no doubt, greatly concerned in the battles with them, being the general in the Israelitish armies; at least this was sometimes his post, and he cannot be thought to have been unemployed in these wars:



so shall the Lord do unto all the kingdoms whither thou passest; all the kingdoms in the land of Canaan, where there were many, thirty one at least; these would be all conquered and put into the hands of the Israelites, and their kings slain.





Deuteronomy 3:22



Ver. 22. Ye shall not fear them,.... On account of the numbers, strength, courage, and gigantic stature of the inhabitants, at least some of them; nor on account of their walled towns, and fortified cities:



for the Lord your God he shall fight for you; as he did, particularly at Jericho, the walls of which city fell at the sound of rams' horns; and at Gibeon, when he cast down hailstones on their enemies, and more were slain by them than with the sword; and in all their battles it was he that gave them success and victory.





Deuteronomy 3:23



Ver. 23. And I besought the Lord at that time,.... When he was told he should die, and Joshua should succeed him; or when the two kings were slain, and their kingdoms conquered; this being the beginning, pledge, and earnest of what God had promised to do for the people of Israel; Moses was very desirous of living to see the work completed, and therefore sought the Lord by prayer and supplication:



saying; as follows.





Deuteronomy 3:24



Ver. 24. O Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand,.... To give a specimen of the greatness of his power in subduing the two kings and their kingdoms, and delivering them up into the hands of the Israelites. Moses had seen instances of the mighty power of God in Egypt, at the Red sea, and in the wilderness; but this was the beginning of his power, in vanquishing the Canaanites, and putting their land into the possession of the Israelites, as he had promised; of which the Amorites were a part, and a principal nation of them: and thus God, when he begins a work of grace upon the soul of man, begins to show the exceeding greatness of his power, and which is further exerted in carrying it on, and bringing it to perfection:



for what God is there in heaven or in earth that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? here Moses speaks according to the notion of Heathens, who supposed there were other gods in heaven and in earth besides the true God; and upon this supposition observes, let there be as many as they will, or can be imagined, there is none of them like the Lord God of Israel for power and might; or are able to do such works as he has done, in nature, in the creation of all things out of nothing, in providence, in supporting what he has made, and in governing the world; and in those amazing instances of his power, in bringing down judgments upon wicked men, kings, and kingdoms; and in the deliverance of his own people from them, and putting them and their kingdoms into the possession of them; which were the wondrous works of might Moses had in view, and a sense of which was impressed on his mind at this time.





Deuteronomy 3:25



Ver. 25. I pray thee, let me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan,.... The land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey; a land which he describes as a most excellent one, De 8:7. To see this land, he was very desirous of going over the river Jordan, beyond which it lay with respect to the place where he now was:



that goodly mountain, and Lebanon; or, "that goodly mountain, even Lebanon"; which lay to the north of the land of Canaan, and was famous for cedar and odoriferous trees. But if two distinct mountains are meant, the goodly mountain may design Mount Moriah, on which the temple was afterwards built, and of which Moses might have a foresight; and some by Lebanon think that is meant, which was built of the cedars of Lebanon, and therefore goes by that name, Zec 11:1 and a foreview of this made the mountain so precious to Moses, and desirable to be seen by him. So the Targum of Jonathan;



"that goodly mountain in which is built the city of Jerusalem, and Mount Lebanon, in which the Shechinah shall dwell''



to which agrees the note of Aben Ezra, who interprets the goodly mountain of Jerusalem, and Lebanon of the house of the sanctuary. In the Septuagint it is called Antilibanus. Mount Libanus had its name not from frankincense growing upon it, as some have thought; for it does not appear that any did grow upon it, for that came from Seba in Arabia Felix; but from the whiteness of it, through the continual snows that were on it, just as the Alps have their name for the same reason; and so Jerom says {b} of Lebanon, that the snow never leaves from the tops of it, or is ever so overcome by the heat of the sun as wholly to melt; to the same purpose also Tacitus {c} says, and Mr. Maundrell {d}, who was there in May, speaks of deep snow on it, and represents the cedars as standing in snow.



{b} In Hieremiam, c. 18. 14. {c} Hist. l. 5. c. 6. {d} Journey from Aleppo, p. 139, 140.





Deuteronomy 3:26



Ver. 26. But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes,.... Not at this time, and for this prayer of his, but on account of he and Aaron not sanctifying him at the waters of Meribah; or of some expressions of unbelief, and unadvised words, which dropped from his lips through their provocation of him; see Nu 20:12



and would not hear me; now, and grant the above request, having before declared that he and Aaron should not bring the people of Israel into the land he had given them; and Moses with all his entreaties could not prevail upon him to repeal the sentence:



and the Lord said unto me, let it suffice; that he had seen the conquest of the two kings, and the delivery of their kingdoms into the hands of Israel; and that he had brought the people through the wilderness to the borders of the land of Canaan, and that he should have a distant sight of the land, as after directed:



speak no more unto me of this matter; intimating it would be in vain, and to no purpose, to solicit such a favour, since it would never be granted; it was a determined point, and he would never recede from it.





Deuteronomy 3:27



Ver. 27. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah,.... Which was the highest eminence of Mount Nebo, and so a very proper place to take a prospect from; see De 32:49



and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward; to all the four points of the heaven, and to all the four quarters and borders of the land of Canaan:



and behold it with thine eyes; even the land of Canaan, and particularly Lebanon, though it lay to the north of it, that mountain he had such a desire to see. Moses, though old, his natural sight was very strong, and not in the least dim; and it is not improbable that it might be more than ordinarily increased and assisted at this time:



for thou shall not go over this Jordan; into the land of Canaan; this affair, of not being suffered to enter there, Moses frequently takes notice of, no less than four or five times, it being what lay near his heart.





Deuteronomy 3:28



Ver. 28. But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him,.... Charge him to take the care of the children of Israel, to introduce them into the good land, and put them into the possession of it; encourage him against all fear of his and their enemies, and strengthen him with promises of the presence of God, and of his gracious help and assistance:



for he shall go over before this people; over the river Jordan, at the head of them, as their leader and commander; a type of Christ, the leader and commander of his people, who as their King goes forth at the head of them, and will introduce them all into his Father's kingdom and glory:



and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see; and no more; not enter into, but Joshua should; and having conquered it, should divide it by lot for an inheritance to them, and their children after them; a type of Christ, in whom and by whom the saints obtain an inheritance by lot, Eph 1:11.





Deuteronomy 3:29



Ver. 29. So we abode in the valley over against Bethpeor. In the plains of Moab, over against a temple built for Baalpeor upon a mountain, so called from that idol, or that idol from the mountain; this is the valley where Moses was buried, De 34:6.

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

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