Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 1:28
Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people [is] greater and taller than we; the cities [are] great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.
28. Whither are we going up? ] That is, to what kind of a land or a fate? In the Hex. the Heb. prep is used only of place by JE and D, only of time by P.
made our heart to melt ] In the Hex. the phrase either thus or with the intrans. form of the verb is found only here, Deu 20:8, and in the deuteronomic Jos 2:11; Jos 5:1.
greater and taller ] Sam. and LXX greater and more numerous, J, Num 13:28; Num 13:31, strong stronger than we; E id. 33, we were in our own sight as grasshoppers; P, id. 32, men of great stature.
cities ] So Sam.; LXX and cities.
great and fenced up to heaven ] So Deu 9:1; J, Num 13:28, fenced, very great. The presumably pre-Israelite walls of two cities have been excavated: Lachish (Bliss, A Mound of Many Cities, 27 ff.) and Gezer (Macalister, Bible Side Lights from Gezer, 141 ff.). Each is about 14 ft thick; the latter (a little later than 1450 b.c.) still in parts from 10 to 14 ft. high ‘can hardly be regarded as much more than the underground foundations.’ If, as is usually reckoned, the thickness was from to of the height this wall was from 21 to 42 ft, its impressive-ness increased by the scarps and slopes from which it rose and by the towers that crowned it. Sellin has laid bare in Jericho a ‘cyclopean’ outer stone wall 5 m. (16.4 ft), crowned by a brick wall 2 m. thick and 6 or 8 m. (19 to 26 ft) high. So that up to heaven, the height at which birds fly, is hardly an exaggeration.
Emerging from the desert, Israel were startled by two facts which still startle the tent-dwelling nomads the walls of cities and the stature of the settled inhabitants. No Arab enters without fear a walled city for the first time, nor willingly passes the night there. Egyptian bas-reliefs and paintings distinguish the ampler figures of settled Syrians from the lean and meagre desert Arabs. To-day, as the present writer has frequently noticed, the same difference of average stature is obvious between the two classes. Cp. Burton ( Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Mecca, ii. 83, mem. ed.) on the short stature of the Arabs of the Hiaz. The cause of this is the difference in nutriment (Doughty, Ar. Des. passim, Musil, Ar. Petr. iii.). That early Israel felt these two impressions is one of many indications that they belonged to the nomad or Arab type of Semite. So far we are in the region of fact.
sons of the Anakim ] Heb. without the art. as in Deu 9:2 a; but sons of the ‘A. Deu 2:11; sons of ‘ A nak, Deu 9:2 b; J, Num 13:28, children of ( y e ld, Scot. ‘bairns’) the ‘ A nak; cp. 22, 33. Both forms in Jos 15:14. The Ar. ‘anaa is ‘to overtop,’ ‘ un, ‘neck,’ and in plur. ‘outstanding men,’ a‘na, ‘long-necked,’ ‘tall’ (‘ana, a mythical beast, Wellh. Reste, 158, 216). In Jos 15:13; Jos 22:11 (P or edit.) ‘ A na has become the name of the ancestor of the ‘ A naim (cp. LXX mother-city of the ‘A., which shows how the personification arose). The root still occurs in place names ‘Ain ‘Ene, S. of Ma‘n, and Jebel ‘Enei, S. of ‘Ain udeis, due perhaps to the shape of the ground. E, Num 13:33, has there we have seen the N e philim (to which an edit. hand has added sons of ‘Ana which come from the N.) who in Gen 6:4 are said to be sprung from the sons of God and daughters of men, mighty men (LXX giants) of old, men of renown. LXX also render N. Giants, and Nephla was the Aram. name for Orion, Giant par excellence. A note, Deu 2:11 (below), connects the ‘Anam with another racial name, R e pha’m, of whom ‘g, of the great sarcophagus, was one of the last, Deu 3:11. R. is also the name in later Heb. literature for shades or ghosts of the dead, as if flaccid or powerless. Applied to an aboriginal race of giants (cp. the allied collective form The Raphah, 2Sa 21:16) it may have meant either the exhausted and vanishing or the shadowy race, or perhaps limp and flaccid, in derision of the notorious flabbiness of monstrously tall men. LXX render R. by giants or Titans ( Gen 14:5 ; 2Sa 5:15, etc.).
Note on the Giants. The O.T. associates this vanishing race of giants with the neighbourhood of Hebron and the E. of Jordan, where structures of huge stones abound, and individual giants are said to have lived in the time of David. The latter notices are perfectly credible; single giants being then as possible as they have been at all other periods. The present writer saw in the asylum at Asfuriyeh a Syrian of unusual height, who was born with six fingers on each hand like the giant in 2Sa 21:20. But the question of gigantic races in primitive ages vanishing before historic man must be judged in the light of the following. First, stories of such giant races are universal, e.g. among the Babylonians (Jeremias, Das A. T. im Lichte des alten Orients, 76, 120 f., 359), Phoenicians (Eusebius, Praep. Evang. i. 10 from Philo Bybl.), Greeks (the stories of Titans and Cyclopes), the nations of N. Europe, modern Arabs and Syrians (Thomson, Land and Book, 586 f.; Doughty, Ar. Des. i. 22). Second, many of these traditions are associated with remains of cyclopean masonry, and have obviously arisen in order to account for these, the giant races being nearly always described as builders; moreover the giants are generally derived by birth from the gods. Third, though stories have been current from time to time of the discovery of monstrous human skeletons and bones, e g. Plutarch, Pliny and even as late as Buffon, yet where it has been possible to test these the bones have been recognised as those of elephants, mastodons, etc.; while the discovered remains of pre-historic man show generally a stature under the average; this is also true of Mr Macalister’s finds of pre-Semitic remains in Gezer (the sole exception seems to be the average of the Cro-Magnon remains and this is only 5.839 feet). Fourth, the Hebrew tradition of a giant race exhibits the features already noted in such stories elsewhere: the race has disappeared, its memory is connected with cyclopean remains, it is said to have descended from the union of divine and human beings. These marks, along with the mythical names given to the race, Nephlm and Repha’m, make it clear that, like its analogies among other peoples, Israel’s tradition of a primitive race of giants is borrowed from an imaginative folk-lore.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Deu 1:28
Our brethren have discouraged our heart.
Do not be discouraged
To be discouraged is to lose ones energy and vitality. When a man is discouraged he is of no use; his power has gone out of him. Courage is a large and noble quality, and necessary in all the relations of life. It is not merely shown in the boldness which confronts danger and is self-possessed in peril. It also is needed to face other difficulties promptly, to do ones duty cheerfully when the hope of success is small; to stand alone for the truth and right; not to be discouraged by disappointment, nor by the censures and reproofs of the hostile, nor by the indifference of the unsympathising. In short, courage is the quality which is opposed to all discouragement. No wonder people admire courage. It is indispensable to nobleness of life. How much courage some men and women display in taking on themselves new responsibilities, in going promptly to perform untried and difficult duties, in keeping up the struggle of life amid many discouragements. Courage is a virtue needed by women no less than by men. How many poor women there are who work on to support their families, rising early and going late to bed, and eating the bread of care. They keep their children tidy and neat, keep them at school, exhaust every contrivance to maintain themselves, try every possible means of overcoming the daily difficulties of life, and so hold on, year after year, when strong men might have been discouraged and have given up. I think as much heroism is shown every day in such ways as by the soldiers who hold an important position in a battle against overwhelming odds. There is no more important work in this world, no greater duty, than to help others to keep up their courage. He is our best friend whoso words of cheerful confidence give more life to our heart, and he is our enemy who by his words of doubt and his spirit of fear saps this ardour, and takes from us our courage. And yet how many there are whoso habit it is to look at the dark and discouraging side of life. They dwell on the faults and follies of men; they retail every petty scandal they hear; they exaggerate the amount of evil in the world; they suggest a low and selfish motive as the root of good actions; they quench the ardour of generous enthusiasm by a cold scepticism. Whenever we have talked with such persons we have been inclined to say, Our brethren have discouraged our heart. (J. F. Clarke.)
Discouragers
Here is a man like a cloud, and a cloud without any silver lining. He gets between you and the sun. He makes everything dark. He puts the worst constructions, and attributes the worst motives, and takes the darkest view. You do not like to meet the murksome man. You do not wish to be overcast. Perhaps today you are hopeful. You have difficulties, but by Gods blessing you can work out. Your church is struggling, but you think you see a brighter day. You have some sorry apples in your basket, but you have gotten the big ones on top. You have a skeleton or two in your closet, but they are out of sight. The sun is shining today up on the high places and valleys of your landscape. And here comes that human cloud, with his shadow creeping on before him. You avoid him. You take the other side of the street. Because you know in ten minutes he would get all the small apples on the top of your basket. He would have all the skeletons out of your closet, because he likes their company. You escape him, because you do not want him to cool your iron, for it is hot and you have made up your mind to strike it. Such a man may be a Christian; but he has a great besetting sin, which he must watch and pray against. Let him add this petition to his litany: From all blue devils; from all dismal dejection; from all bilious despondency; from all funereal gloom, and from all unchristian hopelessness–good Lord, deliver us. (R. S. Barrett.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 28. Cities – walled up to heaven] That is, with very high walls which could not be easily scaled. High walls around houses, c., in these parts of Arabia are still deemed a sufficient defence against the Arabs, who scarcely ever attempt any thing in the way of plunder but on horseback. The monastery on Mount Sinai is surrounded with very high walls without any gate in the upper part of the wall there is a sort of window, or opening, from which a basket is suspended by a pulley, by which both persons and goods are received into and sent from the place. It is the same with the convent of St. Anthony, in Egypt; and this sort of wall is deemed a sufficient defence against the Arabs, who, as we have already observed, scarcely ever like to alight from their horses.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The people is greater, in number and strength and valour.
Up to heaven, i.e. to a great height. A common hyperbole, as Gen 11:4; Psa 107:26. The Anakims; the children of Anak or Enak. See Jdg 1:10,20.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. the cities are great, and walledup to heavenan Oriental metaphor, meaning very high. The Arabmarauders roam about on horseback, and hence the walls of St.Catherine’s monastery on Sinai are so lofty that travellers are drawnup by a pulley in a basket.
Anakims(See on Nu13:33). The honest and uncompromising language of Moses, inreminding the Israelites of their perverse conduct and outrageousrebellion at the report of the treacherous and fainthearted scouts,affords a strong evidence of the truth of this history as well as ofthe divine authority of his mission. There was great reason for hisdwelling on this dark passage in their history, as it was theirunbelief that excluded them from the privilege of entering thepromised land (Heb 3:19); andthat unbelief was a marvellous exhibition of human perversity,considering the miracles which God had wrought in their favor,especially in the daily manifestations they had of His presence amongthem as their leader and protector.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(28) Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart.So Caleb says in Jos. 14:8, My brethren made the heart of the people melt. For the rest of the verse see Num. 13:28.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
28. Our brethren have discouraged our heart The report of the men sent to explore the land had doubtless magnified the size of the cities and the stature of the inhabitants.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 28. Walled up to heaven A strong hyperbole, usual with the very best writers, to express the height and strength of their enemies’ walls. See Gen 11:4 and Bochart’s Phaleg. lib. 1: cap. 13. The author of the Observations remarks, that, “anciently if they raised up the walls of their cities so high as not to be able to be scaled, they thought them safe.” The same simple contrivance is, to this day, sufficient to guard places from the Arabs, who live in that very wilderness in which Israel wandered, when the spies discouraged the hearts of the people, by saying the cities are great, and walled up to heaven; and who are a nation more inured to warlike enterprises than the Israelites were. To say that the height of the walls, which, by a strong Eastern way of speaking, are said to reach up to heaven, must have been supposed to have given pain to the people whom Moses was conducting out of Egypt,and who were by no totals qualified to surmount this difficulty, though among us it would be very easily overcomewould be a just, but a cold and formal comment on these words, if compared with the liveliness and satisfaction the mind would receive from the setting down what modern travellers have said about the present inhabitants of these desarts, who must be supposed to be as able to overcome any obstruction of this kind as Israel when that nation came out of Egypt, and who are, by this means, oftentimes prevented from effecting their purposes on the inhabitants of these walled places. I shall, therefore, here set down two or three passages of this kind, as an amusing explanation of the force of this complaint of the spies. The great monastery at mount Sinai, Thevenot observes, “is well built of good free-stone, with very high smooth walls; on the east side there is a window, by which those that were within drew up the pilgrims into the monastery with a basket, which they let down by a rope which runs into a pulley, to be seen above at the window; and the pilgrims went into it, one after another, and so were hoisted up.” These walls, he remarks in the next chapter, are “so high, that they cannot be scaled, and without cannon that place cannot be taken.” The monastery of St. Anthony in Egypt, says M. Maillet, let. 8: p. 321 is inhabited by religious of the Coptic nation, to whom provisions are sent from time to time. It is a vast inclosure, with good walls, raised so high as to secure this place from the insults of the Arabs. There is no entrance into it but by a pulley, by means of which people are hoisted up on high, and so conveyed into the monastery. “By means of such their walls, these places are impregnable to the Arabs: the Israelites thought the cities of Canaan must be impregnable to them; for they forgot the divine power of their leader.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
our brethren = our own brethren. Compare Num 13:28.
heart. Some codices, with one early printed edition, read “hearts” (plural)
taller = greater. Some codices, with Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint, read “more in number”.
walled, &c. Figure of speech Hyperbole. App-6.
Anakims. First occurrence; elsewhere, Deu 2:10, Deu 2:11, Deu 2:21; Deu 9:2. Jos 11:21, Jos 11:22; Jos 14:12, Jos 14:15. See App-25. For “sons of Anak”, see note on Num 13:22.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
discouraged: Heb. melted, Deu 20:8, *marg. Exo 15:15, Jos 2:9, Jos 2:11, Jos 2:24, *marg. Jos 14:8, Isa 13:7, Eze 21:7
The people: Deu 9:1, Deu 9:2, Num 13:28-33
walled: That is, with very high walls, which could not be easily scaled. Harmer says, high walls are still to be seen in Arabia, and are deemed a sufficient defence against the Arabs, who scarcely ever attempt to plunder except on horseback. The monastery on Mount Sinai, and the convent of St. Anthony in Egypt, are surrounded with a very high wall, without gates; the persons and things being taken up and let down through an opening in the upper part, by means of a pulley and a basket. This kind of walling is a sufficient defence.
we have seen: Deu 9:2, Jos 11:22, Jos 15:14, Jdg 1:10, Jdg 1:20, 2Sa 21:16-22
Reciprocal: Gen 11:4 – whose Num 13:31 – General Num 13:32 – brought Num 13:33 – saw the giants Num 32:7 – wherefore Deu 2:11 – as the Anakims Deu 2:21 – great Deu 3:5 – General Deu 20:20 – thou shalt build Jos 11:21 – the Anakims 2Sa 17:10 – utterly melt Amo 2:9 – whose Luk 10:15 – which Joh 21:25 – that even
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 1:28. The people is greater In number, and strength, and valour. The cities are great, and walled up to heaven An hyperbole, signifying that their cities were fenced with very high walls, which Moses himself allows to be true, Deu 9:1. But, however strong they were, the Israelites had no reason to fear, since they were assured of the divine protection and aid in the execution of his command.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:28 Whither shall we go up? our {r} brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people [is] greater and taller than we; the cities [are] great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.
(r) The other ten, not Caleb and Joshua.