Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 2:1

Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spoke unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days.

1. Then we turned, etc.] See on Deu 1:7.

by the way to the Red Sea ] Rather, in the direction of the Red Sea.

as the Lord spake unto me ] Deu 1:40.

and we compassed mount Seir ] The range E. of the ‘Arabah: see on Deu 1:2; Deu 1:44 JE, Num 21:4 b, by the way to the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom.

many days ] As in Deu 1:46, indefinite; that a long time is intended is clear from Deu 2:14, which states that Israel spent 38 years between adesh and the Zered; while Deu 2:7, whether from the same hand or not, implies that the 40 years from Egypt had practically all passed when the people turned N.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Duet Deu 1:6 to Deu 3:29. Historical Part of the First Introductory Discourse

Spoken in the land of Moab (Deu 1:5) in the gai or glen, over against Beth Pe‘or (Deu 3:29), a review of Israel’s experiences since they left oreb. In the Plur. form of address except for the following fragments Deu 1:8; Deu 1:21; Deu 1:31 a, Deu 2:7; Deu 2:24 b, Deu 2:25; Deu 2:30 b, Deu 2:37 [108] . We shall see how far these are detachable from the context, or give evidence of their later intrusion. There are, too, a number of parentheses, dealing with matters beyond Israel’s experience and therefore beyond the aim of the discourse: archaeological notes on the peoples who preceded Moab, Edom, Ammon, the Philistines and Israel, and on ermon; Deu 2:10-12; Deu 2:10-23, Deu 3:9; Deu 3:11; Deu 3:13 b, 14. The contents of these notes are suitable neither to the voice of the Deity, to whose words some of them are attached, Deu 2:10-12; Deu 2:20-23, nor in the mouth of Moses whose purpose is to recall to Israel their own experience. They are notes or glosses, either by the author or an editor. All the rest (except perhaps Deu 3:15-17, which see) forms a unity, complete in itself.

[108] The Sing, in Deu 2:9 a (LXX Plur.) and even in Deu 2:19 may be due, as in Deu 3:27, to the fact that the address is to Moses himself.

The following are the divisions: (1) Deu 1:6-8, order to depart from Horeb; (2) Deu 1:9-18, institution of Judges; (3) Deu 1:19, journey to adesh-Barnea‘, to which probably belong Deu 1:1 b, Deu 1:2 (see above); (4) Deu 1:20-25, mission of the spies; (5) Deu 1:26-43, consequent disaffection of the people; (6) Deu 1:34-40, wrath and judgement of God; (7) Deu 1:41-46, defeat of the attempt to enter the land from the south, and residence at adesh; (8) Deu 2:1-8 a, departure from adesh and circuit of Mt Se‘r; (9) Deu 2:8-15, further march to Wdy-Zered, which they cross 38 years after leaving adesh, when all the adult generation have died; (10) Deu 2:16-25, command to cross Arnon, the border of Moab, to avoid ‘Ammon and to fight Sn; (11) Deu 2:26-37, defeat of Sn; (12) Deu 3:1-7, defeat of ‘g; (13) Deu 3:8-17, division of the conquered lands; (14) Deu 3:18-22, directions to the tribes left there and to Joshua; (15) Deu 3:23-29, Moses’ Prayer to cross Jordan and its rejection.

The same stretch of history from oreb to the Jordan is treated by JE, Exo 33:1-17, and Num 10:29 onwards; and by P from Numbers 12 onwards. JE seems the basis of this deuteronomic review, even to the extent of supplying verbal details. But the review is not only written in a style peculiar to the deuteronomic writings; it adds some facts not found in JE and differs from JE in its presentation of others. On P the review shows no dependence, and P differs from it considerably both in the language used for the same events and in several matters of substance. On these see below.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Deu 2:1 seems to refer in general terms to the long years of wandering, the details of which were not for Moses present purpose. The command of Deu 2:2-3 relates to their journey from Kadesh to Mount Hor Num 20:22; Num 33:37, and directs their march around to the southern extremity of Mount Seir, so as to compass the land of Edom Jdg 11:18; Num 21:4, and so northward toward the Arnon, i. e., by the way of the wilderness of Moab, Deu 2:8. This circuitous path was followed because of the refusal of the Edomites to allow the people to pass through their territory.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Deu 2:1-7

Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.

A sermon for the new year

Such were the words which the Lord spoke to Moses, after the children of Israel had been compassing Mount Seir many days. There are a great many mountains which a great many people compass in the present day. Some of them mountains indeed–mountains of doubt and difficulty and sin; some of them molehills, which the very pilgrims in their blindness verily believe to be mountains; some of them little hills of pride and obstinacy, the paths round which have become all beaten down because the pilgrim feet have so long trod them. Turn you northward is the command required. Anything is better than the old going round and round and coming to the same place again. Northward may mean hard fighting, but it will mean great victory.

I. Monotony the ordinary Christian experience.

1. See it as regards the Christian life. How many Christians have much the same experience year after year. We talk about growth in grace, and trust we are making some progress, but if many of us were to examine ourselves should we not find that our experience differed little from that of our early Christian life? Thousands of people are lapsing into a monotonous experience. There is no standing still in the Christian life, we hear it said. That may be true, but it is also true that there is a great deal of moving round and round. Compassing the mountain is the experience of not a few.

2. See it as regards Christian work. The ideal of Christian work is the same in all ages. It is the conversion of the world. But the method of its accomplishment varies with times and peoples and circumstances. And the Church or worker is wise which adapts the method to the requirements of the hour. But how we like to keep to the old work and do it in the old way! And how apt we are also to keep to the very same kind of work. There is work, I grant, which can best be done by the man who has done it for many years, but there is other work which would be done all the better if the worker were changed sometimes. The question is, are we putting the same enthusiasm into our work which we put into it at the commencement? But there is danger lest compassing the mountain should become monotonous. Even the most holy occupation needs varying at times, as every preacher will testify. A change often benefits both worker and work. Then monotony is near akin to sluggishness. Somehow or other that mountain of work takes longer and longer to compass. I long that Gods voice should speak to them as it did to Moses, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough. See it as regards Christian thought. The great verities of our holy religion do not change. Truth is eternal as God Himself. But how apt we are to live and move round a little mountain of thought of our own. We made it ourselves years ago, and were very pleased with it then. We do not stop to think whether it suits us now. Surely we should always be having grander, newer thoughts, nobler impulses from the Most High. He has ever greater truths to teach, ever fresh secrets to tall. There are ever fresh treasures of learning to be ransacked. Ideas of Christian life and thought are ever maturing. Turn you northward is the needed cry.

II. Progress the proper rule of life. Says Godet, Man was made in the image of God. He is not therefore condemned, like the lower animals, to move incessantly in the same circle. His progressivity has no limit but that of the absolute good to which he aspires. The emblem of human life is a spiral, not a circle! Just so! Man must continually move on. If he goes round he must at the same time go up. It will be easy to show that this is Gods purpose concerning us.

1. Monotony is contrary to the constitution and course of nature. These point to progress. New forms of life, of thought, of government are being continually evolved. Nothing continues the same but God and His eternal truth.

2. Monotony is contrary to Gods dealings with the human race. God has not dealt with us in a circle. He has ever led His people forward.

3. Monotony is contrary to the spirit of the age, The age is one of progress. New inventions are showered upon us week by week.

4. Monotony is contrary to the teaching of Gods Word. There are three things among many others which I may point out are contrary to monotony, but analogous to progress.

(1) Growth. This is self-evident, and I have no need to do more than mention it. Grow in grace is the command of Scripture, and all kinds of growth should be seen in the character of the true Christian. There should be inward growth, the life becoming firmer and stronger; there should be outward growth, the life developing in all the more visible graces of the Spirit; there should be upward growth–upward to God, to holiness, to heaven; there should be downward growth–the roots of the Christian life becoming even more firmly planted in the soil of Gods love.

(2) Enthusiasm. I can imagine that when first the children of Israel commenced to compass the mountain they did so with a great deal of interest. But after this compassing. the mountain had proceeded many days, interest would decrease and enthusiasm would disappear. The summons Turn you northward; would, however, call out all the old interest and enthusiasm, and would come as a grateful relief from the monotony of the past. And in our weakness our enthusiasm requires something new. Further, the command Turn you northward not only generated enthusiasm, but required it. It was much easier to continue the task of compassing the mountain than to turn northward. They had become accustomed to the old circular progress. There were difficulties northward. And so it is with us in the present day. To turn northward requires enthusiasm. It would be much easier and pleasanter to go the old round, to live the old life.

(3) Enterprise. This is another thing contrary to monotony, but analogous to progress. It required no enterprise to compass the mountain after they had been engaged in that task many days. But when they began to turn northward enterprise was implied and required at once. And surely enterprise is required today. In every sphere of our life in this world it is to be found. And yet in work for Christ by some it is hardly known except by name. Why should we be content to go along the old beaten tracks? Why should we not strike out new ones for ourselves, or follow without hesitation where the Guiding Hand indicates?

A thing has not always to be because it has been. (W. E. Sellers.)

A new departure

The story with which this order is connected in the annals is found in Num 21:12-35.

I. The new departure in Israels wandering. Only a few particulars will be necessary in order to show us the pertinency to an anniversary service which the ancient narrative will bring.

1. Past experience was in the word compassed.

2. Future experience was in the word northward. For they all knew that in that direction lay Canaan. The time was complete, the retribution was fulfilled, a young generation had arrived upon the stage of action. So another forward movement was ordered, this time in the line of progress towards the Jordan and the covenanted land of promise. Evidently a great historical crisis is reached at last. The deadlock of rebellious will is broken. Humanity shows a quickening of life once more. This is what in modern times is called a new departure; and this is what renders the incident suggestive as a religious symbol for our present employment.

II. The new departure in our work today. The last week in December is what merchants call inventory time. Thoughtful religious people use it often for taking account of spiritual stock. Let the past be left behind; our hopes are all in the future; we have compassed that mountain with its twelve peaks long enough; it is time to turn northwards.

III. The new departure in each believers history. So vivid appears this illustration that it might easily be made to serve for a permanent exhortation to the churches. Three grand principles in ordinary spiritual life are exhibited in the image employed.

1. All true Christians have mountains to compass. Sometimes our duties are mountains, sometimes our trials. Some have more mountains than others have. Some have harder ones than others have. Some make mountains out of what would be only molehills to those who are braver than they are. But this will be the lesson: God gives all His children mountains to compass.

2. All true Christians must compass their mountains. There can be no rebellious refusal of the task God sets for us. There is no room for any ingenious evasion of His commands. There can never be permitted any sudden leaping over or flying across the difficult ridge of duty. There can be no changing mountains with each other in the hope of getting easier ones.

3. Gods sovereignty decides when the mountain is compassed long enough. There is a period set for continuance and for cessation. Long enough–for the mountains sake. Real work has to be done slowly and patiently. Some tasks there are which cannot be at all hurried.

(1) Long enough–for our own sakes. Certain disciplines must be wrought out upon our characters. Dispositions, like finest wines, require what can be done for them only by time and silence. Jehovah was preparing these people for Canaan before He suffered a single one of them to enter.

(2) Long enough–for others sake. The principle of division of labour is here involved. Vicarious suffering is the rule for the redeemed race who follow Christ, who was cut off, and not for Himself. These young Israelites were held back to give the older people decorous space in which to die (Deu 2:14).

(3) Long enough–for the Lord s sake. He asks us to labour on and wait till He tells us what it is all for.

IV. The new departure in Church life. Our admonitions grow rapidly now, for the field of application for the figure is wider.

1. To some who now hear this call it will be the language of rebuke. Ye have compassed this mountain long enough. It is of no use to stay here any longer; the chance is lost. It is like Jesus saying to His disciples in slumber, Sleep on now. Duty is sometimes neglected until the man is withdrawn from the charge.

2. To some who now hear it this call will be the language of comfort. Ye have compassed this mountain long enough. Oh, how fine a thing it is to look back upon a hard work carried well and patiently through into grand success! Leave the old toil now; let the bent form straighten up; let the tired shoulder rest.

3. To some it will be the language of command. Ye have compassed this mountain long enough; turn you northward. Yes; turn northward straight to another mountain, and another; for there is no discharge in that war! Is it your birthday? Then one mountain is well compassed; take a new one. Is it the anniversary of your first communion? One good mountain compassed; now again! And the soul is all alive with fresh exhilaration from the hill climbing.

4. For to some this call is the language of encouragement. Ye have compassed this mountain long enough; turn you northward. And northward lies the land of covenant promise; every mountain now passed brings us nearer to the end of them. It grows a little gladder in the sunshine and clearer in the atmosphere; it seems like attaining the last hill and catching the gales from beyond the river. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

The Divine recall to duty

I. If we do not follow Gods plan, if we neglect our duty, we are losing time. The Israelites lost thirty years by disregarding the call of duty, and we too are always losing time when we obey not Gods commands.

II. By commanding the Israelites to leave the mountain and turn northward, God was teaching His people that there is no better defence to a life of obedience than life itself. It is evident that the children of Israel stayed by the mountain partly for purpose of self-defence.

III. By commanding the people to leave the mountains and turn northward, God was teaching them that their work was not done until they had conquered their enemies.

IV. God said, turn you northward, for that was the way to Canaan. (J. L. Williams, B. A.)

A short account of the long story of Israel in the wilderness

We compassed Mount Seir many days (verse 1). Nearly thirty-eight years they wandered in the deserts of Seir; probably in some of their rests they stayed several years, and never stirred: God by this not only chastised them for their murmuring and unbelief, but–

1. Prepared them for Canaan, by humbling them for sin, teaching them to mortify their lusts, to follow God, and to comfort themselves in Him. It is a work of time to make souls meet for heaven, and it must be done by a long train of exercises.

2. He prepared the Canaanites for destruction; all this time the measure of their iniquity was in the filling; and though it might have been improved by them as a space to repent, it was abused by them to the hardening of their hearts.

3. Orders given them to turn towards Canaan. Though God contend long, He will not contend forever; though Israel may be long kept waiting for deliverance and enlargement, it will come at last.

4. A charge given them not to annoy the Edomites.

(1) They must not offer any hostility to them as enemies (verses 4, 5). Meddle not with them.

(a) They must not improve the advantage they had against them by the fright they would be put into upon Israel s approach. They shall be afraid of you, knowing your strength and numbers, and the power of God engaged for you; but do not you think that their fears making them an easy prey, you may therefore prey upon them; no, take heed to yourselves. There is need of great caution, and a strict government of our own spirits, to keep ourselves from injuring those we have an advantage against. Or, this caution is given to the princes; they must not only not meddle with the Edomites themselves, but not permit any of their soldiers to meddle with them.

(b) They must not revenge upon the Edomites the affront they gave them in refusing them passage through their country (Num 23:21). Thus before God brought Israel to destroy their enemies in Canaan He taught them to forgive their enemies in Edom.

(c) They must not expect to have any part of their land given them for a possession; Mount Seir was already settled upon the Edomites, and they must not, under pretence of Gods covenant and conduct, think to seize for themselves all they could lay hands on. Dominion is not founded in grace.

5. They must trade with them as neighbours: buy meat and water off them, and pay for what they bought (verse 6). Religion must never be made a cloak for injustice. The reason given (verse 7) is, because God hath blessed thee, and hitherto thou hast lacked nothing; and therefore–

(1) Thou needest not beg; scorn to be beholden to Edomites when thou hast a God all-sufficient to depend upon. Thou hast wherewithal to pay for what thou callest for, thanks to the Divine blessing; use therefore what thou hast, use it cheerfully, and do not sponge upon the Edomites.

(2) Therefore thou must not steal. Thou hast experienced the care of the Divine Providence concerning thee; in confidence of which for the future, and in a firm belief of its all-sufficiency, never use any indirect methods for thy supply. Live by thy faith, and not by the sword. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)

For He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness.

Comfort in the wilderness

I. A fact general. He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness. Wilderness and a complete barrenness are not synonymous in Scripture. There were palms of Elim, and wells of Marah, and beautiful withdrawn places where the grass grew; and yet it was a wilderness great and often terrible. After all, like such a wilderness is life. It is not all a wilderness. There are pleasant places in it, and homes, and loving hearts. This is the fact general–that the usual human life has a good deal of wilderness in it. Life is a wilderness because–

1. Of its mystery.

2. Of its discipline.

3. Of its unreached ideals.

4. Of its transitoriness.

5. Of its enemies–Egyptians, Amalekites, Midianites, Edomites, Moabites, Amorites throng against it.

II. A fact personal. He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness. The personal fact is that you must thread your way through this strange, great wilderness of a life. Nobody can tread the path for you. The decisions of it you must make. The results of your decisions you must abide.

III. The girding comfort for us. He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness.

1. He knoweth sympathisingly. It is such meaning Gods knowing always carries in the Scripture.

2. He knoweth in detail. Thy walking; precious truth this of the Divine omniscience of us.

3. He knoweth, taking account of thy weakness. How tender God was toward these Israelites!

4. He knoweth, wisely providing. Think how all the various discipline of the wilderness wandering issued in the change of the Israelites from a mob to a nation.

IV. What then?

1. I can walk the way.

2. I shall not be lost.

3. I shall reach Canaan.

4. I have comfort for the journey. (W. Hoyt.)

These forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.–

Forty years

I. Look back upon the past.

1. What strikes me in Moses review is this, the prominence which he gives to God in it. Here let me note that our own retrospect of the past will, if we are genuine Christians, have in it many bright lights of the conspicuous presence of God, making the pathway here and there like holy ground.

2. A very leading point is the blessing which God gave. Our text says He has blessed all the works of our hand. I suppose that alludes to all that Israel had a right to do; the Lord multiplied their cattle, He increased their substance, He guided them in their marches, He protected them in their encampments. There were some things in which He did not bless them. They wanted to go up into the promised land against His commandment, and the Amalekites smote them; He did not bless them there. God does not bless the sins of His people, for if He did it would bring on them the tremendous curse of being happy in the ways of evil.

3. Again, in our retrospect of the past we should notice the perfection of the Lord s sympathetic care; Observe the words, He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness. He has known our rough paths and our smooth ways, the weary trudging and the joyous marching; He has known it all, and not merely known it in the sense of omniscience, but known it in the sense of sympathy.

4. We have had also what is better than this during our forty years, the special presence of God. These forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee. He has not been ashamed to be with us, though we have been despised and ridiculed. Whenever we have prayed we have had audience with Him; when we have worked we have seen His mysterious hand working with us; when we have trembled we have felt the tender arms sustaining us; when we have been in bodily pain He has made our bed in our sickness. The best of all is God with us, and in this sign we conquer.

5. Again, we have had much cause to bless the Lord for the abundance of His supplies. Thou hast lacked nothing. Some things which we could have wished for we have not received, and we are glad they were denied us. Children would have too many sweets if they could, and then they would be surfeited or be ill. Walking on in the path of Providence, trusting in the Lord, what have we lacked?

II. But now we must take the second head, which is–Forty years in the wilderness should teach us much of service for the present. I do not say that it will do so, for we do not all grow wiser as we grow older, but it ought to be so. Folly is bound up in the heart of many a man, and it takes much of the rod to whip it out of him.

1. Experience is a noble teacher, but we are dull scholars; yet at any rate we ought to have learned to continue trusting in God.

2. Experience should also give us greater ease in confiding in the Lord. Use is said to be second nature, but in your case grace has given you in very deed a real second nature, and this by use should have grown stronger and more prevalent.

3. Forty years of Divine faithfulness should teach us also a surer, quicker, calmer, and more joyous expectation of immediate aid in all times of strait and trial: we should learn not to be flurried and worried because the herds are cut off from the stall, and the harvest is withered, for we know from abundant proofs that The Lord will provide.

4. Forty years of blessing should teach each of us to believe in holy activity. The Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand. Some people believe in Gods blessing the dreams and theories of their heads, and their prayers are unattended by action. They believe in His blessing them when they are scheming and putting fine plans on paper, or when they meet at a conference to talk about how to do Christian work. I believe in Gods blessing the actual work of our hand; He waters not the seed which we talk of sowing, but that which we actually scatter.

5. Forty years experience ought to have taught us to avoid many of the faults into which we fell in our early days. It is a great pity when advancing age teaches men rather to avoid their virtues than their follie.

6. You will have observed that the text mentions twice The Lord thy God. All through the chapter it is always that–Jehovah thy God. Here we have mention of His covenant relationship, in which He is ever most dear to us. Shall we not at this time renew our own personal covenant, and take our God to be ours afresh? We read that Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebecca. Let us have a new wedding day ourselves, and give ourselves over again to the Husband of our souls, even Jesus the well-beloved.

III. The future. Having come so far on our journey as to have reached forty years, we are bound to feel a powerful influence upon us as to the future. How? I will borrow our remarks from the context.

1. Read in the second chapter, second verse, And the Lord spake unto me saying, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn ye northward. What way was northward, then? Why, toward Canaan. Forty years wandering up and down in the wilderness is enough, now turn your faces towards Canaan and march heavenward. It is time we all had our faces turned heavenward more completely. The time past may suffice us to have wrought the will of the flesh, now let us cry, Heavenward, ho. Pull up the anchor, spread the sails, and let us away to the fair country whither Jesus has gone before us.

2. The next thing we should learn is indifference to this worlds heritage. The next verse says, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you; take ye good heed unto yourselves, therefore: meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. Esau sold his heritage, and had his mess of pottage, let him have it; keep you the birthright, and never think of putting your spoon into his mess. The world is for worldlings. What do you want with it?

3. Let us learn from the past to cultivate independence of spirit. Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink. He is indeed a man of God who has learned to walk uprightly, and no longer leans upon the creature, nor practises policy to win his way.

4. Once again, after forty years in the wilderness God would have His people learn generosity of spirit. The Edomites were very much afraid of the Israelites, and would, no doubt, have bribed them to let them alone, but Moses in effect says, Do not take anything from them; you have no need to do so, for you have never lacked anything, and God has been with you. They are afraid of you; you might take what you please from them, but do not touch even the water from their wells without payment. Oh, that we had a generous spirit, that we were not for oppressing others in any degree whatever, feeling that we have too much already given us by God to be wanting to tax any man for our own gain.

5. The spirit of freedom from murmuring should be in us after forty years of blessing. Jarchi tells us that this exhortation meant that they were not to pretend to be poor. You know how many do so when it is likely to save their pockets.

6. Lastly, we ought for the future to show more confidence in God if we have had forty years of His love: we should have more confidence in working for Him that He will bless us, more confidence as to our personal weakness that He will strengthen us, more confidence as to the unknown future, that through the great and terrible wilderness He will be with us, and that through the last cold stream He will still be our companion; more confidence that we shall behold the light of His countenance, and more confidence as to the supply of all our needs, for as we have lacked nothing, so all things shall be freely supplied till we cross the river and eat the old corn of the land. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER II

Moses continues to relate how they compassed Mount Seir, 1.

And the commands they received not to meddle with the

descendants of Esau, 2-8;

nor to distress the Moabites, 9.

Of the Emims, 10, 11;

the Horims, 12.

Their passage of the brook Zered, 13.

The time they spent between Kadesh-barnea and Zered, 14;

during which all the men of war that came out of Egypt were

consumed, 15, 16.

The command not to distress the Ammonites, 17-19.

Of the Zamzummims, 20,

the Anakims, 21,

the Horims, 22,

the Avims and Caphtorims, all destroyed by the Ammonites, 23.

They are commanded to cross the river Arnon, and are promised the

land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, 24, 25.

Of the message sent to Sihon, to request a passage through his

territories, 26-29.

His refusal, 30.

The consequent war, 31, 32.

His total overthrow, 33;

and extermination of his people, 34.

The spoils that were taken, 35.

And his land possessed from Aroer to Arnon by the Israelites,

36;

who took care, according to the command of God, not to invade any

part of the territories of the Ammonites, 37.

NOTES ON CHAP. II

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The mountainous country of Seir or Edom. Many days, or, many years, even for thirty-eight years.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. Then we turned, and took ourjourney into the wilderness by the way of the Red SeaAftertheir unsuccessful attack upon the Canaanites, the Israelites brokeup their encampment at Kadesh, and journeying southward over the westdesert of Tih as well as through the great valley of the Ghor andArabah, they extended their removals as far as the gulf of Akaba.

we compassed mount Seir manydaysIn these few words Moses comprised the whole of thatwandering nomadic life through which they passed during thirty-eightyears, shifting from place to place, and regulating their stations bythe prospect of pasturage and water. Within the interval they wentnorthward a second time to Kadesh, but being refused a passagethrough Edom and opposed by the Canaanites and Amalekites, they againhad no alternative but to traverse once more the great Arabahsouthwards to the Red Sea, where turning to the left and crossing thelong, lofty mountain chain to the eastward of Ezion-geber (Num 21:4;Num 21:5), they issued into thegreat and elevated plains, which are still traversed by the Syrianpilgrims in their way to Mecca. They appear to have followednorthward nearly the same route, which is now taken by the Syrianhadji, along the western skirts of this great desert, near themountains of Edom [ROBINSON].It was on entering these plains they received the command, “Yehave compassed this mountain (this hilly tract, now Jebel Shera) longenough, turn ye northward” [De2:3].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

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,

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

March from Kadesh to the Frontier of the Amorites. – Deu 2:1. After a long stay in Kadesh, they commenced their return into the desert. The words, “ We departed…by the way to the Red Sea,” point back to Num 14:25. This departure is expressly designated as an act of obedience to the divine command recorded there, by the expression “ as Jehovah spake to me.” Consequently Moses is not speaking here of the second departure of the congregation from Kadesh to go to Mount Hor (Num 20:22), but of the first departure after the condemnation of the generation that came out of Egypt. “ And we went round Mount Seir many days.” This going round Mount Seir includes the thirty-eight years’ wanderings, though we are not therefore to picture it as “going backwards and forwards, and then entering the Arabah again” ( Schultz). Just as Moses passed over the reassembling of the congregation at Kadesh (Num 20:1), so he also overlooked the going to and fro in the desert, and fixed his eye more closely upon the last journey from Kadesh to Mount Hor, that he might recall to the memory of the congregation how the Lord had led them to the end of all their wandering.

Deu 2:2-6

When they had gone through the Arabah to the southern extremity, the Lord commanded them to turn northwards, i.e., to go round the southern end of Mount Seir, and proceed northwards on the eastern side of it (see at Num 21:10), without going to war with the Edomites ( , to stir oneself up against a person to conflict, ), as He would not give them a foot-breadth of their land; for He had given Esau (the Edomites) Mount Seir for a possession. For this reason they were to buy victuals and water of them for money ( , to dig, to dig water, i.e., procure water, as it was often necessary to dig wells, and not merely to draw it, Gen 26:25. The verb does not signify to buy).

Deu 2:7

And this they were able to do, because the Lord had blessed them in all the work of their hand, i.e., not merely in the rearing of flocks and herds, which they had carried on in the desert (Exo 19:13; Exo 34:3; Num 20:19; Num 32:1.), but in all that they did for a living; whether, for example, when stopping for a long time in the same place of encampment, they sowed in suitable spots and reaped, or whether they sold the produce of their toil and skill to the Arabs of the desert. “ He hath observed thy going through this great desert ” ( , to know, then to trouble oneself, Gen 39:6; to observe carefully, Pro 27:23; Psa 1:6); and He has not suffered thee to want anything for forty years, but as often as want has occurred, He has miraculously provided for every necessity.

Deu 2:8-10

In accordance with this divine command, they went past the Edomites by the side of their mountains, “ from the way of the Arabah, from Elath (see at Gen 14:6) and Eziongeber ” (see at Num 33:35), sc., into the steppes of Moab, where they were encamped at that time.

God commanded them to behave in the same manner towards the Moabites, when they approached their frontier (Deu 2:9). They were not to touch their land, because the Lord had given Ar to the descendants of Lot for a possession. In Deu 2:9 the Moabites are mentioned, and in Deu 2:19 the Amorites also. The Moabites are designated as “sons of Lot,” for the same reason for which the Edomites are called “brethren of Israel” in Deu 2:4. The Israelites were to uphold the bond of blood-relationship with these tribes in the most sacred manner. Ar, the capital of Moabitis (see at Num 21:15), is used here for the land itself, which was named after the capital, and governed by it.

Deu 2:11-12

To confirm the fact that the Moabites and also the Edomites had received from God the land which they inhabited as a possession, Moses interpolates into the words of Jehovah certain ethnographical notices concerning the earlier inhabitants of these lands, from which it is obvious that Edom and Moab had not destroyed them by their own power, but that Jehovah had destroyed them before them, as is expressly stated in Deu 2:21, Deu 2:22. “ The Emim dwelt formerly therein,” sc., in Ar and its territory, in Moabitis, “ a high (i.e., strong) and numerous people, of gigantic stature, which were also reckoned among the Rephaites, like the Enakites ( Anakim).” Emim, i.e., frightful, terrible, was the name given to them by the Moabites. Whether this earlier or original population of Moabitis was of Hamitic or Semitic descent cannot be determined, any more than the connection between the Emim and the Rephaim can be ascertained. On the Rephaim; and on the Anakites, at Num 13:22.

Deu 2:12

The origin of the Horites (i.e., the dwellers in caves) of Mount Seir, who were driven out of their possessions by the descendants of Esau, and completely exterminated (see at Gen 14:6, and Gen 36:20), is altogether involved in obscurity. The words, “ as Israel has done to the land of his possession, which Jehovah has given them,” do not presuppose the conquest of the land of Canaan or a post-Mosaic authorship; but “ the land of his possession ” is the land to the east of the Jordan (Gilead and Bashan), which was conquered by the Israelites under Moses, and divided among the two tribes and a half, and which is also described in Deu 3:20 as the “possession” which Jehovah had given to these tribes.

Deu 2:13-15

For this reason Israel was to remove from the desert of Moab (i.e., the desert which bounded Moabitis on the east), and to cross over the brook Zered, to advance against the country of the Amorites (see at Num 21:12-13). This occurred thirty-eight years after the condemnation of the people at Kadesh (Num 14:23, Num 14:29), when the generation rejected by God had entirely died out ( , to be all gone, to disappear), so that not one of them saw the promised land. They did not all die a natural death, however, but “ the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them ” ( , lit., to throw into confusion, then used with special reference to the terrors with which Jehovah destroyed His enemies; Exo 14:24; Exo 23:27, etc.), sc., by extraordinary judgments (as in Num 16:35; Num 18:1; Num 21:6; Num 25:9).

Deu 2:16-22

When this generation had quite died out, the Lord made known to Moses, and through him to the people, that they were to cross over the boundary of Moab (i.e., the Arnon, Deu 2:24; see at Num 21:13), the land of Ar (see at Deu 2:9), “ to come nigh over against the children of Ammon,” i.e., to advance into the neighbourhood of the Ammonites, who lived to the east of Moab; but they were not to meddle with these descendants of Lot, because He would give them nothing of the land that was given them for a possession (Deu 2:19, as at Deu 2:5 and Deu 2:9). – To confirm this, ethnographical notices are introduced again in Deu 2:20-22 into the words of God (as in Deu 2:10, Deu 2:11), concerning the earlier population of the country of the Ammonites. Ammonitis was also regarded as a land of the Rephaites, because Rephaites dwelt therein, whom the Ammonites called Zamzummim. “ Zamzummim,” from , to hum, then to muse, equivalent to the humming or roaring people, probably the same people as the Zuzim mentioned in Gen 14:5. This giant tribe Jehovah had destroyed before the Ammonites (Deu 2:22), just as He had done for the sons of Esau dwelling upon Mount Seir, namely, destroyed the Horites before them, so that the Edomites “dwelt in their stead, even unto this day.”

Deu 2:23

As the Horites had been exterminated by the Edomites, so were the Avvaeans ( Avvim), who dwelt in farms (villages) at the south-west corner of Canaan, as far as Gaza, driven out of their possessions and exterminated by the Caphtorites, who sprang from Caphtor (see at Gen 10:14), although, according to Jos 13:3, some remnants of them were to be found among the Philistines even at that time. This notice appears to be attached to the foregoing remarks simply on account of the substantial analogy between them, without there being any intention to imply that the Israelites were to assume the same attitude towards the Caphtorites, who afterwards rose up in the persons of the Philistines, as towards the descendants of Esau and Lot.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Seed of Esau and Lot Spared.

B. C. 1451.

      1 Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days.   2 And the LORD spake unto me, saying,   3 Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.   4 And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore:   5 Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.   6 Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink.   7 For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.

      Here is, I. A short account of the long stay of Israel in the wilderness: We compassed Mount Seir many days, v. 1. Nearly thirty-eight years they wandered in the deserts of Seir; probably in some of their rests they staid several years, and never stirred; God by this not only chastised them for their murmuring and unbelief, but, 1. Prepared them for Canaan, by humbling them for sin, teaching them to mortify their lusts, to follow God, and to comfort themselves in him. It is a work of time to make souls meet for heaven, and it must be done by a long train of exercises. 2. He prepared the Canaanites for destruction. All this time the measure of their iniquity was filling up; and, though it might have been improved by them as a space to repent in, it was abused by them to the hardening of their hearts. Now that the host of Israel was once repulsed, and after that was so long entangled and seemingly lost in the wilderness, they were secure, and thought the danger was over from that quarter, which would make the next attempt of Israel upon them the more dreadful.

      II. Orders given them to turn towards Canaan. Though God contend long, he will not contend for ever. Though Israel may be long kept waiting for deliverance or enlargement, it will come at last: The vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak, and not lie.

      III. A charge given them not to annoy the Edomites.

      1. They must not offer any hostility to them as enemies: Meddle not with them,Deu 2:4; Deu 2:5. (1.) They must not improve the advantage they had against them, by the fright they would be put into upon Israel’s approach: “They shall be afraid of you, knowing your strength and numbers, and the power of God engaged for you; but think not that, because their fears make them an easy prey, you may therefore prey upon them; no, take heed to yourselves.” There is need of great caution and a strict government of our own spirits, to keep ourselves from injuring those against whom we have an advantage. Or this caution is given to the princes; they must not only not meddle with the Edomites themselves, but not permit any of the soldiers to meddle with them. (2.) They must not avenge upon the Edomites the affront they gave them in refusing them passage through their country, Num. xx. 21. Thus, before God brought Israel to destroy their enemies in Canaan, he taught them to forgive their enemies in Edom. (3.) They must not expect to have any part of their land given them for a possession: Mount Seir was already settled upon the Edomites, and they must not, under pretence of God’s covenant and conduct, think to seize for themselves all they could lay hands on. Dominion is not founded in grace. God’s Israel shall be well placed, but must not expect to be placed alone in the midst of the earth, Isa. v. 8.

      2. They must trade with them as neighbours, buy meat and water of them, and pay for what they bought, v. 6. Religion must never be made a cloak for injustice. The reason given (v. 7), is, “God hath blessed thee, and hitherto thou hast lacked nothing; and therefore,” (1.) “Thou needest not beg; scorn to be beholden to Edomites, when thou hast a God all-sufficient to depend upon. Thou hast wherewithal to pay for what thou callest for (thanks to the divine blessing!); use therefore what thou hast, use it cheerfully, and do not sponge upon the Edomites.” (2.) “Therefore thou must not steal. Thou hast experienced the care of the divine providence concerning thee, in confidence of which for the future, and in a firm belief of its sufficiency, never use any indirect methods for thy supply. Live by the faith and not by thy sword.”

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Verses 1-7:

“Many days” likely refers to the thirty-eight years of wandering in the Sinai wilderness.

“Compassed Mount Seir,” going around Mount Seir, descriptive of the nomadic state of Israel during the time of their wanderings. Mount Seir appears to refer to a region composing and adjacent to the mountain ranges in which Esau’s descendants made their home.

God expressly forbade Israel to engage in any conflict with the Edomites. They were to purchase food and water from them, and not to attempt to take anything by force.

In spite of Israel’s lack of faith, and in the chastening period of their wilderness wandering, God provided their every need: they lacked for nothing. The supply of manna appeared in the early morning dews. Their clothing and shoes did not wear out, Deu 8:4; Deu 29:5; Neh 9:21.

God still takes care of His own, in every circumstance of life, Mat 6:33-34; Php_4:19.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. Then we turned and took our journey. The time in which they struck their camp is not stated in the book of Numbers. This verse, therefore, will aptly connect the history, since otherwise there would be an abruptness in what immediately follows, he then briefly indicates what was the nature of their journeying until the time appointed; viz., that, by wearying themselves in vain in circuitous wanderings, they might, at length, learn to follow God directly, and not to decline from the way which He points out.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE REHEARSAL OF HISTORY

Deuteronomy 1-4.

He reviews the forty years of wilderness wandering. At first sight, one is disposed to feel that this recapitulation is nothing more nor less than the tendency of an old man to reminiscence, but a careful study of chapters 1, 2 and 3 convinces to the contrary. It is, rather, the wisdom born of experience. The story was not told for the-telling, but to illustrate patent truths, prominent among which is the fact that God had gone with them through this long, needless and tedious journey, and His presence alone had been their national preservation.

The individual who doesnt learn from experience is dull indeed. John M. S. Allison, writing for the North American Review (April, 1922), suggests with great sincerity, The past really lives in us and moves about us in thousands of ways, under thousands of different guises. Certainly with such a people, so situated, it should live in them by the clear tracings of memory. Wilderness experiences are the sort that are never forgotten. The sunny days of life pass and our diaries omit them, but the days of battle and blood, the days when the eclipse of the sun is total, the days when the serpent bites and the manna is crawling with wormsthese days cannot be forgotten. On that account they become our teachers, and you will find some such recorded in the very first chapter.

Moses reminds them of how they retreated at the word of cowards, and with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, fixed upon themselves a judgment sure to be executed by time and travel, so that not one of the generation should ever see the good land, promised to their fathers. The Lord told Moses to give them the reason, I am not among you.

It is a dark day when God hides His face. Even Christ, the Man of Nazareth, the One of infinite wisdom, infinite age and of infinite faith, felt its sting so deeply that momentary infidelity came, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?

And yet, who doesnt know that from the dark days the largest lessons are learned, and by them the most important truths are imprinted. Moses had a purpose in this review.

He recounts the successes of their conflicts. It is interesting to run rapidly through these chapters and see Israel, a straggling crowd, including cattle and children, account for themselves in war. When Sihon, king of Heshbon, refuses them a passage through his country, and comes out to fight against them, the Lord God delivers him into their hands and they smite him and his people, take all his cities, and utterly destroy the remnant, appropriating his cattle.

When Og, king of Bashan, came out against them, he and all his people met a kindred fate, not a city escaping and Israel fattened on his forage.

Even the giants, the Anakims, went down before them, God with them (chap. 3).

When they forgot Him, however, they were in the sight of their enemies as grasshoppers. With God all things are possible. Apart from Him we can do nothing. Moses is teaching this truth by this rehearsal of history.

He seeks to impress the secret of their failures. One word would compass it, Disobedience. When they walked with the Lord and did according to His revelation, the days spelled triumph. When they refused His guidance and took their own course, they fell away and became an easy prey.

Have principles changed in the least since those days, or is not human conduct a repetition, and the Divine practice immutable?

A papist writer, Martin J. Scott, attempts in the North American Review, September, 1922, to answer the question, What ails the world? and he comes far more nearly telling us than any Protestant modernist. He says, In proportion as God and His justice are acknowledged and respected by governments, will the world have peace. What government is to a people, that, and a great deal more, God is to the governments themselves. If people do not respect government, anarchy results. And because governments do not respect God and His justice, wars result. Governments will be selfish to the end of the world, and wars will continue to the end. One power alone is capable of restraining that selfishness. But it calls for good will on mans part. That power is the World RulerGod. If His rule, which is justice, is acknowledged by the nations, they will have peace, not otherwise. But expediency, not justice, is the policy of governments. Hence God is ruled out of the councils of nations. Therefore, the world after Versailles was upside down and remains so. God was excluded from that gathering of governments. And peace was excluded too.

He is a wise man to whom experience can teach these truths. Plutarch, in his Fabius Maximus, tells how Municius, the Roman general, was envious of the success of Fabius, who held at that time the chief command in the Roman Army, operating against Hannibal. Municius finally obtained command of a part of the army and going forth to battle was overwhelmingly defeated by the Carthaginians. He straitly called his men together and said, Friends and Fellow-soldiers: Not to err at all in the region of great affairs is above the wisdom of man; but it is the part of a prudent and good man to learn from his errors and miscarriages to correct himself for the future. I confess what I could not be brought to be sensible of in so long a time. I have learned in the small compass of one day, namely, that I know not how to command, but have need to be under the direction of another, and from this moment I bid adieu to the ambition of getting the better of a man whom it is an honor to serve. In all other respects the Dictator should be your commander, but in the due expressions of gratitude to Him, I will be your leader still by being the first to show an example of obedience and submission. A noble speech indeed, and the revelation of a noble spirit.

How strange that men in dealing with God should not more shortly and certainly learn their need of His leadership, and willingly acquiesce in His every command! Truly, Obedience is better than sacrifice

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

CRITICAL NOTES.

Deu. 2:1. The story continued. After the unsuccessful attack, Israel broke up emcampment at Kadesh. Many days. i.e., many years in a nomadic life, wandering in various directions from place to place, according to pasturage and water. Details are not mentioned, because not required.

Deu. 2:2. This command relates to the journey from Kadesh to Mount Hor (Num. 20:22; Num. 33:37), and directs their march round the south extremity of Mount Seir, so as to compass the land of Edom (Jdg. 11:18; Num. 21:4), and so northwards towards the Arnon, i.e., by the way of the wilderness of Moab (Deu. 2:8). This circuitous path was followed because of the refusal of the Edomites to allow the people to pass through their territory (Speak. Com.).

Deu. 2:4. Afraid. They repelled approach from western frontier; now they fear Israel coming round on the weak side (Exo. 15:15).

Deu. 2:5. Meddle not, lit., excite not yourselves against them. They were not to war, nor injure them in property nor persons. Originally the relation between the two people was fraternal, and God had granted Mount Seir to Esau.

Deu. 2:6. Buy water, lit., dig water; perhaps purchased permission to dig wells for water.

Deu. 2:7. Blessed thee. Israel had means to buy provisions, and should not therefore be guilty of fraud or violence.

Deu. 2:8. Elath (tress.), cf., 1Ki. 9:26, now called Akaba, on the route of annual pilgrimage from Cairo to Mecca. Ez-gaber, cf. Num. 33:35 (backbone of a man; so called, probably, from rugged rocks in its vicinity). A seaport near Elath, cf. 1Ki. 9:26; 2Ch. 20:36.

Deu. 2:9. Moabites and Ammonites (Deu. 2:19) descended from Lot, and like Edomites, kinsmen of Israelites.

Deu. 2:10-12. Ethnographical notices concerning earlier inhabitants of these lands. Emim, i.e., frightful, terrible to the Moabites. Anakim, cf. Num. 13:32. Horims, Gen. 14:5.

Deu. 2:13. Connected with Deu. 2:9. Zered, the boundary line between Edom and Moab, crossed thirty-eight years after the doom pronounced upon them at Kadesh.

Deu. 2:14. Sware, Num. 14:28 -Ver. 29.

Deu. 2:15. Destroy not by natural causes, but by terrors (Exo. 14:24) and judgments (Num. 16:35; Num. 16:49).

Deu. 2:16-19. Advance into the country of Moabites, but Israel not to meddle with them, for God would give them nothing of their land.

Deu. 2:20-22. For confirmation, ethnographical notices introduced again. Zam, from zamam, to hum, a humming or roaring people; probably the Zuzim (Gen. 14:5).

Deu. 2:23. Avims, the Avites (Jos. 13:3), possibly connected with Ava, 2Ki. 17:24 (Speak. Com.)

Deu. 2:24. Command to possess the land of Sihon.

Deu. 2:25. Be in anguish, lit., writhe in pain (Isa. 13:8).

Deu. 2:26. Moses sent a peaceful messenger, to prove to the Amorites that they brought punishment upon themselves.

Deu. 2:30. Hardened, lit., sharpened his heart by keen resolution. No direct influence from God imparted. Sihon was permitted like Pharaoh to pursue his own course.

Deu. 2:32. cf. Num. 21:23 -Ver. 26. A war of extermination, in which all towns were laid under the ban (see Lev. 27:29), i.e., the whole of the population of men, women, and children, were put to death, and only the flocks and herds and material possessions were taken by the conquerors as prey.Keil.

TURNED BACK AND DELAYED.Deu. 2:1-3

In this chapter Moses reviews the history of Israel, and narrates the journey from Kadesh to the frontier of the Amorites. He is silent about many things, but glances at Gods goodness to the end of their wandering. Israel had been turned back, and entrance into Canaan delayed.

I. Gods purpose is sometimes delayed in its fulfilment. God had purposed and promised that the land should be given to Israel, but they had come short of it. Their unbelief and rebellion had delayed the fulfilment of this design. Thus by our sins we may be driven away from our destiny, and hinder the work of God. Ye shall know my breach (lit., removal, withholding) of promise. (Num. 14:34.)

II. Human discipline is secured by this delay. We cannot always see what ends God has in view, but he brings good out of evil, and light from darkness. Two things we learn from this delay.

1. Israel was prepared for the inheritance. Men are often unfit for duty and destiny. Hasty preparation will be a curse and not a blessing. In the wilderness Israel was organised into a nation, received laws and learned obedience. Solitude, delay, and affliction are salutary, and discipline for lifes end and reward. How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out.

2. The Canaanites had forfeited the inheritance. Their opportunities were almost gone, and their day of grace over. They had ripened themselves for their doom. No overtures of peace were offered them. Their land was taken from them, and as an absolute sovereign gift bestowed upon Israel. Solemn thought, men may sin away their day of salvation. (Lev. 16:30.)

III. When men are prepared by discipline, Gods purpose is realised through them. Gods design is not forgotten nor frustrated, though often delayed. If some do not, others are taught to accomplish it. David may not, but Solomon builds a house for God. Gods purposes comprehend all agencies and all events. Change of method does not indicate change of design. For He performeth the thing that is appointed for me, and many such things are with Him.

ISRAELS CHARGE CONCERNING ESAU AND MOAB.Deu. 2:4-9

It appears from Num. 20:18-20 that the Edomites were prepared to resist Israels passage through their land. But the country was not invaded, and the Edomites did not attack nor hinder them in their journey. The Israelites are forbidden to meddle with these nations, for their lands were given them; to remember their blood relationship, and to deal kindly and justly with them. From this charge learn

I. Natural advantage is no ground for strife. The Israelites were now strong in number and wealth. God was with them, and terror fell upon their enemies. They shall be afraid of you. But they were not to take advantage of prevalent fear and weak opponents. The strong must help and not oppress the weak. Right and not might must rule. We are not to despise others because we are stronger than they in body and mind. Great nations should not invade and destroy small ones. Aggressive war may defeat its end, and ruin those who engage in it. Scatter thou the people that delight in war.

II. Natural brotherhood is a ground for social intercourse. Israel, Edom, and Moab, were kinspeople. Our brethren the children of Esau. All nations are made of one blood, bound by natural affinity, and mutually dependent. Trade, commerce, and international treaties, promote the good feeling and develop the resources of nations. Israel must not war, but trade. Their social intercourse must be straight-forward and honourablenot in jealousy, but in lovenot as strangers, but as brethren. Honour all men, love the brotherhood.

III. Gods gifts to others are no reason for dissatisfaction with our own. I will not give thee of their land, Deu. 2:8, because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession, Deu. 2:4. God has apportioned to men and nations their position. They are to be grateful and content, and not to touch possessions which do not belong to them. Covet no mans houses or land, envy no persons influence and position. Be content with your own lotit might have been worseimprove your own gifts. The desire of something unpossessed is a greater source of misery than positive pain or actual destitution. Solon asked by Croesus, Who was the happiest man? referred to a poor cottager of Greece, who never desired greater wealth or a better condition than he possessed.

IV. Gods goodness in the past is an encouragement for future blessings. The Lord thy God hath been with thee, thou hast lacked nothing. God had blessed Israel with abundance and they had no need to beg nor steal. His continued presence should prevent us from resorting to fraud or violence to supply our wants. We have Gods all sufficient providence to depend upon, and should therefore live by faith and constant obedience. Our wants are known and our supplies are promised (cf. Deu. 8:2-3; Deu. 8:15-16). Carking anxiety preys upon temper, spirits, and health; leads to envy, selfishness, and unbelief; and acts like the vulture feeding upon the vitals of Prometheus while chained to the rock. Take no thought for the morrow.

GODS CARE FOR HUMAN LIFE.Deu. 2:7

He knoweth thy walking. God is omniscient and knows all things. But this knowledge is not mere notice, but intimate acquaintance with every step and circumstance of life; a fatherly care and regard for men. We learn therefore from this verse

I. Human life is under divine control. This knowing comprehends purpose, presence, and providential guidance.

1. In preventing wrong. Israel were prevented from entering Canaan when determined to go in defiance of Gods command. A rebellious self-will leads men to misery and destruction, but a merciful providence checks their folly.

2. In disposing to right. Israels proud will was conquered, and they were led back into the wilderness. They were humbled and taught to obey and depend upon God. We are prevented from sin and made willing to serve in the day of Gods power.

II. Human life is measured by Divine purpose. The journey in the desert is a type of our life in the world. God fixed the timethese forty years. So human life is measured in its length. It is not a matter of chance or inflexible law, but an object of Divine purpose. So many days, months, years, and no more. The measure of my days. Mans life, says Mt. Henry, is no more governed by the stoics blind fate, than by the Epicurns blind fortune. His days are determined, the number of his months are with thee.

III. Human life is an object of Divine care. Whatever God makes He sustains. Human life, Christian life, is especially dear to Him.

1. In our journeys. Thy walking. Temporally and spiritually the steps of a good man are ordered (formed, prepared) by the Lord (Psa. 37:23). God keeps an exact account, and notes every incident of our life. Thou tellest (takest note of) my wanderings (Psa. 56:8).

2. In our works. In all the works of thy hand. Flocks and herds had increased (Num. 32:1). Israel had gained wealth in trafficking with the tribes, and in cultivating the soil of the desert. There can be no prosperity or increase in labour without Gods blessing. The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich.

3. In our wants. Thou hast lacked nothing. God had been their leader and protector, chosen places of rest and supplied their varied wants. Their clothes decayed not, and their shoes wore not away (Deu. 29:5). He knows our wants and wishes, temporal and spiritual, and can sustain us through life. Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. If God knows, measures and controls our pilgrimage on earth.

1. Learn dependence on Him.
2. Submit to Him.
3. Seek His guidance and presence.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Deu. 2:1-4. God the Leader of His people. Resting where they encamp, going with them in their journey, commanding and directing in their march and social intercourse.

Deu. 2:4. Take ye good heed to yourselves. Self-control needed.

1. In prosperity. Israel wonderfully blessed in strength and numbers, but must not become selfish and tyrannical.

2. In the presence of those who fear us. When men are an easy prey to us we are ready to take advantage. But we must be cautious, and keep strict control over our spirit and actions.

Deu. 2:7. Gods continued mercies to us. That we may see that Gods care was not exclusively confined to Israel, we will showI. What mercies have been vouchsafed to us during the whole period of our sojourning in this wilderness. In relation to

1. Temporal concerns: the necessities and luxuries of life;
2. The concerns of the soul. II. Under what circumstances they have been continued to us. If we look at Israel they will serve to show us.
1. How great our provocations towards God have been.
2. How entirely we have been under the influence of unbelief.C. Simeon, M. A.

THE VICISSITUDES OF NATIONS.Deu. 2:10-12; Deuteronomy 20-23

The mention of the Moabites gives occasion for the interpolation of remarks concerns the earliest inhabitants of these countries. From what we read of these nations in this and other places, we trace the providence and purpose of God in history.

I. God has made Nations to differ in their character and habits of life. The names of these people are instructive. The Enims were considered by the Moabites to be terrible; men of gigantic stature and fierce manners. The Horim appear to be dwellers in caves, which abound in the Edomite range. Their origin is not known (cf. Gen. 14:6; Gen. 36:20). The Zamzummims, Deu. 2:20, a bullying presumptuous band of Rephaim; Gen. 14:5, were another giant tribe. The Avim dwelt in villages (farms) south-west of Canaan, and were a pastoral people. The Captorims sprang from Caphtor (Gen. 10:14), and were immigrants, like the Israelites. Thus some nations are physically strong and numerous, and others few and weak; some blessed with natural and others with spiritual advantages. The climate and products, the language and diversities of nations display the wisdom and goodness of God.

II. God displaces some nations to fix others. God permitted the children of Esau to drive out the Horims; Moab to subdue the Emins; and the Caphtorims to dislodge the Avims. Wars of conquests, changes of dynasties, and revolutions of history are under Divine control, and work out Divine purposes. The same law appears in the formation and government of the earth, and in the progress of Christianity. This is so often repeated, to possess the minds of the Israelites with a sense of Gods providence, which rules everywhere; displacing one people and settling another in their stead, and fixing their bounds also, which they shall not pass without leave (Patrick). He putteth down one, and setteth up another.

III. God in the history of nations teaches many lessons. If the providence of God is seen in the settlement of nations, it is not by chance or accident that they are what and where they are. Learn

1. That all our possessions are the gifts of God. Whatever be the skill and valour by which they were gained, in some mysterious manner they come from Him. The lands of Edom, Moab, and Ammon are said to be given by God. Canaan was not acquired by the valour of Israel, but by the will of God.

2. That all our possessions are uncertain in their tenure. If nations can be deprived of their territories, kings of their thrones, and families of their inheritance: What hold have we of earthly fortunes? Why may we not be deprived of our place and power? Let us take heed lest we forfeit our blessings, lest God take us away and pluck us out of our dwelling place.

What exhibitions various hath the world
Witnessd of mutability in all
That we account most durable below!
Change is the diet on which all subsist;
Created changeable, and change at last
Destroys them.Cowper.

Men of War Consumed.Deu. 2:14-15

The outbreak at Kadesh at the false report of the spies was only the filling up of the measure of Israels iniquity. That generation was not wholly given up to idolatry, but they had displayed a fearful amount of rebellion in the desert, only hinted at in this history, but truly described in other places. (Ezekiel 20, 25, 26; Amo. 5:25; Amo. 5:27; Act. 7:42.) For this great wickedness the men of war, those able to war, the responsible transgressors were doomed to perish in the desert by special judgments of God.

I. The cause of this consumption. By their long and open revolt, Israel had provoked the wrath of God. In his displeasure they were punished and buried in the wilderness. Wickedness of any kind is most unprofitable, often brings down the judgments of God and shortens human life. With whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

II. The method of this consumption. Their unbelief made this a day of provocation in the wilderness and their punishment was most exemplary.

1. It was a terrible consumption. I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them.

2. It was a complete destruction. With two exceptions the whole generation were blotted out of existence.

3. This was designedly carried out. When all the men of war were consumed and dead, then and not before were they permitted to invade the land and conquer its inhabitants. God can do without the greatest warriors. In his cause faith is more needful than numbers. This gives courage and make children heroes. God designs to give success, by removing the wise and the mighty and causing us to look to Him alone. To whom sware he that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not.

ISRAELS CHARGE CONCERNING THE AMMONITES.Deu. 2:16-19

After the death of the generation that had sinned the people were to cross the border of Moab and advance into Canaan. To the east of Moab was the country of the Ammonites, but Israel was not to touch them, for God had bestowed upon them possessions which must be held sacred. From this charge we learn

I. The honour God puts upon His word. I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession. God never breaks His word, nor changes His purpose. Ammon did not belong to the chosen people, but God guaranteed them certain temporal advantages. He is faithful in His dealings with them, and others must be taught to recognise this faithfulness. I am the Lord; I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass.

II. The sacredness of human rights. The Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, and what is assigned to them by right belongs to them. It is our duty to respect national rights and national territories, and never wrong men by force or fraud. They may insult and seek to do us mischief, as Moab sought to ruin Israel (Num. 22:6), but we are not to retaliate, nor meddle with their possessions. He that studieth revenge keepeth his wounds open.Bacon.

III. The blessings derived by children from their ancestors. The Ammonites are called the children of Lot, a righteous ancestor. We have power to be of service to our offspring, and put succeeding generations under obligation. Children often fare the better in this world for the piety of their ancestors; says Math. Henry, The seed of the upright, though they degenerate, yet are blessed with temporal good things.

THE FIRST WAR.Deu. 2:24-25

Israel ceased to meddle with some nations and thus practised self-denial and obedience. Now God gives them commission to begin the war, and promises them success over Sihon, king of Heshbon. If we wrong not others, God will ever right us.

I. Israel must co-operate with God to attain the victory. God purposed to give Sihon into their hands, but they must contend with him in battle. Gods promise does not exclude human effort. It should stimulate and encourage it. To secure the fulfilment of the pledge, we must rise up from idleness and doubt. God has promised to give us daily bread, a regular harvest, and spiritual conquest in His service; but we have to pray and fight.

II. God will help and encourage Israel when they begin the contest. No longer must they wait or hesitate. They must take the journey, pass over the river, begin the war.

1. The enemy is dispirited. They trembled in fear, were bereft of strength, and were ready to melt away before the victorious nation. Their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel Jos. 5:1-2. God begins the work, and they have only to carry it on. Begin to possess it, for this day will I begin. Gods people must follow their Commander in courage and confidence. Fear, inactivity, and cowardliness may lose the day. Success often depends upon the vigour of the onset. The first stroke is half the battle. This was seen at the battle of Cressy, in King Alfreds attack upon the Danes, and in Israels conflict with Sihon. Only be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lords battles.

THE DESTRUCTION OF SIHON.Deu. 2:26-37

The kingdom of Sihon formed no part of the land promised to the seed of Abraham. Moses desired to pass through peaceably, and sent messengers to request this, but the king rejected the proposal, met Israel with hostility, and brought ruin upon his people and country.

I. An example of human folly. A respectful and pacific message was rejected (cf. Num. 21:21-22). Israel was not permitted to pass through the high way quietly, and pay for what provisions they wanted, but Sihon made a bold and unprovoked attack, and was utterly defeated. What folly to be obstinate in wrong doing, to oppose might against right, and bring on self-destruction! How often are men found self-willed, casting off all restraint, forgetting their opportunities, and ripening themselves for judgment by abusing their mercies!

II. An illustration of spiritual law. God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate. Not by evil influence, but by permitting him to carry out his own will, and to remain in circumstances fitted to soften rather than to harden. This effect results from a law which we see in operation every day in our moral nature. Sin blinds the mind, and alienates the affections. Indulgence in self-will corrupts and hardens the heart. When men resist the truth, and ward off appeals of consciencewhen they are obstinate and invincible in sinthen a process of hardening goes on. They have less struggle, less compunction, and less feeling. And as the same sun melts one substance and hardens another, so the gospel subdues one heart and indirectly hardens anotherbecomes the savour of life to one and the savour of death to another. Pharaoh grew more stubborn, and rushed madly to his ruin. Ahab despised reproof until the bow received its commission. He that being often reproved (a man of reproof, marg.) hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy (Pro. 29:1).

III. An evidence of a retributive Providence. This law is a mysterious operation of God in the moral government of the world. God hardened Sihon that He might deliver him up. The guilt of the Amorites was great, ready for judicial punishment. If they gained their territory by violence and bloodshedif they forced their way into Gilead and Bashan, then they were repaid; for as they measured to others it was measured to them. But a natural course of sin against spiritual laws and unseen forces will bring retributive justice. In this world we have awful examples, predictions, and precursors of the judgment to come.

Oh I blind to truth and Gods whole scheme below,
Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe.Pope.

THE VICTORY OF JAHAZ.Deu. 2:32-35

Jahaz was a memorable placea city of Moab, afterwards assigned to the tribe of Reuben and given to the priests (Jos. 13:18; 1Ch. 6:33; Isa. 15:4). Here Israel fought a battle and gained the victory.

I. The victory was gained in self-defence. Israel could only reach Canaan through the lands of Sihon. All reasonable demands had been rejected. They were hindered in seeking their natural rights, and provoked to war by a needless attack. A righteous cause gives courage, and inspires hope of victory in the conflict.

II. The victory was secured by Divine help. The Lord our God delivered him before us. With God with us we shall always win, but without Him numbers and skill will not avail. In all spiritual conflicts victory belongs to Him, for the battle is not yours, but Gods.

III. The victory was decisive in its results. The battle had not to be fought again. Its advantages were not worthless. It was complete and overwhelming. The people were exterminated; We smote him, and his sons, and all his peoplea warning to all who fight against God. The cities were utterly destroyed and the land desolated.

IV. The victory was limited in its operations. Only cattle and material goods were booty for the conquerors. The lands of the Ammonites were not touched. They left undone whatsoever the Lord our God forbad us to do. Ambition must be checked, and victors must learn self-control and dependence upon the Divine will. Next to gaining a great victory is knowing how to use it, said Wellington.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Deu. 2:24. Rise up. Activity, diligence, progress and Divine direction in Christian pilgrimage. Neither be idle, nor remain stationary.

Deu. 2:24-25. I have given, rise up. Attainment of Divine gifts.

1. They are ready to be given.
2. God will help us to get them, (a) By giving strength. Contend with Him. (b) By disposing us to follow Him. I beginYou begin.

Deu. 2:24-25. The fame of Israel as a conquering people. I. How, at this time, that fame was increased, viz., by the conquest of the mightiest nations east of Jordan. II. The moral effects of this conquest.

1. Israel prepared for future conquest.
2. Canaan awed before she had received a blow.Biblical Museum.

Deu. 2:30. Made his heart obstinate. Learn

1. Gods power over men.
2. Gods method of dealing with men as moral governor and judge. He suffers them to be hardened in consequence of obstinate wickedness, yet not as an arbitrary, capricious, or tyrannical being. He wills nothing but good, and therefore His will is the proper rule of judgment. But men obstinately pervert and resist His will. Hence learn

3. Mans fearful power in opposing God and destroying himself. Who hath hardened himself against Him and hath prospered?

Deu. 2:31. Israel victorious. We may apply thus to the spiritual Israel, the Christian Church. 1: We have a warfare. Contest with ignorance and sin, Satan and the world.

2. In this warfare God prepares the world for the conquests of the Church. By toning society, removing difficulties, and striking terror into the enemies. The world was never riper than at present for courageous, determined effort. Great fear came on all them that heard those things.
3. In this warfare the Church can only conquer by Gods presence. Providence is with the strongest battalions, said Napoleon. But in this war neither might nor numbers will avail. Not by might, nor by power.
4. The more victorious is the Church the stronger is she for warfare. Victory gives experience, courage, and confidence in the commander. One success may be the forerunner of many. Israels prowess flew on the winds, and widespread fear made further achievements easy. Good deeds reproduce themselves. The conquests of grace in the heart, and of the gospel in the world, inspire the Church with hope and enthusiasm. She becomes stronger, more ready to obey and fight, and appears terrible as an army with banners.

Deu. 2:31-33. Sihons defeat.

1. Self-inflicted. He came out.
2. Unexpected. Just the reverse of anticipation. I have them, cried Napoleon, concerning the English at Waterloo. What disappointment!
3. Very sudden. Only one pitched battle.
4. Divinely accomplished. And the Lord God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them.

Deu. 2:33; Deu. 2:37. The secret of successful undertaking.

1. When directed by God.
2. When accompanied by Gods help.
3. When made subservient to Gods will.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2

Deu. 2:1. Turned. Thus God orders our will without infringing our liberty. We observe this supremacy in directing not only an important end, but every stop towards it. Often has the way of our own devising been blocked up and an opposite way marked out, with the ultimate acknowledgement.He led me forth in the right way.Bridge.

Deu. 2:3. Long enough. Delays, whether in the business of God or our own, are hateful and prejudicial; many lose the land of promise by lingering.Nicholls.

Deu. 2:4-5. Meddle not. How many unholy hearts would be restrained by the practice of these rules of wisdom and love! A generous self-forgetting warmth of kindness puts down the first evil; denying ourselves the pleasure of justifying our cause, or triumphing over our opponent; instead of standing upon punctilious reforms, or waiting for an acknowledgement from the offender.Bridge.

Deu. 2:6. Water. The value attached to water in the East is here brought strikingly before us; also the justice which characterised the policy of the Jewish law giver. The Edomites were in possession of the wells, and the fluid of life must be paid for, if money would be accepted.Temperance Commentary.

Deu. 2:7. Knoweth. Have you not much reason for thankfulness in your retrospect? And when things you undertook have not prospered in your sense of prosperity, have you not found that in some way you never expected they did you good? Have you not often been thankful that you did not succeed where your heart was calculating on unbounded success? Where your work has not enriched you, has it not often humbled you? and are you not constrained to say now, after an impartial retrospect of thirty, forty or sixty years, that the Lord hath blessed me in all the works of my handsDr. Cumming.

Deu. 2:10-12; Deuteronomy 20-23. National changes. The succession of tribes or nations indicated in the chapter is a very remarkable feature; showing that not only individuals pass away like a shadow, but nations also. There is not a nation at this moment inhabited by the people that dwelt in it fifteen, or sixteen hundred years ago. The people in Rome are less like the ancient Romans than we are; the inhabitants of Athens are not the lineal descendants of the ancient Greeks. And who knows not that our own country has successively been invaded by Saxon, Norman, and Dane; and that Britain which we look upon as our home has been successively peopled by different nations. As if God would teach the nations of the earth, as well as the units that compose them, that here we have no continuing city, no fixed place of abode; that we are nationally and individually pilgrims and strangers and should be looking for a better country.Dr. Cumming.

Deu. 2:14-16. Wasted.

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground:
Another race the following spring supplies;
They fall successive, and successive rise.

Popes Homer.

Deu. 2:24-25. Fear of thee. As in the natural world in times of ripeness there is change in the appearance of things; so there are evident signs of ripeness in the spiritual world. There is a preparedness with individuals, neighbourhoods, and nations. Let the Church awake and work, and her victories will be large and immediate.

Deu. 2:33-37. God delivered. The person who has a firm trust in the Supreme Being, is powerful in his power, wise by his wisdom, happy by is happiness. He reaps the benefit of every Divine attribute, and loses his own insufficiency in the fulness of Infinite Perfection.Addison.

Give me the eye which can see God in all, and the hand which can serve Him with all, and the heart which can bless him for all.Abp. Secker.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

LESSON TWO Deu. 2:1-23

4. PASSING THROUGH EDOM (Deu. 2:1-8)

Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Jehovah spake unto me; and we compassed mount Seir many days. 2 And Jehovah spake unto me, saying, 3 Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. 4 And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the border of your brethren the children of Esau, that dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore; 5 contend not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. 6 Ye shall purchase food of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink. 7 For Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee in all the work of thy hand; he hath known thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years Jehovah thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing. 8 So we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, that dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Eziongeber.
And we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 2:18

31.

Please notice the time element in Deu. 2:1, Then we turned,when?

32.

Trace on the map the journey here mentioned.

33.

How many years from the time that Jacob and Esau parted company until the day when Israel was to pass through the territory of Esau?

34.

Was there some reason for the fear of the children of Esau?

35.

Why had Jehovah blessed Esau? In what manner?

36.

Where did Israel obtain the money for purchase of food and water?

37.

Give two events that occurred on their way from Kadesh to Zered.

38.

How is it that the attitude of Esau has changed so radically?

AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 2:18

Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord directed me; and for many days we journeyed around Mount Seir.
2 And the Lord spoke to me [Moses], saying,
3 You have roamed around this mountain country long enough; turn northward.
4 And command the Israelites, You are to pass through the territory of your kinsmen the sons of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So watch yourselves carefully;
5 Do not provoke or stir them up; for I will not give you of their land, no, not enough for the sole of your foot to tread on, for I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession.

6 You shall buy food of them for money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink.
7 For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; He knows your walking through this great wilderness; these forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.
8 So we passed on from our brethren the sons of Esau, who dwelt in Seir, away from the Arabah (wilderness) and from Elath, and from Ezion-geber. We turned and went by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

COMMENT 2:18

THEN WE TURNED (Deu. 2:1)That is, from Kadesh (Deu. 1:46). Now the punishment period of Israels stay in the wilderness is over. They are not now wandering about from camp to camp, but given definite direction to proceed toward their promised home in Canaan.

We have treated the statement of Moses in Deu. 1:46, So ye abode in Kadesh many days, as a summary statement which is not intended to tell all that went on at Kadesh, or how many times Israel encamped there. The fact of the matter is, that there is an approximate thirty-seven[14] year interim between chapters one and two of Deuteronomy. The reason for omitting the details of that long wandering period is simple: it does not suit the hortatory nature of Moses address to Israel. The many days at Kadesh include a prolonged stay upon the first visit, a return to it after years of wandering, and another prolonged stay. Chapter two, which begins Israels journey around Edom, comes at the conclusion of their wilderness journeys and at the end of their second stay at Kadesh. This is such an important concept in the chronology that we feel compelled to include McGarveys excellent treatment of the case. The design of his remarks are primarily to refute certain Higher Critics charges that the account in Numbers concerning the length of stay in Kadesh differs with the record of Deuteronomyhence showing different authorship. His refutation is also a very competent explanation of Deu. 1:46 to Deu. 2:1. The reader will do well to follow it carefully.

[14] Thirty-eight by the time Israel reaches the Zered river. See Deu. 2:14 and notes.

It is universally assumed by destructive critics that the stay of Israel at Kadesh-Barnea is represented in Numbers as lasting thirty-eight years; while in Deuteronomy, contrary to this, they spent the thirty-eight years circling Mount Seir . . .[15]

[15] Statements by Driver and Wellhauser are then cited. In part, Drivers statement is, . . . the representation in Deut. ii. 1, 14, according to which the thirty-eight years of the wanderings are occupied entirely with circling Mount Seir, will be irreconcilable with JE (that is, with Numbers). He has followed Wellhausen who said the emigrants settled at Kadesh, remaining there for many years.

The only way to determine the reality of this alleged contradiction is to trace carefully the representations in the two books separately, and then compare them to see their differences, if any appear. We begin with that in Numbers. In 14:25, after the sentence has been pronounced on the men of that generation, God issues the command, Tomorrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. Driver says of this, Whether they did this, is not stated; and it is true that it is not stated; but the command was given, and Moses, who was the leader and commander of the host, always moved at Gods command; and the pillar of cloud, which guided every movement, undoubtedly did the same. It is not necessary, then, that the text should say that they did move. On the contrary, it would require a statement of the text that they did not move, to justify us in supposing that they did not. But this inference, plain as it is, is not our only ground for concluding that they obeyed the command. In later verses of the same chapter (32, 33) God says to the people: Your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness. And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be consumed in the wilderness. How could they be wanderers in the wilderness forty years if they remained thirty-eight years at Kadesh? It is necessarily implied that they were to leave Kadesh and wander about. [In Deuteronomy, this entire period of wandering (i.e. the period of punishment or curse after their refusal to go up and conquer the land) is covered in six versesDeu. 1:40-46.]

The narrative next proceeds through chapters 15-19 of Numbers, with a group of new statutes (Num. 15:1-41); the acount of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram (Num. 16:40); the punishment of those who murmured over the fate of these men and their fellow conspirators (Num. 16:41-50); the confirmation of Aarons priesthood (Num. 17:1-13); some new statutes in reference to the priesthood and the Levites (Num. 18:1-32); and the statute in reference to the ashes of the red heifer (Num. 19:1-22). Then comes the statement; And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there (Num. 20:1). How could it be here said that after these intervening events they came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and abode in Kadesh, if they had been in Kadesh during the whole intervening time? Undoubtedly, this is a return to Kadesh; and the assertion that they abode in Kadesh, [also in Deu. 1:46] grossly misinterpreted as referring to the whole thirty-eight years, clearly refers to the stay there after this return. The first month here mentioned, as all parties agree, is the first month of the fortieth year. We need not go outside the Book of Numbers, then, the very book which is charged with teaching that Israel abode at Kadesh thirty-eight years, to see that by necessary implications it shows that they left Kadesh after the affair of the spies, wandered in the wilderness until all but the last of the forty years had expired, and then returned again to Kadesh.

This conclusion, drawn from the course of events, is sustained by the evidence of the itinerary of the wilderness wanderings, also recorded in Numbers. In this itinerary (Numbers 33) Kadesh is mentioned only once, it being the intention of the writer to name the forty-two places of formal encampment, without regard to the number of times that Israel may have encamped at any one place. When Kadesh is mentioned, it is, as we have seen, in connection with the arrival there in the first month of the fortieth year. But they reached that place [the first time], and sent forth the twelve spies at the time of the first ripe grapes in the second year out of Egypt (Num. 13:20). Hazeroth is the last camping-place mentioned in the account of the journey before reaching Kadesh (Num. 12:16, cf. Num. 13:26); but in the itinerary there are between Hazeroth and Kadesh nineteen encampments. This could not have been true of the first arrival in Kadesh: consequently we must conclude that these nineteen encampments were made between the first and second arrival in that place, or during the wanderings of thirty-eight years, of which we know but little. Thus it appears, from every point of view furnished by the Book of Numbers, that this interval of thirty-eight years was not spent at Kadesh, but at emcampments lying in between the first and second visit to that place.

Now let us turn to Deuteronomy, and see if there is anything there to contradict this conclusion. Here in (Deu. 2:14), Moses says to the people: And the days in which we came from Kadesh-Barnea, until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the midst of the camp, as Jehovah sware unto them. The terms here employed show that he is counting from the time that Jehovah sware this; that is, from the first visit to Kadesh. This is made equally clear by the fact that the places of encampment since the last visit to that place are named in Num. 33:38-44, and they are only five in number. The first of them, Mount Hor, was reached in the fifth month of the last year of the wanderings (Num. 33:38), and the others were passed a little later in the same year. The many days that were passed in compassing Mount Seir (the land of Edom), which Driver understands as including the thirty-eight years, were spent after leaving Kadesh the last time; for Moses says: So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according to the days that ye abode there. Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Jehovah spake to me: and we compassed mount Seir many days (Deu. 1:46 to Deu. 2:1). The circuit occupied many days compared with the small space around which they had to pass. The many days which they spent in Kadesh included the forty spent by the spies in their march through Canaan, together with some days previous, and some days after this march, and, during the last visit, the days of mourning for Miriam, probably thirty, [cf. Num. 20:29, Deu. 34:8] and much the greater part of the time from the first month to the fifth, in which they reached Mount Hor (Num. 20:1; Num. 20:22 [and Num. 33:38-39]).[16]

[16] Authorship of Deuteronomy, pp. 9194. Our additions are in brackets.

AND TOOK OUR JOURNEY INTO THE WILDERNESS BY THE WAY TO THE RED SEA (Deu. 2:1)A glance at the map will show that their journey brought them next to the northeast arm of the Red Sea, the gulf of Aqaba, in their journey around mount Seir.

AND WE COMPASSED MOUNT SEIR MANY DAYS (Deu. 2:1)This was literally true. Commencing their journey at Kadesh on the west, they travelled along the western side of the mountain range of Seir or Edom to Ezion-geber; then they turned and passed close to its southern border; then they turned again and traversed the wilderness of Arabia, close to the eastern border; and they finally entered and marched across Moab on its northern border.[17]

[17] Josiah L. Porter, in The New Self-Interpreting Bible Library

This was the land of Esau or Edom (cf. Deu. 2:8, Num. 21:4, Gen. 32:3). The Numbers account of this journey (Deu. 21:4-9) indicates an especially difficult one, for the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way, and they spake against God, and against Moses. The result was the sending of the fiery serpents and much people of Israel died. The Apostle Paul therefore exhorts us, Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer (1Co. 10:10). A fiery serpent of brass was made at the command of God, and set upon a standard, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived (Num. 21:9)a blessed figure of Christ himself: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life (Joh. 3:14-15).

Unfortunately, this brazen serpent was later worshipped as an idol. It was finally destroyed during Hezekiahs reign (2Ki. 18:4).

On the time involved in this journey, see under Deu. 2:14.

YE ARE TO PASS THROUGH THE BORDER OF YOUR BRETHREN THE CHILDREN OF ESAU (Deu. 2:4)Compare this statement with verse eight, So we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau . . . That is, they went through the east side of Edom, thus, in a sense, went by them.[18] They bypassed mount Seir as such. Israel had previously attempted to go through by entering from the southwest, sending messengers from Kadesh (Num. 20:14-22), but this was neither the will of Edom nor of God. . . . And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him. (Num. 20:20-21) Had God intended for Israel to take this route, defeat of the Edomites would have been no problem. But his directions were otherwise. Moses record states, Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Jehovah spake unto me . . . (Deu. 2:1). One observes Gods specific directions all through this passage. And their bitter defeat at Hormah (Deu. 1:44) when they attempted to battle the Amorites without Gods approval, must still have been in the minds of the very few of the older generation that were still alive.

[18] Others understand verse eight to mean simply, so we got by (past) our other brethren the children of Esaui.e., without any trouble or battle. Nevertheless, Israels course was through part of their country.

The first route would have been much shorter and easier, for it was to be along the kings highway (Num. 20:17) whereas this route was extremely difficult, and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way (Num. 21:4). But Israel was always blessed when Gods directions were followedeven if such obedience meant difficulties.

Their first attempt to pass through this country, prior to encompassing the land, had been flatly refused (Num. 20:14-21) This was after the nearly thirty-eight years of punishment, for their return to Kadesh was on the first month of the fortieth year (Num. 20:1). Israels offer at that time was generous and kind enough: Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy land: we will not pass through field or through vineyard, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go along the kings highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy border. . . . And if we drink of thy water, I and my cattle, then will I give the price thereof: let me only, without doing anything else, pass through on my feet (Num. 20:17; Num. 20:19). Edoms answer was an armed troop that came out against Israel. . . . wherefore Israel turned away from him . . . And they journeyed from Kadesha statement that coincides exactly with Deu. 1:46 to Deu. 2:1. Then follows (in Numbers) the death of Aaron at mount Hor, mourning for him for thirty days, a victory over the Canaanites at Hormah, and the long discouraging circuit of mount Seir, with the murmuring and the punishment by serpents.

Finally, God is able to say Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward (Deu. 2:3). And now, after many days, somehow Edoms whole disposition toward Israel has drastically changed! The very privileges Edom had previously refused, are now allowed, Water and food are purchased (Deu. 2:6). So we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau (Deu. 2:8).

Why the great change in Edoms attitude? Why the kindness now, where there had been hostility and enmity? Simply because God had now decided that his people were to go through. In his own good time, God decrees the blessings that are appropriate for his peopleand no earthly power is able to thwart his designs, Nebechadnezzar expressed this very truth when he said of God, . . . he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth (Dan. 4:35); and Daniel himself could say to Belshazzar that the Most High God ruleth in the kingdom of men, . . . he setteth up over it whosoever he will (Dan. 5:21).

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

II.

(1) Then.In the original simply And. There is no note of time.

By the way of the Red sea.i.e., in the direction of the Gulf of Akabah, southwards.

As the Lord spake unto me.In Num. 14:25, as noted on Deu. 1:40.

Many days.Until near the close of the thirty-ninth year of the exodus.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

FROM KADESH TO THE TERRITORY OF THE AMORITES, Deu 2:1-23.

1. The way of the Red Sea The way to the Red Sea that is, the AElanitic Gulf, now called the Gulf of Akabah.

As the Lord spake Comp. Num 14:25.

Compassed Mount Seir many days This refers to the long years of wandering, of which, in the narrative, we have so few details.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

DISCOURSES BY MOSES.

First Discourse, Deu 1:6 to Deu 4:40.

Addressing the people, with the Promised Land in their sight, Moses reviews the events that have occurred in their march from Horeb to the plains of Moab. He reminds them how God had fulfilled his promises, and how they had sinned, and by their unbelief and rebellion had been kept from entering into the promised possession; and he admonishes them not to forfeit by new transgressions the land they are destined to conquer.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Chapter 2 There Are Others To Whom Yahweh Has Given Land And They Are To Be Left Alone; The Defeat of Sihon, King of the Amorites.

So their fathers had failed to receive the land. But now the people are stirred up to go forward and take the land which God is giving them. He stresses, however, that there are also others to whom He has given land, and that that land is not theirs for the taking. That land belongs to the nations to whom Yahweh has given it. Israel cannot have it because it has been given to those nations by Yahweh. These are Edom, Moab and Ammon, all descended from Terah, Abraham’s father, and connected with Abraham.

The first are related to the children of Esau, and ‘Mount Seir was given to Esau for a possession’ (Deu 2:5) while the other two are ‘descended’ from Lot and receive their land as from him. Theirs is the land which He has given to the children of Lot for a possession (Deu 2:9; Deu 2:19). To all three He has given their land for the sake of their fathers, for the sake of Abraham. For it is He Who disposes of land in accordance with His will (Deu 32:8). Although Israel (Jacob) are special, for they are His portion.

By this means it is emphasised to Israel that when Yahweh gives land to a nation it is under His protection. He is the Lord of all land and can give it to whom He will. Here is a shining example to them of what it means to dwell in land given by Yahweh. Let them then go forward to claim their own. The land that Yahweh gives them will be as secure to them as the land of Edom, Moab and Ammon are secure to those nations if only they are obedient. But they must not touch what Yahweh has given to others.

However, the same was not true of the Amorites. The land that they were in possession of did not belong to them. They were among those whose iniquity was now full (Gen 15:16). They had forfeited the land. Thus the land of Sihon was Israel’s for the taking.

Note how interspersed with the information about Edom, Moab and Ammon are two statements concerning Israel. The first confirms the way that Yahweh has blessed the second generation in the wilderness (Deu 2:7) and the second that He has destroyed all the first generation who were disobedient in Israel (Deu 2:14-15). If His people are, in His will, to enjoy blessing in their land like Edom, Moab and Ammon have, they must remember both, that God blesses those who obey Him and curses those who do not.

Approach to Edom (Deu Deu 2:1-8 ).

The first people who would be approached by Israel were Edom, described here as ‘sons of Esau’ (compare ). Esau was Jacob’s elder brother and had made his home in Mount Seir gathering around him a band of men and combining with others to form the nation of Edom (Gen 33:16; Gen 36:6-9). They were thus seen as a ‘brother’ tribe.

This passage can be analysed as follows:

a They went round in Mount Seir for a number of years (Deu 2:1 b).

b Until Yahweh said that they had gone round Mount Seir long enough and were to turn towards the north (Deu 2:2-3).

c They were to pass by the borders of their brothers, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir. Esau would be afraid so that must be careful about their behaviour (Deu 2:4).

d They were not to contend with them, for Yahweh would not give Israel their land even to tread on (Deu 2:5 a).

d The reason for this was that Yahweh had given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession (Deu 2:5 b).

c They were therefore to purchase their food and water with silver so that they might eat and drink (Deu 2:6).

b For He reminds them that He has blessed them in all that they have done as they have travelled in the wilderness for ‘forty years’, so that they have lacked nothing (Deu 2:7).

a So they passed by their brothers the children of Esau who dwelt in Seir as they came from Elath and Ezion-geber in the Arabah rift valley (Deu 2:8 a).

Note that in ‘a’ they wandered around Mount Seir, but that in the parallel they avoided the places where Esau dwelt. In ‘b’ they have been travelling around Seir long enough, and in the parallel while they have done so for almost forty years Yahweh has blessed them and ensured that they lacked nothing. In ‘c’ they were to recognise that Esau were frightened of them and were to pass by their borders, and in the parallel they were to ensure that they paid for any food or drink that they required, thus quieting their fears. And in ‘d’ they were reminded that they must not fight with them because their land was not for Israel. Indeed, in the parallel, they learn that it is Yahweh Himself Who has given it to Esau for a possession.

The Command To Go Forward (Deu Deu 2:1-3 ).

( Note: For commentary on Deu 2:1 a, see the comments for Deu 1:46.)

Deu 2:1 b

‘And we went around in mount Seir many days.’

This section begins with their weary wandering around the region of Mount Seir while the period of judgment of thirty eight years passed (Deu 2:14).

Deu 2:2-3

‘ And Yahweh spoke to me, saying, “You have wandered round this mountain long enough, turn you northward.”

Again it is stressed that we have the words of Moses as received by revelation from Yahweh. The period of waiting was over. Now they were to cease their wandering around the mountainous wilderness and move northward. It was time for them to possess the land in order to fulfil His promise to their forefathers. This northward movement is in direct contrast to their previous ‘movement’ southward as they fled from the Amorites and then returned to the wilderness (Deu 1:44-46).

“Long enough.” Compare Deu 1:6. There their fathers had remained at Mount Sinai in Horeb long enough. That had been the sign to their fathers to move on. Here they had been travelling around Mount Seir long enough. This is a sign for them to move on. But we should note that Moses does not make this distinction between them and us. He speaks of ‘us’ and ‘you’. Although two generations they are one people, and many of the children who were now men had also been there with their fathers.

“Turn you northward.” Once again they can do an ‘about turn’, but this time in obedience to Yahweh and in order to enter the land (contrast Deu 1:40).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Children of Israel Pass Through Edom In Deu 2:1-7 Moses rehearses the story of Israel’s journey through the land of Edom, which is found in Num 20:14-21. God gave possessions to the children of Esau and Lot.

Deu 2:5  Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.

Deu 2:5 “because I have given mount Seir unto Esau” – Comments – They disposed the Horims (Deu 2:22) and the Arims and the Caphtorims (Deu 2:23).

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The First Speech of Moses Deu 1:3 to Deu 4:49 contains the first speech of Moses to the children of Israel in order to prepare them to enter the Promised Land. The purpose of this speech is to exhort Israel to obey the Law that has been delivered to them in order that they prosper in their new land. In this speech Moses gives an historical overview of Israel’s relationship with the Lord since they made a covenant with Him at Mount Sinai. Moses rehearses Israel’s forty-year wilderness journey in order to show them God’s faithfulness in watching over His people.

1. Charge to Depart Mount Sinai & Go Possess the Promised Land Deu 1:3-8

2. Moses Appoints Judges Over the Children of Israel Deu 1:9-18

3. Israel’s Failure to Possess the Promised Land at Kadeshbarnea Deu 1:19-46

4. The Children of Israel Pass Through Edom Deu 2:1-7

5. The Children of Israel Pass Through Moab Deu 2:8-12

6. The Children of Israel Journey Forty Years in the Wilderness Deu 2:13-15

7. The Children of Israel Pass Through the Ammonites Deu 2:16-23

8. Israel Defeats Sihon King of the Amorites Deu 2:24-37

9. The Children of Israel Defeat Og King of Bashan Deu 3:1-7

10. The Lord Gives Israel the Land of the Two Amorite Kings Deu 3:8-22

11. God Raises Up Joshua to Lead Israel into the Promised Land Deu 3:23-29

12. Moses Exhorts Israel to Hearken Unto the Law Deu 4:1-40

13. Moses Appoints Three Cities of Refuge East of Jordan Deu 4:41-43

14. Conclusion to Moses’ First Speech Deu 4:44-49

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

From Kadesh to the Brook Zered

v. 1. Then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, that is, in the direction toward the Red Sea, Num 14:25, as the Lord spake unto me; and we compassed Mount Seir many days, ever moving around in the neighborhood of this mountain range, in the Wilderness of Paran, down to the Elanitic Gulf.

v. 2. And the Lord spake unto me, saying,

v. 3. Ye have compassed this mountain long enough, after they had been journeying back and forth some thirty-seven years; turn you northward, back once more to the edge of the Wilderness of Paran.

v. 4. And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast (boundary) of your brethren, the children of Esau, the half-brother of Isaac, which dwell in Seir, in the country south of the Dead Sea; and they shall be afraid of you, since the fear of the Lord had fallen upon all the nations round about; take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore;

v. 5. meddle not with them, that is, do not attack them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot-breadth; because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. It was for this reason that Israel did not react to the challenge of the king of Edom with an attack, Num 20:14-21, when the latter refused them passage through his land.

v. 6. Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that is, something to eat, food, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink.

v. 7. For the Lord, thy God, hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand, not only in their herds and their flocks, but in whatever industry they found occasion to carry on in the wilderness; He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness, and his knowing involved care and protection. These forty years the Lord, thy God, hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing, the Lord had supplied everything, Pro 27:23; Psa 1:6.

v. 8. And when we passed by from our brethren, the children of Esau, which they did by marching around their country, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath, on the shore of the Elanitic Gulf, and from Ezion-gaber, later the harbor of Solomon at the head of this body of water, we turned, to the west and north, and passed by the way of the Wilderness of Moab, the Plains of Moab being the present end of that journey.

v. 9. And the Lord said unto me, Distress not, use no hostile attitude toward, do not attack, the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar, a city near the boundary of Moab and here representative of the entire country, unto the children of Lot for a possession, the Moabites being descendants of Lot, Gen 19:37.

v. 10. The Emims dwelt therein in times past, in the land now occupied by Moab, a people great, and many, and tall as the Anakims;

v. 11. which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.

v. 12. The Horims, or Horites, Gen 14:6; Gen 36:20, also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead, in the land formerly occupied by the cliff-dwellers; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, the country east of the Jordan, which the Lord gave unto them.

v. 13. Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered, the stream which formed the general southern border of Moabitis, Num 21:12. And we went over the brook Zered.

v. 14. And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, after the return of the spies, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years, until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, Num 26:65, as the Lord sware unto them.

v. 15. For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed. The judgment of the Lord was carried out with unrelenting severity. He is a jealous God even today, and often strikes down the mockers in fury as a warning to all men.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Deu 2:1-23

THE NEW BEGINNING AND REVIEW OF THE JOURNEYINGS OF ISRAEL FROM KADESH TO THE RIVER ARNON, THE FRONTIER OF THE AMORITES.

At this point the language of address is exchanged for that of narrative. The change of subject from “ye abode” to “we turned,” became necessary when Moses passed from exhorting and warning the people to narrating what happened after they resumed their journeyings; and gives no support to the notion of some recent German critics, that Moses left Kadesh with only a portion of the people, while the rest remained there, so that no entire departure of Israel from Kadesh ever took placea notion which the whole tenor of the subsequent narrative contradicts. In obedience to the Divine command (Deu 1:40), the people, after tarrying for a while at Kadesh, took their departure and marched in the direction of the Yam-suph (Num 14:25).

Deu 2:1

And we compassed mount Seir many days. These “many days” are the thirty-eight years during which the people wandered in the wilderness before they camped the second time at Kadesh; their going round Mount Seir, which was in Edom (Gen 36:8, Gen 36:9, Gen 36:20), is descriptive of their nomadic wanderings in various directions, west, south, and south-east of that mountain (Num 21:4). “Crossing the long, lofty mountain chain to the eastward of Ezion-geber (Num 21:4, Num 21:5), the Israelites issued into the great and elevated plains which are still traversed by the Syrian pilgrims on their way to Mecca; and appear to have followed northward nearly the same route which is now taken by the Syrian Hadgi along the western skirts of this great desert near the mountains of Edom”. Mount Seir is now Jebal and esh-Sherah. This mountain range is a continuation of that which surrounds the eastern side of the Dead Sea. The details of this protracted wandering are passed over by Moses as not required by his purpose here.

Deu 2:2, Deu 2:3

When Israel, after their long and disheartening wandering, were at the southeastern end of the ‘Arabah, God gave them the word to turn their march northward towards Canaan. The route they pursued was along the eastern boundary of Edom (comp. Num 21:10, etc.).

Deu 2:4

It would appear that the Edomites made preparations to resist the passage of the Israelites through their territory (Num 20:18-20). As the Israelites, however, kept on the outskirts of their country, and did not attempt to penetrate into the interior, the Edomites did not attack them or seek to hinder their progress. The Israelites, on the other hand, were strictly forbidden to invade that country in a hostile manner; they were to watch over themselves, so as not to be tempted to make war on the Edomites, who were their brethren; as God would not give them any part, not so much as a foot-breadth, of that laud, for he had given Esau (i.e. the race descended from Esau, the EdomitesLXX, ) Mount Seir for a possession. They shall be afraid of you (see Exo 15:15).

Deu 2:5

Meddle not with them; literally, Excite not yourself against them, i.e. so as to strive in battle with them; comp. the use of the verb in Jer 1:1-19 :24, “hast striven” (Authorized Version); Dan 11:25 (where , war, is added), “shall be stirred up to battle” (Authorized Version). Accordingly, they were enjoined to buy from them for money food and water as they required. Two different words in the Hebrew are rendered here by “buy” in the Authorized Version; the former, , a denominative from , grain, properly means to deal in grain, whether as buyer or seller, and so to buy food; the latter, , means primarily to dig (a well, e.g. Gen 26:25), and, as used here, probably conveys the idea that the Israelites were to pay for permission to dig wells in the country of the Edomites to supply themselves with water as they passed along; this, however, does not necessarily follow from the use of this word, for it has also the meaning to buy (comp. Hos 3:2, and the corresponding Arabic verb, kara, which in certain conjugations has the meaning to borrow or hire).

Deu 2:7

They were enabled to buy what they requiredFor the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand; their flocks and herds had increased during their wanderings (Num 32:1); and they may have gained wealth by cultivating the soil at places where they had made a lengthened sojourn, or by traffic with the tribes of the desert with whom they came in contact. Jehovah their God had knownhad noted, observed, had regard to, had cared for (setup. Gen 39:6; Psa 1:6; Pro 27:23)their walkingtheir peregrinationsthrough this great wilderness; he had been their Leader, had chosen for them places to rest in, had provided food for them, and had been their Protector and Guardian all through the forty years of their pilgrimage, so that they had wanted for nothing (Deu 1:33; Deu 8:2, Deu 8:3, Deu 8:15, Deu 8:16; comp. Psa 23:1-6). “He sufficiently supplied what was needful for thee when thou walkedst through this great wilderness; for these forty years the Word of Jah thy God hath sustained thee; nor hath anything been wanting to thee” (Chaldee Paraphrase). Forty years (Num 14:33). “From the fifteenth day of the first month in which their fathers came out of Egypt (Num 33:3), to the tenth day of the same month in which they went over Jordan into Canaan (Jos 4:19), there were but five days wanting of complete forty years” (Patrick).

Deu 2:8

And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath, and from Ezion-gaber, we, etc. Rather, And we passed by from (away from) our brethren the sons of Esau, who dwelt in Self, from (off from, i.e. alongside, but at some distance from) the way of the ‘Arabah, from (off from) Elath and from Ezion-geber. And so, in obedience to the Divine command, the Israelites passed from the territory of the Edomites without entering it, and went by their border on the east side of the ‘Arabah, and from beside Elath and Ezion-geber, both ports at the northern extremity of the Elanitie Gulf of the Red Sea (Num 33:35). Thus they came to where they were then encamped, in the steppes of Moab. “Probably they followed the still used caravan route to Damascus, between the east side of the cultivated laud, and the west side of Arabia Deserta” (Schroeder). Elath or Eloth ( , palmgrove)the of Josephus, ‘Antiq.,’ 9.12; the of Ptolemy (v. 17)was a city of Idumea, situated on the eastern gulf of the Red Sea. Its ruins are still traceable near the modern fortress of Akabah, on the northwest. Ezion-geber ( , backbone of a man, so called probably from the rugged and jagged rocks in its vicinity), a seaport near to Elath (cf. 1Ki 9:26; 2Ch 20:36).

Deu 2:9

The Moabites, being the descendants of Lot, and so allied by race to the Israelites, the latter were commanded to pass through their country without offering them any injury or assault. Ar, a border-town of Moab (Num 21:15), here put for the country itself. It is the Areopolis of the Greeks, and was, as Jerome tells us, destroyed in a single night by an earthquake. A hill with ruins a short distance southwest from Ara’ir, is supposed to be its site.

Deu 2:10-12

The mention of the Moabites gives occasion to the author to introduce some notices of the ancient inhabitants of Edom and Moab. In Moab dwelt, in the earlier times, the Emim, a giant race, potent and numerous, like the ‘Anakim. They were also, like the ‘Anakim reckoned among the Rephaim, but were by the Moabites called Emim. The word Emim means frightful, and was given to these men probably because of their huge stature and fierce aspect. Anakims (see Deu 1:28). Rephaim seems to have been a generic name of these gigantic Canaanitish tribes (see Gen 14:5; Gen 15:20). The Horim appear from the name (from , a cave) to have been a Troglodyte race, inhabiting the caves which abound in the Edomite range, and with whom, perhaps, originated the conception which was at a later period carried out in the marvelous rock city of Petra. Of their own origin nothing is known. As Israel did [or has done] unto the land of his possession. This cannot be regarded as uttered proleptically; it must either be the insertion of a later age, or it must refer to the conquest which had actually been made before this by the Israelites of the land to the east of the Jordan. and which is, in Deu 3:20, described as the possession which the Lord had given to the two tribes and a half to whom it had been assigned. The latter is the preferable supposition.

Deu 2:13-15

Deu 2:13 connects with Deu 2:9, the intermediate verses being a parenthesis, introduced for the purpose of reminding the Israelites that the Edomites and Moabites had received their territory by gift from God, the earlier inhabitants having been cast out by him that they might take their lands (see Deu 2:21-23). There is no need, therefore, for the insertion “I said,” in Deu 2:13; the words are those of Jehovah, not of Moses.

Deu 2:13

The brook Zered; either the stream of the Wady cf. Ahsy (Robinson, 2.157; Ritter, 3.78), or that of the Wady Kerab (Keil, Kurz, etc.); see Num 21:11, and Smith’s ‘Dictionary.’ 3.1842. This brook formed the boundary line between Edom and Moab, and was the limit of Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness. They crossed it thirty-eight years after the doom had been pronounced upon them at Kadesh, and during that period the entire generation of those who had rebelled had died out.

Deu 2:14

Men of war; those of age sufficient to go forth to war, viz. twenty y. ears old and upwards (Num 1:3; Num 14:29). These, as the responsible transgressors, all perished; the whole generation passed away, and was consumed (; cf. Deu 5:15; Psa 73:19), as God had sworn (Num 14:28, Num 14:29).

Deu 2:15

For indeed; rather, And also; not by natural causes alone, but by the hand of God, i.e. by special penal judgments also, were they troubled and destroyed (cf. Num 16:31, etc.; Num 17:12, Num 17:13; Num 21:6; Num 25:1-9).

Deu 2:16-19

The generation that sinned having quite died out, the people were now to cross the border of Moab and advance to the conquest of the Promised Land. To the east of Moab was the country of the Ammonites; these, also, the Israelites were to leave unassailed, for the Lord had given to them their land for a possession (cf. Deu 2:9).

Deu 2:18

Coast of Moab; the boundary of Moab, which was the river Arnon, hod. Mujeb (Num 21:13-15; Num 22:36).

Deu 2:19

Over against the children of Ammon. As the Israelites were passing eastward of Moab; when they crossed the Arnon, the Ammonites, whose dwelling was in the wilderness east of the Jordan, would be almost in front of them. The Israelites came over against them after they conquered Sihon (cf. Num 21:24).

Deu 2:20-23

Another parenthetical insertion, containing some ethnographical notices, intended, probably, to confirm the assertion that to the children of Ammon God had given their land for a possession. There is no sufficient reason for supposing that this paragraph is an interpolation, or gloss, inserted by some later writer. It lay as much in the way of Moses to introduce such ethnographical notices as in that of any writer of a later age.

Deu 2:20

Before the Ammonites, the laud was occupied by a gigantic race, called by them, Zamzummim (probably noisy ones, from to hum, mutter; or, as the verb also signifies, to muse or meditate, perhaps moody ones; whether the same as the Zuzim of Gen 14:5LXX; , as if from , to overflow, to aboundis uncertain). The colossal stone monuments, resembling what in Europe are known by the Celtic names of dolmen, menhir, and cromlech, still to be found in the land of Moab, are supposed to be the work of these aboriginal inhabitants of the country, the gigantic Emim and Zamzummim. This giant tribe the Lord had destroyed before the Ammonites, just as he had destroyed the Horim before the children of Esau in Seir.

Deu 2:23

So also the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor (Gen 10:14), probably the island of Crete (Ritter, 3:262), drove out the Avim, a Canaanitish race, who dwelt in villages (Hazerim, ) as far as Gaza (Azzah), and took possession of their land; though it would appear some of them still remained among the Philistines (who were Caphtorites, Amo 9:7; Jer 47:4), and were among the tribes not subdued by the Israelites under Joshua (Jos 13:3). These Caphtorim were, like the Israelites, immigrants, who drove out the original occupants of the country; and on this account, probably, are referred to by Moses here. “This is so often repeated, to possess the minds of the Israelites with a sense of God’s providence, which rules everywhere; displacing one people, and settling another in their stead, and fixing their bounds, also, which they shall not pass without leave” (Patrick).

Deu 2:24-37

CONQUEST OF THE KINGDOM OF SIHON.

Sihon and his people were Amorites, who had settled on the east of the Jordan in Gilead. But though not included in the original promise to Abraham, God had assigned this territory to the Israelites; and, therefore, he commanded the people under Moses to cross the Amen, and take the first step towards possessing the Promised Land, by assailing Sihon, King of Heshbon, assuring them that from that day he would “put the dread and fear of them upon all nations under the whole heaven,” that is, all nations, wherever placed, to whom the fame of the Israelites should come (comp. Exo 23:27; Deu 11:16), so that on hearing thereof, they should tremble and writhe as in pain (, comp. Isa 13:8). Moses, however, in the first instance, sent a message of peace to Sihon, proposing to pass through his territory on the same terms as he had made with the Moabites and Edomites, traveling by the highway, and paying for such provisions as his followers required. But this Sihon refused, and came out against Israel, with all his people, to battle. The issue was that he was utterly discomfited; all his towns were captured, he and all his people utterly destroyed, and the cattle and spoil of the whole country taken for booty. Israel thus became possessed of that entire territory, though it did not lie within the bounds of the land promised by God to Abraham, which was the reason, probably, why Moses made overtures of peace to Sihon, and would have passed through his country amicably, had he been permitted; but comp. Deu 20:10.

Deu 2:26

The wilderness of Kedemoth (comp. Num 21:13); so named from the town of Kedemoth, an old Amorite town, on the right bank of the Upper Arnon; at a later period, a Levitical city in the tribe of Reuben (Jos 13:18; Jos 21:37; 1Ch 6:79). The name (from , the east), signifying eastern parts, indicates that it was situated on the eastern boundary of the Amorite region, so that the desert named from it must have bordered on the great Arabian desert; it may have been on what is now the Derb cf. Haj, or Pilgrims’ Road, probably, at Kal’at Balua.

Deu 2:27

Along by the high way; literally, by the way, by the way, i.e. always, continuously by the way, the public road, called in Num 20:17 and Num 21:22, “the king’s way,” probably because made and kept up by the king.

Deu 2:29

As the did unto me. This refers expressly to the fact that the Edomites and Moabites did not hinder the Israelites from passing through their country, though they were far from friendly, and dealt in an unbrotherly way with them, for which the Moabites were afterwards placed under a ban (Deu 23:3).

Deu 2:30

Heshbon, the chief city of the Amorite king, Sihon. Some ruins on a hill east of the upper end of the Dead Sea, and bearing the name Chesban, mark the site of this once large and important city. Sihon rejected Moses’ overtures of peace, because God had hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate; literally, had sharpened his heart, had made his determination keen. It is not to be supposed that any influence was directly exerted on him, to make him obdurate and persistent in his hostility to the people of God; the expression “he would not” indicates that it was of his own will that Sihon acted; but it was the will and purpose of God that Sihon should be destroyed, and his country taken by the Israelites, and so he was placed in circumstances by which, “given over to a reprobate mind,” he was confirmed and strengthened m his determination to pursue a course which led to his destruction; like Pharaoh, by the circumstances in which God placed him, he found scope for the display and for the confirmation of a stubborn, pertinacious pride of spirit, which led ultimately to his ruin. Nothing so hardens the heart as resistance to God’s overtures of peace. As appeareth this day; i.e. as present experience shows; in Sihon’s refusing to let them pass, there was already an actual beginning of the fulfillment of God’s purpose to deliver him into the hand of the Israelites.

Deu 2:31-37

God had determined to give Sihon and his land to the Israelites, and so certainly should this be done, that Moses is exhorted already to begin to seize, in order to possess the land. Sihon initiated hostilities by coming out with all his host to fight against Moses and the Israelites. The battle took place at Jahaz (or Jahazah, or Jahza), a town between Medeba and Dibon (Euseb.; cf. Num 33:45), afterwards belonging to the tribe of Reuben (Jos 13:18), and assigned to the Levites of the line of Merari (Jos 21:36; 1Ch 6:78). The war was one of extermination, in which all the people of Sihon were destroyed, from one cad of his dominion to the other; all his cities were devoted irredeemably (comp. Le 27:29), and only the cattle and the material property were preserved as booty by the conquerors (Num 21:23-26).

Deu 2:32

(cf. Num 21:23).Jahaz (, downtrodden), elsewhere Jahazah (), a city of Moab, afterwards assigned to the tribe of Reuben, and allotted to the priests (Jos 13:18; Jos 21:36; 1Ch 6:63; Isa 15:4; Jer 48:34).

Deu 2:33, Deu 2:34

(cf. Num 22:24, Num 22:25; Num 32:34, Num 32:35, etc.).And utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones . we left none to remain. As the Amorites came out of Canaan, they belonged to the race which God had doomed to destruction. The Israelites, therefore, had a commission to extirpate them. Utterly destroyed; literally, devoted or placed under a ban, which of course implied utter destruction. The men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city; literally, every city of men and women and little children. The phrase “city of men” can hardly mean, as Rosenmller affirms, “men of a city;” the hypallage here would be too violent. It rather means “a peopled city,” “a city inhabited by men.” The word rendered “men” () does not designate males as opposed to females, but is a designation of human beings in general (cf. Job 11:3; Job 24:12 [Hebrews 20:48]; 31:31; Psa 26:4, “vain persons,” Authorized Version, literally, men of emptiness or of falsehood, etc.). The passage might be rendered, every inhabited city, even the women and the little children.

Deu 2:36

Aroer, one of the Amorite cities, on the right bank of the river Arnon (cf. Jos 12:2; Jos 13:16). On the Moabite Stone, King Mesha says, “I built Aroer;” but this can only mean that, after some temporary condition of decay or ruin, he rebuilt it. On the borders of the northern side of the Wady Mojeb, there are heaps of ruins bearing the name of Ara’ir, which probably mark the site of this ancient town. There was another Aroer, belonging at a later period to the tribe of Gad, and opposite to Rabba, the chief city of the Ammonites (Jos 13:25; 2Sa 24:5); and still another in the south of Judah (1Sa 30:28), probably in what is now known as the Wady A’rarah. The city that is by the river; properly, in the river or wady; i.e. At, the capital of Moab, which was in the valley of the Arnon, and which is mentioned here as marking the exclusive limit of the country that was captured. The word rendered “river” () is used of the valley or ravine (Arabic, wady) through which a stream flows, as well as of the stream itself (cf. Gen 26:19; Num 24:6, etc.). Ar is elsewhere called Ar of Moab (Isa 15:1). Even unto Gilead, i.e. Mount Gilead, which rises to the north of the Jabbok (hod. Zerka).

Deu 2:37

In obedience to the Divine injunction, the Israelites left untouched the country of the Ammonites, situated on the eastern side of the Upper Jabbok. Cities in the mountains; the towns in the Ammonitish highlands. In Jos 13:25, half of the laud of the Ammonites is said to be assigned to the tribe of Gad; but that refers to the part of the land between the Arnon and the Jabbek, which had been taken from the Ammonites by the Amorites, and was in the possession of the latter at the time of the Israelitish invasion (Jdg 11:13, etc.). Whatsoever the Lord our God forbad us: Finally, all that Jehovah our God commanded not to come into.

HOMILETICS

Deu 2:1-23

(specially Deu 2:7).

God’s knowledge of our pilgrimage.

(For the historical and geographical details connected with this section, see the Exposition.) Moses here reviews the career of Israel during the wanderings, with reference to their treatment of the nations through whose territory they required to pass on their way. They, though the favored people of Jehovah, were not allowed to transgress the common laws of righteousness, by levying any demands on the nations through whose country they passed, nor to “distress” in any way those peoples whom the Lord had not delivered into their hands. They were to labor for their own sustenance, and to purchase, at a fair rate, meat or drink. And so far as this precept was concerned, they seem to have been (notwithstanding their waywardness in other respects) loyal to the Lord their God. These directions against transgressing the rules of right in national intercourse, were a most important part of the education of a people, where God was forming a commonwealth with this (then) unique feature, that its corner-stone was righteousness. (For an admirable survey of the fundamental principles of the Hebrew polity, home and foreign, see Wines’s ‘Commentaries on the Laws of Moses.’) And as Moses is now reviewing the stages in their experience when they passed through an alien’s land, he reminds them how faithful God had been to them; that they bad had no need to depart from the Divine injunctions, for their good and gracious God had taken all their need into account. “He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness.” This clause contains a world of meaning in itself, and opens up a most fruitful theme for the Christian’s meditation and for pulpit exposition, viz. God‘s knowledge of our pilgrimage in life. Three inquiries invite our notice

I. WHAT IS IT THAT GOD IS HERE SAID TO KNOW? “Thy walking.” We understand Moses as here referring to the walking, viewed objectively, not subjectively. The sentence would be true in both respects; but, nevertheless, the reference does not seem to be to the manner of Israel’s walking, but to the pilgrimage itself. What was true of them is also true of us. He knoweth our walking, etc.

1. The meaning of our pilgrimage is known to himas being that of moral and responsible beings, made in the image of God, and as having for its purpose the education of character for eternity.

2. He knows the difficulties of the pilgrimagethe obstructions with which we are continually meeting, thwarting, perhaps, our fondest plans and wishes.

3. He knows the trials of the way. Not only the trials which are “common to man” in general, but also those indefinable, felt peculiarities, which are ours and ours only, which we cannot unfold to a single soul on earth.

4. He knows the enemies which beset us: their strength, number, malice, and craft.

5. He knows the appointed goal at the end of the pilgrimage, and all the glorious possibilities which may be unfolded in the realization of our destiny.

6. He knows the wants of each and of all, temporal and spiritual; that we are helpless to the attainment of life’s end, without constant supplies from him.

II. WHAT IS HERE MEANT BY GOD‘S KNOWING ALL?

1. Obviously, his perfect, full, entire acquaintance, not only with the pilgrimage in general, not only with such particulars of it as those we have just named, but also with every detail of each particular. He seeth the whole of everything.

2. But it is not a bare seeing; the knowledge is attended with a fatherly interest in all that concerns the welfare of his children. He “taketh pleasure in them that fear him.” “He careth for” us. The training of his children for a home by means of a pilgrimage thither, is one of the most kind and loving designs of the heart of infinite love!

3. The knowing includes the actually taking into account all the need of our pilgrimage, in his words, works, and ways.

(1) In the promises he makes, all things are taken into account. These promises are not merely applicable in part, or at times, but wholly and always.

(2) His precepts too are framed according to the same perfect knowledge.

(3) His providential mercies, general and special, meet the wants of today and prepare for those of tomorrow. He works for our future, that we may live by the day.

(4) In his great redemptive provision for our spiritual training, there is the same forethoughtfulness.

(5) In his distinctively personal and individual care over each one, the whole of our pilgrimage is taken into account. No one is confused with any one else. The Great Father’s family is not so large as to tax him. He can care as lovingly for each as if each one were all!

III. WHAT IS THE PRACTICAL VALUE TO US OF SUCH KNOWLEDGE? The value of it is infinite. On three main points, however, the preacher may dwell, and revel in the luxury they afford.

1. If life’s pilgrimage is just beginning, this Divine knowledge, so applied, may yield us guidance in treading the way. For it, God has so mercifully taken all things into account in promise and precept, then we never need to depart a hair’s breadth from the right path, for the sake of securing any apparent advantage whatever. This is specially suggested by the way in which Moses uses the words.

2. If we are just in the mid part of the pilgrimage, we may find immeasurable comfort under the difficulties of the way. All our responsibilities are accurately estimated, all wants perfectly considered, all supplies certainly ensured. What more could we desire?

3. If we make use of the Divine knowledge in the ways we have specified, we shall find that it will also give us a soul of thankfulness when near the end of the way. At the point of time referred to in the text, Israel was near the verge of Canaan. And the words are retrospective. They are a testimony to Divine faithfulness and care; “These forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.” So may the believer say and sing as he closes stage after stage of life; so will he sing when he closes the last stage of all:”Not one thing hath failed of all that the Lord hath spoken.” The more life unfolds to him of his own weakness, the louder and sweeter will be his song over Divine care; yea, he will go singing to the heavenly rest!

HOMILIES BY D. DAVIES

Deu 2:1-23

International relationships.

The wilderness state is the most salutary for men. Prematurely to enter into the land of rest would prove an endless calamity. Theoretically, it is possible to gain heaven too soon. Even “the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering.” That heaven may be to us a perfect paradise, there must be complete harmony between the soul and its environment.

I. GOD BRINGS NATIONS INTO CONTACT FOR RECIPROCAL MINISTRATION. SO long as the conviction prevails that distinct nations are natural foes, it is best for them to remain apart. Mountains and seas and languages are God’s bulwarks of peace. Yet this is but a temporary arrangement. Nationality has its use, but is liable to great abuse. God has given a monopoly of blessing to no one nation, that all may feel mutual interdependence. The products of nature are the property of all; yet personal interests are to be respected. The life-long enjoyment of Divine bounty should make us grateful, modest, and benevolent.

II. COMMERCE WITH OTHERS AN OCCASION FOR SELF–CONTROL. We are often ignorant of the selfishness and arrogance of our own hearts, until our material interests come into seeming conflict with the interests of others. In the presence of a stalwart foe, our courage or our cowardice is made manifest. We know not whether good seed or bad lies in our fields, until the summer sun makes them spring. On the wheel of the lapidary the qualities of the jewel are revealed. Such occasions for knowing ourselvestesting ourselvesdisciplining and controlling ourselves, must be highly prized. The ruler of his own nature, especially under sore provocation, is a genuine victor.

III. OUR SUPERIOR STRENGTH AFFORDS NO WARRANT FOR VIOLENT INVASIONS. Might has a terrible proneness to warp our sense of right. Unless might is penetrated through and through with a spirit of righteousness, it is a body without a soul; it soon becomes a despicable corpse. Mere strength gives to no man, and to no body of men, warrantable authority to rule. It is base and self-degrading for strength to trample on weakness. Real strength displays its latent reserves when it stoops to protectwhen it endures rather than contends. Violence is essential weakness, the scarecrow of power.

IV. OUR NATURAL RELATIONSHIPS HAVE A CLAIM UPON OUR REGARDS. What God hath constructed, man may not wantonly destroy. We are to “honor all men,” but to “love the brotherhood.” We may send our portions of sympathy to the uttermost circumference of the human circle, but we are to reserve a double portion for kindred. Spiritual ties are superior to all the bonds of nature, but they need not be separate and distinct. The natural may, yea ought, to be the foundation on which the spiritual relationship is built. He who affirmed that “all who did the will of his Father were his mother, sisters, brothers,” said also as he commended his human mother to his disciple’s care, “Behold thy mother!”

V. A SENSE OF GOD‘S PRESENCE FOSTERS SELF–ABNEGATION. Because we have so many proofs that God is about us, safeguarding our interests, we shall not be so anxious to extort our fancied rights. “He is at my right hand: I shall not be moved.” “Let your moderation be known unto all men: the Lord is at hand.” We have an all-wise, all-mighty, and omnipresent Defender; therefore we will not fear. We will not avenge seeming injuries: the Lord doth fight for us. “Vengeance is his.”

VI. THE DISPLACEMENT OF SUCCESSIVE HUMAN RACES IS AN ORDINANCE OF GOD. Throughout the entire plan of God’s providence the same law is manifest. In the formation of the earth’s crust we see that one order of life passed awayanother order appeared. This phrase of God’s procedure science has labeled “the survival of the fittest.” Is man the final link in this magnificent series? All oracles are dumb. Yet this law of successive development is apparent everywhere. History and ethnology record the facts; the Bible ascribes them to the personal God. Whatever were the motives or the passions which prompted Esau to evict the Horims, or Moab to displace the Emims, or the Caphtorims to dislodge the Avims, this much is plainthat the hand of the Lord wrought behind the human machinery. Bad as some of these races seem to have been, they were, without doubt, an improvement on the preceding. “First that which is natural; afterward that which is spiritual.” The world’s amelioration may be waiting for our removal.

VII. THE DEATH OF UNITS PROMOTES THE WELFARE OF THE NATION. The patience of Jehovah is conspicuous in that he did not destroy the murmurers and recusants in Israel with a stroke. He used them still as the natural protectors of the younger members, and when these reached maturity of courageous faith, the older portion fell away, like useless husk and chaff. As in the human body, so long as cellular tissue dies and is replaced by fresh development, there is health; so in the race, the removal of effete elements secures the advancement of the whole. Yet it is not inevitable that the separate units of mankind should absolutely perish. The same law of development may prevail in each separate person. The inferior parts of our being may minister to the growth of the higher. The outward man, like the husk, may perish, while, withal, the inner man may be renewed daily, and be fitted for a higher plane of existence. Death is the gate of life.

VIII. GOD EXTENDS A WATCHFUL SUPERINTENDENCE OVER ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH. The children of Ammon rose in arms against the Zamzummims, and defeated them, yet (though they knew it not) it was Jehovah who destroyed their foes. God has a thousand various methods for ruling a nation’s career and destiny. Because Britain has come into a larger heritage of blessing than other empires, or because many of the British people consciously recognize the scepter of Jehovah, we may not conclude that the Zulus or Papuans are not equally overruled by him. “His kingdom ruleth over all.” Respecting Cyrus, King of the Medes, God said, “I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.” There is an unseen and an unrecognized scepter directing all the movements of the world, controlling and restraining even wickedness itself! The errors of the heathen are, after all, partial truths, and God is leading their minds onward from obscurer to clearer light. Sometimes, we must admit, there is a temporary submergence-the advancing light is for a time eclipsed by a wave of darkness. Nevertheless, through long periods of human history, we can for the most part discover progress. Eternity is God’s abode, and we discern but fragments of his work.D.

Deu 2:24-37

Warrantable warfare.

Sihon, King of Heshbon, opposed with physical force the fulfillment of Israel’s destiny; and, having provoked war, provokes it to his own destruction.

I. THE NECESSITY FOR WAR. The question whether war is ever just and legitimate must be answered in the affirmative. Still, this does not justify all war. The majority of wars are indefensible. War is a barbarous instrument, and, as intelligence advances, can be replaced by better methods of conquest. But it sometimes becomes the last and desperate alternative. If war has been tolerated in heaven, it may be tolerated on earth. Even a war of extermination may be, under some conceivable circumstances, a necessity. In this case we may look:

1. At the human side of the war.

(1) There was an arrogant rejection of equitable demands. No man, and no State, holds an absolute and irresponsible right to the surface of the globe. “The earth is the Lord’s.” We may acquire, by inheritance, or purchase, or culture, personal interests in the land, which others are bound to respect. Yet personal interests are to be subservient to a nation’s good. The lesser must yield to the greater. Israel justly demanded a right of way to his own possessions. The terms proposed by the Hebrews were fair and equitable, and the onus of war fell on him who rejected them.

(2) Israel could point to his pacific and honorable conduct in passing through the territories of Ammon and Esau. A reputation for trustworthiness in observing a treaty had been already established.

(3) The rejection of Israel‘s proposal involved a deprivation of Israel‘s natural rights. The patriarch Jacob had acquired by purchase and by culture much land in Canaan; and now, released from prolonged captivity, the people claim their ancestral estates. If we leave out of view the commands of Jehovah, there was ample reason, founded in common justice, why the Hebrews should demand a passage into Canaan.

2. Let us contemplate the matter on the Divine side. This invasion was a plain intimation of Jehovah’s will.

(1) It is not man‘s place to sit in judgment on his God. We are largely ignorant of all the factors in this case. There are vaster considerations than we can reachproblems which we cannot solve. Our moral judgments are often warped by weak and morbid sentiments. Righteousness, in its very nature, is superior to pleasure. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

(2) We are assured that the guilt of the Amorites was great. What forms this guilt assumed we are not fully told, but certain it is that most flagrant corruptions flourished among them. He who uses elemental forces and angelic agents to execute his judicial verdicts, is equally at liberty to employ men as the officers of his vengeance.

(3) Very probably this was a signal act of retributive justice. Possibly they had acquired the. territory by violence and bloodshed, and had now to yield it again to the arbiter of war. “They that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”

(4) Certainly this calamity was in the line of the world‘s progress. Mankind has been benefited by the overthrow of corrupt empires. This was the rough pathway along which Israel fulfilled its beneficent destiny.

II. THE PRECISE OCCASION FOR THIS WAR. This is attributed to the stolid perverseness of one manSihon, King of Heshbon. Is it to be tolerated that the march of a nation’s destiny is to be baffled by the ignorance, or lust, or stupidity of one man?

1. This obstinacy of the royal will must be attributed to natural causes. God never compels a man to be bad. Human nature was the same in Sihon’s day as in ours. Insolent arrogance is a growth. Sihon had for many years repressed nobler instincts, stifled generous feeling, pampered selfishness and pride; hence blind obstinacy became in him despotic. Corrupt principles spring from tiny seeds.

2. There are stages in a man’s career when his choice becomes his fate. By the operation of God’s unseen laws and mysterious forces, habits become as fixed as granite. The hardening process becomes irreversible, and truly it is said that God does it. We can choose whether or not to prepare our artillery, manufacture our explosives, or light the fuse, but at that point human control ends; the cannon-ball wings its way by laws imposed by God, and it is now entirely at his disposal. So in the moral sphere, there is a point at which human choice ends, and in his judicial capacity God steps in and fixes irreversibly the matter. “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.” We slowly and imperceptibly harden our sentient natures; then God fixes them with his judicial act, and we are held in the iron manacles of doom.

III. THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IN WAR.

1. God‘s promise of success does not exclude human exertion. His promise always presupposes man’s wise activity. His pledge of help is intended to stimulate, not supplant, brave endeavor. We can only move successfully in the line of God’s promise.

2. God‘s initial processes should be closely followed by our activity. “I have begun,” said God (Deu 2:31), therefore “begin to possess.” We should follow hard upon God’s path, then his right hand will uphold us. If tardiness enchain our feet, we may soon lose the trace of his footprints.

3. One brave deed is the forerunner of many successes. The report of Israel’s martial prowess flew as on the wings of the wind, and the widespread fear it induced made further conquests easy. The fruits of good or evil deeds may reproduce themselves through all time. The first step in a new course is pregnant with importance.

4. Strict obedience is the highway to large success. When the command of God is plain, there is no place for hesitation. Bravery grows and flourishes in an atmosphere of loyalty. During the last thirty-eight years of wilderness life, the faith and love of the young Hebrews had immeasurably grown, and their prompt obedience was the early firstfruit. They were wedded in faithful love to God. Speaking of this period at a later date, God says by his prophet, “I remember thee the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness.” In keeping all the “commandments” of God, they found a large reward.D.

HOMILIES BY J. ORR

Deu 2:4-10, Deu 2:17-20

Edom, Moab, Ammon.

The Israelites are strictly enjoined not to molest these three peoples, or to attempt to rob them of any portion of their territory. The ground of this injunction is that God had given them the territory they possessed, and had not given it to the Israelites. Additional reasons why Israel was not to molest them lay in the facts that they were kinsmen (Deu 2:4) and that Israel was amply provided for already (Deu 2:7). God’s people have little need to covet the possessions of the worldly. Apart from questions of their rights, kinsmen are entitled to be treated with special kindness and forbearance. We learn from this passage

I. THAT THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IS MINUTELY CONCERNED IN THE SETTLEMENT OF NATIONS. (Deu 2:5, Deu 2:9, Deu 2:19.) It is not by accident that they are where they are. God marks out for them the bounds of their habitation. This is a fundamental idea in Scripture (Gen 10:1-32.; Deu 32:8; Act 17:26). In the verses before us the territories of Edom, of Moab, and of Ammon are spoken of as being a gift to them from God, as directly as Canaan was a gift to the Israelites. It does not alter this fact, though it renders the comprehension of it more difficult, that men’s own violent and aggressive dispositions are often the means by which these secret purposes of God are fulfilled (Deu 2:12, Deu 2:22, Deu 2:23). The barbarian incursions which overthrew the Roman empire were prompted by mere love of conquest, with the hope of enrichment by slaughter and pillage; but we may trace the providence of God working through them for the formation of modern Europe. Our own acquisition of India was not without blame; but we may see in our present possession of it a gift of God which, with our other territories in different parts of the globe, we are bound to use for his glory. This is the highest view we can take of the possession of territory, and one which, so far from justifying unlawful aggression, leads us to refrain from it. It is to be remarked, however, that the possessions which God gives to nations are not irrevocablenot forever. Instances of dispossession occur in these verses, and Edom, Moab, and Ammon themselves have long since been dispossessed. “Be not high-minded, but fear” (Rom 11:20).

II. THAT THE RIGHTS OF NATIONS ARE TO BE SACREDLY RESPECTED. These verses teach lessons which might be pondered with advantage by the most advanced modern nations. They teach:

1. Scrupulous respect for international rights. It can never be our duty wantonly to invade the territories of those at peace with us, or, from motives of ambition, to seek pretexts of war with them. They are as entitled to the peaceable possession of what they have, as we are to the peaceable possession of the lands belonging to us. The fight of the stronger is not to rule our policy.

2. Scrupulous justice in international transactions. The Israelites might have used force, but they were to deal justly, and honestly to pay for everything they received (Deu 2:6, Deu 2:29).

3. Scrupulous self-restraint under circumstances of provocation. The Edomites had refused the Israelites a passage through their mountains, and had entailed on them a long, painful, and circuitous journey; Moab had employed Balsam to curse them, and had, with Midian, done them yet worse evil (Num 25:1); but not even these provocations were to tempt them to retaliation. How many modern nations would have made a casus belli of far less? Forgiveness of injuries should have a place in our international as in our private dealings, and it is strange if we have to be sent back to the Jews of Canaan-conquering notoriety to learn it. It is to be added

III. THESE INSTRUCTIONS WERE A VALUABLE DISCIPLINE TO THE JEWS THEMSELVES.

1. It taught them to recognize the Divine gift as the ground of their own tenure of Canaan. If the Divine providence so guarded these neighboring peoples, and would not allow one foot of their land to be taken from them against his will, how much more might the Jews, if obedient to the covenant, depend on being preserved in theirs! If God gave, who could take away?

2. It taught them to distinguish their commission to destroy the Canaanites from one of rude conquest. It teaches us also to take a just estimate of those acts of the Israelites in destroying the Canaanitish nations on which so much indignation has been expended. Their conduct here shows how far they were from being actuated by the motives often ascribed to them. This high sense of honor, this scrupulous justice, this exemplary self-restraint prove that it was in no bloodthirsty, slaughter-loving spirit they were proceeding to their work; and show how at every step they were guided by God’s will, fell in with the lines of his providence, and wrought out his wishes and purposes. They help us to conceive of the destruction of the Canaanites, not as a barbarous massacre, but as the execution of a long-delayed, deliberately pronounced, and most justly deserved sentence of Heaven.J.O.

Deu 2:10-13, Deu 2:20-24

The Emims, Horims, Zamzummins, etc.

If these verses are part of the context of the original speech, and not a later insertion, they must be viewed as scraps of history introduced to encourage the Israelites in their work of conquest, and to dispel their apprehensions by showing what had been done by others. They suggest

I. THAT THE PRESENT MAY LEARN FROM THE PAST. History, sacred and secular, is a powerful influence in forming the characters of the living race. The brave deeds, the conquests, the self-sacrificing endurances of those who have lived before us, are of use to rouse from apathy, and to inspire with courage and enthusiasm. The early conquests of the gospel help us to believe in its power to overcome existing oppositions.

II. THAT THE CHURCH MAY LEARN FROM THE WORLD. The holy nation is here incited by pointing to what other peoples have done in pursuit of their secular ambitions. If the Moabites could drive out the Emims, “a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims” (Deu 2:10), and if the Edomites and Ammonites could do the like in their respective districts, why should Israel fear the enemies to be encountered in his? We may learn much from men of the worldfrom the boldness of their plans, their ingenuity in surmounting difficulties, their admirable perseverance, their self-denial in working out their ends, etc. Were the Church half as diligent, wise, and determined in the prosecution of her work, as they are in making the schemes which they adopt succeed, it would be the inauguration of a day of splendid spiritual successes.

III. THAT THE DESPONDING MAY LEARN FROM THE SUCCESSFUL. It is something to feel that we are not the first who have had to face giants. What has been done once can be done again, and it is a great matter to be able to point to cases in which the very difficulties we are contending with have been successfully surmounted.J.O.

Deu 2:14, Deu 2:15

Dying out.

These thirty-eight years form a melancholy parenthesis in the history of Israel. A death-silence reigns in the narrative in regard to them. The ninetieth Psalm is apparently a memorial of themthe dirge of Moses over the fallen. One or two incidents, and a few laws in Numbers may belong to this period; otherwise we have only these brief epitaph verses. As here described, they form a fitting image of godless existence generally.

I. IN ITS WAST OF HISTORY. History is meant to preserve that which is of permanent worth. The unessential, the evanescent, are not held deserving of its record. But from the spiritual standpoint there is no life of permanent worth but that which is lived in God and for his glory. Relatively to this world, the godless man may have a history; but relatively to eternity, he has lived to no end which ensures his being held in remembrance. He will be forgotten, and his life be a blank in the records which alone will interest a heavenly society.

II. IN ITS ESSENTIAL UNPROFITABLENESS.

1. It is without proper purpose. That thirty-eight years was one of purposeless existence. It had no right end. Men might engage in various pursuits, but their existence as a whole had lost its value. They were there but to draw out their profitless days till death came to end the scene. The godless man is in the same positionhis existence as a whole has no proper end, and he is made to feel this the more keenly the longer he lives.

2. It is without proper joy. There could be no true joy in men’s hearts during that wretched time of waiting for the grave. Is there any in the life of the worldling, or of any ungodly man? Ask Byron, Goethe, Rousseau, or whoever else has given confessions on the subject, and we will need no other witness.

3. It is without hope. For what is there to give it?

III. IN ITS BEING SPENT UNDER GOD‘S WRATH. The feeling that it is so darkens life, troubles conscience, makes death terrible, and awakens fearful and well-founded presentiments of future evil.J.O.

Deu 2:24, Deu 2:25

The effects of Israel’s conquests.

Would induce widespread dread and anguish. Apply to the Church.

I. GREAT VICTORIES OF THE CHURCH WOULD SPEEDILY GET NOISED ABROAD. The world has too roach lurking fear of the truth of Christianity not to be sensitive to such reports. They would soon spread. They would find their way into circles little thought of.

II. GREAT VICTORIES OF THE CHURCH WOULD BE THE SUREST TOKEN THAT GOD WAS WITH HER. Were there a return of Pentecostal days, and conversions by thousands at a time; or were there such revivals as the Church has sometimes seen at special times and places;were these becoming general, and multitudes were filled with the power of God’s Spirit as the resultit would have a marvelous effect in producing widespread conviction that the religion of Christ was true, and that God’s might was being exerted through it. It would be the best “evidence” of Christianity. Why should not the Church work, pray, and hope for such glorious successes? They are possible; they are promised; they will yet come.

III. GREAT VICTORIES OF THE CHURCH WOULD INSPIRE WIDESPREAD FEAR. Anything does that which brings the Divine sensibly near to human beings (Luk 5:8). But sinners in particular fear any near manifestation of God. They know, like the devils who besought Christ to let them alone, what that means for them. One result of the conquests of the early Church was that “fear” fell on those who witnessed them (Act 2:43). The Church is never so safe as when she is bold, aggressive, and successful.J.O.

Deu 2:26-37

The conquest of Sihon.

Sihon, though an Amorite, was not to be unconditionally destroyed. He had, like Pharaoh, an opportunity given him of averting ruin by acceding to a most courteous and reasonable request; but, like Pharaoh in this respect also, he hardened his heart, and took the course which made his destruction inevitable. We are led to consider

I. SIHON‘S OPPORTUNITY. (Deu 2:26-30.) It was not given him in the hope that he would avail himself of it; for it was foreseen that he would refuse it and be hardened by it. But the sinner’s hardness of heart is not a reason why the opportunity of securing his salvation should be withheld from him, or why every gracious means should not be employed to overcome his hardness. It is, indeed, necessary that this should be done, in order that the responsibility of his ruin may rest entirely on himself. It lay in the counsel of God that this king’s territory should be given to the Israelites, but only on condition of his refusal of the request made to him. It was otherwise with the gift of Canaan, which was absolute, and permitted of no overtures of peace being made to the inhabitants. Their day of grace was past: to Sihon there still remained this last momentous and decisive opportunity. The last opportunity will come some day to all who harden themselves in sin (cf. Mat 24:37, Mat 24:38; Luk 19:42). This message of Moses to Sihon was:

1. Peaceable (Deu 2:26). Peaceful means should be exhausted in a cause before resorting to force. They should be exhausted even with those who are not likely to be influenced by them. This is due to the cause, due to ourselves, and due to the person approached. Men must at least have the opportunity given them of acting reasonably and generously.

2. Courteous (Deu 2:27, Deu 2:28). No message could have been couched in more modest or conciliatory terms. A courteous tone is to be adopted towards men, even when we foresee that they will not reciprocate it.

3. Perfectly sincere. This was proved by the justness of Moses’ dealings with Edom and Moab, to which he makes reference (Deu 2:29).

4. Justified by necessity. Only thus could they reach the land which God had given them (Deu 2:29).

II. SIHON‘S OBSTINACY. “The Lord thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate” (Deu 2:30); not, indeed, by any evil influence exerted on his soul, but by giving him up to his naturally obdurate disposition, and by placing him in circumstances which he knew would have a hardening effect, though in themselves of a character fitted rather to soften.

1. The hardening of the heart, so far as it is a result of evil courses, is a work of God operating in the laws of our mental and moral mature. Sin naturally operates to blind the mind, sear the conscience, destroy the generous affections, etc. But these effects are as truly a judicial operation of God in the soul, of a punitive nature, as was the Flood, the destruction of the cities of the plain, or any other outward expression of his wrath.

2. The hardening of the heart, so far as it is the result of acts of providence, is a work of God operating in the moral government of the world. Both mercies and judgments have a hardening effect on those who refuse to be taught by them. This result, foreseen by God, may be also willed, as a just punishment for voluntary transgression (Isa 6:9, Isa 6:10); while, as a foreseen fact, a sinner’s hardness of heart may be taken up as a link in the further development of God’s purposes.

3. The hardening of the heart, as flowing from influences which ought rather to have melted and subdued it, is a result for which the sinner himself is justly held responsible. God wills not the death of any. The mingled goodness and severity of his dealings with men are meant to lead them to repentance. But the very things which are designed to produce a softening and converting effect on souls, are those which frequently harden and sear themthe discipline of sorrow, the preaching of the gospel, warnings and expostulations, etc. Hardness induced by such causes is the most invincible of all, and brands the obdurate transgressor as ripe for God’s judgments (Pro 29:1).

III. SIHON‘S DESTRUCTION. (Deu 2:32 -87.)

1. It was stir-sought. “Then Sihon came out,” etc. (Deu 2:32). The sinner’s destruction is of his own seeking.

2. It was achieved by Divine aid, “The Lord our God delivered him before us” (Deu 2:33). So are all spiritual victories. It is the Church’s comfort in her conflicts to know that she has this power to depend on.

3. It was total. “Utterly destroyed” (Deu 2:34). A type of the utter destruction awaiting all who resist and oppose the Divine will; said of the Church, “The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish” (Isa 9:12); of Christ, “Every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people” (Act 3:23; cf. 2Th 1:9, 2Th 1:10).J.O.

HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR

Deu 2:1-23

God’s faithfulness in dealing with nations outside the covenant.

We have here strict injunctions given to the pilgrims not to disturb the children of Edom, nor the Moabites, nor the children of Ammon, because they were occupying the district assigned them. These tribes, though related to Israel, were not in the covenant. Still God had guaranteed to them certain temporal blessings, and he shows himself faithful in his dealings with them.

I. GOD IS A RIGHTEOUS GOVERNOR AMONG THE NATIONS. It is in equity that he rules. His judgment is always according to truth. Having written the law of conscience upon every human heart, he can justly judge men thereby. They are laws unto themselves, and so will be held accountable for their relation to their law, or, as we might call it, inward light (cf. Rom 2:14, Rom 2:15).

II. TEMPORAL ADVANTAGES ARE GIFTS OF GOD. The laws which regulate nature are, we believe, the ordinances of God. Hence the benefits irreligious nations receive through the laws of nature are really the gifts of his bounteous hand. Though the nations may not so regard them, the people of God can form no other notion of them. As gifts, they are undeserved. Hence it is part of God’s scheme of mercy so generously to treat the race of men. We must look to Christ’s atonement for an explanation on the ground of justice of this merciful treatment of mankind. The death of Jesus purchased temporal as well as spiritual blessings, and its vast application should be recognized and known. In this sense he did “die for every man.”

III. THE CONSTANCY OF THE LAWS OF NATURE Is TO BE TRACED TO THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD. No other hypothesis can be offered so consistent with the facts. The promises treasured up in nature are promises of God, and the laws which secure their fulfillment are the ministers of his faithfulness.

IV. THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD IN THE CASES REFERRED TO WAS NOT RECOGNIZED BY THE TRIBES PROFITING BY IT. In seizing the places allotted to them by God, the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites fought each for his hand and in no religious spirit. They overcame and exterminated races of giants who formerly possessed the land. All the while, God’s plan and faithfulness were receiving illustration and fulfillment. The exercise of human freedom did not militate against, but secured the Divine pleasure.

V, GOD‘S BOUNTY TO NATIONS OUTSIDE THE COVENANT IS INTENDED TO ENCOURAGE HIS OWN PEOPLE. The Israelites would be the better prepared to meet and master the giants in Canaan after seeing the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites snugly dwelling in the inheritances of gigantic predecessors. If these tribes, without any sense of dependence upon the Almighty, overcame the giants opposing them, what will not be possible to faith? And the whole government of the world is really intended to foster confidence in God’s covenant faithfulness and to forbid all despair.R.M.E.

Deu 2:14-18

The wasting of the warriors.

There was evidently a considerable knowledge of “the art of war” in the Israelitish host on leaving Egypt. Moses was versed in it, as in so much more, and the mixed multitude which accompanied the exodus would also contain men skilled in arms. And experience of opposition on the part of Amalek, etc; would elicit a martial spirit throughout the host. Moreover, the presence of seasoned men, or “veterans,” gives confidence to young troops in actual conflict. The world would say,” By all means retain the veterans for the purpose of invasion.” Yet, strange to say, God kept the host wandering till the warriors were all weeded out, and buried in the wilderness. The invasion is to be made by the rising generation, which had never seen the military art or reviews in Egypt. From this we learn

I. THAT GOD‘S WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS, NOR HIS THOUGHTS OUR THOUGHTS. In fact, his plans are often constructed so as to baffle worldly wisdom. We see this in this invasion of Canaan; we see it in his way of salvation by Jesus Christ; we see it in his providential dealings.

II. THE ART OF WAR IS NOT SO IMPORTANT AS THE ART OF FAITH. The experience of the veterans was as nothing in comparison with the courageous faith in God. This made heroes of the children who would, they thought, be a prey. All wisdom of man becomes vain when unsustained by confidence in God.

III. SOLDIERS‘ GRAVES HAVE OFTENTIMES BEEN THE MELANCHOLY CONDITION OF SUCCESS. It was really after sacrifice, the sacrifice of the whole fighting army of Israel, that success came. There grew out of their graves warning and inspiration. And it has been over the graves of soldiers that almost every progress of the world has been made. Multitudes had to be buried on the battle-fields before the Promised Land of peace could be entered. The buried warriors constituted the holocaust which was presented before the blessing came.

IV. THE DESTRUCTION OF FALSE TRUSTS IS OFTEN THE PREPARATION FOR TRUE ONES. The temptation to trust in the veterans and their military ideas is taken away by the death of the warriors. So is it that God removes from us every false refuge. Thus we learn to trust in the living God, and to fight his battles in his own way. Providence is oftentimes just the removal of the warriors who were so wise in their own eyes and so able to take the best course, that the people may follow the Lord only.

Happy for each soul it is to be deprived of every false support, and to be led to trust Christ alone! Into real rest the soul enters by faiththe Promised Land lies open to the trustful soul, while its gates are closed against the self-confident ones.R.M.E.

Deu 2:24-37

The destruction of Sihon, King of the Amorites.

Moses here recalls the first stage in the conquest. By Divine direction, the pilgrims are to advance upon the land of the Amorites, and they are promised an important victory over them. And here we have to notice

I. THE REASONABLE PROPOSAL MADE TO SIHON THE KING. (Deu 2:26-29.) This was for permission to pass through his land to Canaan, undertaking to disturb nothing and to pay for all supplies. Nothing could be more reasonable. The onus was thus thrown on Sihon of determining whether he would befriend God’s people or oppose them. And this reminds us of the most reasonable offers God, in his gospel, makes to men. He acts the friendly part, and if men take it in good faith, all is well.

II. THE REFUSAL OF THE HARD–HEARTED KING. (Deu 2:30.) Sihon quite needlessly resolves to oppose their passage to Canaan. He likely had heard of or remembered the former unsuccessful attempt thirty-eight years before at Kadesh, and so he imagines that a little opposition will deter them and turn them from their purpose. The hardening of heart, here attributed to God, means simply that the providences, instead of softening Sihon’s nature, had through his own self-will an entirely opposite effect, The heart gets hardened through the corruption of the will. It is similarly with those who reject the offer of salvation.

III. BATTLE IS THUS FORCED UPON THE PILGRIMS. (Deu 2:31, Deu 2:32.) This battle of Jahaz was a decisive one. The pilgrims were so numerous that Sihon had to bring out all his host. Into it the Israelites entered with the assurance of victory, and this largely secured it. It is so in the spiritual warfare. The enemies of God’s people are met by a host confident in success, because promised by God. This of itself is half the battle.

IV. THE PENALTY OF OPPOSITION TO GOD‘S PLANS IS EXTERMINATION. (Deu 2:33, Deu 2:34.) If men will oppose God, they must take the consequences. God must be supreme. He can allow no victorious opposition. His enemies must lick the dust. It is a mortal combat into which they must enter who fight against him. The propriety of the extermination rests in the Divine command. God has the right to dispose as he sees fit of his creatures. If they oppose his will, which is always right, they may justly be taken away with a stroke, and that without remedy.

V. THE LIMITATIONS SET BEFORE THE CONQUERORS. (Deu 2:35-37.) They took the cattle and a certain portion of the land, but they did not overrun the whole country. The land of the children of Ammon was exempt from the invasion. It was forbidden ground. So is it always. God sets limits to success. It is well he does. Ambition must abide by his decree, and not overstep due bounds. When his will is thus respected, and self-repression and self-discipline rigidly enforced, all is well. The dangers of success are thus avoided, and real elevation of spirit is experienced.R.M.E.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Ver. 1. And we compassed mount Seir The meaning is, they spent near thirty-eight years in the encampments and slow marches made in the wilderness, which lies round the south and west borders of the country of Edom, into which they had not hitherto entered, ver. 4. By mount Seir is meant the mountainous part of Edom, or Idumea. The whole country of Edom, in the times of the kings, reached from the confines of Canaan unto Ezion-gaber on the Red Sea; 1Ki 9:26. On which account the Arabian gulf was called the sea of Edom, or the Red Sea; but in Moses’s time, the land of Edom appears to have been of a much smaller extent, reaching no further south than mount Hor, which is said to have been in the edge of the land of Edom. It was at the end of the thirty-ninth year after their coming out of Egypt that the Lord spake unto Moses, as mentioned in the second and following verses. See Dr. Shaw’s Travels, p. 320.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

I. THE FIRST DISCOURSE

Deu 1:6 to Deu 4:40

1. The command of God for the breaking up from Horeband the promise. (Deu 1:6-8).

6The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: 7Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all [his neighborssee marg.] the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea-side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. 8Behold, I have [given] set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

2. The corresponding precautions which Moses took. (Deu 1:9-18.)

9And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: 10The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. 11(The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!) 12How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? 13Take2 you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. 14And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do. 15So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made [gave] them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. 16And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. 17Ye shall not respect persons [regard faces] in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is Gods: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it. 18And I commanded you at that time all the things [words] which ye should do.

3. The actual breaking up from Horeb, and arrival in Kadesh-barnea; the encouragement to the promise. (Deu 1:19-21.)

19And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. 20And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. 21Behold, the Lord thy God hath set [given] the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.

4. The Spies. (Deu 1:22-25.)

22And ye came near unto me every one of you [all ye], and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. 23And the saying pleased me well:3 and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe: 24And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out. 25And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us.

5. The unbelief notwithstanding all assurances and experiences. (Deu 1:26-33.)

26Notwithstanding, ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God: 27And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver [give] us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged [melted] 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 [sons of the giants] there. 29Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. 30The Lord your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for [with] you in Egypt before your eyes; 31And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way [the whole way] that ye went, until ye came into this place. 32Yet in this thing [word] ye did not believe the Lord your God, 33Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.

6. The judgment of God. (Deu 1:34-40.)

34And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, 35Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, 36Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath4 wholly followed the Lord. 37Also the Lord was angry 38with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither. But [om. But] Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither. Encourage 39him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover, your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, 40and they shall possess it. But [And] as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

7. Fruitless attempts. (Deu 1:41-46.)

41Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready [made light]5 to go up into the hill. 42And the Lord said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither 43fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies. So [And] I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment [mouth] of the Lord, and went presumptuously [were presumptuous and went] up into the hill. 44And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah. 45And ye returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you. 46So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.

8. The new beginning. (Deu 2:1-3.)

1Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the Lord spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days. 2And the Lord spake unto me, saying, 3Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.

9. The exceptions (Deu 2:4-23): Edom (Deu 2:4-8): Moab (Deu 2:9-15): Amnion (Deu 2:16-23)

4And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore: 5Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot-breadth [the treading of the sole of the foot]; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. 6Ye shall buy meat [food] of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water6 of them for money, that ye may drink. 7For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth [careth for] thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee: thou hast lacked nothing. 8And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir through the way of the plain from Elath, and from Eziongaber, we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 9And the Lord said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle:7 for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession. (10The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall as the Anakims;11Which also were 12accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims. The Ho-rims also dwelt in Seir before-time, but the children of Esau succeeded them [dislodged and], when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them.) 13Now rise up, said I,8 and get you over the brook Zered: and we went over the brook Zered. 14And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware 15unto them. For [And] indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy 16them from among the host, until they were consumed. So [And] it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, 17That the Lord spake unto me, saying, 18Thou art to pass over through Ar, the coast of 19Moab, this day: And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them; for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession. 20(That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time: and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; 21A people great, and many, and tall as the Anakims; but the Lord destroyed them before them; and they succeeded [dislodged] them, and dwelt in their stead: 22As he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded [dislodged] them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day: 23And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim [villages] even unto Azzah [Gaza], the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.)

10. The first victory and possession. (Deu 3:24Deu 3:22.)

a. The promise of victory (Deu 3:24-25)

24Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thy hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to 25[om. to] possess it, and contend with him in battle. This day will I begin to put [give] the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.

b. The victory over King Sihon. (Deu 3:26-29.)

26And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of 27Heshbon with words of peace, saying, Let me [I will] pass through thy land: I will go along by the highway, I will neither turn unto the right hand nor to the left. 28Thou shalt sell me meat [food] for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only I will pass through on my feet; 29(As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did unto me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the Lord our God giveth us. 30But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate [firm], that he might deliver [give] him into thy hand, as appeareth this day. 31And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee: begin to 32[om. to] possess, that thou mayest inherit his land. Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. 33And the Lord our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. 34And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed [banned]9 the men, and the women, and the little ones of every city; we left none to remain: 35Only the cattle we took for a 36prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took. From Aroer which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us: the Lord our God delivered 37[gave up] all unto us: Only unto the land of the children of Ammon thou camest not, nor unto any place [the whole side] of the river Jabbok, nor unto the cities in the mountains, nor unto whatsoever the Lord our God forbade us.

c. The victory over King Og. (Deu 3:1-11.)

1Then [And] we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 2And the Lord said unto me, Fear him not; for I will deliver [I have given] him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon. 3So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining. 4And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5All these cities were fenced [fortified] with high walls, gates, and bars; beside unwalled towns a great many. 6And we utterly destroyed [laid them under ban] them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men,10 women, and children of every city. 7But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves. 8And we took at that [this] time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was on this [that] side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto Mount Hermon;9(Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion; and the Amorites call it Shenir;) 10All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, unto Salchah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine-cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.

d. The first possession. (Deu 3:12-22.)

12And this land, which we possessed at that [this] time, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites. 13And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half-tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob [with respect to the whole Bashan], with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants. 14Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob, unto the coasts of Geshuri, and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashan-havoth-jair, unto this day. 15And I gave Gilead unto Machir. And unto the Reubenites 16and unto the Gadites I gave from Gilead even [both] unto the river Arnon, half the valley, and the border, even [and] unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon: 17The plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashdoth-pisgah [cliffs of Pisgah] eastward. 18And I commanded you at that [in this] time, saying, The Lord your God hath given you this land to possess it; ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet 19for the war [the strong ones].11 But [only] your wives, and your little ones, and four cattle, (for I know that ye have much cattle,) shall abide in your cities which I have given you; 20Until the Lord have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and until [thus] they also possess the land which the Lord your God hath given them beyond Jordan: and then shall ye return every man unto his possession which I have given you. 21And I commanded Joshua at that [this] time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto these two kings: so shall the Lord do unto all the kingdoms whither thou passest. 22Ye shall not fear them: for the Lord your God he shall fight for you.

11. Moses prayer not heard. (Deu 3:23-29.)

23And I besought the Lord at that [in this] time, saying, 24O Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for [om. for] what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? 25I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. 26But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. 27Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. 28But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see. 29So we abode in the valley over against Beth-peor.

12. Moses exhortations. (Deu 4:1-40.)

a. To the consideration of the law generally. (Deu 4:1-8.)

1Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach [am teaching] you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. 2Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. 3Your eyes have seen [see still] what the Lord did because of Baal-peor: for all the men [every man] that followed Baal-peor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you. 4But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God, are alive every one of you this day. 5Behold, I have taught you statutes, and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. 6Keep therefore and do them: for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely [only] this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 7For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? 8And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day.

b. To a remembrance of the law-giving at Horeb. (Deu 4:9-14.)

9Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy 10life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons sons: Specially [om. Specially] the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and 11that they may teach their children. And [Then] ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst [the heart] of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. 12And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice [a form ye saw not beside the voice]. 13And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. 14And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

c. That they should lay to heart the nature and method of the law-giver. (Deu 4:15-31.)

15Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves [for the sake of your souls]; (for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire;) 16Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image 17[idol image], the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air [heaven], 18The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: 19And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to [shouldest become alienated, and] worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations 20under the whole heaven. But [And] the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance 21[for a possession], as ye are this day. Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance: 22But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over and possess that good land. 23Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. 24For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. 25When thou shalt beget children, and childrens children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image [idol image], or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger; 26I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it: ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly [certainly] be destroyed. 27And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead [drive] you. 28And there ye shall serve gods, the work of mens hands, wood and stone, which neither 29see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But [And] if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart [thy whole heart], and with all thy soul. 30When thou art in tribulation, and all these things [words are found] are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient [hearken] unto his voice; 31(For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he sware unto them.

d. The consideration of the superiority of Israel through its law. (Deu 4:32-40.)

32For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been 33heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? 34Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God: there is none else beside him. 36Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. 37And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their [his] seed after them [him], and brought thee out in his sight [with his face] with his mighty power out of Egypt; 38To drive out nations from before thee, greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day. 39Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the 40earth beneath: there is none else. Thou shalt [And] keep therefore his statutes and his commandments which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Deu 1:6-8. As Moses spake according to all that the Lord commanded him (Deu 1:3), so here we have at the very first the word and command of the Lord, Deu 1:6 sq.The standpoint at Horeb, is the most fitting for Deuteronomy in its popular reference, since Israel itself received its national form as a people through the Sinaitic law-giving. Jehovah our God, in the mouth of Moses, who stands in connection with both generations of Israel, expresses with respect to God what the words: spake unto us express with respect to Israel. Comp. Deu 5:2 sq. Israel is one whole, the old with the new, but so also Jehovah is the one and the same covenant God. The succeeding words of the Lord complete the narrative, Num 1:1 sq.; Deu 10:11 sq.Enough.Nearly a year was long enough for the legal preparation of Israel. The abode at Horeb is emphasized as long () rather, because that which was necessary for Israel could not be secured in any briefer time.

Deu 1:7. Turn you (Deu 1:40; Deu 2:3, with ), the direction of the face; take your journey, the breaking up and departure; and go, the arriving at the goal. The three imperatives are used to impress the strong desire of the Lord to give Canaan to the people.As the land of the Canaanites shows, these condensed descriptive terms serve to give the peculiar features, and indeed a very complete and attractive picture of the promised land, as the goal of the journey. The mount of the Amorites, afterwards the mountains of Judah and Ephraim, is the first feature of Canaan which greets the eye of one coming from the south, and is indeed as a highland (comp. Doct. and Ethical, 2, Deu 1:1-5), with the addition: all its neighbors, the backbone (Keil) of the whole land. For the Amorites, comp. Deu 1:1-4. For the plain, Deu 1:1. If the Arabah following the eye includes the valley of the Dead Sea and the Jordan (Schultz) throughout, we can scarcely take the hills as the Mount: of the Amorites, but rather as the remaining mountains, especially as the hill region of Galilee, the second member of the mountain system of Palestine, to which follows appropriately in order the vale (Schephelah) from Carmel down to Gaza, and the south (the Negeb) the district stretching from the wilderness to the cultivated and fertile land, from the south end of the Dead Sea over to the region below Gaza; so that and by the sea side (Gen 49:13; Luk 6:17) must include the entire Mediterranean Coast up to Tyre, and at the same time, after the now following comprehensive description as the land of the Canaanites, Lebanon (white mountain from the snow), the last member of the mountain system of Palestine, gives the characteristic finish to the description. The special mention of Lebanon and the extension of the eastern limit to the Euphrates are not to be taken as an oratorical fulness of expression (Keil), but as the gleaming out of the divine promise. Gen 15:18; Exo 23:31; Deu 11:24. Unto the great river, the river Euphrates (from the sweet water, or the rapid flow). But the people were led captive to the very land to which as free and rightful possessors they should have gradually advanced (Schultz). Comp. Deu 12:20 and also 2Sa 8:3; 2Sa 8:6; 1Ki 5:1; 1Ki 5:4. To such a wide outlook, Deu 1:7, corresponds the lo or behold of Deu 1:8.They have only to possess the land already given by God (, perf.).I have set the land before you.The possession of it should therefore be both certain and easy (Herxheimer). Jehovah is the God of Israel not first since Horeb (Deu 1:6), but already through the patriarchs. References Gen 12:7; Gen 13:16; Gen 15:18; Gen 17:8; Gen 24:7; Gen 26:3-4; Gen 28:13; Gen 48:4. A sacred objectivity appears here, where God speaks of Himself in the third person. So also Moses speaks of himself in the Pentateuch.Since the giving is one already completed by God, so it makes no essential distinction between unto them and their seed after them.The distinction is only one of time; to them, in the promise, hence sworn, to their seed in the actual gift. The legal title of the successors to Canaan, depended upon the patriarchs. It was legally, validly given to them, their seed inherited it from them.

2. Deu 1:9-18. It belongs to God to go before; the part of Moses now follows. This is an order of arrangement, not a chronological order. At that time, Deu 1:9, is the same as at Horeb, Deu 1:6 (comp. Deu 1:18 with Exo 18:5; Exo 17:6). And I spake in no way excludes the counsel of Jethro (Exo 18:17 sq.), but rather pre-supposes his very words ( 4, Deu 1:9).[It is probable that Moses received Jethros suggestion, took it to God, received the divine approval, and then proposed it to the people, which was specially suited to his purpose in this address. At that time, in Moses view, includes the years residence at Horeb. And hence there is no inconsistency between the narrative in Exodus and the statement here. The transaction may have been commenced before the law was given, and concluded afterwards.A. G.]Compare the with Exo 18:18; Deu 1:12; with , Exo 18:22.As Deu 1:6 to us, so here: to you.In Genesis 12 the promise of the land was closely connected with and dependent upon the promise of a great people. Moses here makes prominent the fulfilment of this promise, and that the promise of the land had thus received a visible pledge, Deu 1:10 sq. Hence the literal reference in Deu 1:10 to Gen 22:17; Gen 26:4; Gen 15:5; Gen 17:2. Hence also in Deu 1:11 the wish for a thousand-fold increase, with which was connected the wish for a blessing according to Gen 12:2. With this agrees the God of your fathers. This fulfilment obviously renders some arrangement necessary, through which the physical enlargement may become moral also, may be formed into a legal organism, so that as in connection with the divine law-giving, so also in and through this human arrangement or institution, all that which is needful for Israels journey to Canaan, especially for its possession of the same, and as a consequence its settlement therein may be provided. Deu 1:12. A resumption of Deu 1:9. For bear, comp. Heb 1:3. The fact that occurs also in Num 11:17 does not justify the inference, that the appointment of the Judges here must be connected with the appointment of the Seventy elders there.[The time and place are both different, and although there is a resemblance in the expressions which Moses uses, it is entirely natural that he should use them on both occasions. We are constantly doing the same with all the variety and flexibility of modern languages. It would be strange indeed if they should not occur in the narratives of entirely different events.A. G.](V. Gerlach), your cumbrance is the people itself; burden, their concerns which they laid upon Moses; your strifes, , with a vivid recollection of Exo 18:13 sq., the litigated questions and interests.

Deu 1:13. Take (give) for you men.Those who should in this trust act for their good must proceed from themselves. Or they should themselves give what they need (Jdg 1:15). The fuller description of these men corresponds to Exo 18:21 sq. While Jethro dwells more upon the moral qualities, Moses brings out into prominence the technical qualifications for the office. Wise, in reference to the fear of God; understanding for the definite peculiar cases; known, with respect to the whole people; their good report among them. (Vulg.: quorum conversatio sit probata. Comp. Act 6:3; 1Ti 3:7.) Among your tribes belongs to the whole clause, the entire demand.Rulers, comp. Deu 1:15; Exo 18:25. [Shebet, the word used in Deuteronomy for tribe, designates the tribe as a political corporation; Matteh, which occurs frequently in the other parts of the Pentateuch, but never in Deuteronomy, is used in reference to its genealogical stems and branches. Wordsworth.A. G.]

Deu 1:14. A recognition of the proposal of Moses on the part of the people, and Deu 1:15 a recognition of the natural relations of the people on the part of Moses. The chief of your tribes, i. e. those who were found at the heads of the several tribes. Since the tribal institution thus lay at the foundation, the arrangement into 1,000, 100, 50, 10, aids only in cases where unusual numbers are concerned. Because there will be insight or understanding wherever there is true wisdom, the second requisite is here omitted in the enumeration.Judges, from , connected with to press together, with = to rank, to dispose in order, so that shoter signifies one who sets in order, and connected with this, a writer, as Schnell says: one who is to keep the tribe register, and who appears in everything where reading and writing give occasion, and especially in all financial transactions. It belongs to those entrusted with the office of Judges, that they should order all for the legal transactions, should see that the judgment in each case is recorded, and should provide for its execution; a scripture guide in every position high or low. Sept. Exo 5:15; Exo 5:19. , here . It belongs to the judicial function, Deu 1:16, especially first to hear, then to judge. For the first he should act and move as between his brethren. For the last he has to execute righteousness (Deu 16:18; Joh 7:24). The brotherly open ear must be associated with the incorruptibly closed hand, and indeed before him each one is and remains only a man, whether he deals with his brother or with a stranger. includes settlement, residence in itself, whether temporary or permanent, as e. g., the one who works for wages. As in this relation justice allows no distinction, so neither between the small and the great, i. e., poor and rich, the lowly and the exalted. No face, no person is to be regarded in judgment; in Hiph. looked upon with partiality, neither in the hearing nor the judging; and thus especially fear, the most spiritual and yet the most natural and human form of corruption is repudiated. The completion to Exo 18:21. (Self-seeking to the thirst for gain). All human reverence and respect disappears when the judgment is set forth with such emphasis as of God (Rom 2:11), when the Judge acts for him and is responsible to him (2Ch 19:6). Hence Exo 18:15; Exo 18:19, inquire of God, and bring before God. The judicial summons of the Arabs to-day is, thou art cited before the judgment of God; so also in the Koran. The cause that is too hard looks back to Exo 18:26. A hint of the chief judicial authority (Schultz), as for the present of Moses, so perhaps in a general way already an intimation of the kingdom, chap. 17. The hardness or difficulty depends upon the nature of the cause; the solution should be given to the judges (for you) and could also be made known to the parties in the case appealed. (It is interesting to notice here the fifty-eight times occurring termination in Deuteteronomy used only in the older books). Deu 1:18. The transition from right-speaking in judgment to right-doing in life, from the judges to the people (you). Either because Moses points to Exodus 21 sq., or else gives here a summary conclusion to the passage from Deu 1:9 sq. The Divine law-giving, the decalogue, is not mentioned in the whole paragraph. But comp. upon Deu 4:13.

3. Deu 1:19-21. And we departed, Deu 1:19. Thus, so far as God and Moses were concerned, everything was ready for the journey to Canaan, but alas! it was not so on the part of the people. Comp. Num 11:12. All that wilderness here embraces the whole desert generally considered as lying over against Canaan. The demonstrative and the addition which ye saw rest upon the same vivid representation, which lies at the foundation of the peculiar local determinations in Deu 1:1-2. (Schultz). Because all therefore also great and terrible, comp. Deu 8:15; Deu 32:10. Stretching from Cairo to the Euphrates, and divided into eastern and western by the Mountains of Edom, it is the western part, the Arabia petra which is here spoken of. From Horeb northwards, especially in the desert Et-Tih, the region is characterized by fruitlessness, scarcity of water, black chalk hills, boundless plains of blinding white sand, the sport of suffocating west winds, and lying under the heavens glowing as metal. The journey from Horeb to Kadesh, which in Deu 1:2 is described as the way of Mount Seir, is here laid down as the way of the mountain of the Amorites. The former is characteristic in the East, the latter in the North, and is moreover expressly pointed out in Deu 1:7, as the divinely announced goal. As the Lord our God commanded us. Moses, Deu 1:20, refers to this goal, Deu 1:7, as now attained, and repeats, Deu 1:21, the promise (Deu 1:8). Go up, possessasyndeton emphaticum. Comp. Deu 2:24; Deu 2:31.J. H. Mich.

4. Deu 1:22-25. As these words of Moses complete the narrative, Num 13:20, what follows down to Deu 1:46 appears as the completion made by an eye-witness like Moses; so pervading, and at the same time so undesigned and natural is the reference to Numbers 13, 14 ( 4, 1. 10). While Moses passes over the preceding events recorded, Num 11:12, he dwells expressly upon that which introduced the catastrophe. in Num 13:21 differs from here as a mere passing through, differs from the most careful and thorough exploration. Jehovah speaks for the believer, the people speak from a weak or small faith. And bring us word (answer) again, (Deu 1:25) as a parenthesis, so that specializes the object nempe viam, or de via. What way to take, and what fortified places to possess. Deu 1:23. Moses approves the desire of the people because it was not unreasonable, and because the divine help never dispenses with the wise, careful, and zealous use of all human means and strength, but rather demands it. (Kurtz). In Num. it is represented as a command of God, and the more so because God wills that the deep purposes of the heart should come into the light, and be overcome or controlled. (Kurtz). Canaan was to be conquered and possessed by faith, otherwise the reproach of failure would rest upon Jehovah and His covenant with Israel. Twelve men, according to Numbers 13; none for Levi, but two for Joseph, one each for Ephraim and Manasseh. Deu 1:24, comp. Num 13:23 sq. The valley of Eshcol (from , dense, interwoven), grape clusters, grapes from near Hebron, whose clusters are said sometimes to weigh from eight to twelve pounds. Piel; to discover, because going often here and there, thus corresponding to in Num 13:21. The feminine refers to the land (Deu 1:26 or Deu 1:22) as the suffix Deu 1:38. Deu 1:25, literally, as Num 13:20. And brought, sq. between two, bearing the cluster upon a pole, in order to carry it without injury, Num 13:23. What they brought vouches for their report as to the goodness of the land. Deu 1:28 brings out the rest of the report. [It shows upon what slight grounds objections are raised, that the narratives in regard to the spies, which are plainly subsidiary, should be urged as instances of discrepancy. The obvious order here is: the plan originated with the people, was approved by Moses, was submitted to God, and carried out under His express sanction. Wordsworth well remarks, A forger who personates Moses, would have taken good care that his own statements should be seen to be in perfect harmony with the records of Moses himself. The semblances of discrepancies are not marks of spuriousness, but rather of genuineness.A. G.].

5. Deu 1:26-33. This subsequent report corresponds throughout with the narrative in Num 13:27-28 sq. Ye would not, precisely as Mat 23:37! The inward negative of men to the goodness of God, which then came to a decision in outward act, becomes in experience a rejection by God. Our paragraph relates the decision in act, that in experience, the rejection on the part of God is related in Deu 1:34 sq. Moses dwells long at Kadesh, because the prolonging of that preparatory condition in which Israel was still, arose here. The natural corruption even of the chosen people is here shown, and proved a fact of importance for the whole future, since Israel even in the fields of Moab was not yet redeemed therefrom. Thus Moses addresses the Israelites around him, as if they were the authors of the apostacy at Kadesh and the rejected race, while in fact they were the new generation who were preserved in contrast to those rejected (Deu 1:35-39). Baumgarten. Deu 1:27 : murmuring, to wit, against the command and promise of the Lord, Deu 1:7. Comp. with Deu 1:21. to chide, mock, Niphal to be peevish, morose. In your tents points back to the night, Num 14:1. Because the Lord hated us, they said, and think of the leading out from Egypt, as Num 14:2, and look upon the Canaanites also, as Num 14:3. In regard to the first, directly contrary to Exo 20:2, but comp. Deu 9:28. With this reviling of the very fundamental act of benevolence, this generation yielded up its own existence. Whither, sq., to what region of the well-occupied and fortified land shall we turn? Our brethren, viz., the spies, who give us brotherly counsel while Jehovah hates us, Num 13:31 sq. Discouraged, melted. Greater in number, and taller in size, and thus stronger. Great cities in extent, and walled up to heaven. High walls and towers, and mountain fastnesses. Comp. Deu 9:1, where Moses ironically appropriates the exaggerated utterances of their cowardice. Cowardice and pride go together (Gen 11:4), but never faith, to which God in heaven is all (Psa 73:25), and nothing on earth reaches to heaven. The living vivid representation, moreover, vouches for its originality. Sons of the Anakim, are the descendants of a peculiarly tall, giant-like race. Thus the statement concerning the three sons of Anak, Num 13:22-23, is completed. Comp. Deu 2:10. The encouragement and assurance of Moses, Deu 1:29 completes the narrative, Num 13:30; Num 14:6 sq., and after Deu 1:5 was to have been expected. There the narrative treats of Caleb and Joshua, the exceptions among the people, here it treats of Moses in his relation to the people. Comp. Deu 7:21; Deu 1:21. With Deu 1:30 comp. Deu 1:33. A verbal reference to Exo 14:14; Exo 14:25 for an introduction to what follows. Your own past experience should be that which is most assuring, is Moses encouragement. Deu 1:31 comp. with Deu 1:19. As a man doth bear (is wont to bear and will ever bear). The points of comparison are: the mercy which takes up the faint and perishing; the care which bears them upon the arm, and goes with them through every danger; the wisdom and power which bring them home. Comp. Exo 19:4; Isa 46:3-4; Act 13:18; Num 11:12. Deu 1:32 : And with (in) this word. The peculiar position of the pause accent intimates so much as this, surely: in spite of, notwithstanding this assurance, or directly, is it credible! Not believing in Jehovah. The participle represents the faithless conduct of the people as an enduring, permanent condition; as Jehovah Deu 1:33 (Deu 1:30) is represented as going before them. Comp. Exo 13:21 sq., . Comp. Num 10:33.

6. Deu 1:34-40. The long break in the narrative intimated here Deu 1:34, by the words And Jehovah heard, sq., as in Deu 1:32, by the pause accent, serves to set the disposition of Israel at its full measure and value, and at the same time shows how slow to wrath God was (Gen 6:11; Gen 6:5; Jam 1:19). The oath in the rejection (Psa 95:11; Heb 3:18; Heb 4:3) as in the promise (Deu 1:8; Deu 1:35). Deu 1:35. ifbecause in the formula of the oath the second clause is generally wanting, it being clear of itselfhere stands for: surely not; No one, because the whole body (the generation) is evil, in opposition to the good land. Comp. Num 14:23; Num 14:28. Deu 1:36. Caleb is named first (Deu 1:38) as also in Num 13:30. Upon which he hath trodden. Comp. Jos 14:9 : Because he hath wholly followed the Lord[lit., fulfilled to go after, E. V. Marg.]. The perfect following is that which holds on when the other falls away. Deu 1:37. Also against me. Moses certainly distinguishes between the wrath breaking out upon Israel (Deu 1:34) and the displeasure, the growing anger of Jehovah (hithpael from ), letting loose upon him also the excluding judgment as it concerned the people. But that he excepts himself from the exception of Caleb, and feels himself to be included under the wrath of Jehovah in a general sense; this genuine Mosaic classing of himself with the people still beloved by him, although in the rejection, can only be intimated. The incident alluded to, Num 20:12, falls historically during the second coming of Israel to the borders of the promised land, and with the new generation. In his love for the people, and in the result, Moses connects it with the great catastrophe, Numbers 14. This connection moreover was even then referred to, if not designed, since Moses name was not mentioned, Num 14:24; Num 14:30; Num 14:38. The offer of a new people, sprung from himself, was indeed made to him, Num 14:12, but by so much the more was it obligatory upon him, that in his own person, included in the punishment with Israel, as in the grace of Jehovah it was illustrious for all Israel, he should sanctify the Lord in the eyes of the new generation. Comp. 1. Where the rock was, 1Co 10:4, there was the anointed.For your sakes, , from , to separate, to disjoin; hence a movement like the rolling, breaking waves of the sea, and so here signifies your rebellion, falling away, uproar, and thus expresses the occasion, the cause of Moses offence, entirely in accordance with Num 20:2 sq. Comp. Deu 3:26; Deu 4:21 ( 4, Deu 1:11); Psa 106:32-33. It is, however, clear from this how correctly the new generation in the discourses of Moses hitherto has been embraced with the old. The present rejection of the leader, Moses, forms the only difference here between the generations. With Caleb (Deu 1:36) Joshua also belongs among the exceptionsbut his name occurs here (Deu 1:38) first in this connection, because he at the same time fills the place of Moses.Which standeth before thee.[A phrase which, as the Bib. Com. says, as it alludes to a leader of the people in the place of Moses, shows how naturally Moses came to speak of his own rejection and its cause here, although it actually occurred long years after, and in connection with another sin of the people.A. G.]For the daily humiliation of Moses, but still also in his loving care for Israel, for his daily consolation. But comp. Num 11:28; Exo 24:13; Exo 33:11; Deu 10:8; Deu 18:7.Encourage him.Comp. Deu 3:21-22. If in (Deu 1:8; Deu 1:21) the signification, to take possession by conquest, is the prominent thought, so in the possession by inheritance. Joshua the executor of the inheritance. Deu 1:39. Moreover, your little ones.Comp. Num 14:3; Num 14:31. from , not to trip, to take short, quick steps, but as in Isa 3:16, to turn back or around here and there, a harsh depreciating expression, to which agrees well the which in that day had no knowledge.While ye know so well what is good, and what is evil for yourselves, let alone for them. Ironically. The way of the Red Sea, Deu 1:40; comp. Deu 2:1; Num 14:25. Contrast to Deu 1:7, by the sea-side.

7. Deu 1:41-46. For Deu 1:41 comp. Num 14:40. It was merely saying, for ye act after as before, directly against Jehovahs command. They saw the loss, from which they would now relieve themselves.That we will go up and fight, etc., borders closely upon the ye would not go up, Deu 1:26. What is said is done as quickly as possible. Each one girds upon himself his weapons of warthose which he was wont to wear in battle, especially his sword upon the left thigh (1Sa 25:13). So lightly did they regard what had occurred. (The Rabbins connect with the of the people, Num 14:40.)[See Textual Note.A. G.]The Lord had only to keep pace therewith (comp. Num 14:44). Jehovah warned them to no purpose, Deu 1:42. Comp. Num 14:42; Deu 7:21; Deu 31:17 (Exo 13:15). His declared will meets the same perverse treatment as in Deu 1:26. There they refused to go up and murmured; here they will not hear, and presumptuously (Exo 21:14) ascend into the hill. Deu 1:44. The Amorites are taken for the Canaanites as a whole, but specially for those who inhabited the southern mountain slope, Deu 1:19 sq.And chased you.The Amalekites as the first enemy of Israel formerly conquered (Gen 14:7; Exo 17:8 sq.) from revenge, and from their vicinity had joined the Amorites. They are not expressly named here, but are characteristically pointed out, in that violence of their excited revengeful feelings illustrated by the comparison of the bees (Psa 118:12; Isa 7:18). With the violence of their defence and pursuit corresponds the destructive character of the result.In Seir unto Hormah, thus to the Edomitic region (1 Chron. 5:42, 43), as the Amalekites were then of Edomitic descent (Gen 36:12; Gen 36:16; 1Ch 1:36). A predatory, roving tribe of Bedouins, having their residence between the Egyptians, Philistines, Amorites, Edomites and Midianites. The Ban-place (Hormah) used here as also (Num 14:45) by anticipation, according to Num 21:1 sq., caused by the conduct of Amalek there recorded, intimates the thought that as those formerly overcome were now victors over Israel, so the later Ban-place for the Canaanites was first a Ban-place for Israel. Hormah, originally Zephath, Jdg 1:17, Rowland identifies with Sebata, while Robinson locates it at the pass Es Safah. They thus returned, Deu 1:45, to the place where the ark had remained, and there wept before Jehovah. Comp. Pro 1:24 sq.After this occurs the nearly thirty-eight years of the divine penal period, for which the double expression: The Lord would not hearkennor give ear, are moreover expressive, portraying all the eventually fruitless attempts and the still enduring, protracted period. A part of the people as Fries (Stud. und Krit., 1854, I.), Kurtz (II., p. 402 sq.) and Schultz think, may have remained in and around Kadesh, and many may have died there, and indeed in order to the re-assembling of Israel, there may have occurred after the lapse of the period fixed by the Lord a second march to Kadesh, where moreover all the paths of the desert meet. But this is not the abode intended in Deu 1:46; but just as in the narrative of Moses, Num 14:45, the thread is dropped, and first resumed again in chap. 20; so in the discourse of Moses here we have to regard as equal to , as of a residence of the second generation in Kadesh. Comp. Num 20:16; Jdg 11:17. Kadesh forms a concluding point, which is at the same time a point of union and a beginning point, to which belongs also the verification of the name (the self-sanctification of Jehovah in the judgment), through all which there occurred. Hence the time announcement: many daysaccording unto the days which, designedly commits any more precise determination of the remembrance to the conscience of those addressed.

8. Deu 2:1-3. If Moses then, (Deu 1:26 sq.) immediately after his encouragement to the people to hold fast the promise of God (Deu 2:20-21) against all fear and terror, distinguishes between himself and the people (comp. Num 14:44), he now (chap. 2, Deu 2:1) again includes himself with them as in Deu 1:6-19. The departure is that of the new Israel from Kadesh, after the fruitless message to Edom (Num 20:14 sq.). Although this departure is not defined in Num 20:22, as it is here, as by the way of the Red Sea, because there Hor is regarded as the termination, it is so defined in Num 21:4, and since the journey of Israel to Canaan is ever a journey through the wilderness (comp. Deu 1:1), even for the second generation, so in the literal resumption of the command, Deu 1:40, the death sentence upon the old, is significantly here seen again at the beginning of the new generation, but with the wilderness also, the Red Sea, the redemptive passage through it.As Jehovah spake unto me, while the command Deu 1:40 is still addressed to the people, this direction in connection with Numbers 14, 25, 11, teaches that even now they still went under that judgment, because Israel would not go according to the promise Deu 1:7 sq. The direction to Canaan even now was into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. This thorough deuteronomic conception (Deu 1:1 sq.) alone suits the immediate addition as to the compassing of the Edomite mountains; which compassing, according to Deu 2:2-3 (comp. Deu 2:8), can only be regarded as at last the march once more through the Arabah to the Ailanitic gulf, upon the western side of the mountains.The many days (Deu 5:1) prepare for the utterance and direction, Deu 2:3; introduce it, and give the motives to it. Comp. Num 21:4. Deu 2:3. A literal reference to Deu 1:6. It is again a beginning, a new beginning; even at a mountain, but much nearer to Canaan, and hence this is not described again (Deu 2:7); but the simple direction to it is given.Turn you northward, i. e. around the southern limits of Seir, to the eastern side of the mountain northwards (Deu 3:27).[The people were at Kadesh in the second year of the Exodus, and now again at the close of the thirty-eight years wandering. The command of Deu 2:2-3 relates to their journey from Kadesh to Mount Hor, and so around the south extremity of Mount Seir, and then northwards towards the Arnon. Bib. Com. The refusal of Edom to grant them a direct passagea passage which they were unable to force, Num 20:14-21compelled them to take this circuitous route.A. G.]

9. Deu 2:4-23. They shall be afraid of you.

Deu 2:4. The Edomites are the same as Num 20:18 sq. (Jdg 11:17); but their attitude is entirely different. In the refusal of a passage to Israel a half year before, it relied upon the westerly, lofty, precipitous mountains, 3,000 feet high; but now when Israel came upon the other less precipitous side, rather marching around them, or at least only crossing the even now, very indefinite southerly and easterly limits of their land, prudence counsels a different miento turn even an evil chance to their own advantage, just as in our own time the mountain dwellers along the caravan route make their gains in supplying the caravans from Mecca with the means of life (Deu 2:6; Deu 2:29). Still while the narrative, Numbers 20, brings out clearly the want of regard and consideration on the part of Edom, the discourse here brings into view especially the thoughtfulness of Israel, and thus the two accounts complete each other. The considerate course Israel was enjoined to observe towards his brother pre-supposes throughout his brothers regardlessness of all such ties.Ye are to pass (participle) through the Coasts, without their permission (Num 20:21). Therefore take good heed, etc. The disregard of the tie of blood by the Edomites, and indeed the recollection of the Edomitic Amalekites might stir up the Israelites to hostility. Deu 2:5. With them, fear with an evil conscience, and here anger with justice, was a spark which might easily be blown into a flame. But Israel takes nothing at the hands of men; it receives all from the Lord. What it takes from them is first given to it by Him (Deu 1:8; Deu 1:21). The occupation of Canaan is a rule for all time; but even the possessions of other nations (comp. Deu 2:9; Deu 2:19) become a pledge to Israel of its own possessions. The two-fold reason: forbecause; although it stands fast for the present, is still truly merely provisional or temporary (Num 24:18; 1Sa 14:47). Edom appears in the prophets as the hereditary enemy of Israel, e. g., Amo 1:11-12; Isaiah 63. There is thus an entire historical development between the Pentateuch and the prophets in reference to Edom.Not so much as a foot-breadth. Comp. Psa 60:9; Psa 108:10 (Act 7:5). Deu 2:6. Here the regardlessness of the Edomites appears in another light. They not only refused a passage, but when they were constrained to allow it, they did not hospitably offer food and drink to their brethren, but the Israelites were instructed rather to buy from them. , corn, as that which was gathered from the field, so here, to buy food, bread; or , to make fast,, points to the fixed price, which was determined so that the purchaser has simply to take it at the fixed pricean admirable arrangement here to prevent any strife in the transaction (Num 20:19), , literally to dig, i. e. purchase permission to dig for water. The reason, Deu 2:7, is parallel to the two-fold reason in Deu 2:5. There it is to give; here, to bless. It corresponds to this higher inward idea, that Israel (Deu 2:6) should not bargain [or higgle], but pay; it must show itself to Edom as the blessed of the Lord (Gen 27:27 sq.; Deu 28:3), and needs not therefore to take anything by violence.In all the works of thy hand, i. e. in the grazing which they had carried on in the desert (Exo 19:13; Exo 34:3; Num 20:19; Num 32:1 sq), and when they had sown and reaped during the longer residences at different stations or traded the products of their skins and arts with the Arabs of the desert (Keil). not merely he knew thy going, etc. The special knowledge of God is not a mere vapid theory, nor simply the interest of the momentary perception, but involves care and protection, Psa 1:6; comp. Deu 1:31; Deu 1:19; Deu 8:4 sq.These forty years, as Num 14:33; comp. Psa 23:1 sq. Deu 2:8 (comp. Deu 2:4): from their dwelling-places, the chief region; while in Num 20:21 we have , away from him, his ascents.Elath (Ailah Hle), a port on the northern extremity of the gulf, at present the castle Akaba, taking its name from the palm groves in the neighborhood.Ezion-Gaber, also a port at the northern end of the gulf, once great and beautiful, but now lost beyond any trace. Since in their march avoiding Edom, they kept away from the cities just named, they passed, turning from the path through the Arabah, through the wady Getum, and along the path which, turning northwards, defines the wilderness of Moab, so that they probably followed the usual caravan route to Damascus, between the eastern bounds of the cultivated region and the western limits of Arabia deserta. With the more distantly related Moabites also (children of Lot) they were to avoid any oppression or contention in battle; Ar (archaic form for city) lying on the limits and standing for the land, not the chief city (Deu 2:18) (Num 21:15; Num 21:28). Should they not take Ar, then much less the cities lying farther inward (Schultz). Deu 2:10-12 is a Mosaic parenthesis, and does not belong to the words of Jehovah, as the closing sentence, Deu 2:12, compared with Deu 3:20-21, shows. Moses, indeed, states here historically and more fully the of God; but as he mentions the former inhabitants of the land of Moab, and of Seir, the recollection serves the important purpose of encouraging Israel, and so much the more as the possession of Moab and Seir was denied them. The Emims, i. e., terrible, fearful. The description a people, sq., as well as the comparison as the, sq., agrees with the explanation of the name. For the Anakim comp. Deu 1:28. This comparison with a people well known presupposes other contemporaries than, e. g., those under Josiah or Hezekiah. There is no necessity for supposing a gloss, in antiquarian interests, since all agrees so well with the object and method of Moses discourse, to whom also we should ascribe rather than to any other so accurate an acquaintance with the most ancient history Rephaim [accounted giantsE. V.] i. e., tall, giants, Deu 2:11, the common name for this giant race, of Hamitic or Semitic descent, and who were regarded as the original inhabitants of the land. The Horims, Deu 2:12, are the cave-dwellers of the habitable grottoes of the Edomitic mountains, and of the rock city Petra. [The Bib. Com. holds that Deu 2:10-12; Deu 2:20-23, and Deu 2:34, are additions by a later hand, at first standing as foot-notes, and then adopted into the text by some reviser, perhaps Ezra. It urges in favor of this supposition that the removal of these verses does not interrupt or impair the narrative and the clause as Israel did unto the land of his possession. The latter, however, is the only argument of any weight, since the mere fact that they may be left out of the narrative without injury to it, in no way proves that they do not belong to it. They are obviously parenthetical, but arise naturally out of the statements of the discourse, and are very pertinent to the authors purpose, which was both to humble and to encourage Israel. The fact that God gave these places to the children of Lot, suggested to Moses the important fact that these children of Lot had dispossessed the race of giants, whose existence in Canaan had filled the minds of the unbelieving Israelites with fears, and in regard to whom the present generation of Israel needed encouragement. But if the children of Lot had been successful, how much more the children of Israel? These are not antiquarian details, but historical facts, having the most important moral bearing. The clause, As Israel did, sq., may be explained as prophetical, or as referring simply to the East Jordan possessions. In favor of the prophetic preterite (GreensGram., 263, 5 a), may be urged, 1) that the construction is certainly admissible; 2) the general prophetic attitude of Moses in these discourses; 3) and chiefly that it well accords with the purpose of this discourse. Moses sees the land as already in the possession of the children of Israel, their strongest enemies dispossessed, and so describes it. To his faith it was as if already done, and his faith would serve to animate and encourage the children of Israel.A. G.]. As Israel, sq., comp. 4, I., 13. The reference throughout to the land east of the Jordan lies near at hand; Deu 1:4; Deu 2:24 sq. (Schultz says, as he has done or will have done, when he has come into the land of his possession). The perfect as the fut. exactum. (Hengstenberg: The preterite is only in part prophetic. It could not stand unless the transjordanic lands were already taken), comp. Deu 2:22. Since the words of God do not end with Deu 2:9 (as Deu 2:4-5 with Deu 2:6-7) the command to rise up and depart, which marks clearly the Mosaic interpolation, forms the conclusion. The host encamped on the east of Moab now cross the brook Zered by the wady El Ahsy, or the wady Kerek, Num 21:11-12. From the heights on the other side of the valley Kerek there is a lovely view stretching to the Dead Sea, and even to Jerusalem. Hence the statements Deu 2:14-15 completing those in Deu 2:7 are here added. The oath of the Lord, Num 14:23; Num 14:29, is literally fulfilled. Comp. Deu 1:34 sq. The divine sentence of death, however, was not fulfilled, surely, in the ordinary method, but also by the extraordinary judgments sent upon them, Num 16:31 sq.; Deu 17:12-14; Deu 21:6; Deu 25:9.

Deu 2:16. A once more repeated closing with the old Israel. The men of war are those who at that time were twenty years old and upward (Num 14:29) the mustered hosts; (Num 1:3), as the responsible sinners. Knobel. It is mentioned here still, not so much in relation to the past to show that the punishment had been executed, as to show that it was completed and ended, and thus with reference to the first victory and possession now about to follow. Ammon must first be excepted, and hence Ar, limits of Moab, appears again, called also, Ar of Moab (Areopolis) which lay upon the northeastern boundary, formed by the Arnon (Num 22:36; Num 21:14) and was the point of departure for the conquering Israel. Deu 2:19. Over against, because Israel would thus have before itself the Ammonites dwelling in the wilderness on the farther side of the Arnon, and eastwards from Moab. Distress them not, as in Deu 2:9, and although the clause in battle is there made prominent, its absence here does not place Ammon precisely like Edom. Deu 2:20-23 similar to Deu 2:10-12. Zamzummims (the evil thinking, or the humming, noisy people) perhaps the same as the Zusim, a kindred to them, Gen 14:5. Deu 2:21. And the Lord destroyed, an explanation at the same time of Deu 2:12. The here throws light upon the statement there. And the Avim.This race described further, after the kind and extent of their dwellings (villages), is scarcely to be regarded, as Keil remarks, as one noticed here only on account of a substantial analogy, but is added by Moses with reference to the Caphtorim (Gen 16:14) who are expressly said to have been emigrants or foreigners, and thus stood in similar relations with those Israel now held. This seems to be all the more the ground of this allusion, since it is not here, as commonly elsewhere (Jer 47:4; Amo 9:7), the Philistines; and since also Out of Caphtor (Crete, or the Nile delta, or the Pontian Cappadocia) designates the place of the exodus, and with it marks this idea, as the explanation of the name of the people. That these villagers dwelling south from Gaza were eventually in the same position with the tribes related to Israel, the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, and were therefore to be spared as they were, does not lie in the text as Schultz supposes. Comp. Joshua 13.

10. Deu 2:24Deu 3:22. The Arnon, now the wady Mdjeb, forming the boundary between the Moabites and the Amorites, is the Rubicon for Israel, Num 21:13. But the command to depart expands into a promise reaching far beyond the Amorites. First of all comes the recollection of the former command as spoken in Deu 1:7 sq., 20 sq. Comp. also Deu 1:4. But the beginning of Israel has as its escort the certain and all-assuring beginning of Jehovah, Deu 2:25. Comp. Php 1:6. The tone and style of the discourse is inspiriting, so that we think, Num 21:14 sq., of an original poetic elevation. Comp. Deu 11:25, and Gen 9:2, where there is also a new beginning. Comp. Exo 15:14 sq.; Exo 23:27. The trembling and woe of the people even when the mere report only of Israel came, answers as the echo to the dread and fear which were connected with Israel. In other passages, e. g., Gen 49:10; Isa 2:2; comp. Deu 4:6, the resistless march and gathering of the people to Israel is announced. Both open the way for the prophetic fulfilling of the blessing of Abraham, Gen 12:2-3, and because a blessing, so although it must be prepared in the flesh, yet fulfilled in the spirit, and indeed in the Messiah, who is the Lord of the spirit, i. e., in Christ. Under the whole heaven is not therefore an hyperbole (Keil), but used in accordance with the eternal idea of the people and kingdom of God, and so here in this ideal and Christological sense.From the historical presentation of the kingdom of God in the flesh, and indeed in the Israel of the law, the idea wears necessarily a corporeal form, as in Deu 2:25, which must correspond to the carnal powers of the world, here of Canaan, Deu 2:10; Deu 2:20, where indeed these are mentioned as parallel to the giant races of the earlier time. Although the end of the way of God is spirit, (not corporeal or carnal, which is rather its beginning, as we see in the creation of the world, and also of Israel) yet the spirit of the end breaks through at the very beginning, and the message of Moses, Deu 2:26, is with words of peace (comp. Deu 20:10) Luk 10:5. The wilderness of Kedemoth is that lying easterly from the region of the Amorites defined by this Amorite city (Num 21:13; Num 21:23) where there was also a passage over the Arnon which avoided all the dangers of the deep valley. Moses knew well (Deu 2:24) that God had given Sihon into the hand of Israel, indeed that Sihon had armed himself for the war, but in this divine arrangement, which is at the same time the closing act of the guilt of the Amorites, Israel has only to carry out the judicial sentence of God upon it. Sihon on his own part must enter with entire freedom (Deu 2:30) which was still his own, in his offence against God. Since the firmest conviction of the self-chosen destruction of a man, need not prevent us from offering peace to him here, much less is Moses to be blamed here, where it is merely the dominion of Sihon which is at stake, and not the soul. I will go along. With respect to its end, which was Canaan, (Deu 2:19), Israel could say this with truth, and it is part of such a passage that they should keep themselves ever upon the way, i. e., upon the public highways. Num 20:19; Num 20:17; Num 21:22. Comp. Deu 2:28 with Deu 2:6. On my feet, i. e., without any delay. Did unto me, Deu 2:29, refers not to the will, but to the acts of Moab and Edom, who could not prevent the passage of Israel. Comp. Deu 2:12 (Deu 23:3). [All that is said here is that the Edomites and Moabites sold them bread and water. There is no denial, express or implied, of their hostility to Israel, and their desire for his destruction. The passage is in entire harmony with Num 20:17; Num 20:21, and Deu 23:3-4.A. G.].The perfect freedom of Sihon in his offence against God, appears from the would not, Deu 2:30. here as in Num 20:18. There was an inward judgment going before the outward execution of the penalty, for the Lord thy God hardened, etc., in order that He might deliver. The historical event or destiny develops itself out of the moral. (Pharaoh, Exo 4:21; Exo 7:3). Comp. Deu 15:7; 2Ch 36:13. As it is this day, as it actually appears at the present moment. The event already foretold, as it was determined in the Divine will (Deu 2:24), is still once more brought out (Deu 2:31) in its divine causality, and directly with respect to Sihon, in order to take away every ground of glory. The divine purpose begins to complete itself in his unwillingness. In Deu 2:24 it is begin to possess, I will begin to put the dread, etc., but now it is I have begun to give. The possession, indeed, is so certain, so determined, that instead of the usually simple possess, Deu 2:24, we have now (Deu 2:31) in addition and without the possession by battle. That which comes distinctly into view, Deu 2:24, now falls into the background. Deu 2:32. Comp. Num 21:23. Deu 2:33. Comp. Num 21:24; Amo 2:9. His sons. A completion of the narrative, since they are not mentioned in Numbers. Deu 2:34. Comp. Num 21:24-25.And utterly destroyed, (in Hiph. separate, set apart from any further use, hence to devote to God, and indeed through destruction). The whole population was put to death. Comp. Deu 7:2 sq. Deu 2:36. From Aroer, the point of departure and the most southern point. This as well as the description by the brink of the river Arnon, i. e., upon the edge of the northern precipice of the valley in question, agrees well with the present ruins, Araayr. For a fuller description of the borders formed by the Arnon, the city (comp. Deu 2:9) which is by the river ( in the valley, in the Arnon gorge), thus situated as Ar, is here referred to. Ruins are still found upon a hill in a beautiful meadow-ground in the valley, near the junction of the Ledschum, coming down from the north-east, with the Arnon. Ar, as the boundary, is already sufficiently known from Deu 2:18, and as to its name (the city simply) nothing further could be added here to define it. This easterly excluding limit of departure answers well, too, as a transition to the Ammonites lying eastward, also to be excluded or excepted (Deu 2:37). Unto Gilead, here used in the narrowest and original sense, (Gen 31:33) for the mountain on the north side of the Jabbok (the present Zerka). Deu 2:37. Comp. Deu 2:19.

Deu 3:1. Comp. Deu 1:4. The Amorites, to revenge perhaps the slaughter of their kindred giant race by Moab and Amnion, had driven the latter back easterly from the upper Jabbok (Jdg 11:12; Jos 13:25) and Moab southerly behind the Arnon (Num 21:26). The two Amorite kingdoms which the Jabbok divided, were of Sihon on the South, and of Og on the North, Num 21:33. Comp. Deu 3:2, with Num 21:34; Num 2:24. The fearful appearance of the king, as well as his fearless awaiting Israel, not far from his strong cities, might cause them to fear. Deu 3:3. Comp. with Deu 2:34; Num 21:35. As the sons are mentioned there, they are omitted here. Deu 3:4 celebrates the greatness of the victory. Hence All his cities expressed first positively and then negatively. Then follows, thus anticipating Deu 3:14, the given number (sixty cities) and a fuller description of the district in question. band, rope, cord; not here what is measured with a measuring line, but what is bound together, forms a whole. so called probably from the nature of the district ( earth-heaps, stone-heaps). Comp. Arkub. , Rgib (Ritter, XV. 2, p. 1041 sq.). The kingdom of Og in Bashan, is not his whole kingdom, but only so far as Bashan comes into view. But since Bashan, Deu 3:14, and indeed all Bashan, Deu 3:13, appears to be identical with the whole region of Argob, so in Bashan here must be taken for the sixty cities which represent, if they do not constitute the whole region of Argob (1Ki 4:13). Those cities are to be viewed therefore as the original, or essential, peculiar heart of all Bashan, of which Og is said to be king (Deu 3:1; Deu 3:3). But since the kingdom of Og, Deu 3:13, is not all included within these bounds, in Bashan is added here that the wider portions of that kingdom may not be excluded. It corresponds to this established relation of Argob to Bashan, that as in Argob there is a reference to the rough, stony stretch of land in (from the black basaltic rock), so also the still existing numerous ruins of cities are another characteristic feature. (Comp. Ritter XV. 2, p. 796). In Deu 3:5 these Argob cities are described as by an eye-witness. Recent travellers speak of the dark color of the building materials standing in contrast with the heavens, and the green of the surrounding region, of the high walls, and of the strong overtopping towers, etc., etc. [The Argob is described by Porter, Travels, pp. 241, 242, As presenting the most singular phenomena I have ever witnessed. Wholly composed of black basaltic rock, which appears to have issued from innumerable pores in the earth, in a liquid state, and to have flowed out on every side until the plain was almost covered. This forbidding region is thickly studded with deserted cities and villages. C. G. Graham, Cambridge Essays, 1858, describes these cities. The streets are perfect, the walls perfect, and what seems most astonishing the stone doors are still hanging on their hinges. The doors and cities are such that travellers are forced to the conclusion that the people who constructed and inhabited these cities were not only a powerful nation, but individuals of greater strength than ourselves. This marvellous barrier, rising abruptly from the plain to the height of from twenty to thirty feet, and measuring sixty miles by twenty, amidst which Edrei and the others of the sixty cities were perched, opposed the progress of the Israelites. The victory over a power so apparently impregnably entrenched was signal and impressive.A. G.]. The doors, in part double doors, of stone slabs, are set by means of sockets deep in the lintel and threshold. The unfortified open cities, without walls, of which a great number are still found, are in Deu 3:5 cities of (from to break through, to spread out), i. e., of the level or flat land. Deu 3:6, comp. with Deu 2:34. Deu 3:7, comp. Deu 2:35. Deu 3:8, as Deu 2:36, a survey of the victory. is used here where Moses is still speaking, as in Deu 1:1; Deu 1:5, of the East Jordan lands, and is not the mere art of an assumed narrator. From the river of Arnon unto Mount Hermon. Moses thus includes the whole trans-jordanic country, and to put it beyond all doubt, signalizes the southern point of Anti-Lebanon, the northern limit of Canaan, which with its lofty snow-covered summit is seen from afar, by all the names that it wears, well known names indeed which must at that time have come to the ears of Israel. In Hermon the reference to Bann () is so clear, so characteristic, and agrees so well with the connection, that we cannot accept the Arabic derivation (lofty peak or ridge). The name Sion (high, upraised, Deu 4:48), formed from the appearance of the mountain, is descriptive of its lofty height. Between Hermon and Hormah (comp. upon Deu 1:44), the beginning and the ending of the promised land, there is an impressive parallelism. Sirion (Sirjon)=breast-plate, both from the resemblance in form and from the gleam of the ice. Shenirof like significance. [Hermon is both physically and politically a grand central point in the geography of Syria and Palestine. From it are derived all the most noted riversthe Jordan, Abana, and Pharpar, the Orontes and the Leontes. All the great ancient kingdoms converged at HermonBashan, Damascus, Syria, Israel. It was also the religious centre of primval Syria. Porter. Hence the careful specification of the names by which the mountain was known, all of which are descriptive. Bib. Com.: Stanley, Syria and Palestine.A.G.] Deu 3:10 presents in their order the individual parts of this remarkable region. The (from ) is the elevated plain (Sept.: ) from Mount Gilead southerly to the Arnon. All Gilead is the region between the north and south plain, extending southerly (to Heshbon, belonging to Sihon), and northerly from the Jabbok (to Bashan, belonging to Og). All Bashan is defined as reaching to Salchah, located upon the eastern border, with a strong castle placed upon a basaltic hill (Jos 12:6), and north-westwards unto Edrei (comp. Deu 1:4), not the modern Dera, but Edrah, or Zorah. These cities (as in Deu 3:4) belonged to the kingdom of Og in Bashan. The design and tendency of the previous mention of the Rephaim (comp. Deu 2:10; Deu 2:20 sq.) was to encourage the new Israel with reference to the old (Deu 1:27), and thus now the fitting remark that with Og all is over with the Rephaim generally, wins its true vividness through the genuine Mosaic allusionbehold his bedstead, etc. Comp. 4, I. 14. Hengstenberg: Og is to some extent a symbolical figure, in whom we have presented to us the Amorite, who is the representative of the entire Canaanitish race, upon whose neck Israel, by the grace of God, should put its feet. If the previous encouragement not to fear was essentially to guard against the unbelief or feeble faith of the first Israel, now that the victory is completed, the exhortation rises to exultant thanks. Behold is here so much the more in place with reference to the bedstead, since Og himself had been seen only by a few. The reference is simply for the contemporaries of Moses, and not in any antiquarian interest. Ritter: The bedstead is unquestionably his bier, the stately vault of his catacomb, with the more exact statement of the niche for the body of the Rephaite, or of his basalt sarcophagus. It is only one of the numerous sarcophagi in this land of Bashan, in which there remain more monuments of the dead than recollections of the living. But , literally curving, is a bed upon which one reclines for rest, Amo 3:12; Amo 6:4; Psa 6:6. Rabbath, afterwards Philadelphia, now ruins, was the chief city of the Ammonites. It might have remained there, either as a trophy on the part of the Ammonites of some unsuccessful inroad of Og against them (Deu 2:21), or which he had left behind him as a humiliating reminder of a successful assault. In either case, occurring long enough before, that it might be well known to Moses. [The Bib. Com. supposes that after the defeat and death of Og at Edrei, the remnant of his army fled into the territory of the friendly Ammonites, and took with them the corpse of the giant king.A. G.] The bed, which was, moreover, designedly made larger than Og, that it might make the impression that he was larger than he really was, was thirteen and a half feet long and six feet broad, if not smaller, since it is the common Hebrew cubit from the elbow downwards which is here meant. It is an interesting fact that Alexander the Great, in his march to India, arranged his camp grounds and cavalry cribs in double number and of unusual size, that he might produce in the inhabitants of the land strange ideas of the size of his army. Iron beds (corresponding to the whole statement here) were no less frequent among the ancients than giant families and individual giants among some of the savage tribes to-day (Australia). (The Rabbins see in the bed of Og his cradle rather than his coffin.) Since the discourse now turns from the double victory, over Sihon and Og, to the first occupation of Israel, the conquered land is now (Deu 3:12) described, for the purpose of the division, for the first time, as a possession. ( no more , as in Deu 3:4, or , as in Deu 3:8.) Comp. Deu 2:36. Half of Mount Gilead (comp. Deu 3:10) is, according to Deu 3:16 and Deu 3:13, the southern half, which the tribes of Reuben and Gad bad asked (Numbers 32). The rest of Gilead is the other northern part, the hilly region. All Bashan (Hauran and Dschaulan) is included with the rest of Gilead, as together forming the kingdom of Og (comp. Deu 3:4). The fine contrast between the repeated and introduces the still more significant (Deu 3:14 sq.), since the half tribe of Manasseh had distinguished itself in a marked way in the conquest. Argob. Comp. with Deu 3:4. belongs to what follows. Knobel. With all Bashan.[Schroeder renders as to.A. G.] It includes designedly once more the whole land of Argob under this name. The emphatic addition which was called the land of giants permits, if it does not suggest, the idea that the remaining Rephaite Og, as king of Bashan, still actually possessed upon the one Amoritic throne the old supremacy of the Rephaim. Jairhe whom God enlightensis marked as the one who obtained all Argob, Deu 3:14. The soni. e., descendant. Machir, the son of Manasseh, had a daughter, whose bastard son by Segub, a descendant of Judah, was the father of Jair (1Ch 2:21 sq.). The descent from Judah is thus clear, but here the descent on the mothers side from Manasseh alone comes into view, since the discourse treats of this tribe here. The limits, Unto the coasts of the Geshurites and Maachathitesthe inhabitants of two small kingdoms, still

independent at the time of David (2Sa 3:3; 2Sa 10:6), and both lying on the skirts of Mount Hermon. Geshur (bridge), perhaps upon the upper Jordan, at a bridge, or passage, or ford (Keil); or upon the easterly plain (Djedur), as Knobel thinks. It escaped the con. quest. Comp. Jos 13:13. Indeed the Geshurites with the Syrians (1Ch 2:23), later in the history (in the disorders of the period of the JudgesKeil), took the successors of Havoth Jair, and besides Kenath, the entire sixty cities. [The Geshurites and Maachathites probably occupied some part of the impregnable district of Argob, and were not expelled by the Israelites, but dwelt among them. They may have risen up and taken a part or the whole of these cities during the period of the judges, although 1Ch 2:23 does not necessarily bear any such interpretation.A. G.] The second Jair, a grandson (Jdg 10:3), in whom the courage of faith and victory lived again, was only able to regain the one half (30) for the family. While in Num 32:42 Nobah appears by the side of Jair, as taking Kenath and its daughters (cities) and naming them after himself, Nobah; here Jair alone is spoken of, because the whole land of Argob, in whose conquest Nobah truly played a second part, fell to his lot. Havoth Jair, i. e., Jairs life, Jairs home (from , the antique or Aramaic form for , life). Nobah continued only in the one city Kenath, and even this name appears in Jdg 10:1 to have been forgotten already (1Ki 4:13; Jos 13:30). For the same reason it is a matter of no importance that the number of the cities of Jair in the land of Gilead (in later usage including Bashan also), is given 1Ch 2:22, as 23, since Kenath with its dependencies, with its connected cities (37), completes the larger number. It is the name for the whole which is here in view; hence also and called them (, Num 32:41; ), viz., not this or that place, but after his own name. Unto this day. (Comp. 4, I. 15.) The expression simply says, until now. It cannot be maintained that this mode of expression is out of place, when only a brief period of time is spoken of. We say of a friend who has lately arrived, and whose departure is possible, he is here until this day. Schultz. It is generally and in its nature a relative expression, with reference to a longer or shorter period (Jos 22:3; Jos 23:9), according to the subject in regard to which it is used. In Genesis it embraces centuries. In Deu 11:4 it may be rendered as equivalent with all time. The conquest of Jair, with which the name-giving in question is connected, is unquestionably historically cotemporaneous with the conquest of the kingdom of Og. Deuteronomy does not complete or explain the Book of Numbers, but as Num 32:39 sq. connects the particularizing of the general (Num 21:35) with the division of the conquered land, so precisely here in Deuteronomy (Deu 3:12 sq.), and also in the prominence of the conquest on the part of Jair (Deu 3:14), as Num 32:39 on the part of Machir; which was necessary if the division to these persons should not want a historical right or basis. Just as in Num 32:41-42, so also here in Deuteronomy it is only the name-giving by Jair of the place conquered by him which comes into view. Hengstenberg therefore says very finely that this addition, until this day, which is wanting in Numbers 32, is illuminated by the , of Deu 3:15. It is certainly in the mouth of Moses no mere time limitation, but intimates that amidst the fleeting and transitory things of men, as in this particular case, even with the names effaced, the name-giving by Jair, and with it the actual fact, continued even to the present hour, and Jair held his ground; but this fact mast not be denied its weighty sanction. While Deu 3:15 expressly says, I gave unto Machir, it comes to Jair more by the way, as it were, more in the assent to the name, and the possession in question. It sounds a little too strong, perhaps, when Hengstenberg says, Every grant of a possession proceeds from Moses, with the full authorization of the supreme liege Lord. Through His until this day He utters His fiat, and imparts to the acts originally completed by Jair the authentic approbation. Until this day finally belongs to those numerous which meet us in Deuteronomy. See Deu 1:9; Deu 1:16; Deu 1:18; Deu 3:4; Deu 3:8; Deu 3:12; Deu 3:18. The time is made prominentthe old and the new time. Moses, too, would mark the status quo in a testamentary way at the time while he was still there. [Hengstenberg, in his admirable discussion of this phrase, calls attention to the fact that a considerable time had elapsed between the conquest and the utterance of this discourse by Moses,from Numbers 21, to the eleventh month of the 40th year; that the phrase is used with reference to a shorter or longer period, according to circumstances, both in profane writers and in the Scriptures; that the objectively brief period here is a very important and critical period; and to the fact that Deuteronomy generally places a wide distinction between itself and the earlier books. It begins a new section, to which all that precedes is past. At this time occurs repeatedly, without regard to whether it was months, years, or even decades. And so until this day. The phrase is not a gloss of a later writer, but a genuine Mosaic phrase, falling in with the whole position of things, and with the spirit of the book.A. G.] Machir (Deu 3:15) stands naturally for his family, as in Num 32:40 it is the children of Machir. See Num 26:29. For Gilead comp. Deu 3:13. Moses passes from this individualizing of the half tribe of Manasseh to the particular description of the common possession of Reuben and Gad. Deu 3:16-17. The description of the land proceeds from Gilead (as Deu 2:36) as the highest part of this region. The Arnon limits are defined more exactly by half the valley and the border. Schroeder: the middle of the river and the borderi. e., either reaching to the middle of the river and including half the water, a very important possession for the herdsman, the border being the adjacent region of the valley, the pasture ground in the valley, and not merely the brink of the valley, as in Deu 2:36; or to the middle of the valley which the river Arnon forms, and at the same time is the boundary. The immediately following border of the children of Ammon is in favor of the latter view, although both interpretations are essentially alike. This was the southern limit. The river Jabbok, i. e., Wady Zerka, a narrow, deep gorge, through which this foaming stream chafes its way to the Jordan, forms the north-eastern boundary, separating these tribes from the Ammonites, as the Ar does from the Moabites. Deu 3:17. The plain also [Schroeder: the Arabah] gave I to these shepherd tribes, i. e., the Ghor, the upper part of the present Wady El Arabah (comp. Deu 1:1), as is evident from the succeeding and Jordan and the coast thereofeither Jordan with its easterly margin or valley setting, or, what is decidedly preferable, the Jordan as the boundary. Thus the Jordan depression or valley from Chinnereth onwardsthe city (Jos 19:35) from which the Sea of Gennessaret takes its name. Num 34:11. The derivation from Chinnor, or the harp, the ten-stringed Greek (originating in Asia and spread by the Phnicians), as that by Kurtz from the rushing water-falls, must be abandoned, since from the root (genu, knee), to bend, curve, agrees well both with the arched or oval stringed instrument, and, alluding to the depression, with the most probable position of the city Chinnereth. Knobel says: A beautiful and fruitful depressed plain about an hour long and twenty minutes broad, called according to Josephus , gave its name to the sea. The name cleaves to this depression, and especially to its chief town, which appears to have been situated at the place. Khan. Minyeh. Gennessaret is certainly formed from Chinnereth, and not derived, as Kurtz thinks probable, from a garden. Since Chinnereth here corresponds to the Salt Sea, it must be taken for the sea with its surroundings (as the sea of the Arabah designates the Dead Sea), as it lies enclosed northerly and southerly by the Arabah, or as it closes it (the Ghor) on the north. The further definition: under Ashdoth Pisgah eastwards, agrees well with this view, since we are thereby directed north-eastwards above and away from the Salt Sea. Ashdoth, under the slopes (, literally, closing together), hence the place where the torrents meet, their confluence (Num 21:15; , plural ) at the foot of the mountain. Pisgah, from , to separate, the mountain range east of the Dead Sea, perhaps to the Wady Hesban, but especially the northern part.To this first occupation follows now, Deu 3:18, the obligation of the two and a half tribes who inherit it, who are here addressed with the others: you, just as the present generation is always taken together with the first. Moreover, all Israel is the possessor of the East Jordan land, Deu 2:12. are the people which the strong have conceived and born, the sons of strength; thus not all fitted for war (not , as in Deu 2:14; Deu 2:16), but from these the specially brave, a selection armed before the Lord, Num 32:20 sq. In Jos 4:12-13 they are 40,000 men, and thus 60,000 were left for the protection of their herds and the women and children, Comp. Deu 3:19 with Num 32:1. The connection of the words: as you, so () also they, makes it clear that the possession beyond Jordan is for both parts of the people. Since is always on that side, never this side, the case stands alike both for the two and a half tribes and for the others. Moses appears to intimate that those shall in no respect have the preference over these. Even in this point there is one Israel. If the two tribes and a half have objectively their possession on that side of Jordan, so also the other tribes not less, to wit, from the standpoint of the two tribes and a half, for they also are on that side of Jordan. This subjective stand-point determines the use of this designation in the case before us. As the two and a half tribes were addressed, Deu 3:18, with reference to all Israel, so this same reference appears in the address to Joshua, Deu 3:21, who then comes into prominence, and is indeed emphatically named. Comp. Num 27:18 sq.And I commanded.Here as there both appointments are for the time after his death.Thine eyes have seen, are seeing. I need only refer thee to thyself, and what is still before thine eyes (Deu 4:3; Deu 11:7). Since the conquered lands of the two kings were still lying before the sight, the discourse passes from the kings to the kingdoms. Comp. Deu 3:22 with Deu 1:29-30.

11. Deu 3:23-29. As the command, the prediction, the encouragement to Joshua, Deu 3:21, are no mere repetition of Deu 1:38, but rather its execution, so neither is Deu 3:23 a mere repetition of Deu 1:37. The very brief allusion there is now completed in the most express and hearty way, and this fuller statement connects itself here with the previous mention of Joshua, as inversely the introduction of Joshua there connects itself with the divine judgment upon Moses. But the prayer of Moses pre-supposes the judgment of God. The following verses even have a wider theme than Deu 1:37. The divine judgment was for Moses the thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12). The prayer of Moses belongs to Deuteronomy first according to its subjective character, and then from its importance for the new generation, and the impression it makes upon them (comp. Exodus 32; Numbers 16; Num 27:15 sq.). With Deu 3:24, comp. Deu 2:25; Deu 2:31. He holds before Him the beginning, since he longs to see the completion. Thy greatness and mighty hand; so also thy works and thy might.

Deu 3:25. The goodness of the land, , as the mountainous district of Canaan rises into vision, passes over into the idea of the beautiful. The style reveals the genuine Mosaic directness of perception. We would have brought the terms together, and said: the glorious land, this glorious mountain!Beyond, on that side of Jordan; used here as in Deu 3:20, from the subjective stand-point, and in full accordance with the subjective character of this whole paragraph.And Lebanon, of which the Arabic poets say: Winter sits upon its head; spring plays around its shoulders; and summer sleeps at its feet. Comp. upon Deu 1:7 (Deu 11:11)

Deu 3:26. The in connection with and in Deu 3:25, seems like a play upon words. (Let me go over, over the Jordan, I prayed to Him, but He came over me.) The hithpael denotes the ebullition, and thus does not, any more than , Deu 1:37, set forth the aspect of feeling. While the energy of the will lies in the , it comes out here first in the would not hear me. Indeed this latter is the peculiar and main thing here, behind which, as merely explanatory, the anger is kept back. Hence also it is not so full and expressive as Deu 1:37, but is simply for your sakes. He does not hearken to me, and I must hearken to him. (Gen 45:28; Num 16:3; Deu 1:6; Deu 2:3) in the sense of 2Co 12:9. Let what I have said to thee be sufficient for thee. , in this uttered, and therefore settled matter. The command, Deu 3:27, reminds us typically of the ecstasy of Paul into Paradise, 2Co 12:4. Comp. also Deu 4:21. The top of Pisgah, according to Deu 34:1, is Nebo. , seawards, because the Mediterranean was westwards. , where the night gathers and darkens, with paragogic northward. , just as (from =, to shine), the day (), the light side of the day, southwards. with , paragogic, from , to break forth, the breaking forth of the light, eastwards. For the rest, comp. Num 27:12 sq. Comp. Deu 3:28 with Deu 1:38; Deu 3:21; Deu 31:7. In Deu 3:29, which closes the foregoing historical introduction, and forms the transition to what follows, we hare a more precise observation of the locality of Deuteronomy. In the valley over against Beth-Peor, i. e. in the plains of Moab (Deu 4:46; Deu 34:6). The of the Sept. is a mountain (Deu 4:3) nearly northward along the Abarim heights. The city in question was located on this mountain, perhaps about six miles easterly from Libias over against Jericho. Comp. Deu 1:5.

12. Deu 4:1-40. The general introduction, Deu 1:1-5, was followed by the historically introductory portion. That which now follows shares in this introductory character, but has a prevailing dogmatic nature. Chap. 4, Deu 4:1. The law generally according to its contents, , the firmly fixed, designates the statutes, the definition of the law in all its aspects, as moral, ecclesiastical and civil; designates what according to these statutes in all relations is right; thus that by the judge directed and pronounced right. These two general designations in their conjunction here, as they are joined in Lev 19:37, include the whole law.To do them, that, etc.The object of the law, and hence of instruction in the statutes and judgments, is practice, the yielding of fruit unto life.Live.This is the practical goal, viewed in reference to Canaan, and then to the fathers, who failed to inherit it through their disobedience, although it was promised to the patriarchs. [This general entreaty is pointed by special mention and enforcement of the fundamental principles of the whole covenant (Deu 4:9-40), the spiritual nature of the Deity, His exclusive right to their allegiance, His abhorrence of idolatry in every form, His choice of them for His elect people. For a fuller elaboration of these topics, see chaps. 2730. They follow, however, so naturally in the history just narrated, that the Orator could not, so to say, pass from it, even for a time, without pausing to urge them briefly here. Bib. Com. The discourses are closely connected, of one spirit, and from the same author.A. G.] (Deu 2:14 sq.; comp. Deu 4:38 sq.) Deu 4:2. The dignity and honor of the law (the word which I command you.because Moses spake unto the children of Israel according to all, etc.; Deu 1:3; Deu 4:5) forbid, first of all, any addition, as a false orthodoxy usually precedes Rationalism and Nihilism, and a false pietism, unbelief. Herxheimer: The later allowed enlargements or diminution of the law, however, happened according to the traditional exposition, for the preservation of the Mosaic law, through enclosing and precautionary statutes, or at times necessary abrogations, for the purpose of saving them in their true or higher sense. Other traditional expounders refer the prohibited enlargement or diminution here merely to the number and form of the commands by Moses, as they were put into practice, e. g. they should not divide the priestly blessing into four utterances. Comp. Deu 12:32 (Deu 13:1).That ye may keep; parallel with the to do them, Deu 4:1, but not the same. Keep, since what I command you are the commandments of Jehovah. It is not merely the keeping, preserving them which is spoken of (Deu 33:9), Schultz, but the keeping of them in their integrity and completeness.

Deu 4:3. Demonstratio ad oculos, with respect to what was said, especially as to the life-giving fruits of obedience to God. Deu 4:1. Your eyes have seen [lit. seeing]. Comp. Deu 3:21. The participle retains its present signification, since the breach in Israel, made by the divine destruction, still continued, and the seeing are those standing the test. Deu 4:4. At Baal-peor.What Jehovah did there is sufficiently explained through the following: for all the men, etc.Comp. Numbers 25.Baal.The Phnician male divinity (the sun in its fructifying power). The surname Peor, at which this Moabitic idolatrous service was observed (derived according to the Rabbins from an allusion to the licentious rites connected with this service, or from the wide, open, lustful mouth which the image of this divinity wore), is in this case the explanation of the name of the mountain and city at which this cultus was established (Deu 3:29), or the mountain, as is frequently the case, has given its name to the city and the idolatrous cultus. (Exo 23:2; Gen 24:5; Gen 24:8) marks in a striking way the fact that the Israelites going out from their own camp were deserters. (A general biblical expression of the religious service as following; the profession of idolatrous service as a turning away from the ark of Jehovah. God the teacher, man the disciple. The walk, the religious profession.), as in Deu 2:14-15.

Deu 4:4. Ye that did cleave. , to fasten, cleave to; used of the closest, most intimate communion (Gen 2:24): here in distinction from those who went after Baal, Deu 4:3 (even the fathers, perhaps the mothers, whom they left, and joined themselves to Jehovah), but in a significant distinction from Num 25:3. Jehovah, etc., points to the kernel of all fulfilling of the law, as a living union (Deu 10:20) with the Lawgiver Himself, from which springs, as here, its fruit, life, Deu 4:1, and life enduring (). Comp. Deu 5:3

Deu 4:5. A new beginning, with behold, because it points to the experience of Deu 4:1. But I have, etc., points at the same time to the earlier law-giving (Lev 19:37), which indeed is only clearly explained in Deuteronomy (Deu 1:5).Commanded me, etc., Deu 1:3. The takes up again the point presented in Deu 4:1, but mainly for the sake of the connection, and hence without the mention of life, but simply the possession of Canaan as the goal, for God has another end in view in the law, which appears in Deu 4:6. ( , Deu 4:5, points back to in Deu 4:3.) The prominent thought, hence stands before , leads us back to Deu 4:2, to that ye may keep, sq. Israel, when through the possession of Canaan it should have localized itself in the midst of the land, must hold fast the law in its integrity, and therewith its own dignity, in its practice truly, but especially over against other nations with their human laws. Since this practical keeping is the thing of chief importance here, this is the purport of the reason for this, sq. For themselves life, for others the impression of wisdom and understanding. This is the second goal or end of the law. Wisdom and understanding, or insight for the higher and lower life, as in Deu 1:13. In the sight of. Schroeder, for the eyes of the nations. A demonstratio ad oculos, as in Deu 4:3. A complete parallelism. Comp. Deu 2:25. The transition from to , like that from to , is worthy of notice. Through the terms people and nation, the heathen declare that Israel as a people is of like birth and privileges with themselves. And in this comparison from the heathen side the form is used in Deu 4:7, who hath God. Schroeder: gods, so nigh, sq. The plural, pointing to the polytheism of heathenism, and really comprising all that is named God in the Elohim of Israel, who is Jehovah his God. The origin of the law, the law-giving, to which we pass in Deu 4:9 sq., presupposes such a nearness of God to Israel, i. e., such a relation of revelation. This relation is a covenant relation, and hence the illustrative clause, which embraces not only the peculiar exigencies, but the general position of Israel to God, sounds like the N. T. Abba cry in Romans 8. The parallel clause, Deu 4:9, closes what is said concerning the law in general, (righteous as all this law, sq.); for a great people, even in an external sense, should it remain (and the fundamental meaning of is to be firm) requires the rule of righteousness. Israels greatness is now essentially the spiritual, that of the divine covenant in the law. The transition to the law-giving at Horeb is effected by the finally commanded keeping of the law, in this case a self-keeping in a doubled form or expression. As in Deu 4:1, so here, it is the life, ( the breathing) which is concerned. What was seen at Horeb was essentially words () Deu 4:10; Deu 4:12-13. All that was visible at Horeb served to make it unquestionable that these were spoken by God. Thus the seeing these words is the vivid conviction that the law-giving truly proceeded from God Himself; and this conviction thou must hold fast, (lest thou forget) and indeed cherish with love (lest they depart from thy heart) and so transmit it to their descendants (teach them thy sons) Deu 6:7; Deu 11:19. It is not the nature and state of the heavenly Law-giver which is here spoken of, as Schultz supposes, but after the previous description of the law in general, he now emphasizes the experienced divine origin of the law, and with it the origin and ground of Israel as a people. Deu 4:10. As the Redeemer came in the fulness of the time, so the day for the law-giving at Horeb deserves notice. When the Lord said, sq. They stand there by virtue of a divine call. Comp., moreover, Exodus 19. The particular individual mountain, Deu 4:11, probably Jebel Musa (Kurtz II., p. 256) is distinguished from Horeb, the range as a whole. [The particular mountain is now thought to be Ras. Sufsafeh. The recent surveys of the peninsular all tend to identify this peak as that from which the law was given. For the arguments see Stanley, Sinai and Palestine. SmithsDict. Art. Sinai.A. G.]. Deu 4:11. Exo 19:17. A continuing (partic.) fire symbolizes the act. To the midst (heart) of heaven, the heavenly (Exo 20:19), the sublimity, with respect to those standing under the mountain, and upon the earth Deu 4:10. The fire lifting itself from the black ground of the dark clouds, (Exo 19:18) is the expression of revelation, of a knowledge (a light) in the darkness of this fallen world, which knowledge embraces in itself at the same time the consuming (fire) judgment of the self-condemnation unto the salvation, and of the condemnation by God to the destruction, of the sinner. The great energy of this law-giving in its two-sided results. The darkness was there, but Jehovah spake only out of the midst of the fire, Deu 4:12 (Deu 4:15; Deu 5:22). The additional remark Ye heard the voice, sq., prepares the way for the following paragraph. How fitly also the words remain as the expression of the Spirit. Comp. on the other hand with regard to Moses himself, Num 12:8. It is not a general revelation of God, but that revelation of God made to Israel, and indeed to the whole people, which is here spoken of. This fact renders it clear that there is no theory of revelation given here. Deu 4:13. The covenant is designated as his, and as such every idea of reciprocity is removed. In (from to divide, to separate (to choose, to decide, to create, to fix, appoint) we have the pure act of the will of God. Hence the explanation through the Ten, (Commandments) words, Exo 34:28, in which also we have the more exact definition of the words, Deu 4:12. Such an announcement includes, naturally, the commands on the part of God, and must have, on the other side, the doing of the people as its result. This is the purpose of God, and hence the written, fixed form, on two tables of stone: Deu 10:5; Deu 10:19; Exodus 34. Israel does not contract with Jehovah, but it is the will of God, in this way to provide for his coming into communion with Himself. Deu 4:14 throws light upon Deu 1:18, since the decalogue law-giving was even there presupposed, although there truly, as here, it is the mediation of Moses in the inculcating and expounding of particular statutes and judgments, which comes into view (Exodus 21 sq.). Even there, but especially here, the deuteronomic procedure of Moses is intimated as one at that time already prepared. At that (in this) time, the same as in Deu 1:18. That ye might do them in the land, sq., confirms the translation of Deu 1:18, which ye shall do (Schroeder), not should [as in A. V.].

Deu 4:15. Comp. Deu 4:9. for your good, etc. That which follows now as to the nature of the Most High Law-giver, and the mode of His worship, is simply a Mosaic deduction from what has gone before, through which Israel is made certain beyond any doubt of the divine origin of the law. Comp. Deu 4:12; Exo 20:4. Deu 4:16. from in Piel, and of like signification with the here (Deu 4:25; Deu 4:31) used Hiphil (as is often the case, e. g., periit Piel, and Hiphil perdidit) to slay, destroy, corrupt (Exo 32:7; Deu 9:12) to be supplemented here not by walk, conduct, but by yourselves. Ye should not corrupt, destroy your life (Deu 4:1) from (), to hew, especially the idol-image, because the heathen carved them in wood, stone, and the like. (Sharpe calls the art of the sculptor the true pillar of religion among the Egyptians). The multiplying of similar expressions in the following particulars is to prevent any uncertainty, to cut off any possible exception. from , signifies that which distinguishes, form, shape, appearance. Deu 4:12; Deu 4:15. like is perhaps an overlaid gilded image. Any figure, sq., figures, namely, of any kind which represent the carving of idols, whether a likeness of man or of beast, in order to represent the appearance of God. from to bend together, model, pattern, image. It is the image worship which is spoken of. The specification, Deu 4:16-19, passes from Egypt (animal worship) to Canaan (star worship), in an entirely historical way, but without even hinting at a history of idolatry. Heathenism comes into view, not as to its gods, the objects of worship, but after the form of its cultus, which was an image service, and to which Israel could not conform itself with respect to Jehovah. Thus the sun, moon, and stars, Deu 4:19, appear not as divinities, but because, as they unfold upon the deep blue heaven all the charm of their lights, beside the representation through men first mentioned, they seem themselves peculiarly enticing, as if an image cultus, established by God Himself. from () to separate signifies to remove, to turn away. The ceremonial homage, farther, the entire service, rendered to the stars as the representations of Jehovah, was thus an apostacy from Jehovah (who had given the stars that they should serve men, not that men should serve them, Deu 18:14), and would also conform Israel to all the nations (heathen) under the whole heaven, while through its very leading out of Egypt (Deu 4:20) it occupied a peculiar position with respect to Jehovah. (The Egyptians worshipped the stars as sense images of the gods, the sun as Ra, the moon as Joh. or Isis. Sharpe). The meaning of the clause, which the Lord thy God hath divided, sq., cannot be as Schultz and Keil hold, for veneration, i. e., to permit that they should choose the same for their objects of worship; for 1) the question is not here of strange gods, as Deu 29:25; Deuteronomy 2) if this was the question, still it would not be always true that the sun, moon, and stars, were given to all nations under the whole heaven for their veneration; 3) it is not said in Deu 29:25, nor in Rom 1:21 sq., that God has arranged and distributed the idolatrous heathen service, but in the first only that Israel should not go after strange gods, because Jehovah was their portion, and in the last, that the moral corruption of the heathen is the Divine judgment upon their religious errors and wanderings. The designedly chosen expression brings out into a suggestive contrast the Lord of heaven, which was divided unto all the nations, with the Lord of hosts which was the portion of Israel (Jehovah thy God). Comp. Psa 16:4-6. [The great Legislator may be regarded as taking, in the passage before us, a complete and comprehensive survey of the various forms of idolatrous and corrupt worship practiced by the surrounding Oriental nations, and as particularly and successively forbidding them every one. The chosen people of God are not to regard with superstitious reverence one of their own race, male or female; nor to fall into the low nature worship of which they had seen so much in Egypt, and to which they had once since, in the sin of the Golden Calf, shown a bias; nor yet to be beguiled by the more subtle cosmic religionism of some of the Syrian tribes. Bib. Com.A. G.]. Deu 4:20. The opposition between Israel and the other nations is here made apparent still more by what Jehovah had done, and His purpose in doing it, in delivering Israel out of Egypt as an iron furnace, i. e., a furnace for the smelting of iron, a striking image of the hardship suffered there, and of its moral import, (Isa 48:10). For a people of inheritance. As Jehovah was the inheritance of Israel from the fathers, so Israel of Jehovah, Exo 19:5. The possession of Canaan as an inheritance forms the third period. As ye are [Schroeder, as it is] this day (comp. Deu 2:30) refers to what Jehovah had done in the purpose designated, according to which the passage into Canaan was viewed as already accomplished. Deu 4:21. The grief of Moses appears again on this occasion, and for the third time. Comp. Deu 1:37; Deu 3:26 (and 2Co 12:8). Here as in the first passage we have and the same definiteness, namely, here , while there, for your tumult and rebellion. The oath is added here after the analogy of Deu 1:34, almost indeed as if Moses would include himself entirely in the divine judgment there uttered. Comp. upon Deu 1:37. (Herxheimer: I must warn you against idolatrous service in Canaan, all the more since I cannot enter there. Abarb.: As he was disciplined, so much more must they be. The conclusion of Deu 4:21, on the other hand, comprises or sums up the method both of Deu 1:37 and Deu 3:25 sq. Comp. Deu 4:22 with Gen 48:21; Gen 1:24. Comp. Deu 4:23 with Deu 4:9; Deu 4:13; Deu 4:16 (Deu 2:37). Comp. Deu 4:24 with Deu 4:11, and Exo 24:17; Deu 9:3 (Heb 12:29). (Deu 5:9; Deu 6:15) gives the ethical explanation of the previous figure (Exo 20:5). The farther exhibition of this way and nature of the Most High Law-giver, appears in two aspects, in Deu 4:25-28, and Deu 4:29-31. Deu 4:25 : Here as elsewhere in Deuteronomy, the eye of Moses, undimmed by age, is clearly seen. Israel on the contrary, when it grows old, will also become cold to the zealous love of Jehovah, and so provoke His equally zealous anger. The address changes from thou to ye; regards Israel as this people of Jehovah (Deu 4:20) to whom He is his God (Deu 4:24), or directs itself to particular individuals among the people, the men concerned here, fathers and children, and grandchildren. In the land which ye shall then possess, and as to which ye shall forget how ye came to possess it. Comp. upon Deu 4:16 (23). Deu 4:26. Begins the conclusion. Comp. Deu 8:19; Deu 30:19; Deu 32:1. Heaven and Earth. Not with reference to Lev 26:19, for it is not an avenger, but witnesses, which are here in question; not to angels and men, since the latter especially could scarcely come into view as witnesses, but because the heavens and earth had alike heard the discourse of Moses and were everywhere, and thus were witnesses continually at hand. Knobel: He speaks in the name of the Lord of the world. For the rest comp. Deu 5:1; Deu 5:9; Deu 5:15; Deu 7:4; The certainty and the suddenness of the destruction are made prominent. Comp. Deu 4:40; Deu 30:18; Exo 20:12. Deu 4:27. It is only as near Jehovah, and as this definitely gathered people, that Israel can remain in the land. With its forsaking of its God, is involved the loss of the promised land, and its dispersion among the nations, and since such dispersion is the dissolution of its distinct nationality, so it explains the extermination and destruction denounced in Deu 4:26. The discourse speaks of people and nations, as Assyrians and Chaldeans, but not of any particular dispersion. And ye shall be left few in number. (Gen 34:30). Not that they should so far perish through want and suffering, Keil, but in their dispersion reckoned as few over against the numbers of the heathen. (Comp. upon Deu 4:7-8), Deu 28:64; Jer 42:2. The threatening here is different from that in Leviticus 26. Piel, indicates both from the significance of the word, and from the connection, not a gentle leading, but a driving and urgent pressure (Exo 14:25) Deu 28:36; Gen 31:26. Deu 4:28. Their sin their punishment. The punishment with respect to Jehovah, whom they have forsaken, is that they shall serve gods who, because after the work of mens hands (Psa 115:4);for God Himself is formless, and has given His word, but no image of Himselfcan neither exercise the sacred attributes of Jehovah (neither see nor hear) nor the common functions of poor man (nor eat, nor smell, with an allusion to the food and incense worship of the heathen) Psalms 135. Deu 4:29. If Deu 4:25-28 declare the method of Jehovah as the jealous God with respect to His anger, the energy of His holiness, so now we have the other side, the energy of His love which does not forsake Israel. The seeking does not intimate any abject begging, Schultz, but rather the working of grace, which cannot leave itself without a witness, and utters its testimony through this necessity of the heart. He who permits himself to be found also works efficiently that they shall seek Him. The seeking is the promise of the finding. Not in vain does Moses intimate to Israel that Jehovah remains thy God. , Deu 4:29, and Deu 4:28, correspond the one with the other. Thy, namely the God of Israel, so that the people attain again a self-consciousness as a people, and as the people of Jehovah, and can be addressed as thou, sq. Thou shalt find, according to the connection, Jehovah, but placed here designedly, without an object, since Deu 4:31 declares what they shall find in Jehovah. Necessity teaches the remnant, the holy seed (Isa 6:13) the prayer, for the necessity, external and internal sorrow, will come upon him (). As explains the preceding , so with the we come to the latter days [Schroeder, the end of days]. here corresponds to the in the beginning. Deu 31:29. In the kingdom of God last times are ever times of need. (See Matthew 24; Luke 21; 2Ti 3:1). The is the counterpart to the (Deu 11:12). As now in the beginning of days the Sabbath was the end (Gen 2:1-3) so here also by the end of days is meant the Sabbath solemnity, Heb 4:9, the Messianic time of completion, Keil. Comp. Hos 3:5; Isa 2:2; Act 2:17; Heb 1:1-2; 1Jn 2:18. The expression (Num 24:14; Genesis 49) has indeed according to the prophetic time-period of the speaker, a more or less Messianic form. The entire fitness of the words to the connection, to the time relations following, without any intimation of the idea of the Messiah or of His kingdom, is characteristically Mosaic. It would not have been so fitting at the time of the prophets. It utters only the idea of Israel. And as the idolatrous service merely was included in Deu 4:28, so in Deu 4:30 simply the returning to Jehovah, and the hearkening to His voice (Deu 4:12). Come upon thee, find thee, looking back to the thou findest (Deu 4:29); thou the help, the need, the tribulation, thee. The condition and the time for the return of Israel are arranged in parallel clauses, (Deu 4:30), i. e., when the distress, the curse of the law, is completed, then also will the time of Israel be completed, then will be the end of days, and as the threatening will be fulfilled, so also the promise, the return to the Lord. Thus there is revealed a future of Israel, when through its returning obedience to the law, (and hearkening to his voice, Deu 4:30, Mat 5:17; Mat 7:24 sq.) it makes effective in humanity, the peculiar idea of its nationality, see Deu 4:6 sq. (comp. upon Deu 2:25). Since salvation comes from the Jews, (Joh 4:22), the national Israel may be considered a spiritual, which in that respect is the completion of Israel, when through the ingrafted fulness of the Gentiles in the place of the hardened portion, which takes place more and more, all Israel shall so (in this way) be saved, Rom 11:26. (Moreover as Deu 4:28 is fulfilled according to Jeremiah 44, so also Deu 4:29 indeed, according to Jeremiah 24, in the better part, the selection, of Israel in the exile. The latter gave the key to the exile, so that under the Maccabean princes, the heathen spirit was generally rejected by the people as anti-national). The foundation for such a future is given in Deu 4:31, with a reference to Exo 34:6, where an analogous apostacy of Israel had previously occurred. to be tender, graciously inclined, parallel to , Deu 4:24, according to the other side, of his being, of the jealousy as love. permit to sink or fall, Deu 31:6, Comp. on Deu 4:16. He will not, as thou wouldest thyself, (Hos 11:8-9). Comp. Deu 4:23. The covenant of Jehovah there spoken of is here the covenant with the fathers, as the explanation which he, sq., shows. Lev 26:42; Lev 26:45; Genesis 17, and Gen 26:3-4. As the eye has been turned by Deu 4:6 to the other nations, so should (Deu 4:32), the time since their creation, and the space in which their history moves, be inquired of with respect to Israel. Comp. Deu 32:7. Deu 4:33 relates especially to the revelation of God at Horeb. Elohim is not here any more than in Deu 4:32, any particular deity, but God in the general, (Deu 4:12). It is not the superiority of God over the gods which is spoken of, but of Israel in the wide humanity under the whole heaven. The hearing was already something perhaps unheard of, now also the living after the hearing. Deu 4:34. Or hath God assayed, sq., only made the attempt (Schultz, Keil) now even to do with temptations what God did to Pharaoh in order to lead out Israel, Deu 7:18-19; Deu 29:1-2; Deu 6:22. [The temptations are obviously the plagues miraculously sent upon the Egyptians as the following clause shows.A. G.]. To go and take him, sq., the most personal forth-stepping and in-bringing. Nation from the midst of nation. As Deu 4:32 goes back to the universal humanity, so here the conformity of Israel to the generality of nations. Egypt is intended. By signs and wonders (Haevernick on Ezekiel, p. 160 sq.). Comp. Exo 7:3; by war, Exo 14:14; Exo 15:3; by a mighty hand, and stretched-out arms (Deu 5:15), Exo 6:6 (Deu 14:8); by great terrors, Exo 11:6; Exo 12:30 sq.; Deu 14:20; Deu 14:24 sq. The redemption from Egypt even to its completion in the march through the Red Sea is thus specifically described. Comp. Deu 1:30. In all this which Jehovah had done for Israel, before their eyes, so that they have seen it, the people have the advantage of an experience (Deu 4:35) upon which even an advanced knowledge rests as upon its foundation, that his God, ha-Elohim, i. e., God simply, not merely the highest, but the one exclusive God, is the only one, there is none beside Him. (The fundamental truth of Genesis meets us again in Deuteronomy). But as was said above, Moses does not here prove this position, as over against the idols, but proves the glory of Israel above other nations and men, which it possesses through such a knowledge of revelation, especially through the law-giving at Horeb, to which all that happened in and upon Egypt, was merely of secondary moment; and thus even again, as from the beginning of this first discourse, Deu 1:6 sq., so now here at its very close, Deu 4:36, the revelation at Horeb stands out prominent. (made to see), comp. upon Deu 4:9. The revelation of Jehovah to Israel in order to make more apparent the superiority of the people, is here characterized (Deu 4:36) by its super-earthly exaltation (out of heaven), with which the rendering of to discipline, i. e., to take under sacred training, by Keil and Knobel [also Sept., Luther,A. G.] will not agree, as indeed it does not with Deu 4:35. This idea does not lie in the connection here (comp. Deu 8:5). The usual and practical meaning of the word also is to teach, to instruct, figuratively applied (Isa 28:26), to the preparation of the field, but absolutely never signifies to admonish, set right, as in Isa 8:11, when used with . Comp. on Deu 4:11-12. The symbol of the fire so emphasized, also according to the prominent aspect of that love energy of God in the rescuing of the sinner, presented in the foregoing section, leads to Deu 4:37, where the love however is portrayed as the electing faithfulness or truth. Thy fathers here as in Deu 4:31. The covenant with them has here its root in God. However humbling this may be for Israel, it is necessary here, where such a superiority of Israel upon the earth is made conspicuous. As Israel should not represent God, nor make an image of Him, so it has nothing in itself over which to cherish conceited imaginations (Deu 9:4-5). Indeed even the fathers has God simply loved. The choice is rooted thus in the love of God. The () essentially to desire, wish, becomes a choice, so considered with reference to its object. The humiliation encloses in itself the highest encouragement, the greatest blessedness for Israel. What is more blessed than to know that one is the object of the love of God from childhood, and what more encouraging than such love, which is such faithfulness. This faithfulness of the divine love, has its very noticeable characteristic in the singular suffix: his [not their, A. V.] seed after him, which as it discovers a living and thorough acquaintance on the part of the speaker with Genesis, pre-supposes also a familiarity on the part of the hearers with the beginning of Israels history. For only in this faithfulness can Abraham, who is the person referred to, be the friend of God (Gen 18:17 sq.; James 2:33). At the same time this marks the true personal nature of the divine love. Abraham is the father of all believers (Rom 4:11) throughout the Scripture, and hence the father, , of Israel. Isa 51:2; Gen 17:4-5; Mat 3:9. For his seed comp. further Gen 21:12; Rom 9:7; Psa 105:6, and Deu 4:20.In his sight [Schroeder: by his face, presence.A. G.], i. e. in His own person, in His self-revelation (Exo 13:21; Exo 14:19; Exo 14:24; Exo 33:14-15; Isa 63:9). Deu 4:37 stands related to Deu 4:36, as Deu 4:34 to Deu 4:33. The is the simple conjunction; but , as , Deu 10:15, has the whole emphasis of the connected new motives. The expulsion of the nations, as of the people of Sihon and Og was a pledge to Israel that even wider room would be made for him. Comp. Deu 1:28; Deu 2:30; Deu 4:20. An exhortation or inference parallel to Deu 4:35 follows now in Deu 4:39. The , Deu 4:38, stands instead of of Deu 4:35, and so here resumes the of that verse. It is not however bare knowledge, but a matter of the heart (worth taking to heart). Comp. upon Deu 4:35. In connection with this, Deu 4:40 returns to Deu 4:1 sq. Instead of , we have here , because the reference is altogether to God. Comp. besides upon Deu 4:26.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Chap., Deu 1:6-8. The departure from Horeb for the realization of the promise of Jehovah is the world-historical advance of Israel. A step at the same time for humanity, for the anointed in Spirit, is the of the conscience, as of the law (Rom 10:4). As this universal human truth has its solemn festive expression in the Sabbath of Israel (quia feeisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te.Augustine), so it finds its historical expression in the possession of the promised land (Heb 3:7 to Heb 4:10). Advancing therein, as equally in the case of their ancestor (Genesis 12), the elect people appears as humanity in its God-placed desires, as Moses himself the head of this people is a man of desire (Exo 33:18; Exo 33:13; Deu 3:25). Canaan is the localized promise of God, the pledge that the whole earth shall be full of His glory (Num 14:21). In this land, assured to the fathers by an oath (Deu 1:8), Israel realizes for the time the grace and truth (Joh 1:17), which indeed were not given by Moses, for the law was given through Moses, but which should historically come into existence (become) in the people of this land, and thus they become a blessing for all people. While Hellas seeks the true and the beautiful, and Rome law and dominion, Israels desire reaches after the reality of God and Jerusalem (Psa 42:2-4; Psa 137:5).

2. Deu 1:9-18. The natural jurisdiction, as it existed in the patriarchal institution, had already fallen into decay in Egypt. It was the policy of the oppressor to destroy the internal organization (Exo 2:11 sq.). With the exodus, the stream had returned to its old channel. But religious zeal concentrates the entire judicial authority in Moses. Aid must soon be thought of. The arrangement is proposed by the people in order that it may strike its roots among them more easily. The people choose, probably with reference to the advice of Moses, judges, according to the gradation of tribes and families great and small. There was a natural subordination among these judges. The heads of the tribes were the presidents, the heads of the larger or smaller families the co-assessors, with a more or less weighty voice in the decision. Those who were chosen were then confirmed by Moses. We are not to think of a crude decimal division. The arrangement was precisely destined for the residence in Canaan. Hengstenberg. The law of Jehovah is the rule of life for Israel. The princes and judges are called to introduce and put in practice this life-regulation as national. The general instruction which Moses gave to the officers of the community was thus, through the law of Jehovah, intended for the individual, and thus that whole organization of the people began at the advice of Jethro,was established. Baumgarten. Jethros counsel (Exodus 18) and the act of Moses, as he here speaks of it, unite to form a beautiful picture of the judge, what he should be, and how he should act. signifies to make ready, to finish; and thus the judge is one who is to deal with strifes, and remove them out of the world. Thus the oath makes an end of all strife (Heb 6:16). On the other hand this is the charge and burden (Deu 1:12) of the judicial office. The will against the will of man, only the will of God can give a decisive settlement. The first judicial qualification therefore is the fear of God (Luk 18:2) which is the beginning of wisdom (Pro 1:7; Pro 3:7; Pro 9:10; Psa 111:10). Where there is this internal support there is also fidelity and faith (confidence), and hence the second more outward qualification, men of truth, with which the judge has to do, and at the same time understanding, insight into even the most intricate cases. Lastly, as the most exterior qualification, with the good report among the people, is connected the hating covetousness, unselfishness which recommends itself to every man as an attribute of the judge. With the divine character of the court agrees the position of the judge with respect to his duties between the parties; and thus impartiality, and since they are all brethren before God, a brotherly disposition is requisite. Reconciliation therefore of those whom the strife had separated, was the act which corresponded most nearly to the idea of the Shophet, a judge. But when this could not be secured, then righteousness should determine the judicial act; i.e. as the fixed, the right () of God, his law should decide the case. As Israel is before God a nation of brethren, so the Israelite in himself before God, and over against the stranger, is still only a man. (, abbreviated form of ,, an adherent, associate, man as a social being, living in communities.) With the brotherliness connects itself the universal humanity (2Pe 1:7). See the following thoughts. When God only is adhered to, and one is established in His law, there the (as , to hold fast with the eye) coincides with , to fear, namely, God, through which the man does not become timid, servile, cowardly, but feels himself lifted up with infinite power, since he knows the divine strength and freedom, as his own. The fear of God has this significance from the Old Testament stand-point in opposition to all nature-religion (Meier).[We have too here all the elements of a true popular government. The authority comes from God; but the people select their rulers freely from among themselves. Once clothed with their office, the rulers become so far the representatives of God, are so to be regarded by the people, and are held responsible by Him for the discharge of their trusts.A. G.]

3. The humanity of the Mosaic law appears with respect to the stranger. He comes into view, assembling himself with Israel, in his own right, not however as one roving around, but as intimates, as one who sojourns for a shorter or longer time. As such has equal part with the Israelite in the Courts (judge, justice, duty, punishment), Lev 24:22. How thoroughly in this law the religious point of view determines and bounds the moral. Not merely because Israel also had been a stranger (Exo 22:21), but this other motive, because Canaan belonged to Jehovah, and thus the native dweller is only a guest (Lev 25:23), co-operates to the same end. Any exclusiveness towards the stranger enters only when the religious and moral relations out of which such humanity flows would be endangered (Exo 23:32-33). How entirely different stands the people of justice, the people of Rome, in this regard! In the twelve tables (hostis) enemy is synonymous with stranger, which Cicero calls (de off. I. 12) a milder expression. Comp. on the contrary, e.g., Lev 19:34.

4. The movement at Kadesh running through the whole history of the people of God, as Goethe (Works VI., p. 159) expresses it: The peculiar and the profoundest theme of the world and human history, to which all others are subordinate, is the conflict of faith and unbelief. All the epochs in which faith rules, under whatever form, are glorious, heart-stirring and fruitful for the present and the future. On the other hand all epochs in which unbelief in any form claims a sorrowful victory, and although it may shine in apparent splendor for a time, vanishes before the after ages, because no one will harass himself with the knowledge of the unfruitful. While the first book of Moses records the triumph of faith, the last four have for their theme the unbelief which does not in a bold way attack and contend with faith, but which also does not show itself in its whole fulness, however, crowds forth from step to step in the way, and often through kindness, but more often still through severe punishments, is never healed, never destroyed, but only silenced for the moment; and hence so continues its subtle course that it threatens to wreck at the beginning a great and noble purpose undertaken upon the most glorious promises of a credible national God, and prevents its ever being completed in its whole fulness.

5. That the period of the thirty-seven years curse, which lies between Kadesh and Kadesh, is not brought within the compass of the narrative, is not due only to the express theocratic historic style, as Kurtz asserts, but meets us also in the rhetorical recollections in Deuteronomy, and this silence, as over the grave or the dead, is an intentional death-silence. It is altogether proper. One should be silent, at best, over those under the judgment of rejection. There is a moral consideration, as also a liturgical act of the historical writer and speaker. Kurtz rejects the supposed reason: that, in a general way, nothing remarkable occurred during this period, as if this was the rejection of the only reason for that silence. But that which is communicated of law and history, Numbers 15 sq., does not concern the rejected Israel, but the Israel of the future (e. g. Deu 15:2; Deu 15:13; Deu 15:18). In reference to this, there was nothing further memorable to communicate until Numbers 20, as in reference to that the long silence prevails. The reticence of Moses over the coffins and sepulchres of Israel, is similar to that in regard to the four hundred years in Egypt, the cradle of the people. What Kurtz says of the thirty-seven years as years of dispersion, and that only the whole Israel, the organic completion of all the essential parts of the people, etc., is the subject of the recorded history, rests upon a still questionable view of the real relations and condition of Israel at this time. On the contrary his fine remark: the advance only, not the standing still, or the retrograde steps into the wilderness, is the subject of the recorded history, hits the case perfectly. The way from Sinai to Kadesh was a progress; only one step further and thenBut during the thirty-seven years the history of Israel did not come even one step nearer its goal. It remained as it was. It is different in the fortieth year with the journeyings from Kadesh to the plains of Moab. Under the unfavorable relations of this time, the nearest way from Kadesh to Canaan was by Mount Seir, around through the plains of Moab, and across the Jordan. Even the geographical return from Kadesh to the Red Sea is an historical progress.

6. Among the three exceptions which Israel must respect, Edom holds the first place. It has it in consequence of the prominent part which Amalek, the branch people of Edom, had already taken, Num 24:20. It shares with them also the hostility with which Amalek was the first people who maliciously fell upon the rear of the wearied Israelites (Deu 25:18), and vindictively went to the front before the Canaanites, Num 14:45. Israel had avoided the armed hostility with which Edom met him, Num 20:18-21. The conflict between Edom and Israel exists historically, as it had displayed itself before in their mutual ancestors, Esau and Jacob. But with this distinction, that now the fear is on the side of Esau (comp. Deu 2:4 with Gen 32:8). This fear introduces at the same time with the command here, the promise, Num 24:18. Edom, although the first-born, is an apostacy from the chosen seed, a degeneration to heathenism. Just because it is so closely related to Israel, it removes to the widest distance from the people of God (Mat 10:36). His fear of the Divine, in Israel, throws light upon the hatred and character of Edom, usually fearless, and much more feared, by Israel when punished by his God. Thus it gains those stereotype features which it bears in the prophets. Comp. e. g., Eze 35:15; Eze 36:6. Oba 1:10 sq. It must be conceded that the relations which Israel sustains to Edom, according to Deuteronomy, in no way correspond to the days of the prophets, but only to the time of Moses. [We can scarcely conceive of a later Jew giving the directions which Moses here gives. They are opposed in their whole spirit to the feeling which filled the minds of the Jewish people, and find expression in the prophets. And the feeling which ultimately gained such strength grew up in the relations and intercourse of these nations, so that there is no period which so well accords with these directions as that of Moses. They would not have been so appropriate to the time of Samuel even.A. G.]. For Moab and Amnion comp. upon Deu 23:4-5, and the Doctrinal and Ethical remarks.

7. Although it is not expressly said that Moab drove out the Emim, which would have agreed well with the description, so that Schultz conjectures they were not a bold people, and that we must think of a gradual extinction by death, still it may be inferred from what is said in regard to Edom. In any case, even without a warlike expulsion of the earlier inhabitants, the possession, as in the case of Edom and Ammon, so also by Moab, appears as the providence and ordering of God. He raises up and removes kings, Dan 2:21, and defines their times and the bounds of the people (Act 17:26) upon the earth. This was an appropriate instruction for Israel when, by localizing itself in Canaan, it was about to take its place among the nations and lands. It follows from this, that although the removal of a neighbors landmark is a crime (Deu 19:14; Deu 27:17) so it is not only true that kingdoms and lands are entailed, but also that both inward distractions and external conquests may be the ways of God. The character of the instruments he uses to collect the debt which is due, remains a question of secondary moment. This exalted view of the history of nations should not be denied, even in respect to Italy, especially by believers. [But this view of the hand of God in ordering the limits and condition of nations, does not interfere of course with any efforts on the part of the people to change their condition, provided there is a reasonable ground for them. Such attempts, immediately successful or otherwise, may be among the instruments which God uses.A. G.].

8. That Moses speaks of Israel according to its idea (Deu 2:25; Deu 4:6 sq., 30) corresponds to his prophetic character and stand-point, belongs to that preparation and introduction to the full prophetic order which was to be effected by him, and preserves, at the same time, the point of union for the New Testament fulfilling of this idea in the kingdom of God. The exclusiveness of Israel is for its universal ends.

9. The investiture of Israel with Canaan is to be viewed with respect to the chosen people as a gracious gift of God to the fathers, and with respect to the Canaanites as a divine righteous judgment, as Hengstenberg (Beit. III., 471 sq.) has shown in opposition to other interpretations. But since now Seir, as well as the land of Moab and Ammon, are held before Israel as expressly given to their present occupants by Jehovah (Deu 2:5; Deu 2:9; Deu 2:19), the destruction of their earlier occupants appears, in part at least, as the act of Jehovah, and hence also as a judgment of God (Deu 2:21-22). The region therefore upon which Israel should dwell, not merely as to Sodom and Gomorrah, but throughout, and even in its surroundings is an extended scene of divine judgments and destruction, which must involuntarily warn, most impressively, its occupants as to the deep seriousness of their life. The cheering enjoyment of the mercy and truth of God is not without a recollection of the solemn background of His holiness. Schultz. The successors of Abraham are the executors of the divine sentence of death upon the many-tribed nation. Hence the bann, as in reference to Sihon and Og, the constrained consecration of those to God who stubbornly refused freely to consecrate themselves to Him, in general directed only against persons; but now in order to show that Israel does not enjoy its land and its possession as a mere conquest, reaches in the first conquered city Jericho, to all its possessions. Hengstenberg. As the Israelites were first qualified for such a banning, who themselves had grown up a new generation under the bann, so also the iniquity of the Canaanites was full (Gen 15:16). There was open to them the alternative of flight from the land, or of conversion to the faith of Israel. Lange. But that this latter case occurs only with Rahab, shows the complete dehumanizing of the dwellers in Canaan, (Deu 9:4-5) as they sanction and observe only its bestial cultus, especially the Moloch worship (Cterum censeo, Carthaginem esse delendam).

10. When Schultz, in distinction from Keil, who refers to 1Ki 10:4 sq. and the therein ever significant type of proselytism in the self-dissolution of heathen religions, remarks upon the recognition of the Old Testament revelation on the part of the heathen, that the actual facts have been almost an irony, he says nothing more than that Israel has in its actual history, very poorly answered to its idea, according to which Moses speaks of it. It is only when Israels light shines before men, and they see its good works, that men can praise it. (Matthew 5). But it is true, further, that the idea of Israel finds its fulfilment only in Christ and Christianity; the subjection of the nations to it, and still more their transition into it, is the realizing of what was said regarding Israel according to its idea, (Deu 4:6 sq.).

11. While the spiritual (super-sensible) nature if God in the law-giving is elsewhere described by the statement, the law was spoken by angels, (Heb 2:2; Act 7:38; Act 7:53; Gal 3:19), referring back to Deu 33:2 (Psa 68:17; Psa 104:4); here however this mediation of the spiritual and super-creaturely divine nature, is not mentioned, but only the word, that spoken, and indeed in opposition to any form whatever. Since he fire on the mountain was clearly alluded to (Deu 4:11) so is it, in opposition to Knobel, precisely with respect to the people, as Exo 24:17. It is different with the selection Exo 24:11, for they saw ( Deu 1:10, Deu 1:11, although this seeing was an intuitive seeing, beholding, vision) the God of Israel, and this seeing must have distinguished itself from what all the people saw continually by something else than this, that in their eyes the fire token was separate from the cloud, (Hofmann, Schriftbew. I.). What is further said, Deu 1:10, that there was under his feet, and that the elders of Israel suffered no harm, presupposes an attested revelation of God beyond or above that to the whole people. We must think certainly upon the very same human form which Isaiah 6 imagines upon the throne, and of which Eze 1:7; Eze 1:9; Eze 1:13, expressly speaks. (Dan 7:9; Dan 7:13). On the other hand it cannot be said, with V. Gerlach, that Deu 4:12 must be applicable also to the elders, at least not for their own case, for the revelation to them is different from that to the whole people, as again the revelation of God to Moses is different from that to the elders. Exodus 33.; Num 12:8; Deu 34:10. But Exo 33:11 points also to the manifest human form, and this form must have been the similitude, form of Jehovah (Num 12:8) in which God throughout held intercourse with Moses. The distinction will thus be as to the one experience of the elders, and that the revelation of God to them was as from a distance, not face to face, not from mouth to mouth. The people saw the glory of God through the medium of the fire (comp. Exo 16:7; Exo 16:10); a nearer approach was not permitted, Exo 19:21; Exo 24:2. Even the elders must keep at a distance, Exo 24:2. Moses remains alone in the presence of God. What Moses therefore, Exo 33:18, desires in reference to the divine glory, the whole fulness of His being in the more fitting revelation, must reach beyond that which he had already enjoyed. With reference to this we are to understand Exo 33:20, as on the other hand Exo 24:11 is spoken in reference to the people who were warned away with the penalty of destruction. What would have brought ruin upon the people did not harm the elders, but no mortal may see the face of His glory. Thus the face is in general the person, but with reference to the glory, the exact expression of the whole Divine being revealed absolutely and without any limitation, while the back, Exo 33:23, is only the after splendor of that which has passed by (Deu 1:22). The human appearing form in these revelations of God to the favored individuals, already to the patriarchs, was the preparatory symbolism to the brightness of the glory and the express image of his person in the incarnation of the Son. (Heb 1:3; Joh 1:14). With this the Psalmist comforts himself, Psa 17:15, and we learn, that even until Christ, the spirituality of the divine being does not in itself exclude relative forms, when He would reveal Himself to man. But this relative form is not commonly for Israel the human form, although it has place in a human way through the Word. The fire and the cloud-darkness were truly conspicuous, but no form as little as the voice, (the sound) of the words which the people perceived. It is not given us of God to know intuitively His being in itself (Beck, Christ Lerhw. I., p. 41 sq.) but only in some form or representation, made visible and become inward to us. In His own essential majesty invisible to man (Joh 1:18; 1Jn 4:12) and as such dwelling in light inaccessible (1Ti 6:16) He remains for our conception and expression transcendent and unsearchable, even in His revelation also (Rom 11:33 sq.; Eph 3:8; Isa 40:28; Psa 145:3; Psa 147:5; Job 11:7-9), and we know Him in His nature, therefore, only as coming forth from His inaccessible light, He descends to earthly representations, but not in His own , Php 2:6. Hence there comes to us, through the Son, the only one initiated into these profoundest intuitions of the Divine nature, by virtue of His most intimate communion with the Father, only such knowledge of the divine nature or essence as He unfolds to us through words and works. Joh 6:46; Joh 1:18; Mat 11:27.

12. At this point, as in Exo 24:10 sq., nothing is said as to the form of God (even Isaiah 6. is silent upon this topic) but in reference to the fundamental revelation in the giving of the law, it is emphatically repeated to the people, that it was entirely by the word. The word truly in itself, as the fittest spiritual expression of the Spirit (Joh 1:1), opposes every image of Jehovah which Israel might make. But now the people have heard the ten commands, and see them remaining upon the two tables; the revelation by God (according to the significance of the number ten) is fixed for Israel as perfect. Thus there is nothing which can go beyond the word heard by the people and seen by them. Israel stands upon the summit, and should be conscious that it is so placed, so that every image which it might form of God appears as a descent to heathenism, as idolatry. Heathenism sprang out of the apostacy from the primitive religion, and through the corruption, and especially the secularization of the consciousness of God. The divine numen did not as in Israel become nomen, which presupposes knowledge, thus revelation, but that which is and should remain spirit, became nature. Pantheism is unknown at the beginning, but known as the end of the heathen way. In its progress pantheism realizes itself in polytheism, i. e., this or that, many and various representations of the Deity, according to the land, time, history, civilization, explained by the words of priests (mythology) because there was no clear word of God. Thus the images, although at first sense images of the Deity, become at last gods, idols of the heathen way, upon which Israel must not tread, since idolatry was rather its enemy and punishment, (Deu 4:28). The stand-point of Deuteronomy is purely principial, which is altogether unfavorable to the later time of the historical criticism.

13. The covenant of God is no social contract between equals, so that the human factor could annul or abrogate the other, the divine (Rom 3:3; Gal 3:17; 2Ti 2:13). Although there should be no religiousness, religion would still exist. God has revealed Himself, and this sun shines even upon the blind. The covenant of God is the formulating of His revelation in promise and command, so that the demand rests upon the promise, and both rest upon what God has already done. In this way of salvation, which is indeed for humanity, man neither helps nor acts. The covenant is sure and finished as of God, and so also the signs and seals of the covenant require not the help of men. God is one, Gal 3:20. The Mediator of the covenant only has to do with men; for since the covenant of God is the way of salvation, it is so for humanity, and it can only be so for mankind, when man gives the promising and commanding God, faith and obedience. But this condition of the realization of the covenant for mankind need not be conceived of as a condition of the realization of the covenant itself.

14. Since God has concluded a covenant with men (Deu 4:23), has thus revealed in the promise and command His essential strength of will in the world, it does not touch in the least His transcendency, disturbs not the inward rest and blessedness of God, when He is said to be angry. Nor is this a mere anthropomorphism, for what appears with respect to anger, after the flesh among men, does not belong to it after the spirit, is not that which is essential and necessary, as human nature, in its primitive divine resemblance, presents it (Mar 3:5; Eph 4:26). designates the immanent energy of the divine life [love?] in the world. The Hebrew expression, according to its radical elements, refers to division, signifies fundamentally a dissension, since jealousy only corresponds to love, when it is real or true. God, in His efficient strength (Beck, p. 162), out of His own holy will, even in love as a holy one, i. e., as one in the complacent communication of good, preserving the same, and indeed fitting it for a perfect life, determines to work, then holds Himself not only free from the authorship and nurture of all evil, but opposes it rather as a godless nature with the innermost energy of His consuming anger; but, on the other hand, over all and everywhere originates, cherishes and strengthens the good, and that with a faithfulness and truth which no unbelief or falsehood can destroy, agreeably to which His wise and holy determination, together with word and work, through all the developments of time, in a living unity, asserts itself as the most constant life-regulation of love.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Deu 1:6-8. Everything has its time with God: 1) delay and 2) departure. Long enough the watchword 1) of holy Wisdom , 2) of a gracious leading; 3) of a defensive keeping (comp. Luk 22:38).The turning points in life: 1) how they should become blessings to us (and the command and promise of God, Deu 1:7); 2) why on the other hand, they turn to a curse for us. Because in unbelief and disobedience (ver 8) we fail to improve them.The promise of God opens the widest prospects: 1) the directory in Deu 1:7; Deuteronomy 2) the use of it (1Ti 4:8).The hand of God makes an open land, as 1) in the old, Song of Solomon 2) in the new covenant (Mat 25:34).The blessing of the fathers builds the home of the children, if the children do not prevent the blessing of the fathers, Deu 1:8.

Deu 1:9-18. Moses and Christ as to their power to bear: 1) While Moses alone is unable to bear, Christ bears all things (Heb 1:3). 2) Christ has borne what Moses was not able to bear, even our sicknesses (Isa 53:4).The indispensable qualities in a judge: 1) wisdom (the fear of God); 2) prudence (by the side of truth, faithfulness); 3) good report.The judgment is of God: 1) a consolation to the righteous Judges 2) a terror to all the unrighteous.The judicial model in Deu 1:16; Deu 17:1) the open ear; 2) the impartial mind; 3) justice for every one; 4) fear of no one.

Deu 1:19-21. The way of the children of God still from mountain to mountain: 1) from Sinai to Golgotha; 2) from Golgotha to the Jerusalem above (Mat 5:14; Rev 21:10).The bride of the Song comes up out of the wilderness: 1) the war-times of the Church (Son 3:6 sq.); 2) but also its times of peace and victory, Son 8:5How should we look back upon the wilderness: 1) as upon a school-time which has been entirely finished; 2) as upon many and serious occasions for gratitude to God. We must not fear: 1) the high prerogative, 2) nor the sacred duty of the Church.

Deu 1:22-25. The Spies: 1) in their two-fold relation to the wish of the people and to the purpose of God; 2) in their two-fold result: that Canaan is a good land, but Israel a wicked people.Gods promises stand the test, 1) but faith must investigate, and 2) doubt not sit in judgment.Even for the heavenly Canaan the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22; Eph 5:9) prove the goodness of the land.

Deu 1:26-33. Unbelief 1) in its grounds, a would not; 2) in its nature, no going up; 3) in its utterances, rebellion, disobedience to the command and promise of God, murmurs by themselves, and outspoken ingratitude (Deu 1:26-27).The exaggerations of perverse and craven hearts, of an excited and depressed, a haughty and faint-hearted spirit (Deu 1:28).Means against fear and terror: 1) the Lord is our leader: 2) the Lord fights for us (Deu 1:29-30).How God bears His people: 1) He raises them from the dust; 2) He holds them in His arms; 3) He brings them to His home (Deu 1:31).The care of God over His own at evening, during the night, and the day (Deu 1:33).

Deu 1:34-40. The wrath of God Isaiah 1) certain, 2) just, 3) consuming (Heb 10:27).The blessed exceptions in the judgments represented in Caleb and Joshua.The steadfast faith as of Caleb: 1) in the apostacy, 2) to the end. Again 1) as to its reward; 2) as to its work.What is the perfect following of the Lord? When one follows Him in every condition and at all times.A mediator is not a mediator only as Moses proves: 1) in his love which identifies him with the people; 2) in the judgment of God upon him which excludes him from the promised land.Even thou! how solemn it sounds, 1) for the unbelievers (Luk 23:31); 2) even for believers (Job 4:18)!Like the lightning, the judgments of God, 1) strike the heights, 2) that those in the low-grounds should fear. The nearer to the Lord, the nearer to His judgmenta truth for us even, and for others.It is not Moses, but Joshua, who should introduce Israel into the inheritance of Canaan: 1) observe His name (Jesus); 2) mark His preparation, as a servant, disciple of Moses (Exo 17:9 sq.; Deu 24:13 sq.); 3) consider his qualification for the work, strengthen Him, and 4) the promise of God concerning Him. The importance of Joshua 1) with Moses, 2) beyond Moses.Gods thoughts are not our thoughts, both in wrath and in love. How the wisdom of the flesh is foolishness with God, 1) in its anxious care; 2) in its final issue.

Deu 1:41-46. The sorrow of the world (2Co 7:10) 1) repents indeed, but how? 2) acts indeed, but against what? 3) works death at the end. Three-fold repentance of Cain (Gen 4:13), of Israel, of Judas (Mat 27:4 sq.)The Lord is ever more thoughtful for us than we for others, indeed than for ourselves even.If God is not with us, there Isaiah 1) no victory with us; 2) the contest is in vain (Psa 127:1 sq.); 3) even our own strength is against us (Deu 1:43).By the bees we are not to understand their own strength (Deu 1:44), not even as armed (Deu 1:41), but rather their weakness against the strength of God (Psa 118:12).Hormah, the bann place for the first, through the second Israel. There is a return, and even a weeping, before the Lord, to which He grants nothing, to wit, 1) the return from vain attempts in our own strength; 2) our tears from obstinacy and despair.

Deu 2:1-3 Kadesh an ending which is at the same time a beginning.The past and present departures in their similarity and in their differences.The way of Israel: 1) no retreat, although back to the Red Sea; 2) no residence, although many days at the mountain (Doct. and Ethical, 5).

Deu 2:4-23. The passage of Israel along the borders of Edom, to these for terror (Deu 2:4), to those in love (Deu 2:5-6).We should not overcome evil with evil, but with good (Rom 12:17; Rom 12:21 :1Pe 3:9).The blessings of God in the march through the wilderness: in the work of the hand, in the way of the feet, in the necessities of life. To the divine blessing (Pro 10:22) there Isaiah 1) nothing too much, 2) nothing too difficult, 3) nothing too long, 4) nothing too great. (Indeed, the greater the need, so much the quicker the aid.)God is a ruler over the people and all kingdoms (2Ch 20:6). The hoariest antiquity shows this; history is ever showing it; in the kingdom of God at last all people and kingdoms will show it. The times as well as the bounds of the people are of the Lord (Doct. 7). What God gives, He only can take away, but often through human agency (Dan 4:24; Dan 2:21). God preserves His word in judgments as well as promises: the old Israel a glass for the one case, and the new for the other (1Co 10:6; Rom 15:4). Who is great? God only, and He only confirms it in His doings (Psa 77:14; Jer 10:6).

Deu 2:24 to Deu 3:22. Israel against Sihon, a type of the Church Militant. It is given to it to conquer; it is told to fight. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of God; in the great day of the Lord there is terror before it under the whole heaven (Rev.).A true Church in certain circles is ever an object of fear.In the hardened heart much good precedes the inward judgment, and its outward execution; the greeting of peace goes before the rejection (Luk 10:6-7).If God is for us (Deu 2:31), who can resist us (Deu 2:32)? We shall conquer widely (Deu 2:33), and the sight shall correspond to the faith (Deu 2:34 sq).Upon what does the inheritance depend? upon courage, the people, the flesh? (Psa 20:7).When ought we to fear? When even the whole world is for us, but not the Lord.As God gave Og and Sihon unto the armed power of Israel, so now He gives his and our enemies into the power of our prayers.(For the celebration of victory.) Victory is of the Lord, but so also the contest (2Sa 22:35).A man can himself do nothing, except it is given him from heaven (Joh 3:27).The best watcher of a city (Psa 127:1), and even the true keeper (Pro 14:26) is the Lord.We also have fortifications to destroy, but with the weapons of God, scarcely with any others (2Co 10:4 sq.).Tyrants, conquerors, the natural man, the world: in their might (Og was the only one remaining), in their glory. (Behold his bed!) Jer 9:22 sq. The last bed is ever the grave, and it cannot be said of any one, as of the risen one, Mar 16:6.The strong fall to the Lord for a spoil, Deu 2:12-13, in the members, and still differently in the head, Isa 53:12.The heroes of eternity (as Jair): their contests and victories in faith, their testimony of faith (and called them, sq.)Be one; common the victory, common the battle.Brotherly love: in its divine ground (God has given you), in its cheerful march, in its equipments and strength.Let us not forsake our assembling! Heb 10:25.Separation leads, 1) to a corrupt enjoyment of the gifts of God; 2) to a carnal self-exaltation (rejoicing in the armament, in the very nails); 3) to an unlovely forsaking and censorious inspection (judging, not going before) our brother; 4) to a self-consuming of strength, to a peculiar exhaustion.God knows well how to guard these left behind, to lead the pilgrim to rest, to bring the exiles home. Faith also has eyes, and indeed looks backwards, forwards, upwards: to the wonderful works, the promises, of God, to God Himself, who takes away all fear, who constantly fights for us.

Deu 3:23-29. Moses, a servant of God, and indeed one approved or faithful, but only at the beginning (Heb 3:5; Joh 15:15; 1Jn 3:2).The desire of Moses compared with that of Paul, 2 Corinthians 12; Php 1:23.There are fruitless prayers even in the kingdom of God, and precisely in cases like those of Moses and Paul, when we do not ask according to the counsel and will of God (Mat 26:39). [But are such prayers fruitless? They are in truth fruitful, never vain. See the results with Moses, Paul, and especially our Saviour.A. G.]. With this also we must take into view the regard to the kingdom of God and the world. What possible falls we might be kept from were it not for others.Still God does not deny His own, without also granting their request. (If He cannot make me happy in the way which I desire, He will still press upon my heart loving consolation in prayer).Humbled (Deu 3:26) we may go up (Deu 3:27): I know whom Thou wilt gloriously adorn, those whom Thou hast first brought low.I have seen, O Lord, Thy throne from afar, sq.The humble may be exalted, the weak may be strong in the strength of God. (2Co 12:9; Php 4:13).

Deu 4:1-40. To the law and the testimony! To do and be true is the duty, life, and glory of the people of God.But be doers of the word, and not hearers only (Jam 1:22). The doing justifies (does it) (Rom 2:13) but neither doing with respect to it, nor flowing from it.The true orthodoxy is this: the righteous, not the followers of Baal, believe, and faith proves itself right, through word and walk. The right service of God is the following Him and communion with Him, the open confession and the hidden converse.The glory of the people of God: 1) Outwardly to appear as the keepers of the treasure of God, and therefore to be highly prized; 2) inwardly the gracious and powerful nearness of God, the joyful access in prayer of individual members to God, and the certain knowledge of the divine will.They are true parents who are not forgetful hearers themselves, and who know how to make intelligent hearers of their children (Deu 4:9-10).The day at Horeb, in its threefold import: 1) as the day of the people (Deu 4:10): 2) as the day of God in His majesty and exaltation (Deu 4:11-12); 3) as the day of the covenant of God, and of the law for the people (Deu 4:13).Corruption in religion, 1) has its beginning in this, that God (His being and will) has been changed into nature, the Creator into the creature (Rom 1:18 sq.); but 2) it passes over, not barely into gross heathenism, but first and directly into the less gross, in which God (counsel and work) is confounded with reason, the redeemer with self-righteousness and self-redemption.Redemption is the choice and leading of the child of God as in the case of Israel (Deu 4:20; Isa 43:1 sq.).The grief of Moses: His thorn in the flesh, a sign for Israel.Self-preservation is secured, 1) through a recollection of the covenant grace of God; 2) in obedience to the word of God. His commands.The Lord is a consuming fire; thus, His nature being love, which works with consuming energy.Holiness the attribute of that nature, is a fire (consuming not merely the dross from His own, but the perverse also. The wrath expressing itself in chastisement, and in punishment).Not only Israel, but the sinner generally, has the witness in the heaven above, and in the earth at his feet, as in Sinai, and much more in Golgotha.Sin is a corruption of the people, and an injury to the land, and sins are punished through sins.The true seeking has the sure promise of finding, and is a concern of the whole man.Times of need are times of blessing, for temptation teaches us to mark the word (Isa 28:19), and trial leads to prayer (Isa 26:16). The true seeking is the godly sorrow (2Co 7:10) promised by God, wrought by God, and leads to God.The promise of the conversion of Israel begins in the exile, fulfilled in Christ, still remains open. (For missions to the Jews.) This is the mercy of God, that He preserves, saves us, and preserves the word.Inquiry into the uses of the world-history: 1) Leads to God as the origin of all; 2) teaches us to recognize the greatness of His thoughts towards men; 3) shows the sacredness and intimacy of His revelation to His people; 4) declares the wonders of His way; 5) is, in fine, a theodicee.The national greatness of Israel, 1) measured by that which is humanly and earthly great; 2) confirmed by the grand revelation of God at Horeb, and through the grand redemption from Egypt.The seeing-eye, to what it extends: It gives the sight, but not the insight (Isa 6:9 sq.) hence open thou mine eyes, that I, sq., Psa 119:18.The living God distinguishes Himself from idols generally, by His wonderful works, but specially by the law and redemption. The most wonderful thing is His being, because God is love, which transcends all nature and all reason (Eph 3:19). The fathers were flesh and blood, and what is Abrahams seed, in the light of reason, and in comparison with the other nations? (Deu 4:38). The thankful knowledge of the Lord is a concern of the heart, and that only, and is eternal life.

Chap. 1. Deu 1:6-7. Calvin: Lest the people should delay who were already far too slow, he adds in the facility stated, a stimulus, saying that they had barely to move the feet to enjoy the promised rest. (So Jesus had even greater haste than Judas himself, Joh 13:27). Schultz: With the readiness of the Lord to fulfil His covenant promises. He joins closely His holiness, which shows itself only upon the occasion of sins, but as punishing unreservedly, comes into so much clearer light. A beautiful title, with which he opens his discourse: the Lord our God. The Lord does not intend, indeed, any immediate transition from bondage to dominion, but an unimpeded advance to the goal. In following Him he gives no special residence. Richter: The Amorites were especially named to intimate that their iniquity was full (Gen 15:16) and the time for the occupation (of Canaan) had come. Berl. B.: The law cannot make perfect. But we must not stand still. The true light beckons us onward. Zinzendorf: The possessing of the land at our day is nothing but a bringing of the kingdom of God in this or that region.

Deu 1:9. Starke: No Christian should assume a heavier burden than he is able to bear. Deu 1:11. Schultz: Moses is so much more impelled to his wish, as it touches the life of a nation, called to be the bearer of the honor of the Lord. Spake for promise (Num 10:29); Israel throughout relegated to the word of God, had no special word for promise; what God spake He began to do in that He spake it. To the believer all that God has spoken is assured. Deu 1:13. Calvin: This liberty [election by the peopleA. G.] is very desirable, so that we should not be compelled to obey any one, whoever may be placed over us, but that the choice should be given so that no one should rule us who may not have been approved. The highest integrity and diligence are not enough for the ruler, if skill and sagacity are wanting. Luther: It is dangerous and shameful that one should force himself into power, against the will of the people. Many artifices mislead the wise, if they are not prudent, and will deceive them if they are not experienced and skillful. If a prince cannot have both, it is better that he should be a man of great foresight and wanting in piety, than pious and imprudent. Starke: In the appointment of officers the choice should not proceed upon favor, but upon experience and the fear of God, Act 2:23 sq.; Deu 6:1 sq.; 2Ch 19:5 sq. Deu 1:14. Osiander: Subjects should not reject the useful plans of their rulers, nor resist the same in any arbitrary manner, Rom 13:1; Tit 3:1. Deu 1:16. The word of one party is not enough, they should have both. Deu 1:17. Luther: This is the highest and most difficult virtue in a prince. To judge the poor and unknown is easy, but to condemn the powerful, the rich, and friends, without regard to blood, honor, fear or favor, according to the clear view of the case, that is a divine virtue. No prince does this, unless made strong and courageous by the Holy Spirit. Calvin: They should not fear any mortal, because the judgment is of God, by which He not only reminds them of the account to be rendered to God, but shows how absurd it is to prostitute the majesty of God in that manner, since they, standing rather in His place, should look as from above upon all men. Were this deeply impressed upon magistrates and pastors, they would not. vacillate, but stand firm against all terrors [Moses, 1) appointed men of good character; 2) gave them a good charge: to be diligent and patient, just and impartial, resolute and courageous; 3) a good reason to enforce the charge, for the judgment is Gods. Matt. Henry.A. G.]. Deu 1:19. Schultz: The greater and more fearful the wilderness through which they went, led and borne by the Lord, the more blameable is their unbelief which was active even then. Piscator: The Church of God is a stranger in this world, walks continually in a wilderness in which it meets rough ways, storms and faithless nomads, but in all has one true support and protector. [So the way to the heavenly Canaan is beset with difficulties and dangers, Act 14:23. Wordsworth.A. G.]. Deu 1:20. Schultz: The high grounds of Canaan correspond to the most high God, who would have His dwelling therein. Deu 1:21. Schultz: The demand fear not, sq., our Lord gives in the N. T. to His disciples, Joh 14:27.

Deu 1:23. Calvin: If they had all been taken from one tribe their faithfulness might have been suspected; but if each possessed its own witness, all jealousy and suspicion would be removed. Then, too, God chose men of renown, whose testimony would command respect. But there is nothing which the wickedness of men cannot pervert. Deu 1:26. Luther: Thus those whom God has trusted in great things are faithless to Him in small things; for thou knowest that faith is not a work of the free will, but only of the grace of God. Schultz: There are, in the history of the kingdom of God, deciding points, when even wickedness rises to its highest distinction, for the perfecting of grace. Israel, similar to the pilgrim in his holiest moments. Deu 1:27. Schultz: All the prophets point to this redemptive work. Some refuse the gifts of the Son in the N. T., and become like the old Israel. Deu 1:27-28. Luther: Unbelief raves because the word of God is lost. That is the fruit of human prudence in divine things. Unbelief makes the dangers more and greater than they are, but faith counts all for nothing, and the word as the strength of God, Deu 1:29 sq. [All our disobedience and failures flow from a want of faith in the word of God. Unbelief is disobedience, and the spring from which it issues.A. G.]. J. Gerhard: If we turn our eyes from the promise of the gospel, Satan tries to persuade us that we are unable to stand against such mighty foes. Krummacher: Is it not thus with many in Christendom? No, we can never do that. Glad to have it off their hands, they will not make the least attempt nor even give to the Lord one good word for it, because He might strengthen them, and they will not come to Him.Starke: Our brethren. Through this the spies become partakers in the sins of many. Deu 1:29. Cramer: Those who are strong in faith should comfort and help the weak, Gal 6:1. Schultz: It is precisely with this demand as with that to Ahaz, Isa 7:10 sq. The last attempt. It must at all events appear, what was desired. Deu 1:30. Schultz: Jehovah your God.Can it be that His relation to them is still not destroyed, even if it were as Gen 6:6. Moses can point for the answer to a present experience, Deu 1:33. Deu 1:31. Schultz: Incomprehensible condescension of God, and still more incomprehensible exaltation of the Church. The true Shepherd. Deu 1:32. Luther: Thus they put no faith in Moses, who was prepared with so many words, and so many miraculous signs. But why should we wonder when to-day there is so little faith, and the whole world raves in unbelief? If only two men from the great mass cleave to Moses, he will not intermit his office-work with respect to the word, and preaches in vain to the unbelievers. Deu 1:33. Schultz: The divine activity in its energy cannot be represented in any more fitting way than in light and fire, with which the smoke cloud itself appears, Isa 4:5. The living energy of men comes appropriately and early to light in the smoking breath. The animating and consuming, the refreshing and wearying potencies in their unity. The caravans in the wilderness raise an artificial smoke-cloud to go before them. Since the Lord sought out the camping places, the inconsistency is the more remarkable, in that they have hitherto trusted to Him for rest, followed Him through the darkest paths; but now when so near the peculiar resting-place they despair.

Deu 1:34 sq. Schultz: The judgment upon the old Israel, a prediction of that upon the new, when it should become an old. It tended to check the external, false particularism.Luther: The Jewish people fails when it was upon the very neck of the Amorites. Thus the forbearance of God gives space for repentance to the heathen before they should be destroyed. Rom 3:29. Their blindness is their snare, sq. Deu 1:36. So also Noah in his evil generation, Gen 6:7. Schultz: The old Israel, to a certain extent, entered Canaan with Caleb and Joshua. Caleb not only saw the land, but possessed it. He asked for Hebron (Joshua 14), because in his old age he had still living faith in the face of the sons of Anak, who had plunged the others, for the most part, into fear. His more glorious reward. The statement why he was spared removes every suspicion of partiality on the part of God. The problem of humanity, especially of Israel, is to be faithful unto death and in death; solved only in the true Caleb. Deu 1:37. Starke Moses confessed his own sin, but, also that it was not intentional with him. Luther: For our instruction and comfort, lest we should despair in our sins, for in this temptation not only many of the people, but even men of excellence, even the greatest prince Moses, with his holy brother Aaron, fell. We should fear the Lord, and despair in ourselves, since we are what we are only by His grace and power. Deu 1:38. In the kingdom of God it is first true, le roi ne meurt pas. Starke: Joshua here typifies a higher one than Moses[Matt. Henry: Mercy is mixed with wrath, 1) though Moses might not bring them into Canaan, Joshua should; 2) though this generation should not enter, the next should.A. G.]

Deu 1:39. Wurt. Bib.: Although we do not believe God, He remains true and faithful to His promises. Schultz: What you will not believe, that I will bring to pass, that I may make known my strength in the weak, and better aid your helpless ones than yourselves. Through the whole history of His kingdom, He knows how to find himself in the form of a servant, Deu 1:40. Schultz: But it is different with you older than with the younger; you to punishment and death, they to preservation and strength. If Israel has not Canaan, then the desert. Either heaven or hell, no intermediate place.

Deu 1:41. Starke: Our nature is so depraved, that it knows no restraints. What God forbids, we do; what He commands, we neglect.Krummacher: They add: as the Lord commanded us. But indeed had He said: The Lord will fight for you. Your plan was partly too late, partly not properly arranged. Psa 44:5; Psa 33:16 sq. Your obedience must now consist in this, that you lay aside your own will. Starke: Plans undertaken against God and His word come to a bad end. [Henry: Thus when the door is shut and the day of grace is over, there will be found those that stand without and knock. Cowardice and presumption are not far apart.A. G.] Luther: The unsearchable judgments of God! His people who presume upon their own strength, He permits to be overcome, as if He were not their God. But the enemy, who rely upon their own strength, He allows to conquer. Know that as there is that which is more to be feared than the manifest signs of the anger of God, so the unbeliever is sometimes successful in his way, Deu 1:45. It happens to Israel as to Esau, Heb 12:17.

Chap. 2, Deu 2:3. Schultz: The Lord waits again only to a certain extent to call out His it is enough, and to lead the desert-wanderers into Canaan. Deu 2:4 sq. Luther: In the history of the heathen we see the greatness or smallness of works; but in the history of the Jews it is only the word of God, through whose leading and will all things come to pass. Richter: Before God brought the Israelites to punish His enemies in Canaan, He taught them to forgive their enemies in Edom. Deu 2:7. In all the providence of God with respect to other people, and in all his consideration of them, Israel still appears as the one especially blessed, as bodily so spiritually. Psa 147:20. As (Deu 1:31) all false steps, falls and contingencies are taken up in the divine bearing, so all wants in the divine providence which always helps him (Luk 22:35). They end in love and blessing, if they are from the ways of God. Deu 2:15. The hand of God finds His enemies. He rules in the midst of His enemies. Deu 2:23. Richter: How impressively the true history of the world teaches the righteousness of the Judge of the world. Deu 2:24. Krummacher: What may we not do if we believe, and how should not all things be possible to those whom Christ makes strong? The true beginning to take possession is made in the blessed dying hour. The full possession follows at doomsday. [Henry: Observe in the commission given to Israel, 1) though God assured them the land should be their own, yet they must bestir themselves, and contend with Sihon in battle; 2) when they fight, God will fight for them.A. G.] Deu 2:25. Schultz: Israel enters into the same relation to the heathen as man generally to the rest of creation, as the representative of communion with God, of the higher life of the Spirit. Deu 2:31. Richter: Thus oftentimes gifts come to the children of God beyond their expectation. Schultz: To the divine beginning in love, the beginning on the part of His people in zeal and confidence must correspond (Isa 40:31), and thus always when the call is given by God, there must be a cheerful response. His saints are also His mighty jubilant ones, Isa 13:3.

Chap. 3, Deu 3:1. Luther: Og must have been a bold king to contend with Israel alone, and not have come to the help of Sihon. At the time of Saul all Israel fled before a single giant; it would have been so here if the faith of the people and the truth of the promise of God had not wrought wonders. Deu 3:2. Schultz: If the demands upon Israels faith, made stronger by the first victory, were greater, so the Lord comes to their aid with cheering and impressive encouragement, Deu 1:29. Deu 3:14. Richter: Moses, surprised, says of Jair, stretching widely to the north, he maintained his name. Thus what would be an obstacle to unbelief or weak faith becomes a source of strength to the believer. Deu 3:18. Schultz: Moses laboring against any isolation of the East Jordanic tribes not only in the present war, but for the long future, ventures to hope that the special exertions for their brethren could easily strengthen the community of feeling, and make it permanent. In case of isolation the East Jordan tribes would suffer the most. Tub. Bib.: We should interest ourselves in the brethren in faith, Rom 12:14; Gen 14:13 sq. Cramer: If we have planted our feet firmly in spiritual things, we should help the weak and unconverted. Gal 6:1; Php 2:12. Luther: They enter the work of God with their strength, but do not presume upon their strength. Blessed are they who thus serve God with their weapons and members. Deu 3:21. Schultz: The contest in the service of God may for the first be the more severe, the longer it lasts; but out of the localities in which we have fought for and with God, there rise up loud-speaking witnesses to kindle anew our courage and faith. Deu 3:23 sq. Richter: Through this open confession of his hearts desire he in part wakens or strengthens a similar desire in Israel, and in part in opposition to Num 20:12 sanctifies again the name of God. Schultz: Moses truly in the first word betrays his thoughts of his own guilt. Above all he makes the impression that the law introduced by him had reached in his case its most peculiar object, the knowledge of sin. Deu 3:24. J. Gerhardt: When one asks a favor from an avaricious person, he is wont to present before him the kindness he would have performed; but when from a generous person, the kindness he has already received. Deu 3:25. Schultz: Canaan presents itself to him as a highland by the side of Horeb, where he lived the best days of his life, and in contrast to the desert. Deu 3:26. Tub. Bib.: If this is done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry (1Pe 4:18). Wurth. B: If we sin with the godless, we must suffer punishment with them. Deu 3:27. Schultz: Viewing Canaan from Pisgah, a true representative of the Old Covenant. Though he must content himself with the distant view, his life has not been an aimless one. However much or little of perfection may pass before the eye of the individual, if it concerns a work of God, there is a progress and completion indeed endless, in which at last the individual shall be included in the finished work of God. [Wordsworth: The law had a far-off vision of the gospel and its heavenly revelations, and yearned for it and them, but could not go in and possess them; but Moses after his death was brought into Canaan to see the glory of Christ (Mat 17:3). Not Moses, but Jesus, brings us to our Canaan.A. G.]

Chap. 4, Deu 4:1. Schultz: And now, i.e. since He has first loved us, He permits us again to love Him. As Rom 10:17, first, etc. Starke: Beside the hearing, the reading, the devout contemplation, the careful preservation, the actual fulfilling. [From Gods doing to ours. We should use Gods providences to quicken us in duty.A. G.] Richter: Deu 4:2 places the limits to men, not to the Spirit of God. Starke: Thus the sacred Scriptures contain perfectly all that is necessary to salvation. Deu 4:6. Schultz: There lies throughout at the foundation the truth, that man by himself is deficient in wisdom. Deu 4:7. Michaelis: God shows Himself the lawgiver and judge of His people, as He answers their law-questions. Deu 4:8. Schultz: No heathen nation was able to establish justly the rights of men between each other, however great it might be. All justice has at last its roots in God. Richter: Paulalso, Romans 3, 9, celebrates the advantage of Israel (Deu 4:6-9). Ziegl: What are all the political systems of Machiavelli, Helvetius, Haller, etc., against the Republic of Plato, which every one who in this day will be a politician admires above all? And still this last, in comparison with the Israelitish constitutional law, is nothing more than an abstraction in a mythological dream. Deu 4:9. Calvin: Thus the tardiness of our flesh must be aroused, and at the same time its weakness fortified, its inconstancy prevented, since nothing is more easy than that the whole zeal should collapse in a sudden forgetfulness, or grow languid by degrees. Deu 4:11. Schultz: The appearance upon Sinai, and the sacred night. Both foundations of a covenant of Godbut how different! Deu 4:29. The sinner never binds himself to seek God, unless when he conceives Him to be placable. Sincere conversion is that of the whole heart, and the opposite to that which is feigned or hypocritical. Deu 4:30. Calvin: Sorrow in its uses and fruits, Heb 12:11. We should not be exasperated by the rod of God. [Deu 4:31. Wordsworth: He will not forsake thee. There is mercy then in store for the Jews.A. G.] Deu 4:34. ziegl: In fact (beyond Christ, where the miracle appears as nature) there is no other point in history, about which such a fulness of miracles are massed, as the exodus of Israel, in what precedes and follows it. Indeed the supernatural in nature, which is a proof of the constant latent existence of a higher order of things, is only introduced through the divine freedom, but on the other hand is closely connected as a sign with the following revelation. Deu 4:37. Schultz: True faith must grow, and be one with the feeling of unworthiness; will it be strong, it must have some other ground for the divine love than itself; a fundamental truth which touches the central point of Christendom.[For further homiletical hints see the admirable and practical summing up of this chapter in Henry.A. G.].

Footnotes:

[1]1 Deu 1:5. [, to dig, to inscribe upon stone, as Deu 27:8. Hence Haevernick and Wordsworth understand here, to write down. But as the idea is, to bring to light, to make clear, our word, explain, seems to meet all the necessities of the case.A. G.]

[2][Deu 1:13. , give, place, set.A. G.]

[3][Deu 1:23. It, the word, was good in mine eyes.A. G.]

[4][Deu 1:36. Margin: lit. fulfilled, to go after Jehovah.A. G.]

[5][Deu 1:41. . Most modern commentators adopt the rendering of Schrder, connecting it with the Arabic word of the same sense. It is merely a conjecture, however, and the context would seem to favor the rendering in our version.A. G.]

[6][Deu 2:6. Lit. dig water, buy permission to dig water. Bib. Comm.A. G.]

[7] Deu 2:9. [Margin: use not hostility against them; but the text is better here.A. G.]

[8][Deu 2:13. Omit said I. The words are still the words of God to Moses, and connect it with Deu 2:9.A. G.]

[9][Deut 3:34. . The meaning and construction of this word are doubtful; but the weight of authority and the absence of the article are both in favor of connecting it with , and of rendering mortals, men generally. We took all his cities, and laid under ban every city of mortals. What was laid under ban was of course destroyed.A. G.]

[10][Deu 4:6. See Deu 2:36.A. G.]

[11][Deu 4:18. Sons of strength.A. G.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

This chapter is a continuation of Moses’ sermon. It is full of memorials, in bringing to the people’s recollection the events with which GOD had distinguished his mercy towards them, while passing the borders of the Edomites and Moabites; with the recapitulation of what referred to the of Israel’s war with Sihon, King of the Amorites.

Deu 2:1

Many days indeed! The short distance from the Red Sea to Canaan, had the journey been direct, evidently proves, that the thirty-eight years of Israel’s wilderness state, must have been at times very stationary. But, Reader, look at the history spiritually, and say, whether the wandering of the LORD’S Israel here, from their deliverance from the Egyptian bondage of sin and Satan, when they are first brought acquainted with the liberty in CHRIST JESUS, to the time they enter Canaan, is not of this kind? We occupy much the same spot; are moving up and down in much the same wilderness state; sometimes apparently nearer our homes, and sometimes further remote. Oh! how sweet is it to have the pillar of cloud, even JESUS, always going before us, and the rock, even JESUS himself, following of us through all the way.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Deu 2:30

Professor Andrew Harper remarks on this verse that the writer ‘does not mean… to lay upon God the causation of Sihon’s obstinacy, so as to make the man a mere helpless victim. His thought rather is, that as God rules all, so to Him must ultimately be traced all that happens in the world. In some sense all acts, whether good or bad, all agencies, whether beneficent or destructive, have their source in, and their power from, Him. But nevertheless men have moral responsibility for their acts, and are fully and justly conscious of ill desert. Consequently that hardening of spirit or of heart, which at one moment may be attributed solely to God, may at another be ascribed solely to the evil determination of man.’

References. III. 25-27. J. A. Aston, Early Witness to Gospel Truth, p. 1. III. 25-29. H. Bonar, Short Sermons for Family Beading, p. 424.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Providential Lines

Deu 2

There is a remarkable expression in the fifth verse “because.” The same expression occurs in the ninth verse “because.” The same word occurs in the nineteenth verse “because.” Yet it is the infinite God who speaks and puts himself in the position of one who would explain to his creatures his reasons for making certain allotments. Instead of speaking as one might suppose the Eternal Majesty of the Universe to speak, he seems to place himself upon a level with men, and to tell them why they are not to do certain things. For example: The command was that Israel was not to interfere with the children of Esau: “Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession” ( Deu 2:5 ). That mount belongs to another man. The law of proprietorship must be recognised. We must have social rights, or we shall not have social securities. Very particular is the direction. Read the words again, “No, not so much as a foot breadth.” It is upon such fine lines that such great rights are based. If Jacob, in the person of the children of Israel, could have put one foot upon Mount Seir, he soon would have put the other foot there too, and Esau might have been dispossessed. The only way for some men to keep themselves honest is to have nothing to do with the other side. A footprint may some day be turned into a boundary: a finger-print may one day be pointed to as a right. “Touch not, taste not, handle not,” but keep away absolutely, in the very innermost thought of the mind, from the things that are not yours. The same law holds good in regard to the Moabites: “Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession” ( Deu 2:9 ). The same law related to the children of Ammon: “Distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because” then comes the reason ( Deu 2:19 ). God has taken care of every one of us in life. There is a little portion for the very smallest of us one little handful of bread for the poorest man, one little ewe lamb for every life; and God knows what he has given and to whom he has given it, and he keeps the title-deeds in his own heavens; and he would look more after our property and rights if we would allow him to do so. Could we but give ourselves heart and soul to the kingdom of heaven, the doing of right, the continual education of the soul in truth, holiness, and nobility, God would see that every right was protected; and when we come to measure the estate which we thought to be but small, we may find that the boundaries have been enlarged and that we have more than we supposed we had. He is good unto all them that call upon him. He knows the measure of our hunger, and never did God send away from his table the unsatisfied appetite which he himself had created.

Contrast these commandments with the ten words which were given in Exodus say, for example, “Thou shalt not steal;” “Thou shalt not commit adultery;” “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Where are the reasons there? Who can find a “because” following such laws? Yet the Lord could not rear virtue upon a command. “Thou shalt not steal” never made an honest man. “Thou shalt not” is a proper enough form of representation of the idea, if it be understood in its spiritual relations. The word is much grander than “shalt” or “shalt not.” If a man were to say, I do not steal because I have been told not to steal, he is a thief in his heart, and he is stealing all day; his meaning is: Had I not been told not to steal, I would steal at once, but being told not to steal I do not steal He does not know how much he is deceiving himself. Where is the honesty? But change the form of expression, and light comes above all the lightning of Sinai: “Thou wilt not steal;” “Thou wilt not bear false witness;” and throughout the commandments, “Thou wilt ,” “Thou wilt not;” the meaning being, that if the spirit of obedience is in the heart and the spirit in harmony with God, the man will not do wrong, will do right, by no effort, not because a prize is before him, or a whip is being laid upon his back in cruel laceration; but the man will be so much like God, will live so deeply and truly in the Spirit of God, that he will not do things that are wrong, that he will do things that are right: he will keep the Sabbath day, and he will not covet his neighbour’s goods. In our early education, we need the “thou shalt not” of verbal prohibition, because at a certain period we could not understand spiritual reasoning; for a time, therefore, we live under what may be called arbitrary law that is, law which vindicates itself solely by the majesty of the law-giver, and will not condescend to reasoning or explanation. In the progress of our education, crude words such as “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not” fall out of our commerce with heaven, and we know the meaning of the divine speech which says, “Thou wilt honour thy father and thy mother;” “Thou wilt remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy;” “Thou wilt do no murder.” So, commandment is turned into revelation: at last we come to see that God was not speaking arbitrarily, or laying down small boundaries without stooping to give us explanations, but was anticipating the greater word “Thou wilt, ” “Thou wilt not.” The good tree will bring forth good fruit.

A very tender word is found in the seventh verse: “For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.” We may put down wordy debaters who have nothing to live upon but their own invention, troubled by their own verbosity; but we cannot put down witnesses who testify what they have seen, known, and handled for a period of forty years. Time has a good deal to do with testimony; time enters very subtlely into all things human and mundane. Men may make a ladder in a very short time, but who can make a tree? and how constantly we are mistaking a tree for a ladder, or a ladder for a tree! Time makes the tree; time makes character; time makes practical theology. Moses could say with emphasis at the end of forty years what he could only say with hopefulness at the beginning. The Christian witness is forty years old; forty years have men tried the Christian doctrine and the Christian consolation, and at the end of forty years their witness is stronger, tenderer, larger than at the first. Possibly they may know much or they may know nothing about theological terms and theological controversies; but they know the vitality of the matter the inner grace and solace and inspiration, and they are strong in testimony that, but for a doctrine heaven-descended and heaven-inspired, they would long ago have given up life in utterest despair. So we have to deal with facts now as well as arguments. A man rises and says: But for this Christian doctrine which is written in the Christian Scriptures, I should have been the worst of men, the unhappiest of men: explain it how you may, I am so constituted that I should have been a terror unto many, a shadow upon my own house, a plague to my own consciousness; but I have studied the Christian kingdom in its doctrine, legislation, and solace, and I have been enabled to receive Christ into my heart; and now, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and my life has in it the promise and the seal of a blessed immortality. Whatever did that for the man who is bearing witness is to be spoken of with respect. The Christian testimony, doctrine, or example never made immoral men. The men who profess this Christian guidance through the wilderness may not always have been what they ought to have been they themselves will be swiftest witnesses in this matter as against themselves; but no man who has tasted of this doctrine will be slow to confess that but for it his life would have been without a centre, without restfulness, without a purpose adequate to his faculties. This side of the Christian cause must never be neglected. Many men can be strong only upon this side, because they are not master of words, controversies, and counsels: they know next to nothing of the processes of evolution through which Christian argument has passed; but they say they know that after prayer their hands are stronger, their eyes keener of vision, their hearts tenderer in all sympathy. Any religion that will do that for any human creature is a religion well-deserving the noblest church that can be built to its genius.

The great leader who has lost so many of his followers becomes pathetic in the fourteenth verse, wherein he says, “All the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host.” It is sad to live in a cemetery. It is sad to be the survivor of thousands of old comrades; the air is cold when they leave us; summer is itself but a cloud when our heart-companions are no more. To have lost them in noble strife is not the worst of the situation. We could bury them with honours; we could lay the colours of the army on their green graves and call the soldiers sleeping their last sleep “good knights of God;” but Moses had to look upon a different spectacle. That many fell in honourable war might be true enough; but four-and-twenty thousand of them were struck down by the javelin of God because of an outrage against the holiness of his law. God can do without his generals, captains, and leaders of hosts; God can do without every preacher he has; but he cannot do without his holiness, his purity, his infinite righteousness. God will handle the evil-doers: where all the opponents of Israel could do nothing, the Lord blew upon the host of the chosen, and by one plague four and-twenty thousand of them were swept from the land of the living. God does not want our patronage. Never does he say: They are generals of mine, great leaders, marvellous captains in controversy, and therefore I must spare them, though they be evil-hearted and their minds be filled with superstition and error. He can do without any creature he ever made, but he will not have the integrity of his throne impaired. But take the brighter view. Suppose all to have died in honourable conflict brave, upright, honest men, gentle as all strong men are, wise and good; and still time bears them down and causes them to disappear. The Church is always suffering losses in this way. Some whom we wish to live for ever live but a handful of days; men whom we thought essential to the Christian cause are taken away as if their presence upon earth were of no consequence. Herein is the wisdom of God and the righteousness of the Father. He will not encourage idolatry of any kind; he will have the truth resting upon itself; he insists that the Bible shall make its own way in the world. Whilst we are deeply thankful for annotation, we should be still more profoundly grateful for the Book which is annotated. We do not live upon the comments: we live upon the Book; as we do not live upon opinions respecting the bread, but upon the bread itself.

How will God make up for all these losses? He takes the case into his own hand. He will not put four-and-twenty thousand more men in the field: he will double the influence or multiply the influence indefinitely of those who are already engaged in his cause, representing and vindicating his kingdom. The twenty-fifth verse supplies the explanation and the proof: “This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.” He will work spiritually. Instead of working through the sword and the battle, he will work through fear. He promised this in the Book of Exodus; in Exo 15:15-16 we read, “Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over.” Thus God works through the medium of apprehension, wonder, curiosity; thus God holds the eyes of men that they may not see the reality of the case; and thus God touches the eyes of men that they mistake one man for a thousand. Clouds on the horizon God makes into oceans, the very vastness of which terrifies the observer. God makes noises in the air which men mistake for the sound of battle, as if the war were being led by an infinite host of skilled soldiers. Write the history of fear as known in your own consciousness; put down exactly what fear has done in your case how it has multiplied difficulties, how it has excited anxieties, how it has made you feel as if the little number you saw only came ahead of an infinite host; and the result will be that you will discover that fear has done more in life than reality has ever done that imagination has outrun literal realism. We have suffered more from the things we thought were going to happen than we ever suffered from the things which really did occur. The mind of man is in the hand of the Lord; the heart of man is under the guidance of Heaven.

No Christian man can too strongly denounce the spirit and cruelty of war: there are no terms sufficiently expressive and emphatic with which to characterise the horribleness of the military spirit; but there are worse things than war: slavery is worse, oppression is worse, robbery is worse; war may become comparatively righteous and even holy, but slavery can never become so, or oppression, or robbery, or wrong-doing, or corruption. That war will ultimately cease is true; but we cannot “take Jesus by force and make him a King:” he must come in his own time, he must appear in his own way. It would suit our impatience and our often unreasoning and immoral rapidity to crown him now; but he is more careful about his crown than we could ever be. The ages are in Christ’s own hand; God knows every tick of time, every pulse of life: all the centuries are upon the divine record and are under the divine administration. We cannot hasten things. To hasten peace is to imperil peace. The Bible is a book of wars; “the Lord is a man of war:” he has arrows that are “drunk with blood,” a sword that has devoured flesh; but in the end he will bring in everlasting peace. We cannot have the Christian kingdom in the Pentateuch: Christ is not born in the historical books; the Bible itself is the standard by which all progress is indicated; and not until many a weary chapter has been read, and many a weary period survived do men see a star in the east. We did not make the stars: we cannot make them come and go: they are God’s bright lights; and he will indicate the time in his own way. Meanwhile, we can live in a spirit of anticipation, in a spirit of peace; we can hold up the great, broad, solemn sentiment of peace. This we are bound to do; but as to how the great nations of the earth shall be reconciled and held in amity, that is a divine mystery for which we must await a divine explanation.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

(See the Deuteronomy Book Comments for Introductory content and Homiletic suggestions).

XII

FIRST AND SECOND ORATION, PART I

Deu 1:6-11:32

FIRST ORATION

The occasion is great and awe inspiring. Death is just ahead of the speaker, about one month off, and yet the old man stands before us in the vigor of youth. He does not die from decay of either mental or physical power but simply because God is going to take him. He has carried these people in his heart eighty years and has borne them in fact for forty marvelous years of eventful history; has suffered unspeakably in their behalf, and now is burdened with the spirit of prophecy which unfolds to his eagle eye their disastrous future for thousands of years, brightened for a time by the coming of the Prophet, like himself but infinitely greater, and the prospect of their final restoration. He starts out with a reference to Horeb where they entered into covenant relations with God, and where he himself sat, with the chiefs of the tribes, of thousands, of hundreds, of tens, to hear all minor causes, appealing to him only in great matters. The qualifications of these judges are set forth in Exo 18:21 , and “they were able men such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness,” and here, as “wise men, well-known chiefs of the tribes, full of understanding.” He rehearses his original charge to these judges: they must fairly hear all cases, must judge righteously, must be impartial, must fear no face of man, must remember that the judgment is Jehovah’s. The object of the reference is to show that they left Sinai thoroughly organized and equipped; left there in numbers more than the stars shown to Abraham and with their leader praying, “The Lord of your fathers make you a thousand times as many more as ye are, and bless you as he hath promised you.”

They left there at God’s command to go at once to take possession of their long promised country. But alas, on account of their sins they lost thirty-seven days in getting to Kadesh-barnea and then with the imperative command ringing in their ears, the Lord said as before, “Come and take possession”; they again are delayed forty days in order to get a report from spies, and after that report and an awful breach of the covenant they lost thirty-eight years more of weary wandering, then when again assembled at Kadesh-barnea sinned again and caused Moses himself to sin, and so debarred him from the Promised Land. Then, through unbelief in God, through fear of man, through presumption toward God, through fleshly lusts, they had utterly failed to enter in.

Moreover, they had lied in attributing their attitude of rebellion to parental concern for their children, which God rebuked by showing that he could lead those helpless children into the Promised Land without the loss of one, while the bones of the parents whitened in the wilderness. And now, though at Kadesh-barnea again, when entrance was no more than stepping over a line drawn in the sand, they must turn down toward the Red Sea, and by a long, weary and circuitous march approach the country on the other side; a path must compass Mountain Seir, skirt Edom, Moab, and Ammon and bring them into deadly conflict with Sihon, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, and all the hosts of Midian. That circuitous march was marked by some great sins and made memorable by some great deliverances. Aaron died at Mountain Hor. Moses is about to die, without passing over into the Promised Land.

Now, this oration, having thus briefly reviewed the legislation, makes that survey the basis of his exhortation by way of application. Learn from this model, O preachers, how to revive the lost art of exhortation. That used to be the custom for men that were called to exhort who could not preach. They could not preach a sermon but they could sit down and listen to a preacher preach and then move people mightily by exhortation. I have heard men, ignorant as they were in books, give exhortations that would make the stars sparkle.

Dr. Burleson preached a sermon at Huntsville and at the close of the sermon J. W. D. Creath got up and commenced by slapping his thigh and you could have heard him a hundred yards. He said, “The spirit of God is here, and the devil is fighting hard.” The people were converted by the hundreds and the biggest man was Sam Houston. A Negro boy on the outside was convicted of sin and came to the front, not understanding but feeling the power of God, he knelt at Sam Houston’s feet saying, “Massa Houston, save me.” Sam Houston said to the boy, “Ask the clergy, I am just a poor lost sinner myself.” We bad Deacon Pruitt; he never preached but Judge Baylor never held a meeting but he got Brother Pruitt to help him. He always wanted him to exhort after he preached. Moses determined to exhort these people, and in order to exhort them, he takes up the survery. They keep forgetting the times of his exhortation. The points are stated thus:

(1) Hearken unto God’s word and do it.

(2) Do not add to his law nor diminish it. “Heaven and earth,” says our Lord, “must pass away, but my word shall not pass away.”

(3) Be warned by your own history. History teaches lessons and imposes obligations. Preachers especially should be students of history in order to understand God’s government over nations and the way of his providence.

(4) In view of its impression on other nations obedience will be your highest wisdom. They will thereby recognize your relations with Jehovah and marvel at your prosperity and fear your power.

(5) Do not forget. Teach this law diligently to your children.

(6) Remember that you yourselves and your nation alone heard God’s own awful voice pronounce your Decalogue and that you have his autograph copy preserved as a witness.

(7) Remember that when you heard his voice you saw no likeness of him and beware that you make no graven image of anything that is in heaven above, nor earth below; do not fall down and worship it. We should all become iconoclasts, breakers of images. “Icon,” the image; “Iconoclast,” the breaker of images.

(8) Remember that Jehovah is a jealous God and will look upon sin with no degree of allowance, and be sure that he will find out your sins and be sure that he will punish your sins. Don’t you become so sweetly sentimental that you will think it impolite to say the word “hell.” Let us remember the awful words of our Lord, greater than Moses, who said, “Fear him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell,” who said, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” So this is the first exhortation of Moses.

SECOND ORATION, PART I

The scripture of this part is Deu 4:44 , to the end of the eleventh chapter. Like the first oration, the second has an introduction giving the time, place, and circumstances of delivery. The closing: paragraph of Deu 4 gives this introduction in verses Deu 4:44-49 . There is nothing in it calling for additional comment beyond the fact that it marks an interval of undetermined time between the two Orations.

This part of the oration consists of a rehearsal of the whole Decalogue, stated in an offhand, oratorical form, without attempting the exact verbal quotations, and of an exposition of the first table, that is, the four commandments embodying our relation to God) and then an earnest exhortation by way of application. Note the verbal differences between this offhand rehearsal of the Decalogue by Moses and the Exodus record of it as spoken in the very words of Jehovah himself, and written by him on tablets of stone. From Revised Version, read Exo 20:2-17 , and then read the corresponding Commandments in the same version from Deu 5:6-21 . You must consider the Exodus form as the true original, and the Deuteronomy form as a substantial restatement by a public speaker, and note that Deu 5:15 , is not an attempt to quote the Fourth Commandment as originally given, but merely a passing exhortation, assigning an additional motive for remembering the sabbath day. The reader will also note that Romanists combine the first and the second according to our division, to make their first, and then divide our tenth to make their ninth and tenth. This does not affect the matter, only the numbering of the parts.

I asked you to read the Decalogue in Exodus and Deuteronomy alternately because enemies of the Bible have made so much of the fact that there is not an exact verbal agreement, and hence they have denied the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. The reply to it is that the divine original in God’s own handwriting is the Commandments as they were delivered; second, in this case there is an inspired substantial restatement of the original in oratorical form and this restatement is just as much inspired as the original. Remember the sabbath because God rested on that day and it is prophetic, in an indirect way, of the New Testament sabbath. As God rested from creation when he had finished the work and the day commemorated an historical fact, so Jesus, having accomplished the great redemption (so that the Jewish sabbath is nailed to the cross of Christ), rested from his work and there remaineth a sabbath-keeping to the people of God. Jesus entered into this rest, as God did his.

Here I pause to commend, first, the exposition of the Decalogue in the Catechism of the Presbyterian Confession of Faith. This catechetical exposition has been taught to more children than perhaps any other in the world. Let us always commend the Presbyterians for their fidelity in family instruction, and always confess and lament Baptist delinquency on this line until we repent and do better. Second, it now gratifies me to be able to commend a Baptist exposition of the Decalogue, which, in my judgment, is the best in all literature. Not very long ago, a venerable man, soon to pass away, was helped upon the platform and introduced at the Southern Baptist Convention, and he received the Chautauqua salute. It was George Dana Boardman of missionary fame. He is the author of University Lectures on the Ten Commandments. The lectures were delivered before the students of Pennsylvania University, and the book was issued by the American Baptist Publication Society. Study it carefully and assimilate it into your very life. On the Fourth Commandment, perhaps without immodesty, I may ask you to read the three sermons on the sabbath in my first published volume of sermons.

My reason for speaking of these books is that Moses himself is now to devote eight chapters to an exposition of the Decalogue in the oration under consideration. You will make special note that Moses emphasizes the fact that the Decalogue was the only part of the covenant actually voiced by Jehovah, and that this divine autograph was then filed away in the ark as an eternal witness. The fact is also emphasized that no other people had even heard God’s voice or possessed his autograph. Thousands of the younger generation now addressed by Moses were present that awful day when Sinai smoked and trembled and was crested with fire, and the loud and ever louder trumpet smote their ears as no other trumpet will smite the ears of men until the great judgment day. They might well recall their terror when from the fires of Sinai this awful penetrating voice solemnly pronounced in thunder tones those Commandments one after another. They themselves could recall how they begged not to hear that voice any more and implored Moses to hear for them as mediator and to repeat to them in human voice any other words of God. I have already sought to impress you that Deuteronomy is an exposition of the law rather than a giving of the law. The orator and expositor not only shows that these Commandments of God are exceedingly broad, but he attempts to show their depths and reveal their heights, yea, to lay bare their very heart and spirit.

This heart and spirit he finds in the word “love.” “Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy soul, with all thy might.” He compresses the first four Commandments into “Thou shalt love Jehovah,” as later in this book he compresses the last six into “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” When our Lord answers the question, “Which is the first commandment of the law?” He quotes Deuteronomy in his answer: “This is the first and great commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy mind, and all thy strength, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

And as the second is impossible without the first, a New Testament writer may well say, “All the law is fulfilled in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” And another says, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Or as Paul to Timothy declares its widest scope, “Now the end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart, out of a good conscience, out of faith unfeigned.” In one word then, that grandest thing in the world, LOVE, Moses expounds the Decalogue. On this matter he founds his exhortation thus:

(1) “Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them on the posts of thine house, and on thy gates.” What a course of family instruction! What a theme of family conversation! What a safeguard at home, at the gate, at the door, at the hearth, at the bed! As the Jew awoke in the morning, the Law greeted him; as he passed the door, it saluted him; as he passed through the gate, it hailed him; in all his walking beyond the gate it accompanied him. It governed the words of his tongue; it remained between his eyes to regulate sight; it dwelt in his heart to regulate emotion; and remained in his mind to prescribe and proscribe thought, purpose and scheme. Its hand of authority touched the scales and yardstick and restrained within its bounds all his business. His fruit, his grain, his flock, and all other treasures acknowledged its supremacy. It provoked the questions of children by its object lessons and supplied the answers to the questions.

(2) When prosperity comes with its fulness of blessings) do not forget God, (Deu 6:10-15 ).

(3) When adversity and trial overtake you do not tempt God as you tempted him at Massah, saying, “Is God among us?” (Deu 6:16 ). Just here the psalmist says, “My feet had well nigh slipped, for I was envious of the prosperity of the wicked and said, In vain have I washed my hands in innocency and compassed thine altars, O Lord of Hosts.” How often have we been bitter in heart and counted God our adversary and ourselves the target of his arrows and lightning.

(4) “Remember that the destruction of the Canaanites is essential to your fidelity to this law. They will corrupt you if you spare them. You shall not pity them, for the measure of their iniquity is full.” You are God’s sheriff executing his will, not yours, mercilessly as a pestilence, a cyclone, an earthquake, or a flood, indiscriminatingly obey his will. Make no covenant with these doomed and incorrigible nations. Do not intermarry with them. Covet none of their possessions devoted to God’s curse. Ah, if only Achan later had remembered this and had not brought defeat upon his people and ruin to himself and house!

(5) Remember the bearing of this law on Self:

(a) When walls crumble before you and the sun and moon stand still to complete your victory, beware lest you attribute your victories to your own strength.

(b) Or to your numbers.

(c) And especially beware of self-righteousness. All your history avouches you to be a stiff-necked and rebellious people. There was no good in your origin. “A Syrian ready to perish was your father.” At the Red Sea, at the waters of Marah, when you thirsted, when you hungered, in all the wilderness, and at Kadesh-barnea, through the cunning of Balaam even until now you have sinned and kept sinning, and will continue to sin, existing as monuments of grace and mercy. Who are you, to be puffed up with conceit and pride of selfrighteousness?

(6) Consider how reasonable all of Jehovah’s commandments are: “And now, Israel, what doth Jehovah thy God require of thee but to fear Jehovah thy God, to walk in all his ways and to love him, and to serve Jehovah thy God with all thy soul, with all thy heart, to keep the commandments of Jehovah and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” (Deu 10:12 ).

A later prophet shall re-echo the thought: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee but to do justly and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God.”

(7) Finally, blessings crown your obedience and curses follow your disobedience. The inexorable alternative is set forth before you. Obey and live; disobey and die. And ye yourselves, over yonder, shall stand on opposing mountains while this law is read in a valley between, and those on Gerizirn shall call out the blessings, and those on Ebal shall pronounce the curses. And you will in one loud Bounding voice say, “Amen, so let it be.”

QUESTIONS

1. What briefly the occasion of the first oration?

2. What the substance, appeal and application of the first oration?

3. What lost art here referred to, and what examples of this art cited?

4. What the several points of his exhortation?

5. Where do you find introduction to the second oration and what the time, place and circumstances of its delivery?

6. Of what does Part 2 of the second oration consist?

7. What are the verbal differences between the Exodus form and the Deuteronomy form of the Decalogue and how account for them?

8. Which is the true, original form?

9. What of Moses’ statement here of the Fourth Commandment?

10. How do the Romanists number the commandments?

11. What charge is sometimes brought against the Bible because of these verbal differences and the reply thereto?

12. What books on the Ten Commandments commended?

13. What facts in connection with the giving of the Ten Commandments especially emphasized by Moses?

14. What was Moses’ summary of the Ten Commandments and what Christ’s use of it?

15. Kame the points of his exhortation.

16. How was the importance of teaching the law emphasized?

17. What exhortation relating to prosperity?

18. What one relating to adversity?

19. What charge concerning the Canaanites, and why?

20. What the bearing of this Law on self?

21. How does he show the reasonableness of God’s law?

22. What alternative set before them, and what prophecy concerning blessings and curses here given by Moses?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

VII

FROM KADESH-BARNEA TO MOAB

Numbers 20-22, Num 33:37-49 ; Deu 2:1-3:11

Historically Numbers 21-22 of this book will carry you to the end of the book, describing the journey from Kadesh to the Jordan. But it leaves out the great incident about Balaam which occupies several chapters. In connection with Numbers 20-22, study the following scriptures: Num 33:37-49 the itinerary chapter commencing at Num 33:37-49 , Deu 2:1-3:11 . In many respects those two chapters give a more intelligent statement than this section in Numbers.

The great incidents of this section are the assembling at Kadesh in the fortieth year, the death of Miriam, the sin of Moses that excluded him from the Promised Land, the fight waged on them by Arad the Canaanite, the death of Aaron at Mount Hor, the sin of the people where they were punished by fiery serpents and saved by the brazen serpent, the digging of a well at another station by the princes of Israel using their sticks, and a most beautiful spring bubbling up, a song on that water as it bubbled up recorded in the old book of the Wars of Jehovah which is referred to, and the war with Sihon and Og.

It is the fortieth year and the first month of that year that they are reassembled by divine command at Kadesh-barnea. Before I proceed with this discussion, I want us to take a backward glance at that thirty-eight years of silence. I told you that in that thirty-eight years they did not keep up the ordinance of circumcision. In the book of Joshua, as soon as they passed the river Jordan, the covenant was renewed and Joshua circumcised all of those who had not been circumcised in the wilderness. From Amo 5 and Act 7 , we learn that all that thirty-eight years they had made no sacrifices. We learn that in that time they worshiped idols. They were under the curse of God, and he did not count the time; there was total suspension of the covenant. But during that time the Levites stayed around the ark of the covenant and kept up worship. The places mentioned in Num 33 constitute a record of the stopping places of the ark as they moved it.

The command goes out that since the penalty is nearly paid and we will find Just where it stops they must reassemble at the place where they broke the covenant. Miriam, who had lived through that period of thirty-eight years dies just when she gets back to the place where she had committed her sin. She is buried and that is the end of Miriam. Those people come back there sore, although it is a new generation, and the first thing they did was to commit another sin. The water at Kadesh-barnea was not sufficient for three millions of people, and striking it at a dry time, they began to make their old complaints. Moses takes the case to God and God commands him to gather them together in a great congregation, and in their sight, with staff in hand, the staff with which he had wrought all the miracles of the past years, to speak to the rock and the water would flow out and God would begin again to supply the people. Moses was very mad. He had been a meek and patient man. He had had charge of that people and had their burden on his shoulders for thirty-nine years. The description of the sin that he committed is expressed in the following scriptures: Num 20:10-11 ; Num 27:14 ; Deu 1:37 ; Deu 3:26-27 ; Psa 106:33 .

One of the questions on Numbers will be for you to analyze the sin of Moses, and as I am not going to give you that analysis, it is very important that you remember those passages of Scripture. Now, God told Moses to speak to the rock, but, instead of speaking, Moses struck the rock. The other time God had commanded him to strike the rock, which refers, first, to the fact that Christ must be smitten to supply the needs of his people. But the next time he must not be smitten. You must speak, and by petition draw the supplies of a Christian. But Moses struck twice. He was very mad and seemed to attribute the power to himself. He did not sanctify God in this matter, but sanctified himself. The psalmist says that the sin of the people brought ill to Moses and caused him to speak unadvisedly with his lips. Just before his death, recorded in Deuteronomy, Moses says, “For your sake I was led into this sin which kept me from entering the Holy Land which you are to enter.”

The next question in order of time is to turn to Num 21 and read three verses which tell us about the Canaanite king, Arad. This king thought that they were going to repeat their old experiment of trying to enter the Promised Land on the south, and he came out and fought them at the very place where they had been defeated before, but this time he got an awful thrashing. He was outlawed and that ban of outlawry was fulfilled in the days of Joshua.

While at Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to two nations. He wanted to get around on the Jordan River side without having to make a long circuit. There were only two ways, one through the Amorite country and the other by going through the Edom country. Moses sent a very respectful communication to the king of Edom, calling him Brother Edom, or Esau, and saying, “Your brother Jacob desires to pass through your country to get to his own land, and we will promise you to stick to the highways and not scatter about, and we will take nothing without paying your own price for it.” We learn from Deuteronomy that Moses sent a similar message to Moab, the descendants of Lot, as he would have to go through the Mount Seir country first and Moab next. And he said to the Moabites, “The descendants of Abraham would say to the descendants of Lot, Let your cousins pass through your country.” But as far as Edom was concerned, they assembled an army to block the way.

What follows next? Kadesh-barnea is Just south of Hebron. The children of Israel are at Kadesh and they want to get around on the Jordan side through Edom and Moab, their kinsfolk. If Moab and Edom refuse, they have to make a long circuit around. Moab and Edom did refuse and God would not permit them to force their way through by war, because they are kinspeople. So they have to move south through the Arabah, that great valley through which the Jordan doubtless used to flow. When they stopped at Mount Hor in the edge of the country, Aaron dies. The account is very piteous. In the main, he has been a remarkably good man. He has committed some sins. He joined Moses in the sin which excluded him from the Promised Land. God commands Moses to take Aaron up on that bare mountain and to take his sons with him. They strip off the priestly robes and put them on Eleazar, who is to become high priest. And there Aaron dies. I have often thought about that lonely grave. There is a tradition about that mountain now. Almost any guide will volunteer to take you to Aaron’s grave when you go there now.

Then they left Mount Hor and made a day’s march or two to a place called Zaimona, going right down that dry Arabah. The people complained again, and God’s punishment was to send fiery serpents among them. Once a little boy asked me to tell him a story about snakes. And I said, “Once upon a time there was a great camp of three million people in their tents in a dry valley, and they sinned against God, and in the night from every direction over the desert came snakes, great snakes with red splotches on them and much more deadly than rattlesnakes. And in the night whoever moved was bitten by the snakes. The children were crying out all night that they had been bitten by snakes, and the people died and kept dying, and the snakes kept biting, until finally God told the leader of that camp that if he would put brass into a furnace and mold a big snake and put it on a pole, that everybody who looked at it would be healed, and as the sun shone on that brazen serpent, it made it so very conspicuous that it could be seen all over that camp. A mother would hear about that brazen serpent and would say to her dying boy, all twisted with agony and pain, ‘O son, I will turn you over so you can see. Now just look yonder at that brazen serpent,’ and he would shut his eyes and say, ‘I will not look,’ and then die. They would come to where a man was bitten, and find him cursing and swearing. They would all gather around him and his wife would say to him, ‘O husband, here are your brothers and sisters and your friends and one of your children. They have all been bitten and they looked and lived. Will you not look and live too?’ But he shuts his eyes and dies. ‘But it came to pass whosoever looked was healed.’ ” And the little fellow was so well pleased with the story that he asked where I had read it and I told him in the Bible, the very last place he expected to find a good story.

Now, there was a converted Jew, Joseph Frey, who became a great expounder of the Old Testament types of Christ. He took this text in John, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Preachers should all get Joseph Frey’s Old Testament Types. Fairbairn has a book on “Typology” but not so good a book as Frey’s.

I am going to call your attention to a thought that you will find nowhere else in the world. You remember that scapegoat on the great day of atonement that was to be given to Azazel and to pass under the power of the evil spirit. So Jesus on the cross passed under the power of the evil spirit. Now, that type is here. This serpent represents Jesus lifted up on the cross and though the serpent bit him, he crushed the serpent’s head.

When they get to Amah, Num 21:13 , here you find the reference to that old book. “The Wars of Jehovah.” “From thence they Journeyed to Beer.” That is a very dry place. When God told Moses to supply the people with water, the princes digged in the ground with their staves and a fresh spring bubbled out. They come up now even with the mouth of the Jordan. Moses stands on the top of Mount Nebo and looks over the Promised Land.

Moses sent a messenger to the Amorites and they despised the messenger and prepared for war. But they are conquered and their country taken. Then they come to Bashan. Deuteronomy tells us how big Og, the king of the country, was. Counting a cubit as a foot and a half, his iron bedstead was thirteen and a half feet long, and I could easily lie down upon it full-length crosswise.

That finishes this section. What is left of the book is to pick up some incidents that occurred, particularly the incident of Balaam.

QUESTIONS

1. The period of wandering How long, their relation to the covenant, their worship, the Levites, God’s mercies to them during this period and why?

2. When did they assemble back at Kadesh-barnea?

3. What noted person dies here?

4. What sin was committed here by the new generation and God’s provision for their need?

5. Collate the scriptures on the sin of Moses and give the character of his sin.

6. Give account of the attack on Israel by the Canaanites; their doom

7. What effort did Moses make to go a direct route to the Jordan?

8. Trace their journey from Kadesh-barnea to Mount Hor. What noted person dies here, and who takes his place?

9. What is Israel’s next sin? The punishment? What New Testament reference to the Brazen Serpent? In what particular is the Brazen Serpent a type of Christ?

10. What books commended on Old Testament types?

11. What lost book is here quoted from?

12. Recite the incident of the Well and the Song.

13. Give an account of the fall of Sihon and another song.

14. Give an account of the fall of Bashan.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Deu 2:1 Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days.

Ver. 1. Then we turned, ] viz., When we had bought our wit, and had paid for our learning, by our late discomfiture.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 2:1-7

1Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as the LORDspoke to me, and circled Mount Seir for many days. 2And the LORD spoke to me, saying, 3’You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north, 4and command the people, saying, You will pass through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful; 5do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a footstep because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6You shall buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you shall also purchase water from them with money so that you may drink. 7For the LORDyour God has blessed you in all that you have done; He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORDyour God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.’

Deu 2:1 the wilderness There are several wildernesses connected to the exodus.

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE WILDERNESSES OF THE EXODUS

1. Wilderness of Shur – in northeast Egypt (e.g., Exo 15:22)

2. Wilderness of Paran – central Sinai Peninsula (e.g., Gen 21:21; Num 10:12; Num 12:16; Num 13:3; Num 13:26)

3. Wilderness of Sin – southern Sinai Peninsula (e.g., Exo 16:1; Exo 17:1; Num 33:11-12, also called wilderness of Sinai, e.g., Exo 19:1-2; Num 1:1; Num 1:19; Num 3:4; Num 9:1; Num 9:5)

4. Wilderness of Zin – southern Canaan (e.g., Num 13:21; Num 20:1; Num 27:14; Num 33:36; Num 34:3; Deu 32:51)

by the way of the Red Sea This refers to the Arabah Road (cf. TEV on the road to the Gulf of Aqaba), in the Jordan Rift Valley, which runs north and south on both sides of the Dead Sea (cf. Deu 2:8). It is a wide valley which begins near the cities of Elath or Ezion-geber on the Gulf of Aqaba and goes through the heart of Edom and Moab and the kingdom of the Amorites to Damascus, Syria. In the OT it is called the King’s Highway (e.g., Num 20:17; Num 21:22).

The term Red Sea (BDB 410 CONSTRUCT with 693) is literally sea of reeds/weeds. This term is used for the unknown and mysterious waters to the south. It can refer to the body of water that the Israelites crossed in the exodus and, as here and Deu 1:40, to the body of water called the Gulf of Aqaba on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula. In one OT passage the term refers to the Indian Ocean. See Special Topic: The Red Sea .

as the LORDspoke to me Deuteronomy depicts itself as a revelation from YHWH to Moses (cf. Deu 2:1-2; Deu 2:9; Deu 2:17; Deu 2:31). YHWH directed His people by:

1. direct revelation to Moses (cf. Deu 2:2)

2. the movement of the Shekinah cloud of glory

3. the use of the Urim and Thummim (i.e., High Priest)

Mount Seir This refers to the land of Edom (cf. Deu 2:5; Deu 1:2; Exo 3:1; Exo 17:6).

Deu 2:3

NASBcircled

NKJV, NRSVskirted

TEVwandering

NJBgone far enough

This VERB (BDB 685, KB 738, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT in Deu 2:3 and a Qal IMPERFECT in Deu 2:1) means turn about, go around, surround. The Israelites had no clear direction because of the evil unbelieving generation. They wandered around Kadesh-barnea for thirty-eight years, but YHWH is about to give specific, clear directions to Moses. Go around or skirt fits this text best.

Now turn north This may refer to Numbers 20, where Israel asked if they could pass through the land of Edom, but the Edomites would not let them. They asked to pass through the land of the Moabites, and they also said no. This is recording an early event (cf. ICC p. 34). Here they are asking if they could go up the King’s Highway, which ran through the center of these countries. They were willing to buy food and water, but the Edomites and the Moabites (the Israelites’ relatives through Lot and Esau) said, No. Rather than go through Edom, they went around their border.

Like so many Hebrew terms, this one (BDB 815, KB 937) has a concrete, literal meaning (e.g., here) and a developed, metaphorical meaning. Turn is the Hebrew term often translated repent (e.g., 2Ki 17:13; 2Ch 30:6; Isa 44:22; Jer 3:11 to Jer 4:2; Hos 14:1).

Deu 2:4 command This term (BDB 845, KB 1010, Piel IMPERATIVE), like turn (BDB 815, KB 937, Qal IMPERATIVE) in Deu 2:3, shows that Moses is recording the very commands of YHWH (as does the Hithpael IMPERFECT used as a JUSSIVE in Deu 2:5, do not provoke them). He personally directed their journey.

NASByour brothers

NKJVyour brethren

NRSVyour kindred

TEVyour distant relatives

NJByour kinsmen

The English translation shows the implications of the Hebrew word brother (BDB 26). It is used several times of Edom (descendants of Esau, cf. Num 20:14; Deu 2:4; Deu 2:8; Oba 1:10).

they will be afraid of you This is a prophetic statement which goes back to the Song of Deliverance in which Miriam praises God for the miraculous Reed Sea crossing. God predicted that Edom and Moab would be terrified of the Israelites (cf. Exo 15:15).

Deu 2:4; Deu 2:9; Deu 2:19 Throughout this chapter there are several noteworthy phrases connected to God’s sovereignty:

I will not give (Deu 2:5; Deu 2:9; Deu 2:19)

I have given (Deu 2:5; Deu 2:9)

the LORDgave (Deu 2:12)

the LORDour God is giving to us (Deu 2:29)

God delivered him over to us (Deu 2:33)

This chapter shows the sovereignty of YHWH in international boundaries (cf. Deu 32:8; Neh 9:22), because each of these phrases stresses that YHWH is the one who gave the land to certain people groups to inherit. This chapter shows that YHWH did not exclusively give land to Israel, but He gave some to every nation. Some lost their land because of their sins (e.g., Gen 15:16) and Israel also lost her land for a period (i.e., Assyrian and Babylonian exiles) because of her sin. This is asserting that YHWH is the universal God. In a day of polytheism, this is a wonderful statement of monotheism. There is one and only one God, Deu 6:4-6. He is the One who gives the land even to the Edomites, Moabites, Amorites, etc. (esp. Deu 32:8 in the Septuagint [LXX]).

NASB, NRSV,

REBSo be very careful

NKJVTherefore watch yourselves carefully

TEV(combines this phrase with the next one in Deu 2:5, but you must not start a war)

NJBand you will be well protected

The literal phrase is so take good heed (a CONJUNCTION, VERB [BDB 1036, KB 1581, Niphal PERFECT], and ADVERB [BDB 547]). The Septuagint is similar to TEV.

This phrase, in various forms, is used several times in Deuteronomy (cf. Deu 2:4; Deu 4:9; Deu 4:15; Deu 4:23; Deu 6:12; Deu 8:11; Deu 11:16; Deu 12:13; Deu 12:19; Deu 12:30; Deu 15:9; Deu 24:8). It implies, keep your mind alert, watch what you are doing, think clearly about the implications of your actions.

Deu 2:5

NASBeven as little as a footstep

NKJVnot so much as one footstep

NRSV, NJBeven so much as a foot’s length

TEVas much as a square foot

This is a rare Hebrew term (BDB 204). It refers to a stepping place. The same root is used in Deu 11:24 and Jos 1:3. In a sense this was an encouraging word from YHWH. He had given land to both Edom and Moab. It was theirs, every inch of it! He was in the process of giving land to Israel. His land grant gifts were secure.

Now it must be added that eventually, because of sin, these nations (i.e., Edom and Moab) lost their land and perished as a people. All land gifts were conditional. This is also true of Israel (i.e., the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles). All of God’s covenants (except Genesis 6, 15) are conditional.

His promises of redemption are sure (unconditional), but each person/nation must respond and continue to respond appropriately! A continuing, obedient faith relationship is crucial. YHWH requires faith, repentance, obedience, and perseverance, in both the OT and the NT.

Deu 2:6 Israel was to purchase both food and water as a gesture of their recognition of Edom’s sovereignty over their land, which was given by YHWH.

1. Buy food (BDB 991, KB 1404, Qal IMPERFECT)

2. Purchase water (BDB 500, KB 497, Qal IMPERFECT)

Deu 2:7 These forty years the LORDyour God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing This passage describes the love of God even in the midst of Israel’s rebellion against Him (i.e., lack of faith in His promise to give them the land of Canaan).

The Wilderness Wandering Period was a judgment to a generation of Israelites with little faith, but it turned into a time of YHWH’s personal presence and provision. The rabbis call it the honeymoon period between YHWH and Israel. YHWH provided:

1. protection

2. personal guidance

3. food

4. water

5. clothes that did not wear out

6. victory in battle

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

turned = faced about. Compare Deu 1:7.

as = according as.

the LORD spake. Jehovah spake at nine “sundry times” and in three “divers manners”:

1. To me (Moses), Deu 2:1, Deu 2:2, Deu 2:17; Deu 9:13; Deu 32:48.

2. To you, Deu 4:12, Deu 4:15; Deu 10:4.

3. To all your assembly, Deu 5:22.

spake = said, as in Deu 1:42. Compare Num 21:4.

many days. These are distinguished from those mentioned in Deu 1:46. Those were resting in disobedience, these were journeying in obedience.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 2

So we turned, and took our journey by way of the wilderness back toward the Red sea. And the LORD spake to me saying, you’ve compassed this mountain long enough: go north. And he commanded the people. saying, You’re to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwelled in Seir. But don’t meddle with them; for I have not given you their land, not as much as a foot in it; because I’ve given mount Seir unto Esau for his possession. So you’re to buy your meat and your water but you’re only to pass through. For the LORD God has blessed thee in all the works of your hands; and he knows that they walking through this great wilderness: for these forty years that the LORD thy God hath been with thee; you have lacked nothing ( Deu 2:1-7 ).

And therein is a miracle. And over a million people, forty years, and yet not lacking in that wilderness.

And when you pass by our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelled in Seir, you came to the plains of Eziongaber, and turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. And the LORD said, Don’t distress the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give you their land as a possession; because it’s given to the children of Lot ( Deu 2:8-9 ).

Now he is pointing out something: This area of Moab was once inhabited by the Emims and the Emims were relatives to the Anakims who were giants. Now, their fear of going into the land was because there were giants there. Now he’s really thinking to build up their faith in God. “Look, you don’t have to worry about the giants. God can deliver the giants in your hand. They’re not supermen.” The Emims used to dwell in this area of Moab until the children of Lot took it and moved in and took it. And they threw the Emims out because God had promised this area to the children of Lot. So, he’s pointing out that these giants have been driven out of other territories and one of them, of course, was the territory of Moab which was inhabited by the descendents of Lot.

And the Horims also dwelled in Seir beforetime; but the children of Israel succeeded them, and destroyed them and dwelt there in their stead; And so the space that we came from Kadeshbarnea unto the brook Zered was thirty-eight years ( Deu 2:12-14 ).

It took them thirty-eight years to make that short journey.

until all of that generation of the men of war were wasted, as the LORD had sworn unto them. For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them. [And so he said] You are to pass through Moab, this day: And when you come near against the children of Ammon, don’t distress them, or meddle with them: for I will not give thee the land of the children of Ammon and any possession; because I have given it to the children of Lot. (That also was accounted a land of giants: for giants dwelt there in old times; and the Ammonites called them the Zamzummims ( Deu 2:14-15 , Deu 2:18-20 );

Even their name strikes terror in the hearts. Can’t you imagine the guys talking around the fire at night saying, “Wow, the Zamzummims are over there”? But again he’s pointing out the fact that you don’t have to worry about giants. The report was there are giants in the land. You don’t have to worry about these giants. These giants were existing here in this land that God gave to the descendents of Lot. In Moab, in Seir and in the area of Ammon, giants were there but God delivered them.

[And so] Rise up, take your journey, pass over the river Arnon: and behold, I have given into thy hand Sihon the Amorite, the king of Heshbon, and his land: and so begin to possess the land ( Deu 2:24 ).

So north of the area of Jabbok they began to possess the land and they began to destroy the king.

Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for God hardened his heart, made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as he has done. So Sihon came out against all, with all of his people, to fight at Jahaz. And the LORD delivered them; and smote them, and we began to take the land ( Deu 2:30 , Deu 2:32-33 )

“

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Continuing his discourse, Moses reviewed the second movement from Kadeshbarnea to Heshbon. The notes which characterized the description of the first period are found also in this review of the second period. All that Moses told them they knew as to the actual facts of the long and tedious road they had traveled in the weary years which were now drawing to a close. The great burden of his message to them was emphasizing the fact of how even amidst such sorrowful and severe discipline they had still been thought of and guided by God. The turning back to the wilderness was under the divine command, and therefore through all the tiresome way God was still with them and they had lacked nothing (verses Deu 2:37).

Now once more at His command they were approaching the land. With this ending of the discipline God gave them the first manifestation of the power which they had called in question forty years before, in that He placed the fear of them and the dread of them on the peoples of the land.

This great truth that God never forsakes His people, even when they are bearing the chastisements He imposes as the result of their unbelief, is full of comfort for the hearts of His people for all time.

Deu 3:1-29

Still continuing his review, Moses dealt with the third movement from Heshbon to Bethpeor. In doing so he continued to emphasize the fact that the power of God had been clearly manifest throughout. He reminded them that they had taken all the cities against which they had been commissioned to go. In doing so and in referring to these cities he used the words which declared that they were “fenced with high walls, gates, and bars.”

It is interesting to remember that when the majority report of the spies was given long before, they had declared that the cities were “fenced and very great” (Num 13:28). The report, therefore, was so far correct. Moses now showed them how through their first victorious movement against such cities, the mistake of the fear which had characterized them in the past was made manifest.

There is a touch of pathos in the way which Moses referred to his own emotion at this manifestation of power and his desire to go over and possess the land. Whereas this was denied him, the punishment was mingled with a tender mercy in that he was permitted to know that his successor would actually lead the people in. There can be no doubt that the supreme desire of Moses was a desire for the accomplishment of the divine purpose.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Journeying and Dying in the Wilderness

Deu 1:41-46; Deu 2:1-15

We cannot obtain by our impetuosity and insistence what God offers only as a free gift to our faith. The Land of Promise is not to be obtained by strength of hand, but by the soul that lives in the will of God. Even when we are rebellious and unbelieving, God does not forget nor forsake us, Deu 2:7. He knows our walking through the great wilderness which we have chosen. Through all the forty years He goes with His people as their fellow-pilgrim. Even under such circumstances they lack nothing that is necessary to a complete and blessed life.

Edom was not to be injured, because of the ancient grant, Gen 32:3. So with Moab. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He will remember His Abrahams and His Lots long after they have passed from this mortal sphere, and will care for their children and childrens children. See Isa 59:21.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

3. After the Forty Years and From Conflict to Conquest

CHAPTER 2

1. From Kadesh to the land of the Amorites (Deu 2:1-23)

2. The command to possess (Deu 2:24-25)

3. The conquest of Sihon (Deu 2:26-37)

The many days in the first verse are the thirty-eight years. We must notice the little word we. We turned and took our journey into the wilderness. Moses, Aaron, his sons, Joshua, Caleb and the faithful Levites turned back with the unfaithful, murmuring Israelites. Moses and all who had not shared in the unbelief of the people submitted to the sovereign will of the Lord. How strange it would have been if they had complained in sharing in the judgment of the mass of the people. This is true obedience and humility. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble; submit yourselves, therefore, to God (Jam 4:6-7). The faithful ones shared the trials, the sorrows, the hardships of the murmuring multitudes. And Jehovah was with them and in gracious tenderness. Can there be anything more beautiful than the testimony of Moses he gives in verse 7! For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand; He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God has been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing. Well may we ponder over it. The people, who had accused Him, insulted Him, disbelieved His word, this people He carried through the great wilderness so that they lacked nothing. May we take courage. Our failures, our short-comings, our unbelief do not arrest the gracious tenderness of His loving heart.

Intensely interesting is the divine injunction not to molest Edom, Moab and Ammon. The great principle which goes through Deuteronomy is very outstanding in this command of Jehovah. He guided them, gave His instructions and they were to depend on Him and be obedient to His will. They might have coveted to possess the plains of Moab or Mount Seir and the lands of Ammon. The Lord forbade them to do so. Disobedience would have been disastrous. Though Edom had harrassed Israel greatly and displayed an arrogant pride, yet Jehovah would not give Edoms possession to Israel. He remembered His word I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession (Gen 32:3; Gen 36:6-8; Jos 24:4). They were, therefore, not to seek what the Lord had not given to them. And this is obedience and a lesson of faith. What happy contentment there would be among Gods people, if this rule were followed.

The same command not to distress the Moabites and Ammonites (blood relations to Israel) is given. The races of giants are mentioned, which occupied the territories of Moab, Ammon and Edom. They had different names as stated in the text. Emim means the terrible ones; Zamzumim has the meaning to murmur and meditate. This may have some reference to demon possession as seen in some of the present day mediums of spiritism. They were powerful and extremely vicious beings, given up to the control and service of Satan.

Then Jehovah called to action. Rise up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon, behold I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, King of Heshbon, and his land, begin to possess it and contend with him in battle. (In verse 13, Now rise up, _said _I–the words in italics said I must be omitted. Not Moses, but Jehovah gave the command.)

Obedience is again the demand. While the statement in verse 25 I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven has been taken as hyperbolical, it also has a prophetic meaning. The Gentiles fear the Jews and the nations stand in dread of them. Some day the Jewish race will be the head of the nations of the world. Sihons measure of wickedness and cruelty was full. His spirit was hardened like Pharaohs and Israel completely overthrew him and his kingdom. The LORD our God delivered all unto us (verse 36). Read Psa 136:19-26. It was His mercy. And His mercy endureth forever and is blessedly on our side. May we walk in obedience and find His mercy acting in our behalf.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

we turned: Deu 1:40, Num 14:25

we compassed: Deu 1:2, Num 21:4, Jdg 11:18

Reciprocal: Gen 33:14 – unto Seir Num 20:17 – General Jos 11:17 – that goeth Jos 12:7 – Seir

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Turning Backward

Deu 2:1-37 and Deu 3:1-29

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

Last week we closed with God’s refusal to permit the Children of Israel to go into the land of Canaan. They had come up to Kadesh-barnea; they had sent spies into the land, but they had rebelled against the Lord and had not believed Him. For this cause, and because of their murmurings, the Lord said, “Turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness.”

Last week we saw that God had told them of how they started to go into Canaan, after God had commanded them to return into the wilderness. This effort of theirs was presumptuous, and the result was most disastrous. The Amorites came out against them and chased them “as bees do.” They returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not hear them.

Perhaps, to some of you it may seem strange that God refused to hear the prayers of His own children, We must remember, however, that there is a time when tears and pleadings are of no avail. This is true today in the lives of the ungodly.

In Rom 1:1-32 we read thrice that “God gave them up” and “God gave them over.” In the 6th chapter of Genesis there is a statement which reads like this, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.”

What is true of the unregenerate, is likewise true of the believer. There comes a time when disobedience, prayerlessness, murmurings, and strife causes God to refuse to restore him to the place of service. He does not, and will not, hear his prayer. Let us present to you three reasons why the Lord will not hear.

1. God does not hear our prayers when we regard iniquity in our hearts. It does not matter how earnest we may be, nor how beautiful the words we may utter. If there is iniquity in the heart, God will not hear. The hands, as well as the heart, must also be clean. Sin in the life is forever a barrier to answered prayer.

2. If we waver in our faith, God will not hear. Have you not read, “He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed”? Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord. It is written, “According to your faith be it unto you.” He who doubts is condemned. Prayer cannot reach the Throne of God if unbelief rules the heart and life.

3. God will not hear if we ask amiss that we may consume it upon our lusts. When we pray we should say, “Thy will be done.” We should never ask something merely to satisfy our own personal longings or ambitions. This is doubly true when, in our prayer-life, we begin to ask something of God that we may spend it upon our lusts-our fleshly appetites. Acceptable prayer must be for the sole purpose of glorifying God.

I. TURNING BACK (Deu 2:1)

Our verse is one of the saddest in the Bible. It reads: “Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.” Think of it!

For two years and a half the great multitudes of Israel had been journeying toward the promised land; then when they arrived, because of their fear, their unbelief, and their rebellion, God turned them back. These were wasted years so far as any real progress toward Canaan was concerned. Let us see to what they turned back.

1. They turned back to their wilderness wanderings. Did you ever see a little boy riding a hobbyhorse? He moves, but just back and forth, without going anywhere. So it was with the Children of Israel. Because of their sin they were doomed to wander in the wilderness.

Have we made any real progress in our spiritual life since the day we first knew the Lord? Beyond a doubt, every day we have lived since, should be greater, and hold better things.

God never put our heads on backwards so that we would always be looking to the days gone by. We should live looking toward the days to come.

2. They turned back to sorrows and sighings. The wilderness life was a life without joy. It was a life full of deprivations, lack of water, and lack of bread. Besides, there were all kinds of beasts, snakes, and pits. Alas, too many Christians are forever living in this atmosphere.

3. They turned back with the women and the children. It would not have been so bad had merely the six hundred thousand men gone back into the wilderness. It is the more pitiful when we think that their sins dragged back with them nearly nine hundred thousand women and children. How true it is! Every one who sins brings sorrow and suffering upon all of those near and dear to him.

II. THE DANGER OF WORLD MIXING (Deu 2:4-5)

As the Children of Israel went back into the wilderness, they compassed Mount Seir many days. Then, it was that God said to them, “Ye have compassed this mountain long enough; turn you northward.” Then He commanded them saying, “Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; * * meddle not with them.”

1. There was legitimate trading that they might do with the Esauites. Deu 2:6 tells us that they were allowed to buy meat for money. They also might buy water for money. However, they could not enter into any fellowship with these people. The children of Esau would have proved a snare unto them.

Young people must remember that they are called to separation. We may see much of sin around us, but we are not to linger where it lies. In Proverbs we read, “Enter not into the path of the wicked.” We are to turn from it In another place we read, “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.”

In Ephesians and in Corinthians, both, we are told to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,” or with anyone who is called a brother if he is sinful.

We cannot have fellowship with God if we insist on having fellowship with unsaved sinners, or with sinning saints. God says, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, * * touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”

There is a little expression we read years ago: “Others may; you cannot.” There are many things that the world may do, but the representatives of a Heavenly Court who are holding up the honor and the glory of their Lord’s holy Name, dare not do such things.

III. DIVINE FAVORS REMEMBERED (Deu 2:7)

This remarkable verse may be divided into two statements:

1. “God hath blessed thee.” It makes us think of that song we love to sing: “Count your many blessings, name them one by one.” We are ever prone to count our disappointments, our failures, and our losses. Are we as anxious to count our blessings?

“Praise (unto the Lord) is comely.” Let us stop every now and then to consider how the Lord hath led us, how He has supplied us in the hour of our need, how He has healed us in our bodies. “The Lord is good” and “worthy to be praised.”

2. “He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness.” This suggests that He knows us. There never was a day in all the journeyings of these people when God was not near them. It did not matter how dark it was, or what the testings were; God knew it all.

Another Scripture says, “He knoweth the way that I take.” He does know.

“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.”

Not only does He know, but He cares. He watches us with a sympathetic eye, and with a considerate heart does He yearn after us. Has He not said, “Lo, I am with thee alway, even unto the end of the world”?

It is for this cause that we may cast all our care upon Him. He walked with His people throughout a great wilderness. He will walk with us through fire and flood, through wind and rain.

IV. GOD’S GIFTS OF LAND (Deu 2:9)

Our verse does not seem to carry much significance at first reading, and yet when we take it in the light of the context, it is revealing, indeed.

1. God is described as having given unto the Moabites a land for a possession.

In the same chapter other nations were given lands for their possession. All this brings to our mind a statement of Scripture which runs something like this: When God divided unto the nations their inheritances, He divided them according to the number of the Children of Israel.

Our Scripture plainly discloses the fact that God Himself rules among the children of men. He divides unto them lands and inheritances; and He appoints even their kings and rulers.

There is no nation that lives to itself, any more than there is any man who lives to himself. All live under the great command and will of God.

2. God, also, gave to His own the possession of a good land. To Israel He gave Canaan for their possession. The seven nations which possessed it were usurpers. The land did not belong to them. In God’s eternal archives that land was set aside for Israel. It is still theirs, and though now much of the land is under the power of the Turks, God’s people shall yet inherit their possessions and dwell in their own land.

3. God commanded the Children of Israel that they should not war against the people who held the adjoining lands. He knew that if they sought to dislodge the Moabites, or any of the other people who lived near by they would only delay their own inheritance, God had something better for His own.

Let us never be satisfied with anything short of the perfect will of God.

V. THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS OF WANDERING (Deu 2:14)

“And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them.”

1. Thirty-eight years wasted. In God’s perfect will the Children of Israel should have all passed into Canaan at Kadesh-barnea, but the elders refused to go in; the men of war rebelled. The result was that thirty-eight years of rest, peace, and plenty were lost to them.

Beloved, what time we ought to be enjoying the rich, spiritual blessings of God, we are often living on the husks of the swine herd. Why should we to whom God says, “All things are yours,” live on the onions and garlic of Egypt?

2. Thirty-eight years of darkness and death. During the thirty-eight years of wanderings and deprivations “all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host.” We read in one of the Corinthian Epistles that their bones were strewn in the wilderness.

There were only two of the elders who ever entered into the land. The others passed away under God’s pronounced curse.

3. Thirty-eight years of trials and testings. In Deu 8:1-20 Moses reminds the Children of Israel of their wilderness wanderings. “Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no.”

“He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not.” Thus it was that two years and a half before Kadesh-barnea, and thirty-eight years afterward, they knew trials and testings when they might have been rejoicing in their Canaan possessions.

VI. THE FINAL JOURNEYINGS (Deu 2:24)

The time had now come for the Children of Israel to enter into the land. The men of whom God had said, “There shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land,” were all dead. The rest were now ready to enter in.

1. Happy was that day when they came out of Egypt. How much happier was the day that they came to their possessions. We can remember with joy when we first saw the light, the day when the presence of God came in and flooded our soul. That is a day never to be forgotten; but what will it be when we hear our Lord shout as He descends from the skies? What will it be as, later, we descend with Him to the earth, as we enter into His Kingdom, into His reign?

Beloved, the song of the Children of Israel as they came up to the Red Sea at the hour of their flight from Egypt was a great hallelujah shout. How much greater will be the shout when God’s chosen people crown Him King, and they enter with Him into their glorious Canaan rest?

2. Happy was the day when God undertook in their behalf. Our key verse tells us that God said, “Rise ye up, take your journey, * * behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, * * and his land: begin to possess it.” Thus it was that the actual conquest of the enemy now was upon them. This battle, and the leader of the battle against Jerusalem, and against the inhabitants of Canaan, presents that wonderful hour when, as the battle of Armageddon rages, the Lord Jesus Christ will come down and fight for His own as He fought in the days of battle, even as in the day when the Children of Israel first possessed the land.

VII. JOSHUA ENCOURAGED (Deu 3:21)

We pass so much of the details of the earlier events as they approached Canaan. We come now to that time when Moses committed unto Joshua the leadership of the people. It was Joshua, the unswerving, the faithful, the believer, who was chosen to take up the leadership which Moses was to lay down. Therefore, Moses gave unto Joshua this command from the Lord, “Thine eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto these two kings: so shall the Lord do unto all the kingdoms whither thou passest. Ye shall not fear them: for the Lord your God He shall fight for you.”

1. Victory brings encouragement. On one occasion a nation was being beset by its enemies, and they sent envoys to a greater nation than theirs. They did not plead any worth of their own, any of their own valor. They did plead the greatness and the might of the nation from whom they sought assistance.

When we come to God, let us plead past mercies. Let us remind Him of all that He has done, telling Him that He who has wrought will surely work again.

2. God’s presence brings encouragement. What should Joshua and Israel fear? God had already shown His greatness and His mighty hand in the past; He had also said to Joshua, “I will be with thee.” Turn for a moment to Jos 1:1-18, and hear God speaking. “As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Again, God said to Joshua, “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

Has not God promised us the same? “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

AN ILLUSTRATION

“Rev. Frank Fax tells of a foggy day spent on the ocean on one of the great liners. Cautiously, throughout the entire day they crept along to the mournful sounding of the foghorn, until 6 P. M. At that hour the fog lifted for just three minutes and the captain found that they were exactly opposite the port, but some of the men were not at their posts and before they reported for duty the fog had again fallen and a whole night of peril followed just outside the harbor.

There are a great many Micawbers in the world always waiting for something to turn up; but when it does turn up, they are often not ready for it. If we take no share in the manufacture of opportunity, we cannot expect opportunity of its own accord to manufacture us. It is not a nurse that carries mankind in its arms. It may exist in a certain sense apart from us, like a substance held in solution, or a negative in a dark camera; but we are the artists who must develop it.

And in order to do this, we must abstract our gaze from an imagined future which is going to give us a better chance, and learn to see more in the present moment. If we are for crossing bridges before we get to them, however beautiful the fields may look on the other side, we take so much away from the energy which is required of us now. We know what road is said to be paved with good intentions. But the real need is good performance.”

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

Deu 2:1. We compassed mount Seir The mountainous part of Edom, or Idumea. Many days Even for thirty-eight years, which time they spent in tedious marches to and fro through that desert country, reaching from Kadesh to the Red sea, and in various encampments, till that race of murmurers was quite extinct, and then orders were given them to bend their course again toward Canaan, Deu 2:3.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Deu 2:10. The Emims; that is, men of terrific aspect with regard to stature, armour, and appearance.

Deu 2:12. The Horims, Horites, Gen 14:6, which Esau had destroyed. The inference was encouraging to the Hebrews, that if these terrific men had been conquered by others, the Canaanites might be conquered also.

Deu 2:20. Zamzummims; that is, strong and mighty ones, flagitiously wicked. Heathen testimonies agree with Moses, as to the crimes of the ancient giants. We have three other tribes of giants named by Moses, the Raphaim, the Hevim, and the Anakim.

Deu 2:23. Caphtor, a city south of Philistia.

REFLECTIONS.

Moses, continuing the history of the Israelites, reminds them not to meddle with the stock of Abraham, and the families of Lot his nephew, because they were in covenant with God. And though it was now four hundred and thirty years since this covenant was made; and though it was little short of three hundred years since he gave the minor blessing to Esau; yet he had ever kept this covenant in view. With what safety then may both families and nations trust to the covenant and promises of God. He will never forget his word, but his grace shall be larger than our most sanguine expectations have conceived.

Moab and Ammon being mentioned by name in this charge, we see Lots sin of ignorance forgiven: and considering the terrible situation of his daughters, who really believed that no man was left alive with whom they might marry, every apology is due to them which human nature can possibly claim. Let every one therefore endeavour fairly to rise after an error or a fall, that God may not withdraw his mercy from him and his family.

In the total destruction of Heshbon, and all the surrounding country, we see that the Amorites had now filled up the measure of their iniquities. Consequently the covenant, which they had in common with all the descendants of Noah, was forfeited, and neither the parents nor the children could obtain a reprieve. It is also remarkable, that both Og and his people seemed infatuated by a spirit of error, to accelerate their own destruction: for they wantonly followed the refusal of Moses kind request by open hostilities. Let us learn, never to dare or despise the Lords people; never to obstruct their way to heaven, provided we should be unwilling to accompany them. On many occasions, an outrage to the church of God has been among the last sins he has suffered a wicked man to commit.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Deuteronomy 2

The closing lines of chapter 1 show us the people weeping before the Lord. “And ye returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear unto you. So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there.”

There was no more reality in their tears than in their words. Their weeping was no more to be trusted than their confession. It is possible for People to confess and shed tears without any true sense of sin, in the presence of God. This is very solemn. It is really mocking God. We know, blessed for ever be His Name, that a truly contrite heart is His delight. He makes His abode with such. ” The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” The tears that flow from a penitent heart are more precious, by far, to God, than the cattle upon a thousand hills, because they prove that there is room in that heart for Him; and this is what He seeks, in His infinite grace. He wants to dwell in our hearts, and fill us with the deep, unspeakable joy of His own most blessed presence.

But Israel’s confession and tears at Kadesh were not real; and, hence, the Lord could not accept them. The feeblest cry of a broken heart ascends directly to the throne of God, and is immediately answered by the soothing healing balm of His pardoning love; but when tears and confession stand connected with self-will and rebellion, they are not only utterly worthless, but a positive insult to the Divine Majesty.

Thus, then, the people had to turn back into the wilderness, and wander there for forty years. There was nothing else for it. They would not go up into the land, in simple faith, with God; and He would not go up with them in their self-will and self-confidence; they had therefore simply to accept the consequence of their disobedience. If they would not enter the land, they must fall in the wilderness.

How solemn is all this! and how solemn is the Spirit’s commentary upon it, in the third chapter of Hebrews! And how pointed and forcible the application to us! We must quote the passage for the benefit of the reader “Wherefore – as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day Of temptation in the wilderness; when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in heart, and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. – Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. While it is said, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke; howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard.”

Here, as in every page of the inspired volume, we learn that unbelief is the thing that grieves the heart and dishonours the Name of God. And not only so, but it robs us of the blessings, the dignities and the privileges which infinite grace bestows. We have very little idea of how much we lose, in every way, through the unbelief of our hearts. Just as in Israel’s case, the land was before them, in all its fruitfulness and beauty; and they were commanded to go and take possession, but, “They could not enter in because of unbelief;” so with us, we fail to possess ourselves of the fullness of blessing which sovereign grace has put within our reach. The very treasure of heaven is thrown open to us, but we fail to appropriate. We are poor, feeble, empty and barren, when we might be rich, rigorous, full and fruitful. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ; but how shallow is our apprehension! how feeble our grasp! how poor our thoughts!

Then again, who can calculate how much we lose, through our unbelief, in the matter of the Lord’s work in our midst? We read, in the gospel, of a certain place in which our blessed Lord could not do many mighty works because of their unbelief. Has this no voice for us? Do me too hinder Him by unbelief? We shall perhaps be told by some, that the Lord will carry on His work irrespective of us or our faith; He will gather out His own, and accomplish the number of His elect, spite of our unbelief; not all the power of earth and hell, men and devils; combined, can hinder the carrying out of His counsels and purposes; and as to His work, It is not by might nor by power, but by His Spirit, Human efforts are in vain? and the Lord’s cause can never he furthered by nature’s excitement.

Now, all this is perfectly true; but it leaves wholly untouched the inspired statement noted above. “He could there do not many mighty works because of their unbelief.” Did not those people lose blessing through their unbelief? Did they not hinder much good being done? We must beware how we surrender our minds to the withering influence of a pernicious fatalism which, with a certain semblance of truth, is utterly false, inasmuch as it denies all human responsibility and paralyses all godly energy in the cause of Christ. We have to bear in mind that the same One who, in His eternal counsels, has decreed the end, has also designed the means; and if we, in the sinful unbelief of our hearts, and under the influence of one-sided truth, fold our arms and neglect the means, He will set us aside, and carry on His work by other hands. He will work, blessed be His Holy Name, but we shall lose the dignity, the privilege, and the blessing of being His instruments.

Look at that striking scene in the second of Mark. It most forcibly illustrates the great principle which we desire to press upon all who may read these lines. It proves the power of faith, in connection with the carrying on of the Lord’s work. If the four men, whose conduct is here set forth, had suffered themselves to be influenced by a mischievous fatalism, they would have argued that it was no use doing anything – if the palsied man was to he cured he would be cured, without human effort. Why should they busy themselves in climbing up on the house, uncovering the roof, and letting down the sick man into the midst before Jesus? Ah! it was well for the palsied man, and well for themselves that they did not act on such miserable reasoning as this. See how their lovely faith wrought! It refreshed the heart of the Lord Jesus; it brought the sick man into the place of healing, pardon and blessing; and it gave occasion for the display of divine power which arrested the attention of all present, and gave testimony to the great truth that God was on earth, in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, healing diseases and forgiving sins.

Many other examples might be adduced, but there is no need. All scripture establishes the fact that unbelief hinders our blessing, hinders our usefulness, robs as of the rare privilege of being God’s honoured instruments in the carrying on of His glorious work, and of seeing the operations of His hand and His Spirit, in our midst. And, on the other hand, that faith draws down power and blessing, not only for ourselves but for others; that it both glorifies and gratifies God, by clearing the platform of the creature and making room for the display of divine power. In short, there is no limit to the blessing which we might enjoy at the hand of our God, if our hearts were more governed by that simple faith which ever counts on Him, and which He ever delights to honour. “According to your faith, he it unto you.” Precious soul-stirring words! May they encourage us to draw more largely upon those exhaustless resources which we have in God. He delights to be used, blessed for ever be His holy Name! His word to us is, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” We can never expect too much from the God of all grace who has given us His only begotten Son, and will, with Him, freely give us all things.

But Israel could not trust God to bring them into the land; they presumed to go in their own strength, and, as a consequence, were put to flight before their enemies. Thus it must ever be. Presumption and faith are two totally different things: the former can only issue in defeat and disaster; the latter in sure and certain victory.

“Then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness, by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spake unto me; and we compassed Mount Seir, many days.” There is great moral beauty in the little word “we” Moses links himself thoroughly with the people. He and Joshua and Caleb had all to turn back into the wilderness, in company with the unbelieving congregation. This might, in the judgement of nature, seem hard; but we may rest assured, it was good and profitable. There is always deep blessing in bowing to the will of God, even though we may not always be able to see the why and the wherefore of things. We do not read of a single murmuring word from these honoured servants of God, at having to turn back into the wilderness for forty years, although they were quite ready to go up into the land. No; they simply turned back. And well they might, when Jehovah turned back also. How could they think of complaining, when they beheld the travelling chariot of the God of Israel facing round to the wilderness? Surely the patient grace and long-suffering mercy of God might well teach them to accept, with a willing mind, a protracted sojourn in the wilderness, and to wait for the blessed moment of entrance upon the promised land.

It is a great thing always to submit ourselves meekly under the hand of God. We are sure to reap a rich harvest of blessing from the exercise. It is really taking the yoke of Christ upon us, which, as He Himself assures us, is the true secret of rest. “Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

What was this yoke? It was absolute and complete subjection to the Father’s will. This we see, in perfection, in our adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He could say, “Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.” Here was the point with Him. “Good in thy sight.” This settled everything. Was His testimony rejected? Did He seem to labour in vain, and spend His strength for nought and in vain? What then? “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.” It was all right. Whatever pleased the Father, pleased Him. He never had a thought or wish that was not in perfect consonance with the will of God. Hence He, as a man, ever enjoyed perfect rest. He rested in the divine counsels and purposes. The current of His peace was unruffled, from first to last.

This was the yoke of Christ; and this is what He, in His infinite grace, invites us to take upon us, in order that we, too, may find rest unto our souls. Let us mark, and seek to understand the words. “Ye shall find rest.” We must not confound the “rest” which He gives with the “rest” which we find. When the weary, burdened, heavy laden soul comes to Jesus in simple faith, He gives rest, settled rest, the rest which flows from the full assurance that all is done; sins for ever put away; perfect righteousness accomplished, revealed and possessed, every question divinely and eternally settled; God glorified; Satan silenced conscience tranquilized.

Such is the rest which Jesus gives, when we come to Him. But then we have to move through the scenes and circumstances of our daily life. There are trials, difficulties, exercises, buffetings, disappointments, and reverses of all sorts. None of these can, in the smallest degree, touch the rest which Jesus gives; but they may very seriously interfere with the rest which we are to find. They do not trouble the conscience; but they may greatly trouble the heart; they may make us very restless, very fretful, very impatient. For instance, I want to preach at Glasgow; I am announced to do so; but lo! I am shut up in a sickroom in London. This does not trouble my conscience; but it may greatly trouble my heart; I may be in a perfect fever of restlessness, ready to exclaim, “How tiresome! How terribly disappointing! Whatever am I to do? It is most untoward!”

And, how is this state of things to be met? How is the troubled heart to be tranquilized, and the restless mind to be calmed down? What do I want? I want to find rest. How am I to find it? By stooping down and taking Christ’s precious yoke upon me; the very yoke which He Himself ever wore, in the days of His flesh; the yoke of complete subjection to the will of God. I want to be able to say, without one atom of reserve, to say from the very depths of my heart, “Thy will, O Lord, be done.” I want such a profound sense of His perfect love to me, and of His infinite wisdom in all His dealings with me, that I would not have it otherwise, if I could; yea, that I would not move a finger to alter my position or circumstances, feeling assured that it is very much better for me to be suffering on a sickbed in London, than speaking on a platform in Glasgow.

Here lies the deep and precious secret of rest of heart, as opposed to restlessness. It is the simple ability to thank God for everything, be it ever so contrary to our own will and utterly subversive of our own Plans. It is not a mere assent to the truth that ” All things work together for good to them that love God; to them that are the called according to his purpose.” It is the positive sense, the actual realisation of the divine fact that the thing which God appoints is the very best thing for us. It is perfect repose in the love, wisdom, power and faithfulness of the One who has graciously undertaken for us, in everything, and charged Himself with all that concerns us for time and eternity. We know that love will always do its very best for its object. what must it be to have God doing His very best for us? Where is the heart that would not be satisfied with God’s best, if only it knows ought of Him?

But He must be known ere the heart can be satisfied with His will. Eve, in the garden of Eden, beguiled by the serpent, became dissatisfied with the will of God. She wished for something which He had forbidden; and this something the devil undertook to supply. She thought the devil could do better for her than God. She thought to better her circumstances by taking herself out of the hands of God and placing herself in the hands of Satan. Hence it is, that no unrenewed heart can ever, by any possibility, rest in the will of God. If we search the human heart to the bottom, if we submit it to a faithful analysis, we shall not find so much as a single thought in unison with the will of God no, not one. And even in the case of the true Christian, the child of God, it is only as he is enabled, by the grace of God, to mortify his own will, to reckon himself dead, and to walk in the Spirit, that he can delight in the will of God, and give thanks in everything. It is one of the very finest evidences of the new birth to be able, without a single shade of reserve, to say, in respect to every dealing of the hand of God, “Thy will be done.” “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” When the heart is in this attitude, Satan can make nothing of it. It is a grand point to be able to tell the devil, and to tell the world – tell them, not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth; not merely with the lips, but in the heart and the life – -“I am perfectly satisfied with the will of God.”

This is the way to find rest. Let us see that we understand it. It is the divine remedy for that unrest, that spirit of discontent, that dissatisfaction with our appointed lot and sphere, so sadly prevalent on all hands. It is a perfect cure for that restless ambition so utterly opposed to the mind and Spirit of Christ, but so entirely characteristic of the men of this world.

May we, beloved reader, cultivate, with holy diligence, that meek and lowly spirit which is, in the sight of God, of great price, which bows to His blessed will in all things, and vindicates His dealings, come what may. Thus shall our peace flow as a river, and the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be magnified, in our course, character and conduct.

Ere turning from the deeply interesting and practical subject which has been engaging our attention, we would observe that there are three distinct attitudes in which the soul may be found in reference to the dealings of God, namely, subjection, acquiescence, and rejoicing. When the will is broken, there is subjection; when the understanding is enlightened as to the divine object, there is acquiescence; and when the affections are engaged with God Himself, there is positive rejoicing. Hence we read, in the tenth chapter of Luke, “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” That blessed One found His perfect delight in all the will of God. It was His meat and drink to carry out that will, at all cost. In service or in suffering, in life or in death, He never had any motive but the Father’s will. He could say, “I do always the things that please him.” Eternal and universal homage to His peerless Name!

We shall now proceed with our chapter.

“And the Lord spake unto me, saying, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough; turn you northward.”

The word of the Lord determined everything. It fixed how long the people were to remain in any given place, and it indicated, with equal distinctness, whither they were next to bend their steps. There was no need whatever for them to plan or arrange their movements. It was the province and prerogative of Jehovah to settle all for them; it was theirs to obey. There is no mention here of the cloud and the trumpet. It is simply God’s word and Israel’s obedience..

Nothing can be more precious to a child of God, if only the heart be in a right condition, than to be guided, in all his movements by the divine command It saves a world of anxiety and perplexity. In Israel’s case, called as they were to journey through a great and terrible wilderness, where there was no way, it was an unspeakable mercy to have their every movement, their every step, their every halting-place ordered by an infallible guide. There was no need whatever for them to trouble themselves about their movements, no need to inquire how long they were to stay in any given place, or where they were to go next. Jehovah settled all for them. It was for them simply to wait on Him for guidance, and to do what they were told.

Yes, reader, here was the grand point – a waiting and an obedient spirit. If this were lacking, they were liable to all sorts of questionings, reasonings and rebellious activities. When God said, “Ye have compassed this mountain long enough,” had Israel replied, “No; we want to compass it a little longer; we are very comfortable here, and we do not wish to make any change” or, again, if, when God said, “Turn you northward, they had replied, “No; we vastly prefer going eastward;” what would have been the result? Why, they would have forfeited the divine presence with them; and who could guide, or help, or feed them then? They could only count on the divine Presence with them while they trod the path indicated by the divine command. If they chose to take their own way, there was nothing for them but famine, desolation and darkness. The stream from the smitten rock, and the heavenly manna, were only to be found in the path of obedience.

Now, we Christians have to learn our lesson in all this – a wholesome, needed, valuable lesson. It is our sweet privilege to have our path marked out for us, day by day, by divine authority. Of this we are to be most deeply and thoroughly persuaded. We are not to allow ourselves to be robbed of this rich blessing by the plausible reasonings of unbelief. God has promised to guide us, and His promise is yea and Amen. It is for us to make our own of the promise, in the artless simplicity of faith. It is as real and as solid and as true as God can make it. We cannot admit, for a moment, that Israel in the desert were better off, in the matter of guidance, than God’s heavenly people, in their passage through this world. How did Israel know the length of the haltings or the line of their march By the word of God. Are we worse off? Far be the thought. Yea, we are better off by far than they. We have the word and Spirit of God to guide us. To us pertains the high and holy privilege of walking in the footsteps of the Son of God.

Is not this perfect guidance Yes, thank God, it is. Hear what our adorable Lord Jesus Christ saith to us: ” I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Let us mark these words, “He that followeth Me.” He has left us an example that we should follow his steps.” This is living guidance. How did Jesus walk? Always and only by the commandment of His Father. By that He acted; by that He moved; without it He never acted, moved or spoke.

Now, we are called to follow Him; and in so doing we have the assurance of His own word that we shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life! Precious words! “The light of life.” Who can sound their living depths? Who can duly estimate their worth? “The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth,” and it is for us to walk in the full blaze of the light that shines along the pathway of the Son of God, Is there any uncertainty, any perplexity, any ground for hesitation here? Clearly not. ‘How could there be, if we are following Him? It is utterly impossible to combine the two ideas.

And be it remarked here, that it is not, by any means, a question of having; a literal text of scripture for every movement or every act. For example, I cannot expect to get a text of scripture, or a voice from heaven, to tell me to go to London or to Edinburgh; or how long I am to stay when I go. How, then, it may be asked, am I to know where I ought to go, or how long I am to stay? The answer is, wait on God, in singleness of eye, and sincerity of heart, and He will make your path as plain as a sunbeam. This was what Jesus did; and if we follow Him, we shall not walk in darkness. “I will guide thee with mine eye,” is a most precious promise; but, in order to profit by it, we must be near enough to Him to catch the movement of His eye, and intimate enough with Him to understand its meaning.

Thus it is, in all the details, of our daily life; It would answer a thousand questions, and solve a thousand difficulties, if we did but wait for divine guidance, and never attempt to move without it. If I have not gotten light to move, it is my plain duty to be still. We should: never move in uncertainty. It often happens that we harass ourselves about moving or acting, when God would have us to be still and do nothing. We go and ask God about it, but get no answer; We betake ourselves to friends for advice and counsel, but they cannot help us; for it is entirely a question between our own souls and the Lord. Thus we are plunged in doubt and anxiety. And why? Simply because the eye is not single; we are not following Jesus, “The light of the world.” we may set it down as a fixed principle, a precious axiom in the divine life, that if we are following Jesus, we shall have the light of life. He has said it, and that is enough for faith.

Hence, then, we deem ourselves perfectly warranted in concluding that the One who guided His earthly people, in all their desert wanderings, can and will guide His heavenly people, now, in all their movements and in all their ways. But, on the other hand, let us see to it that we are not bent on doing our own will, having our own way and carrying out our own plans. “Be ye not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.” Be it our one grand aim to walk in the footsteps of that blessed One who pleased not Himself, but ever moved in the current of the divine will, never acted without divine authority; who, though Himself God over all, blessed for ever, yet, having taken His place as a man, on the earth, surrendered completely His own will, and found His meat and His drink in doing the will of His Father. Thus shall our hearts and minds be kept in perfect peace; and we shall be enabled to move on, from day to day, with firm and decided step, along the path indicated for us by our divine and ever-present Guide who not only knows, as God, every step of the way, but who, as man, has trodden it before us, and left us an example that we should follow His steps. May we follow Him, more faithfully, in all things, through the gracious ministry of the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in us!

We have, now, to invite the reader’s attention to a subject of very deep interest, and one which occupies a large place in Old Testament scripture, and is forcibly illustrated in the chapter which lies open before us, namely, God’s government of the world, and His wonderful ordering of the nations of the earth. It is a grand and all-important fact to keep ever before the mind, that the One whom we know as “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and our God and Father, takes a real, lively, personal interest in the affairs of nations; that he takes cognisance of their movements, and of their dealings one with another.

True, all this is in immediate connection with Israel and the land of Palestine, as we read in the thirty-second chapter of our book, and eighth verse – a passage of singular interest, and of great suggestive power. “when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.” Israel was, and shall yet be God’s earthly centre, and it is a fact of the deepest interest that, from the very outset, as we see in Genesis 10. the Creator and Governor of the world formed the nations and fixed their bounds, according to His own sovereign will, and with direct reference to the seed of Abraham, and that narrow strip of land which they are to possess, in virtue of the everlasting covenant made with their fathers.

But, in Deuteronomy 2, we find Jehovah, in His faithfulness and righteousness, interfering to protect three distinct nations in the enjoyment of their national rights, and that, too, against the encroachments of His own chosen people. He says to Moses, “Command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore meddle not with them: for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot-breadth, because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink.”

Israel might imagine that they had nothing to do but seize upon the lands of the Edomite; but they had to learn something very different; they had to be taught that the Most High is the governor amongst the nations; that the whole earth belongs to Him, and He portions it out to one or another according to His good pleasure.

This is a very magnificent fact to keep before the mind. The great majority of men think but little of it. Emperors, kings, princes, governors, statesmen, take little account of it. They forget that God interests ‘Himself in the affairs of nations; that He bestows kingdoms, provinces and lands as He sees fit. They act, at times, as if it were only a question of military conquest, and as if God had nothing to do with the question of national boundaries and territorial possessions. This is their great mistake. They do not understand the meaning and force of this simple sentence, “I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.” God will never surrender His rights, in this respect. He would not allow Israel to touch a single atom of Esau’s property. They were, to use a modern phrase, to pay ready cash for whatever they needed, and go quietly on their way. Indiscriminate slaughter and plunder were not to be thought of by the people of God.

And mark the lovely reason for all this. “For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand; he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness; these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee, thou hast lacked nothing.” They could well afford, therefore, to let Esau alone, and leave his possessions untouched. They were the favoured objects of Jehovah’s tender care. He took knowledge of every step of their weary journey through the desert. He had, in His infinite goodness, charged Himself with all their necessities. He was going to give them the land of Canaan, according to His promise to Abraham; but the self-same land which was giving them Canaan, had given mount Seir to Esau.

We see the same thing exactly, in reference to Moab and Ammon. “The Lord said unto me, distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give thee of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession” And, again, “And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them; for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession”

The possessions here alluded to had been, of old time, in the hands of giants; but it was God’s purpose to give up their territories to the children of Esau and Lot, and therefore He destroyed these giants; for who or what can stand in the way of the divine counsels? “That also was accounted a land of giants; Giants dwelt therein in old times ….a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the Lord destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead; as he did to the children of Esau which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day.” (Vv. 20-23.)

Hence, then, Israel were not permitted to meddle with the possessions of any of these three nations, the Edomites, Ammonites and Moabites. But, in the very next sentence, we see another thing altogether in the case of the Amorites. “Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.”

The great principle, in all these varied instructions to Israel, is that God’s word must settle everything for His people. It was not for Israel to inquire why they were to leave the possessions of Esau and Lot untouched, and to seize upon those of Sihon. They were simply to do what they were told. God can do as He pleases. He has His eye upon the whole scene. He sees it all. Men may think He has forsaken the earth; but He has not, blessed be His Name. He is, as the apostle tells as in his discourse at Athens, “Lord of heaven and earth;” and “He hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth; and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,” And, further, “He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the habitable earth [oikoumenen] in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance [Given proof] unto all, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”

Here we have a most solemn and weighty truth to which men of all ranks and conditions would do well to take heed. God is the Sovereign Ruler of the world. He giveth no account of any of His matters. He puts down one and sets up another. Kingdoms, thrones, governments are all at His disposal. He acts according to His own will, in the ordering and arrangement of human affairs. But, at the same time, He holds men responsible for their actings, in the various positions in which His providence has placed them. The ruler and the ruled, the king, the governor, the magistrate, the judge, all classes and grades of men will have, sooner or later, to give account to God. Each one, as if he were the only one, will have to stand before the judgement-seat of Christ, and there review his whole course, from first to last. Every act, every word, every secret thought will there come out with awful distinctness. There will be no escaping in a crowd. The word declares that they shall be judged – every man according to his works.” It will be intensely individual, and unmistakably discriminating. In a word, it will be a divine judgement, and therefore, absolutely perfect. Nothing will be passed over. “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof at the day of judgement.” Kings, governors and magistrates will have to account for the way in which they have used the power with which they were entrusted, and the wealth which passed through their hands. The noble and the wealthy who have spent their fortune and their time in folly, vanity, luxury and self-indulgence will have to answer for it all, before the throne of the Son of man, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, to read men through and through; and His feet as fine brass, to crush, in unsparing judgement, all that is contrary to God.

Infidelity may sneeringly inquire, “How can these things be? How could the untold millions of the human race find room before the judgement-seat of Christ? And how could there be time to enter so minutely into the details of each personal history?” Faith replies, “God says it shall be so; and this is conclusive; and as to the ‘Hows’ the answer is, God! Infinity! Eternity!” Bring God in, and all questions are hushed, and all difficulties disposed of in a moment. In fact, the one grand, triumphant answer to all the objections of the infidel, the sceptic, the rationalist, and the materialist, is just that one majestic word – “GOD!”

We press this upon the reader; not indeed to enable him to reply to infidels, but for the rest and comfort of his own heart. As to infidels, we are increasingly persuaded that our highest wisdom is to act on our Lord’s words, in Matthew 15. “Let them alone.” It is perfectly useless to argue with men who despise the word of God, and have no other foundation to build upon than their own carnal reasonings. But, on the other hand, we deem it to be of the very last possible importance that the heart should ever repose, in all the artless simplicity of a child, in the truth of God’s word. “Hath he said, and shall he not do it a or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

Here is the sweet and hallowed resting-place of faith, the calm haven where the soul can find refuge from all the conflicting currents of human thought and feeling. “The word of the Lord endureth for ever; and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Nothing can touch the word of our God, It is settled for ever in heaven; and all we want is to have it hidden in our hearts as our own very possession; the treasure which we have received from God; the living fountain where we may ever drink for the refreshment and comfort of our souls. Then shall our peace flow as a river; and our path shall be as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Thus may it be, O Lord, with all Thy beloved people, in these days of growing infidelity! May Thy holy word be increasingly precious to our hearts! May our consciences feel its power! May its heavenly doctrines form our character, and govern our conduct, in all the relationships of life, that Thy name may he glorified in all things!

Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch

Deu 2:1-15. From Kadesh-barnea to Wady-Zered.The present passage seems to contradict the parallel narrative in Numbers 20 f.

Deu 2:1 b. i.e. we lingered in the neighbourhood of Mt. Seir a good length of time, viz. thirty-eight years (Deu 2:7; Deu 2:14).

Deu 2:4. border: better, bordered territory, the Heb. word means both.your brethren: i.e. kinsmen (see Gen 25:23-26; Gen 36:43, Amo 1:11, Oba 1:10; Oba 1:12, Mal 1:2). In deit 23:7 the Israelites are commanded to treat their Edomite kinsmen in a friendly way. But from the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. onwards, the feelings between the Jews and Edomites (from Edom = Esau) continued to be bitterly hostile.

Deu 2:6. cf. Gen 14:23.

Deu 2:8. by: read (with LXX, Vulg.) through.

Deu 2:8 b. Deu 2:25. They are to pass through the territory of Moab and Ammon, but without harassing them (cf. Deu 2:3 ff. of the Edomites). Moab and Ammon were sons of Lot by his elder and younger daughter respectively (Gen 19:36 f.). Since Lot was Abrahams nephew, the Moabites and Ammonites were likewise kinsmen of the Hebrews. But in Gen., etc. personal names stand generally for families or tribes.

Deu 2:9. Ar: Num 21:15* (E).

Deu 2:10-12. An archological note by an editor. The men of a fabled past have often figured in folklore as giants (see ERE, vi. pp. 191ff.)

Deu 2:10 f. Emim, Rephaim: Gen 14:5*.Anakim: Deu 1:28*.

Deu 2:12. Horites: Gen 14:6*.as Israel did: betraying a writer who lived long after the Conquest.

Deu 2:13. Zered: i.e. the modern Wady Kerak, which enters the Dead Sea at its N. end.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

WILDERNESS WANDERINGS

(vs.1-25)

From Kadesh Barnea Israel had to virtually retrace their steps, going back toward the Red Sea. Believers today find similar experiences because of lack of faith. Instead of progressing in the path of obedience to God, we must go back to learn afresh what the Red Sea deliverance means, for this speaks of the judgment of sin in the flesh by means of the cross of Christ, and if we do not learn it properly as we begin our wilderness history, we shall have to backtrack in order to more rightly understand it. This is really wandering instead of going steadily forward. Psa 107:4 speaks of Israel wandering in the wilderness in a desolate way. Too many believers take almost their whole life to learn this lesson.

After some length of time the Lord again instructed Moses to return northward, going by way of the Edomites, descendants of Esau (v.2-4). Yet they were not to meddle with Edom for God had given it as a possession to Esau. They would be permitted to buy food and water from them. The historical record does not say that they bought anything from Edom, however (Num 30:14-16), for Edom strongly refused to allow them passage through their land.

Yet the kindness of God was constantly shown to Israel in forty years of their trudging through the wilderness (v.7). Thus they passed by those whom God calls their “Brethren, the descendants of Esau,” and came by the way of the wilderness of Moab. As with Edom, however, Israel was not to attack Moab for the Lord had given that land to the descendants of Lot (v.9).

It is noted in verse 10 that the Emims had previously possessed that land. They were giants as great and numerous as the Anakim. Since the Moabites had dispossessed them, could Israel not dispossess the inhabitants of Canaan when they had the Lord with them? Similarly, the Horites had previously dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau had dispossessed them (v.12).

This tells us that because certain people possessed a certain territory first, this does not give them indisputable rights to it. God had decreed that Edom was to have Seir and that the Moabites were to have the present country of Moab, just as He has decreed that Israel is to have the land of Canaan. Whoever fights against this will not prosper.

Israel was now told to proceed further, for it had been 38 years since leaving Kadesh Barnea at the time of their refusal to enter the land and the men of that previous generation had died as the Lord had told them they would (vs.14-15). They crossed the boundary of Moab and came near to Ammon. But they were told not to harass or interfere with Ammon, for God had given it to those descendants of Lot (v.19). As with Moab, it is said that giants had possessed that land, called Zanzummins. But since God had decreed that the Ammonites were to have this, the Lord destroyed the giants before them (vs.20-21).

These three peoples, therefore, Edom, Moab and Ammon, God had settled in their respective lands by His dispossessing the previous inhabitants. Since God had done this, then Israel was not to interfere. God had also determined what Israel’s inheritance was to be. They are told therefore to rise and take journey across the River Arnon where they were to take possession of the land of Sihon the Ammorites (v.24). The time had come to begin their conquests, though not having yet crossed the Jordan. God was to put the fear of Israel in the minds of the nations who would hear the report of Israel’s conquests (v.25).

CONQUEST OF SIHON AND HIS CITIES

(vs.26-37)

Sihon was an Ammorite. This race descended from Ham through Canaan (Gen 10:15-16). Moses sent messengers to Sihon with a peaceful intention, asking to pass through his land strictly by the highway, offering to pay for food and water (vs.26-27). They had done the same in regard to Edom, but this time the results were different. The Amorite was not their brother as was Esau.

In both cases they were refused permission to pass. In the case of Edom, Israel turned away from them and around that land. But God hardened the spirit of Sihon with the object of delivering him into Israel’s hand (v.30). Sihon came out against Israel to battle and Israel soundly defeated him, destroying men, women and children and taking possession of his cities (v.34). They took their livestock and other spoil, but spared none of the people (v.35). But they did not touch the people of Ammon, for they descended from Lot, the nephew of Abraham (v.37).

In later history there was occasion for David to attack and defeat Ammon because of Ammon’s insult to David when he showed kindness (2Sa 10:1-19 and 2Sa 12:26-31). But Israel initiated nothing against them.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

2:1 Then {a} we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir {b} many days.

(a) They obeyed, after God had chastised them.

(b) Eight and thirty years, as in De 2:14.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

2. The march from Kadesh to the Amorite frontier 2:1-23

Following Israel’s second departure from Kadesh (Numbers 20) the nation set out for "the wilderness" (Deu 2:1). This was probably the wilderness of Moab to the east of the Dead Sea. They traveled by "the way to the Red Sea" (Deu 2:1). This probably refers to the caravan route that ran from several miles south of the Dead Sea to Elath. Elath stood at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqabah. Then they "circled" around to the mountains of the Seir range southeast of the Arabah (Deu 2:1).

When Israel lay camped at Kadesh, Moses had asked permission from the Edomites to pass through their land on the Arabah road (Deu 2:8). This route ran east from Kadesh to the King’s Highway, the main north-south road east of the Seir mountains (cf. Num 20:14-21). The Edomites denied Moses’ request. Apparently later when Israel was moving north toward Edom from Elath God told Moses that they would pass through Edom (Deu 2:4-6). They did this through "the way of the wilderness of Moab" (Deu 2:8), a secondary route east of and roughly parallel to the King’s Highway. We may assume that the Israelites did buy food and water from the Edomites at this time (Deu 2:6).

Verse seven is a testimony to God’s care for His people during their wilderness wanderings. The sites of Elath and Ezion-geber (Deu 2:8) seem to have been very close together.

". . . the main settlement was the oasis of Aqabah, at the northeast corner of the gulf, and . . . both names, Elath and Ezion-geber, referred to this place, perhaps to two parts of the oasis." [Note: Dennis Baly, "Elath, Ezion-geber, and the Red Sea," Biblical Illustrator 9:3 (Spring 1983):69.]

God’s care of Moab (Deu 2:9) and Ammon (Deu 2:19) as well as Edom (Deu 2:5) is traceable to the source of these nations in Abraham’s family. They were partakers in the benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant. Note that God gave these nations their lands. The thrice repeated phrase, "I have given" (Deu 2:5; Deu 2:9; Deu 2:19), indicates Yahweh’s sovereign prerogative to assign His land to whomever He chose.

A later editor, under divine inspiration, may have added the parenthetic sections (Deu 2:10-12; Deu 2:20-23) to Moses’ narrative after Israel had settled in the land. They refer to events that happened after Israel crossed the Jordan (Deu 2:12; Deu 2:23).

"The Hurrians are referred to frequently in the Old Testament as the Horites [Deu 2:12; Deu 2:22] . . ." [Note: Peter Craigie, Ugarit and the Old Testament, p. 80.]

Deu 2:14 is a flashback. The crossing of the Zered was a benchmark event for the Israelites. It signaled the end of the wilderness wanderings as the crossing of the Red Sea had marked the end of Egyptian bondage. The crossing of the Jordan River would mark the beginning of a new era in the Promised Land.

"The reference to the demise of all the fighting men accomplishes at least two purposes: (1) it brings that whole era of desert sojourning to an end, and (2) it emphasizes more than ever that the impending victories of Israel in both the Transjordan and Canaan must be attributed not to Israel but to the Lord alone. With the heart of military capacity gone, there can be no doubt that victory is achievable only as he, the Warrior of Israel, leads them to triumph in holy war." [Note: Merrill, Deuteronomy, p. 95.]

The Caphtorim (Deu 2:23) were part of the sea people who invaded Canaan from the northwest and settled in the southwest portion of that land. The Caphtorim came from Caphtor (Crete) as a result of the invasion of their northern Mediterranean homelands by the Dorians (Greeks). The Caphtorim became known as the Philistines. The whole land of Canaan became known as Palestine, the land of the Philistines. The Roman Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) gave it this name.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT

Deu 1:1-46; Deu 2:1-37; Deu 3:1-29

AFTER these preliminary discussions we now enter upon the exposition. With the exception of the first two verses of chapter 1, concerning which there is a doubt whether they do not belong to Numbers, these three chapters stand out as the first section of our book. Examination shows that they form a separate and distinct whole, not continued in chapter 4; but there has been a great diversity of opinion as to their authorship and the intention with which they have been placed here. The vocabulary and the style so resemble those of the main parts of the book that they cannot be entirely separated from them; yet, at the same time, it seems unlikely that the original author of the main trunk of Deuteronomy can have begun his book with this introductory speech from Moses, followed it up with another Mosaic speech, still introductory, in chapter 4, and in chapter 5 begun yet another introductory speech running through seven chapters, before he comes to the statutes and judgments which are announced at the very beginning. The current supposition about these chapters, therefore, is that they are the work of a Deuteronomist, a man formed under the influence of Deuteronomy and filled with its spirit, but not the author of the book. This seems to account for the resemblances, and would also explain to some extent the existence of such a superfluous prologue. But the hypothesis is, nevertheless, not entirely satisfactory. The resemblances are closer than we should expect in the work of different authors; and one feels that the supposed Deuteronomist must have been less sensitive in a literary sense than we have any right to suppose him if he did not feel the incongruity of such a speech in this place. Professor Dillmann has made a very acute suggestion, which meets the whole difficulty in a more natural way. Feeling that the style and language were in all essentials one with those of the central Deuteronomy, he seeks for some explanation which would permit him to assign this section to the author of the book himself. He suggests that as originally written this was a historical introduction leading up to the central code of laws; a historical preface, in fact, which the author of Deuteronomy naturally prefixed to his book. Ex hypothesi he had not the previous books, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, before him as we have them. These now form a historical introduction to Deuteronomy of a very minute and elaborate kind; but he had to embody in his own book all of the past history of his people that he wished to emphasize, But when the editor who arranged the Pentateuch as we now have it inserted Deuteronomy in its present place, he found that he had a double historical preface, that in the previous books and this in Deuteronomy itself. As reverence forbade the rejection of these chapters, he took refuge in the expedient of turning the originally impersonal narrative into a speech of Moses; which he could all the more blamelessly do as the probability is that the whole book was regarded in his time as the work of Moses. This hypothesis, if it can be accepted, certainly accounts for all the phenomena presented by these chapters-the similarity of language, the archaeological notes in the speech, and the historic color in the statements regarding Edom, for example, which corresponds to early feeling, not to post-exilic thought at all. It has besides the merit of reducing the number of anonymous writers to be taken account of in the Pentateuch, a most desirable thing in itself. Lastly, it gives us in Deuteronomy a compact whole more complete in all its parts than almost any other portion of the Old Testament, certainly more so than any of the books containing legislation.

Moreover, that the Deuteronomic reinforcement and expansion of the Mosaic legislation, as contained in the Book of the Covenant, should begin with such a history of Yahwehs dealings with His people, is entirely characteristic of Old Testament Revelation. In the main and primarily, what the Old Testament writers give us is a history of how God wrought, how He dealt with the people He had chosen. In the view of the Hebrew writers, Gods first and main revelation of Himself is always in conduct. He showed Himself good and merciful and gentle to His people, and then, having so shown Himself, He has an acknowledged right to claim their obedience. As St. Paul has so powerfully pointed out, the law was secondary, not primary. Grace, the free love and choice of God, was always the beginning of true relations with Him, and only after that had been known and accepted does He look for the true life which His law is to regulate. Naturally, therefore, when the author of Deuteronomy is about to press upon Israel the law in its expanded form, to call them back from many aberrations, to summon them to a reformation and new establishment of the whole framework of their lives, he turns back to remind them of what their past had been. Law, therefore, is only a secondary deposit of Revelation. If we are true to the Biblical point of view we shall not look for the Divine voice only, or even chiefly, in the legal portions of the Scripture. Gods full revelation of Himself will be seen in the process and the completion of that age-long movement, which was begun when Israel first became a nation by receiving Yahweh as their God, and which ended with the life and death of Him who summed up in Himself all that Israel was called, but failed, to be.

That is the ruling thought in Scripture about Revelation. God reveals Himself in history; and by the persistent thoroughness with which the Scriptural writers grasp this thought, the unique and effective character of the Biblical Revelation is largely accounted for. Other nations, no doubt, looked back at times upon what their gods had done for them, and those who spoke for these gods may often have claimed obedience and service from their people on the ground of past favor and under threats of its withdrawal. But earlier than any other people which has affected the higher races of mankind, Israel conceived of God as a moral power with a will and purpose which embraced mankind. Further, in the belief which appears in their earliest records, that through them the nations were to be blessed, and that in the future One was coming who would in Himself bring about the realization of Israels destiny, they were provided with a philosophy of history, with a conception which was fitted to draw into organic connection with itself all the various fortunes of Israel and of the nations.

Of course, at first much that was involved in their view was not present to any mind. It was the very merit of the germinal revelation made through Moses that it had in it powers of growth and expansion. In no other way could it be a true revelation of God, a revelation which should have in it the fullness, the flexibility, the aloofness from mere local and temporary peculiarities, which would secure its fitness for universal mankind. Any revelation that consists only of words, of ideas even, must, to be received, have some kind of relation to the minds that are to receive it. If the words and ideas are revealed, as they must be, at a given place and a given time, they must be in such a relation to that place and time that at some period of the worlds history they will be found inadequate, needing expansion, which does not come naturally, and then they have to be laid aside as insufficient. But a revelation which consists in acts, which reveals God in intimate, age-long, constant dealings with mankind, is so many-sided, so varied, so closely molded to the actual and universal needs of man, that it embraces all the fundamental exigencies of human life, and must always continue to cover human experience. From it men may draw off systems of doctrines, which may concentrate the revelation for a particular generation, or for a series of generations, and make it more potently active in these circumstances. But unless the system be kept constantly in touch with the revelation as given in the history, it must become inadequate, false in part, and must one day vanish away.

The revelation then in life is the only possible form for a real revelation of God; and that the writers of the Old Testament in their circumstances and in their time felt and asserted this, is in itself so very great a merit that it is almost of itself sufficient to justify any claims they may make to special inspiration. The greatest of them saw God at work in the world, and had experience of His influence in themselves, so that they had their eyes opened to His actions as other men had not. The least of them, again, had been placed at the true point of view for estimating aright the significance of the ordinary action of the Divine Providence, and for tracing the lines of Divine action where they were to other men invisible, or at least obscure. And in the records they have left us they have been entirely true to that supremely important point of view. All they deal with in the history is the moral and spiritual effects of Gods dealing; and the great interests, as the world reckons them, of war and conquest, of commerce and art, are referred to only briefly and often only in the way of allusion. To many moderns this is an offence, which they avenge by speaking contemptuously of the mental endowment of the Biblical writers as historians. On the contrary, that these should have kept their eyes fixed only upon that which concerned the religious life of their people, that they should have kept firm hold of the truth that it was there the central importance of the people lay, and that they have given us the material for the formation of that great conception of supernatural revelation by history in which God Himself moves as a factor, is a merit so great that even if it were only a brilliant fancy they might surely be pardoned for ignoring other things. But if, as is the truth, they were tracing the central stream of Gods redemptive action in the world, were laying open to our view the steps by which the unapproachably lofty conception of God was built up, which their nation alone has won for the human race, then it can hardly seem a fault that nothing else appealed to them. They have given God to those who were blindly groping for Him, and they have established the standard by which all historic estimates of even modern life are ultimately to be measured.

For though there were in the history of that particular nation, and in the line of preparation for Christ, special miraculous manifestations of Gods power and love, which do not now occur, yet no judgment of the course of history is worth anything, even today, which does not occupy essentially the Biblical position. Ultimately the thing to be considered is, what hath God wrought? If that be ignored, then the stable and instructive element in history has been kept out of sight, and the mind loses itself hopelessly amid the weltering chaos of second causes. Froude, in his “History of England,” has noted this, and declares that in the period he deals with it was the religious men who alone had any true insight into the tendency of things. They measured all things, almost too crudely, by the Biblical standard; but so essentially true and fundamental does that show itself to be, that their judgment so formed has proved to be the only sound one. This is what we should expect if Gods power and righteousness are the great factors in the drama which the history of man and of the world unfolds to us. That being so, the suicidal folly of the policy of any Church or party which shuts the Bible away from popular use is manifest. It is nothing short of a blinding of the peoples eyes, and a shutting of their ears to warning voices which the providential government of the world, when viewed on a large scale, never fails to utter. It renders sound political judgment the prerogative only of the few, and sets them among a people who will turn to any charlatans rather than believe their voice.

It was natural and it was inevitable, therefore, that the author of Deuteronomy, standing, as he did, on the threshold of a great crisis in the history of Israel, should turn the thoughts of his people back to the history of the past. To him the great figure in the history of Israel in those trying and eventful years during which they wandered between Horeb, Kadesh-Barnea, and the country of the Arnon, is Yahweh their God. He is behind all their movements, impelling and inciting them to go on and enjoy the good land He had promised to their fathers. He went before them and fought for them. He bare them in the wilderness, as a man doth bear his son. He watched over them and guided their footsteps in cloud and fire by day and night. Moreover all the nations by whom they passed had been led by Him and assigned their places, and only those nations whom Yahweh chose had been given into Israels hand. In the internal affairs of the community, too, He had asserted Himself. They were Yahwehs people, and all their national action was to be according to His righteous character. Especially was the administration of justice to be pure and impartial, yielding to neither fear nor favor because the “judgment is Gods.” And how had they responded to all this loving favor on the part of God? At the first hint of serious conflict they shrank back in fear. Notwithstanding that the land which God had given them was a good and fruitful country, and notwithstanding the promises of Divine help, they refused to incur the necessary toils and risks of the conquest. Every difficulty they might encounter was exaggerated by them; their very deliverance from Egypt, which they had been wont to consider “their crowning mercy,” became to their faithless cowardice an evidence of hatred for them on the part of God.

To men in such a state of mind conquest was impossible; and though, in a spasmodic revulsion from their abject cowardice, they made an attack upon the people they were to dispossess, it ended, as it could not but end, in their defeat and rout. They were condemned to forty years of wandering, and it was only after all that generation was dead that Israel was again permitted to approach the land of promise. But Yahweh had been faithful to them, and when the time was come He opened the way for their advance and gave them the victory and the land. For His love was patient, and always made a way to bless them, even through their sins.

That was the picture the Deuteronomist spread out before the eyes of his countrymen, to the intent that they might know the love of God, and might see that safety lay for them in a willing yielding of themselves to that love. The disastrous results of their wayward and faint-hearted shrinking from this Divine calling is the only direct threat he uses, but in the passage there is another warning, all the more impressive that it is vague and shadowy, God is to the Deuteronomist the universal ruler of the world. The nations are raised up and cast down according to His will, and until He wills it they cannot be dispossessed. But He had willed that fate for many, and at every step of Israels progress they come upon traces of vanished peoples whom for their sins He had suffered others to destroy. The Emim in Moab, the Zamzummim in Ammon, the Horites in Self, and the Avvims in Philistia, had all been destroyed before the people who now occupied these lands, and the whole background of the narrative is one of judgment, where mercy had been of no avail. The sword of the Lord is dimly seen in the archaeological notes which are so frequent in this section of our book and thus the final touch is given to the picture of the past which is here drawn to be an impulse for the future. While all the foreground represents only Gods love and patience overcoming mans rebellion, the background is, like the path of the great pilgrim caravans which year by year make their slow and toilsome way to Mohammedan holy places, strewn with the remains of predecessors in the same path. With stern, menacing finger this great teacher of Israel points to these evidences that the Divine love and patience may be, and have been, outworn, and seems to re-echo in an even more impressive way the language of Isaiah: “The anger of Yahweh was kindled (against these peoples), and He stretched forth His hand (against them) and smote (them); and the hills did tremble, and (their) carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.” Without a word of direct rebuke he opens his peoples eyes to see that shadowy outstretched hand. Behind all the turmoil of the world there is a presence and a power which supports all who seek good, but which is sternly set against all evil, ready, when the moment comes, “to strike once and strike no more.”

Yet another glimpse is given us in these chapters of Gods manner of dealing with men. We have seen how He guides and rules His chosen ones. We have seen how He punishes those who have set themselves against the Divine law. And in Deu 2:30 we are told how men become hardened in their sin, so as to render destruction inevitable. Of Sihon, king of Hesh-bon, who would not let the Israelites pass by him, the writer says: “Yahweh thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.” But he does not mean by these expressions to lay upon God the causation of Sihons obstinacy, so as to make the man a mere helpless victim. His thought rather is, that as God rules all, so to Him must be ultimately traced all that happens in the world. In some sense all acts, whether good or bad, all agencies, whether beneficent or destructive, have their source in and their power from Him. But nevertheless men have moral responsibility for their acts, and are fully and justly conscious of ill desert. Consequently that hardening of spirit or of heart, which at one moment may be attributed solely to God, may at another be ascribed solely to the evil determination of man. The most instructive instance of this is to be found in the history of Pharaoh, when he was commanded to let Israel go. In that narrative, from Exo 4:1-31; Exo 5:1-23; Exo 6:1-30; Exo 7:1-25; Exo 8:1-32; Exo 9:1-35; Exo 10:1-29; Exo 11:1-10, there is repeated interchange of expression. Now it is Yahweh hardened Pharaohs heart; now, as in Exo 8:15 and Exo 8:32, Pharaoh hardened his own heart; and, again, Pharaohs heart was hardened. In each case the same thing is meant, and the varying expressions correspond only to a difference of standpoint. When Yahweh foretells that the signs He authorizes Moses to show will fail of their effect, it is always “Yahweh will harden Pharaohs heart,” since the main point in contemplation is His government of the world. If, on the other hand, it is the sinful obstinacy of Pharaoh which is prominent in the passage, we have the self-determination of Pharaoh alone set before us. But it is to be noted, and this is indeed the cardinal fact, that Yahweh never is said to harden the heart of a good man, or a man set mainly upon righteousness. It is always those who are guilty of palpable wrongs and acts of evildoing upon whom God thus works.

Now we know that the author of Deuteronomy had two at least of the ancient historical narratives before him which are combined in Exo 4:1-31; Exo 5:1-23; Exo 6:1-30; Exo 7:1-25; Exo 8:1-32; Exo 9:1-35; Exo 10:1-29; Exo 11:1-10, and he takes up their thinking. Expressed in modern language, the thought is this. When men are found following their own will in defiance of all law and all the restraints of righteousness, that is manifestly not the first stage in their moral declension. This obstinacy in evil is the result and the wages of former evil deeds, beginning perhaps only with careless laxity, but gathering strength and virulence with every willful sin. Until near the end of a completed growth in wickedness no man deliberately says, “Evil, be thou my good.” Nevertheless each act of sin involves a step towards that, and the sinner in this manner hardens himself against all warning. Like the sins which work this obduracy, this hardening is the sinners own act. The ruin which falls upon his moral nature is his own work. That is the inexorable result of the moral order of the universe, and from it no exception is possible. But if so, God too has been active in all such catastrophes. He has so framed and ordered the world that indulgence in evil must harden in evil. This it was which the Israelite religious mind saw and dwelt upon, as well as upon mans share in the dread process of moral decay. We also do well to take heed to this aspect of the truth. When we do, we have solved the Scriptural difficulty regarding the Divine hardening of mans heart. It is simply the ancient formula for what every mind that is ethically trained recognizes in the world today. Those who recognize themselves as children of God, and acknowledge the obligations of His law, are dealt with in the way of discipline with infinite love and patience. Those who definitely set themselves against the moral order of the world which God has established are broken in pieces and destroyed. Between these two classes there are the morally undetermined, who ultimately turn either to the right hand or to the left. The process by which these pass on to be numbered among the rebellious is pictured in Scripture with extraordinary moral insight. The only difference from a present-day description of it is, that here God is kept constantly present to the mind as the chief factor in the development of the soul. Today, even those who believe in God are apt to forget Him in tracing His laws of action. But that is an error of the first magnitude. It darkens the hope of man; for without a sure promise of Divine help there is no certainty of moral victory either for the race or the individual. It narrows our view of the awful sweep of sin; for unless we see that sin affects even the Ruler of the universe, and defies His unchanging law, its results are limited to the evil that we do our fellowmen, which, as we see it, is of little importance. Further, it degrades moral law to a mere arbitrary dictum of power, or to an opinion founded upon mans purblind experience. The acknowledgment of God, on the contrary, makes morality the very essence of the Divine nature, and the unchangeable rule for the life of man.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary