Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 32:42
And Nobah went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called it Nobah, after his own name.
42. And Nobah went and took Kenath ] The clan Nobah appears to have given its name to a place, which is mentioned with Jogbehah (see Num 32:35) in Jdg 8:11. Kenath is identified by Euseb. and Jerome as Kanatha, the modern anawt, which lay on the western slope of Jebel aurn. This was far to the north, and would make the present passage imply that the Nobah clan left the district where Nobah lay and migrated. But 1Ch 2:23 places Kenath in close proximity with avvth-Jair; and Jdg 8:11 can be most easily explained if Kenath and Jogbehah lay near one another.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Kenath – Now Kenawat, an important site near the southern extremity of the tract el-Lejah, and on the western slopes of the mountains of the Hauran. The name given to it by its conqueror, as in other cases, fell ere long into disuse, and the old name has held its ground to this day.
The notices, both Scriptural and traditional, of the conquest of northeastern Gilead and Bashan by the Machirites, plainly intimate that it was effected by a few chiefs of great military prowess, who overran rapidly a far larger district than they could colonize. The father of Jair, however, Segub, was of the tribe of Judah (compare Num 27:1, and note; 1Ch 2:21-22), and it is likely that the Manassite leaders induced many of the more adventurous of this tribe, and some possibly of other tribes, to join them in their enterprise against Bashan (see Jos 19:34).
The Machirites did not exterminate the whole population of this district (see Jos 13:15, etc.). The conquest of the district east of Jordan seems never to have been so effectually accomplished as that on the other side.
During the troublous times of the Judges the eastern Manassites rendered good service to the nation; compare Jdg 5:14. Gideon, and probably Jephthah, were of this tribe, and reflect in a later generation the warlike and adventurous spirit which Jair and Nobah exhibited in the days of Moses.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Nobah, who though not elsewhere named, was doubtless an eminent person of the tribe of Manasseh.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
42. Nobahalso a distinguishedperson connected with the eastern branch of the tribe of Manasseh.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Nobah went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof,…. Who this Nobah was is not certain, very probably a descendant of Manasseh; it is said u he was among those that were born in Egypt, and died after the death of Moses, and was buried beyond Jordan, as it is said, also did Machir and Jair, so that there were none left but Caleb, and Joshua:
and called it Nobah, after his name; but it seems that in later times its ancient name was restored to it; for Jerom w, says there was a village in Arabia, called Cannatha, which is supposed to be this place; though he also tells us x, that eight miles from Heshbon; to the south, is shown a desert place called Naba. Pliny y places Cannatha in the Decapolis.
u Seder Olam Rabba, c. 9. p. 27. w Ut supra. (De loc. Heb. fol. 89. M.) x De loc. Heb. fol. 93. H. y Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 18.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Nobah, whose family is never referred to, but who probably belonged, like Jair, to one of the families of Machirites, took the town of Kenath and its daughters, i.e., the smaller towns dependent upon it (see Num 21:25), and gave it his own name Nobah. The name has not been preserved, and is not to be sought, as Kurtz supposes, in the village of Nowa ( Newe), in Jotan, which is mentioned by Burckhardt (p. 443), and was once a town of half an hour’s journey in circumference. For Kenath, which is only mentioned again in 1Ch 2:23 as having been taken from the Israelites by Gesur and Aram, is , which Josephus ( de bell. Jud. i. 19, 2), and Ptolemy speak of as belonging to Coelesyria, and Pliny ( h. n. 5, 16) to Decapolis, and which was situated, according to Jerome, “in the region of Trachonitis, near to Bostra.” The ruins are very extensive even now, being no less than 2 1/2 or 3 miles in circumference, and containing magnificent remains of palaces from the times of Trajan and Hadrian. It is on the western slope of Jebel Hauran, and is only inhabited by a few families of Druses. The present name is Kanuat. (For description, see Seetzen, i. pp. 78ff.; Burckhardt, pp. 157ff.; cf. Ritter, Erdk.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
42. Nobah An Israelite warrior, probably a Manassite. Jewish tradition says that he was born in Egypt, and was buried during the passage of the Jordan. The site of Kenath has been recovered with tolerable certainty at Kenawat, a ruined town in the southern extremity of the Lejah. “The wall, still in many places almost perfect, follows the top of the cliffs for nearly a mile, and then sweeps round in a zigzag course, enclosing a space about half a mile wide. The general aspect of the city is very striking; temples, palaces, churches, theatres, and massive buildings whose original use we cannot tell are grouped together in picturesque confusion, while beyond the walls, in the glen, on the summits and sides of the wooded peaks, away in the midst of oak forests, are clusters of columns, massive towers, and lofty tombs. Many of the ruins are beautiful and interesting. In no other city of Palestine did I see so many statues as there are here. Unfortunately, they are all mutilated. A colossal head of Ashteroth, sadly broken, lies before a little temple, of which probably it was once the chief idol. The leading streets are wide and regular, and the roads radiating from the gates are unusually wide and spacious.” Rev. J.L. Porter. “It was built in the crevices of a great island of lava which has split, in cooling, into innumerable fissures, through whose labyrinths no enemy could penetrate.
It would indeed have been perhaps impossible for Israel to have overcome a people so strongly entrenched, but for the presence at that time of vast swarms of hornets, a plague common in Palestine, which drove the population into the open ground where they could be attacked.” Geikie. See Jos 24:12, note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
REMARK, my soul, in the case of those Reubenites and Gadites, how injurious to the pilgrimage state in thy pursuit of Canaan, is a love of worldly ease and settlement. Alas! what have we, who profess ourselves to be strangers and pilgrims upon earth, and are supposed to be seeking a better country, that is an heavenly, what have we to do with the things of time and sense? But how true is that saying of the apostle’s; All seek their own, not the things of JESUS CHRIST. Precious Redeemer! do thou so endear thyself to my view, that I may esteem it my chief happiness to endure affliction, if need be, with the people of GOD, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; and like thy servant of old, esteem the reproach of CHRIST greater riches than all the treasures on this side Jordan.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
villages. Hebrew daughters; depending on the mother or metropolitan city. Figure of speech Prosopopoeia (App-6).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Reciprocal: Jdg 8:11 – Nobah 1Ch 2:23 – Kenath