Deuteronomy 8:7

For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land,.... The land of Canaan, abounding with good things after enumerated, a land flowing with milk and honey, having in it plenty of everything both

For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land.

Depths, i.e. deep wells, or springs, or lakes, which were divers and large.

Deuteronomy 8:7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;Ver. 7. That spring out of valleys.] Quantum miraculi sit in admiranda illa fontium perennitate, nemo, credo, Philosophorum satis explicare hactenus potuit. The perennity of springs is a just wonder, and not far from a miracle.

(7) For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land.—The description in this and the following verses is most attractive; but it is a long time since any one has seen Palestine in that condition. Its desolation, no less than its beauty, is a proof of the truth of the Divine word. Of fountains and depths that spring out.—Rather, that go forth in the valley and on the hill. The watercourse down the mountain-side, and the deep lake or still pool below, are both described here.

7. bringeth thee] is about to bring thee: see above on Deuteronomy 6:10. a good land] Deuteronomy 1:35 : Sam. and LXX add here and a large (Exodus 3:8). brooks of water … fountains … depths] The principal and characteristic waters of Palestine (for the hydrography of the land see especially Robinson, Phys. Geog. of the Holy Land, ch. ii, Trelawney Saunders, Introd. to Survey of W. Pal.; also the present writer’s HGHL, 77 f., 657 f., and Jerusalem, Bk i. chs. 3–5). Brook: naḥ ?al (Deuteronomy 2:13) is the Ar. wady, applied both to a valley with only a winter-torrent (e.g. Kidron) and one with a perennial stream (e.g. Arnon and Jabboḳ ?), the more exact name for which is naḥ ?al ’çthan (HGHL, 657). Fountains: ‘ayanoth, springs of living water as distinct from cisterns (id. 77 f.). Depths: tehômôth, pl. of tehom, the mythical name not only of the open ocean round the earth, but of its supposed continuance under the earth (Deuteronomy 4:18, Deuteronomy 5:8), from which the fountains, salt and fresh alike, seemed to be derived (Amos 8:4); the depths here are therefore either the lakes of Palestine, perennial (Phiala or Birket er-Ram, Huleh, Gennesaret and the Dead Sea) and seasonal (e.g. Merj el-Ghuruk, HGHL, 327 n.), a possible meaning for tehômôth in Psalms 135:6; or the larger outbursts of water from underground, the births of full rivers (as at Tell el Ḳ ?ady) so characteristic of Palestine. This second meaning is the more probable here both because of the following springing forth, and the parallelism between depths and fountains (the larger word for fountains) in Proverbs 8:24. See below on Deuteronomy 33:13. springing forth in valleys and hills] Lit. in the valley and on the mountain. The phenomenon is due to the limestone formation of the land, the larger outbursts occurring mainly at the foot of a hill or great mound, where the harder dolomitic limestone impenetrable by water comes to the surface, forcing the water out. Where the softer cretaceous strata lie deep the water sinks through them and fountains are either scanty or altogether wanting. Valley, biḳ ?‘ah, HGHL, 654 f.

See Exodus 3:8 note, and the contrast expressed in Deuteronomy 11:10-11, between Palestine and Egypt.

7, 8. A good land — In these verses Moses contrasts the sterility of the almost waterless desert with the fertility of the land they are soon to possess. They are to have a land of brooks and fountains.