Deuteronomy 2

words, The Word of the Lord thy Godhathbeen thy helper; thou hast not icanted any thing. * Because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession. To the descendants of his youngest son; as he had done the country of Moab to tho children of the eldest. *

Deuteronomy 2:1

J±ND we turned, &c. From the borders of the land of Canaan, to go southward, till they came to the very shore of the Red Sea. Which, as David Chytraetis computes it, was thirty German miles from Kadesh-barnea. As the Lord spake unto me.] According to the command formerly mentioned, Numb. xiv. 25. Andwe cojnpassed Mount Seir.] The mountainous country “of Edom; whereof Mount Seir was but a part. For when they came to Ezion-Gaber, which w r as upon the Bed Sea, they were still in the country of Edom, (1 Kings ix. 2G. 2 Chron. viii. 17.) For it stretched a long way; from the ^confines of Canaan, unto Elath and Ezion-Gaber, on the Red Sea. Many days.] Some think that they were marching to and fro along the borders of this country, all the time they. spent from this removal, till they returned to go towards Canaan again. So that by many days, they understand the whole thirty-eight years which passed between their departure from Kadesh-barnea till they came over the brook Zered, (ver. 14.) For when they were at Ezion-Gaber (which was farthest from Canaan), they were, as I said, upon the borders of Edom: and so they were when they eame back again, seven-and-thirty years after at Mount Hor, (Numb. xx.23.xxi.4.) But this must not be understood, as if all the stations mentioned Numb, xxxiii. after they left Kadeshbarnea till they came hither again, were near to the country of Edom: some of them might be remote, though they all lay in that wilderness, which reached from one end of Idumea to the other.

Deuteronomy 2:2

And the Lord spalce nnto me, saying. This was in the end of the thirty-ninth year after their coming out of Egypt; when they had spent thirty-seven years going to and fro since their departure from Kadesh-barnea. In all which time he gives us no account what passed, either in the foregoing book, or in this: but only sets down the places of their abode, as I observed in the thirty-third of Numbers.

Deuteronomy 2:3

Ye have compassed this mountain long enough. i. e. The mountainous country of Edom, mentioned ver. 1. Turn ye northward.] From Ezion-Gaber, which was in (he south, towards the north,’that is, directly towards the land of Canaan.

Deuteronomy 2:4

And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir. For they went from Ezion-Gaber to Kadesh, (Numb. xx. 1.) and from thence to Mount Hor, (ver. 22. which was in the edge of the land of Edom, Numb, xxxiii. 37.) and from thence they travelled to compass the land of Edom, (xxi. 4.)?. e. the eastern quarter of it. So that though they did not pass through the coast of Edom, as we translate it, yet they passed by it, and very near unto it; as the particle beth frequently signifies, (Gen. xxxvii. 13. Josh. v. 13. 1 Sam. xxix. 1.) Though they may be truly said to pass through their coast, if thereby we understand their border, or the confines of their country. And they shall be afraid of you.] Lest, wanting a settlement, the Israelites should seize upon their country. Accordingly we find, they raised all the force they could make to oppose them, Numb. xx. 20. Take ye good heed to yourselves therefore.] Let not that encourage you to assault them.

Deuteronomy 2:5

Meddle not with them. Make not the least attempt upon them. For I will not give you of their land; no, not so much as afoot-breadth.] i. e. Not the smallest portion. Because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possesr sion.] So Joshua saith expressly, Josh. xxiv. 4. wherein he made good the blessing of Isaac, (Gen. xxvii. 39.),

Deuteronomy 2:6

Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat, &c>. If you have a mind to any provision that their country affords, you shall not take it, but purchase it; as they did their very water, (ver. 29.) which was a scarce thing in those dry countries. And so the Israelites offered to do, when they treated with them about a passage through their country, (Numb. xx. 19.)

Deuteronomy 2:7

For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in. all the works of thy hand. Or, though the Lord hath blessed thee, &c. that is, though there is no need of it, God having abundantly provided you with all things necessary. But if we follow our translation, the sense is plain: You have wherewith to buy of thcmivhat you need or desire; therefore do not take it away by force. lie knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness.] Hath directed and prospered thee (as the world knoweth signifies in many places, Psal. i. 6. xxxi,7.) in thy travels through a dangerous wilderness. These forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.] He had mercifully provided for them so constantly, that he let them want nothing necessary for their support. % This was the sum of the argument why they should not molest the Edomites, nor take any thing by stealth from them, because they were in no need; and God hath given that country to the children of Esau, as he intended to give Canaan to the Israelites. Their being in the wilderness forty years, is mentioned also viii. 2. xxix..5. besides other places of Scripture. For, from the fifteenth day of the first month, in which their fathers came out of Egypt, (Numb, xxxiii. 5.) to the tenth day of the same month in which they went over Jordan into Canaan, (Josh. iv. 19.) there were but five days wanting of complete forty years. I cannot but hero note also, that this is one of those places wherein Onkelos mentions the Memra, t. e. Word of Jehovah, which can signify nothing but a Divine person: for thus he translates these

Deuteronomy 2:8

And when ive had passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, ichich dwelt in Seir, through the ivay of the plain. i.e. Through the wilderness of Zin. From Elath, and from Ezion-Gaber.] Two places upon the Red Sea; the last of which [Ezion-Gaber] signifies as much as the spine, or backbone of a man. So called, because there were great ragged rocks in that port (as Bochart observes), like those at Dyrrachium in Macedonia; which had its name also from thence, (lib. i. Canaan, cap. 44.) We turned.’] After they were denied passage through their country, and had gone through those stations mentioned Numb, xxxiii. 41, 42, &c. Andpassed by the wilderness of Moab.] See Numb. xxi. 11. Going by the east side of their country, (Judg. xi. 18.)

Deuteronomy 2:9

And the Lord said unto me, IHstress not the Moabites, neither contend tvith tJiem in battle. He would not have them force their way through his country; because the king of Moab refused them a passage, as the king of Edom had done, (Judg. xi. 17.) For their country now was but small, since Sihonking of the Amorites.had taken from them all the best of it, which lay between Arnon and Jabbok; of which the Israelites had possessed themselves by the conquest of Sihon. So that they had only that portion remaining which lay upon the Dead Sea”; which David, in aftertimes, subdued. For I will not give thee of their land for a possession.’] No more than of Edom, (ver. 5.) Because I have given Ar.] It is likely the capital city gave name to the whole country about it. At least Ar (which was the chief city of Moab, Numb. xxi. 15. 2$.) is put here for all the land of Moab; as Mount Seir for all the land of Edom, (ver. 1.) Unto the children of Lot for a possession.] Though the Moabites were now a wicked people; yet for their pious ancestor’s sake, from whom they were descended,.God would not have them dispossessed.

Deuteronomy 2:10

And the Emims dwelt there in time past, &c. A terrible people, as the very name imports, both for their number, and for their strength, being of a large size, like Anakims. (Sec Gen. xiv. 5.)

Deuteronomy 2:11

Which also tuere accounted giants, as the Anakims, &c. Which seems to have been their name; or else Itcphaim: but to distinguish them from others of that name in Canaan, the Moabites called them Emims.

Deuteronomy 2:12

The Horims also dwelt in Seir before time. They were the ancient inhabitants of Mount Seir; as the Emims were of the country of Moab, (Gen. xiv. G. xxxvi. 20.) But the children of Esau succeeded tliem.] Planted themselves in that mountain. When they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their land.] When the children of Esau expelled the Jlorites, or the children of Lot the Emims, is no where recorded; nor who were their leaders in these expeditions. But they seem to be here remembered, as an encouragement to the Israelites to hope that they might drive out the inhabitants of Canaan (who were not stronger than these), as they had already driven the Amorites out of the country of Sihon, as it here follows. As Israel did unto the land of his possession, zvftich the Lord gave unto them.] Some have argued from hence, that’ this book was not written by Moses, but by somebody else, after they had got possession of the land of Canaan. But it is manifest, this may relate -to what they had done already in dispossessing Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, of their country: which, it is expressly said, Moses had given for a possession to the tribe of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; and that by God’s direction, Numb, xxxii. 33. xxxiv. 14, 15. and in this book, xxix. 8. This hath been observed by many; particularly by Huetius, in his Demonstratio Evangelica, propos. iv. cap. 14. n. 15.

Deuteronomy 2:13

Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered, &c. Which elsewhere we translate the valley of Zered. (See Numb. xxi. 12.)

Deuteronomy 2:14

And the space in ichich we came from Kadesh bamea, until we came over the brook Zered, was thirtyeight years.* For it is evident, by the story in Numbers, that they came to Kadesh-barnea about the fourth month of* the second year after they came out of Egypt. (See upon Numb.xii. 1G.) And if we suppose that they removed from hence in the seventh or eighth month of that year, it is certain that they could not come to this brook till the seventh or eighth month of the fortieth year.. F6r Aaron died at Mount Hor on the first day of the fifth month of this year; and we must allow two or three months time, for all that followed between that and this, viz. the conquest of king Arad, and of Sihon, and Og, &c. Until all the generation of the men ofxvar.] So they weTe called, who were above twenty years old, (Numb. i. 3.) Were wasted out from among the peopled] Utterly consumed, so that not one of them was left, (Numb. xxvi. G4, G5.) As the Lordsware unto them.] See Numb. xiv. 28, 29.

Deuteronomy 2:15

For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from among the host. Some of them, it is likely, died a natural death; but many of them might, in the course of nature, have lived longer, if God had not several w r ays cut them off before their time. Until they were consumed.] By one plague or other, which God sent among them: so that a great deal of their time, in the, thirty-eight years beforcmentioned, was spent, it is likely, in burying and mourning for their dead. Ver. 1G, 17. So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, that the Lord spake unto me, saying.] This was spoken, it is probable, just as they passed over the brook Zered, or in their next station, at Dibon-Gad, (Numb. Xxxiii. 45.)

Deuteronomy 2:18

Thou art to pass through Ar, the coast of Moab, this day. Or rather, to pass by the border of Moab: for they were not permitted to come into their country, ver. 9. (See upon ver. 4.)

Deuteronomy 2:19

And wlten thou comest nigh over against the children of Amnion. As they did after the conquest, of Sihon king of the Amorites; whose country bordered upon the Ammonites, (Numb. xxi. 13. 24.) Distress them 7iot, neither meddle with them.]’ The same command with that about the Edomites and Moabites, (ver. 5. 9.) I*or I will not give thee of the land of the children ofAmmon any possession.] As he had said before of the land of Moab, (ver. 9.)

Deuteronomy 2:20

And that also was accounted a land of giants, &c. Was called the country of giants, or Rephaim: for people so called inhabited it. And the Ammonites called them Zamzummims.] Changed their names, it is probable, from Zuzims, (see Gen. xiv. 5.) as they were called before, into Zamzummims. But why they were called either by the one name or the other, it is but conjectured. Some conceive they were called Zuzims from their swiftness, or nimble running, which, in warriors, was a quality always highly valued; and Zamzummims from their abominable wickedness, or their craft and cunning in doing mischief..

Deuteronomy 2:21

A people great, and many, and tall as the Anakims. The same description which he gave of the Emims, ver. 10. * But the Lord destroyed them before them.’] i. e. Before the Ammonites; who expelled them out of their country, and it is like cut off the most of them. And they succeeded them, and dwelt in their la?id.] This is so often repeated, to possess the minds of the Israelites with a sense of God’s providence, which rules every where; displacing one people, and settling another in their stead; and fixing their bounds also, which they shall not pass without his leave. t

Deuteronomy 2:22

As he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Ilorites from before them, &c. He repeats this (which he had said before, ver. 12.) because it was a fresher instance of God’s disposal of countries unto what people he pleases; and nearly touched the Israelites, because they were their brethren. *

Deuteronomy 2:23

And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even wito Azzah. Unto which he adds an instance, which seems to be elder than any of the former, concerning a people called Avims; who inhabited some part of the land of Canaan, whither they were going. For though we do not read of Hazerim in any other place, yet Azzah, L e. Gaza, ^yas in the country of the Philistines; who oxpelled these Avims. And David Chytrasus thinks that Hazerim was a town afterward in the tribe of Judah, called Hazagaddah, Josh. xv. 27. t m The Caphtorim which came out of Caphtor.] That is, some people of Cappadocia; who were near of kin to the Philistines. (See Gen. x. 14.) Destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.] Concerning which, see in the place abovenamed. Unto which I shall only add, that the Avims being expelled out of Canaan by the.Caphtqrims, went, it is very probable, over Euphrates and settled there; till the king of Assyria brought some of them back again, to plant the country of Samaria; 2 Kings xvii. 31. where we translate this.word Avites. (See Bochart, in his Phaleg. lib. iv. cap. 36.)

Deuteronomy 2:24

Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon. See Numb. xxi. 13, 14. f. Behold, I have given unto tlpj hand Sihon king of Ileshhouy and his land, &c] You yourselves shall do to him, what your brethren the children of Esau did to tho Hojrites, and the Moabitcs to tho Eraims, and the children of Amnion to the Zamzummims, and tho Capbtorims to the Avims. By which their faith might still be more confirmed, that the people of Canaan, though never so mighty, should not be able to stand before them.

Deuteronomy 2:25

This day tvill I begin to put the dread of thee, and the fear of thee, upon the nations that are under the whole heaven. Especially upon the Canaanitcs, who were struck, no doubt, with terror by this conquest, as they had been by all that befel the Egyptians, (Josh. ii. 10, 11.) Who shall hear the report of thee.] This explains what he means by the hyperbolical expression beforcgoing, the nations under the whole heaven; that is, as many as shall hear of these things. And shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.] As women in travail arc.

Deuteronomy 2:26

And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth. There is a city of this name mentioned by Joshua, xiii.. 18. from whence this wilderness had its denomination. Some take it to be the same with that called Jeshimon, Numb. xxi. 20. Unto Sihon, king of Heshbon, with words of peace.] A friendly message, desiring there might be no quarrel be-, tween him and the Israelites, who desired nothing but the common offices of humanity.

Deuteronomy 2:27

Let me pass through thy land. Which was the direct way to the fords of Jordan. I will go along by the highway.] Not turning into the fields or vineyards, as it is expressed Numb. xxi. 22. In the Hebrew the word is doubled, bederech, bederech, by the way, by the way: which seems to be a vehement affirmation, to assure them they would not stir out of the highway. I will neither turn nnto the right hand, nor to the left.] Not slep aside, out of the common road (called the king’s highway), which was free for all people.

Deuteronomy 2:28

TIiou shalt sell me meat for money, that I may eat, &c. They offered to pay for whatsoever they wanted; which is included in meat and drink. Only I will pass through on my feet.] Barely havo a passago through his country.

Deuteronomy 2:29

As the children of Esau which dwelt in Seir, and the Moabites which dwelt in Ar, did unto vie. He doth not mean that they granted Israel a passage through their country; but that they did not <teny to sell them meat and drink for their money, as they passed by their coasts. Until I pass over Jordan, unto the land which tlte Lord our God giveth us.] This was said to move Sihon to consent to their desire, by letting him understand they intended nothing against his country; being secure of a settlement in tho land of Canaan, nnto which they prayed him to let them pass quietly.

Deuteronomy 2:30

But Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let its pass by him. Refused to agree to this reasonable demand. For the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, &c] Gave him over to his own inflexible humour, which was set upon violent courses; from which God did not divert him (becauso he intended to destroy bim), but rather ordered things so, that his mind should bo enraged and disturbed, and so unable to consider tilings prudently, and discern what belonged to his peace; which is the utmost that pan be meant by hardening his spirit, and making his heart obstinate..Which, as it is a sin, cannot be ascribed unto God; but, as it is a punishment, might justly be inflicted by him upon Sihon for his former sins.

Deuteronomy 2:31

And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land. This was said when Moses saw hiin coming out to battle against them (as it here follows in the next verse); at which time he is said to begin to give them his country, because he had absolutely resolved it; and, it is probable, so confounded his forces, that they were as good as already conquered. Before thee.’] Into their power; that they might go into it at their pleasure. Begin toposmss, that thou may est inherit his land.] In the same sense he bids Moses begin to possess; i. e. prepare to take possession of it. (See iii. 2.) J

Deuteronomy 2:32

Then Sihon came but against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. See Numb. xxi. 23.

Deuteronomy 2:33

And the Lord our God delivered him before its; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. They won the field, and killed him, his sons, and all that came out to fight with them. And R. Solomon saith his sons were like himself, very great men.

Deuteronomy 2:34

And we took all his cities at that time. After this victory they took his whole country, as is related Numb. xii. 24, 25. and the cities belonging to it are mentioned xxxii. 34, 35, &c. A nd utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city; we left none to remain.] They being part of those wicked people the Amorites; whom God had condemned to titter destruction: for the Amorites came out of Canaan, and took this country from “the Moabites and the children of Ammon.

Deuteronomy 2:35

Only the cattle we took for aprey unto ourselves, &c. They had the Divine warrant for this, no doubt; as they had for the extirpation of the people.

Deuteronomy 2:36

From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river Arnon. This river divided Moab from the* kingdom of Sihon, (Numb. xxi. 13. 24.) upon which the city of Aroer stood; which was now in the possession of Sihon, thougli belonging formerly to the Moabites. And from this city that is by the river.] This some take to be the city Ar, (Numb. xxi. 15.) But I think these words should rather be translated, even the city in the river; meaning Aroer still, as a remarkable place, being encompassed with the river, (Josh. xii. 2.) For Ar, I think, was never in the possession of the Amorites, being the capital cityof Moab.* Even unto Gilead.] Fot half of Gilead belonged to the country of Sihon, (Josh. xii. 2.) and was given to the tribe of Gad, (Josh. xv. 2.) And the other half belonged to the kingdom of Og, (as wo read in the sameplacfc, Josh. xii. 5.) and was given to the half tribe of Manasseh, (Josh. xiii. 31.)

Deuteronomy 2:37

Only unto the land of the children of Amnion (hou earnest not. That is, into no part of their country, which was then in their possession: but all that the Amorites had taken from them was given to the Gadites, (Josh. xiii. 25.) Nor unto any place in the river Jabbok*] To no place beyond that river, which was the border of the children of Ammon, (Numb. xxi. 24. Josh. xii. 2.) Nor into the cities of the mountains.’] Much less into the mountainous parts of the country of the Ammonites. Nor unto wliatsoever the Lord our God forbade us.] The words in the Hebrew are, And all whatsoever the Lord our God commanded us, if. e. not to meddle withal. vol. i. i^-…