The Fifth Book of Moses, called Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy 2
Chapter II · Vol. I, pp. 479–482
1 The story is continued, that they were not to meddle with the Edomites, 9 nor with the Moabites, 16 nor with the Ammonites: but Sihon the Amorite was given up to be subdued by them.
1 THEN we aturned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me; and we bcompassed mount Seir1 many days.
2 And the LORD spake unto me, saying,
4 And command thou the people, saying, dYe are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir,1 and they shall be afraid of you: etake ye good heed unto yourselves therefore.
d ch. 23.7. Nu. 20.14. Ex. 15.15. Ge. xxxvi. 1 Ch. 1.35-54.
A.M. 2553. B.C. 1451.
1 'Mount Seir' is not to be taken as a single mountain around which the Israelites continuously moved. It is evidently the name of an extensive mountain range of about 70 miles from south to north, and about 50 from east to west. To 'compass,' in the language of Scripture, signifies either to go round or to be around a place. Jos. 6.4, Jn. 4.20, will furnish an example of each application. In the text it evidently applies to an encampment, of which the occasional movements were southward towards the Red Sea. Of these movements Moses gives no special record. A melancholy but accurate emblem of human life, of which much is spent 'in laboriously doing nothing' that is worthy of being rescued from oblivion.—C.
5 Meddlef not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a footbreadth;2 because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.
f ch. 23.7. 2 Ch. 20.10. Ro. 12.18. Ge. 36.8. Jos. 24.4.
2 Heb. even to the treading of the sole of the foot.
6 Ye shall gbuy 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 hblessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he iknoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.
8 And when we kpassed 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 turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab.
9 And the LORD said unto me, lDistress not the Moabites,3 neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given mAr4 unto the children of Lot for a possession.
l Ge. 19.37. Ju. 11.17. Nu. 21.15,25,26. 2 Ch. 20.10.
3 Or, use no hostility against Moab.
m ver. 18. Nu. 21.13,15,28. Is. 15.1. Ju. 11.18
4 Ar was both the name of a town and of a country, as Babylon was the name both of a city and an empire.—C.
10 The nEmims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall as the Anakims;
n Ge. 14.5; 36.24. Nu. 13.32,33.
11 Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.5
5 See note on Ge. 14.5.—P.
12 Theo Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them,6 when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their 7stead; pas Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the LORD gave unto them.
o ver. 22. Ge. 14.6; 36.20-43. 1 Ch. 1.38-54.
6 Heb. inherited them.
7 Or, room.
p Nu. 21.21-35. ver. 26-36; ch. 3.1-17. Jos. vi.-xxi.
14 And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea,r until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years;9 until all the generation of the men of war were wasteds out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them.
r Nu. 13.26. ch. 1.19,46.
9 That is, from the first visit to Kadesh-barnea when the spies were sent out.—P.
s ch. 1.34,35. Ps. 78.33; 90.3,4. Nu. 14.28-32; 32.11,13; 26.64,65. Eze. 20.15. He. 3.8-19.
15 For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed.
16 So it came to pass, when tall the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people,
t Nu. 26.64.
17 That the LORD spake unto me, saying,
18 Thou art to pass over through uAr, the coast of Moab, this day.
u ver. 9. Is. 15.1. Nu. 21.13,28. Ju. 11.18.
19 And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, xdistress 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.
x ver. 5,9. Ge. 19.38. 2 Ch. 20.10.
20 (That also was accounted a land of giants:1 giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them yZamzummims;2
1 See note on Ge. 6.2.—C.
y Perhaps the same as the Zuzims. Ge. 14.5. ver. 10,11; ch. 1.28; 3.11. Nu. 13.22,33.
2 Thinkers, plotters of wickedness.—C.
21 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:
22 Asz 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:
z ver. 12. Ge. 36.20-43. 1 Ch. 1.38-54.
23 And the aAvims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto bAzzah, the cCaphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.)3
a Jos. 13.3. 2 Ki. 17.24.
b Ge. 10.19. 1 Ki. 4.24. Je. 25.20.
c Am. 9.7. Je. 47.4. Ge. 10.9,14.
3 The expulsion and succession of these now obscure people, of whom we possess but the name, conveys the same lesson with the rise and fall of the mightiest empires, whose fates fill the pages of the most extended history. There is a lesson of mortality upon the gravestone of the unknown stranger, as intelligible to reason as the inscription over the departed friend. The one may awaken more emotion, but gives no louder warning, than the other. But as men read monumental inscriptions for curiosity or amusement, so do nations often study history. They see that others mighty and renowned have fallen; they have the causes in luxury or effeminacy; but seldom think, and if told, will not readily admit, that to 'forgetfulness of God' are national calamities to be traced, and that, in submission to 'the Son' lies the safety and stability of kingdoms, Ps. 9.17; 2.10. While Moses impresses this solemn lesson of instability upon the Israelites, he also encourages them by the example of weaker nations expelling or conquering the mightiest, even as sinners are encouraged to turn to the Lord, by the triumphs of grace in rescuing 'the chief of sinners' from the snare of the devil, 2 Ti. 2.26.—C.
24 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; begin4 to possess it, and contend with him in battle.
4 Heb. begin, possess.
25 Thisd 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.
d ch. 11.25; 28.10. Ex. 23.27. Jos. 2.9-12; 10.10. Ps. 105.38; 48.6.
26 And I sent messengers eout of the wilderness of Kedemoth5 unto Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,
e Jos. 13.18; 21.37.
5 Kedemoth was a town on the eastern border of Moab, and the pasture grounds around it were called 'the wilderness (midbar) Kedemoth.'—P.
27 Letf me pass through thy land: I will go along by the high-way, I will neither turn unto the right hand nor to the left.
f Ju. 11.19. Nu. 21.21,22; 20.17-19. ver. 6.
28 Thou shalt sell me meat 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 (Asg the children of Esau which dwell in Seir,6 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.
A.M. 2553. B.C. 1451.
g It appears that the Edomites and Moabites sold them victuals, though they did not permit them a passage through their country, ch. 23.3,4. Ju. 11.17,18.
6 In Seir. In Nu. 20.21 the King of Edom refuses to let Israel pass through his land, and even comes out to battle—here Moses implies that Israel passed through Edom and purchased necessaries: can both accounts be true? perfectly so. The King of Edom refuses to allow Israel to pass through his immediate personal territory; but the Edomites of another part of Seir, acknowledging, it may be, an imperial superiority; but exercising at the same time a local and independent jurisdiction, allow them to pass through and trade in their peculiar province. This is a state of things, of which both the ancient and modern history of Europe could furnish many examples.—C.
30 But hSihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit,7 and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.
h Nu. 21.23. Ex. 4.21. Jos. 11.20. Ju. 11.20.
7 See note on Ex. 4.21.—C.
31 And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have begun to igive Sihon and his land before thee: begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his land.
i ch. 1.8,24.
33 And the LORD our God delivered him before us, and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.
34 And we took all his cities at that time, and lutterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones,8 of every city; we left none to remain:
l ch. 20.16-18; 7.2,16. Jos. 11.14. Nu. 21.2. Le. 27.28.
8 Heb. every city of men, and women, and little ones.
35 Onlym the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took.
m Nu. 31.9,11. ch. 20.14. Jos. 8.27; 11.11,14.
36 Fromn Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there owas not one city too strong for us: the LORD our God delivered all unto us.
37 Only punto the land of the children of Ammon thou camest not, nor unto any place of the river Jabbok, nor unto the cities in the mountains, qnor unto whatsoever the LORD our God forbade us.9
p ver. 5,9,19. Ju. 11.15. ch. 3.16. Ge. 32.22.
q ch. 12.32; 4.2; 5.32; 11.32. Mat. 28.20. 1 Sa. 15.22.
9 The Ammonites originally possessed the country extending from the Arnon on the south to Gilead on the north, and bounded on the west by the valley of the Jordan. But some time before the advance of the Israelites the warlike Amorites had driven them out from the western part of their territory, and they took refuge along the banks of the upper Jabbok, and in the fastnesses on the eastern slopes of the mountains of Gilead. There they were when Moses made his successful campaign in Gilead and Bashan.—P.
Notes
[Ver. 1. 'We went round Mount Seir during many days.' 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-gaber; 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. P.]
Ver. 23. [This is a most important ethnological note. It proves that the aborigines of Palestine, both east and west of the Jordan, were of one stock, and were of gigantic stature. The different names by which they were called—Rephaim, Emim, Horim, Anakim, Zamzummim, and Avim—were either descriptive epithets, or the inventions of different races of men. The Caphtorim were better known as Philistines. Caphtor was probably a province of Egypt. P.]
Ver. 26. [Does not Moses, by his 'words of peace,' act disingenuously with Sihon, when he knew, if he believed his own record, that he was about to take possession of Sihon's kingdom? No; he acted in perfect sincerity. He required an act of courtesy, of kindness and reciprocal benefit. When churlishly refused, he did not commence hostilities; but when Sihon came to assail him, he assailed him, as an aggressor, and then took possession of the land which God had promised, and which God, as Creator and Lord, had a paramount right to bestow. C.]
Reflections.—What regard God bears to his faithful children; and what temporal favours he bestows, even on their wicked posterity, for their sake! But he hath appointed times for exercising his people's faith, and permitting his enemies' prosperity. He plants and plucks up nations; keeps them in, or turns them down according as they do not obey him, and the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Thus the cursed offspring of Ham, after many ages, perish under the patriarch's curse. But the people of God ought to be always generous, forgiving, and disinterested; neither injuring their enemies, nor unnecessarily burdensome to their friends. And the more vain and changeable the possessions of this world are, the more solicitous we ought to be to secure a kingdom which cannot be moved. When nations are ripe for ruin, God permits their proud lusts to plunge them headlong into it: and their barbarous refusals of common kindness issue in their own and their neighbours' destruction. Let me be always content with such things as I have; always tender of dispossessing others of what the Lord has given them. Let my portion be the Lord himself, from which neither hell nor earth can turn me out, or mar my enjoyment, while I live in the hopes of exchanging all my wanderings, fightings, and fears, for that city of God, that house eternal in the heavens.