34 At that time we took all his towns, and gave them over to complete destruction, together with men, women, and children; we had no mercy on any:
And when the Lord has given them up into your hands and you have overcome them, give them up to complete destruction: make no agreement with them, and have no mercy on them:
And we put them to the curse, every town together with men, women, and children.
But nothing which a man has given completely to the Lord, out of all his property, of man or beast, or of the land which is his heritage, may be given away or got back in exchange for money; anything completely given is most holy to the Lord. Any man given completely to the Lord may not be got back: he is certainly to be put to death.
Then Israel made an oath to the Lord, and said, If you will give up this people into my hands, then I will send complete destruction on all their towns. And the Lord, in answer to the voice of Israel, gave the Canaanites up to them; and they put them and their towns completely to destruction: and that place was named Hormah.
But in the towns of these peoples whose land the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, let no living thing be kept from death: Give them up to the curse; the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has given you orders: So that you may not take them as your example and do all the disgusting things which they do in the worship of their gods, so sinning against the Lord your God.
Israel has done wrong, sinning against the agreement which I made with them: they have even taken of the cursed thing; acting falsely like thieves they have put it among their goods.
And, answering Joshua, they said, Because it came to the ears of your servants that the Lord your God had given orders to his servant Moses to give you all this land, and to send destruction on all the people living in it, because of you; so, fearing greatly for our lives because of you, we have done this.
And all the goods taken from these towns, and their cattle, the children of Israel kept for themselves; but every man they put to death without mercy, till their destruction was complete, and there was no one living.
He took Agag, king of the Amalekites, prisoner, and put all the people to the sword without mercy. But Saul and the people did not put Agag to death, and they kept the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fat beasts and the lambs, and whatever was good, not desiring to put them to the curse: but everything which was bad and of no use they put to the curse.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Deuteronomy 2
Commentary on Deuteronomy 2 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 2
Moses, in this chapter, proceeds in the rehearsal of God's providences concerning Israel in their way to Canaan, yet preserves not the record of any thing that happened during their tedious march back to the Red Sea, in which they wore out almost thirty-eight years, but passes that over in silence as a dark time, and makes his narrative to begin again when they faced about towards Canaan (v. 1-3), and drew towards the countries that were inhabited, concerning which God here gives them direction,
Deu 2:1-7
Here is,
Deu 2:8-23
It is observable here that Moses, speaking of the Edomites (v. 8), calls them, "our brethren, the children of Esau.' Though they had been unkind to Israel, in refusing them a peaceable passage through their country, yet he calls them brethren. For, though our relations fail in their duty to us, we must retain a sense of the relation, and not be wanting in our duty to them, as there is occasion. Now in these verses we have,
Deu 2:24-37
God having tried the self-denial of his people in forbidding them to meddle with the Moabites and Ammonites, and they having quietly passed by those rich countries, and, though superior in number, not made any attack upon them, here he recompenses them for their obedience by giving them possession of the country of Sihon king of the Amorites. If we forbear what God forbids, we shall receive what he promises, and shall be no losers at last by our obedience, though it may seem for the present to be to our loss. Wrong not others, and God shall right thee.