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Deuteronomy 2:4-25 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

4 And command H6680 thou the people, H5971 saying, H559 Ye are to pass H5674 through the coast H1366 of your brethren H251 the children H1121 of Esau, H6215 which dwell H3427 in Seir; H8165 and they shall be afraid H3372 of you: take ye good H3966 heed H8104 unto yourselves therefore:

5 Meddle H1624 not with them; for I will not give H5414 you of their land, H776 no, not so much as a foot H7272 breadth; H4096 H3709 because I have given H5414 mount H2022 Seir H8165 unto Esau H6215 for a possession. H3425

6 Ye shall buy H7666 meat H400 of them for money, H3701 that ye may eat; H398 and ye shall also buy H3739 water H4325 of them for money, H3701 that ye may drink. H8354

7 For the LORD H3068 thy God H430 hath blessed H1288 thee in all the works H4639 of thy hand: H3027 he knoweth H3045 thy walking H3212 through this great H1419 wilderness: H4057 these forty H705 years H8141 the LORD H3068 thy God H430 hath been with thee; thou hast lacked H2637 nothing. H1697

8 And when we passed H5674 by from our brethren H251 the children H1121 of Esau, H6215 which dwelt H3427 in Seir, H8165 through the way H1870 of the plain H6160 from Elath, H359 and from Eziongaber, H6100 we turned H6437 and passed H5674 by the way H1870 of the wilderness H4057 of Moab. H4124

9 And the LORD H3068 said H559 unto me, Distress H6696 not the Moabites, H4124 neither contend H1624 with them in battle: H4421 for I will not give H5414 thee of their land H776 for a possession; H3425 because I have given H5414 Ar H6144 unto the children H1121 of Lot H3876 for a possession. H3425

10 The Emims H368 dwelt H3427 therein in times past, H6440 a people H5971 great, H1419 and many, H7227 and tall, H7311 as the Anakims; H6062

11 Which H1992 also were accounted H2803 giants, H7497 as the Anakims; H6062 but the Moabites H4125 call H7121 them Emims. H368

12 The Horims H2752 also dwelt H3427 in Seir H8165 beforetime; H6440 but the children H1121 of Esau H6215 succeeded H3423 them, when they had destroyed H8045 them from before H6440 them, and dwelt H3427 in their stead; as Israel H3478 did H6213 unto the land H776 of his possession, H3425 which the LORD H3068 gave H5414 unto them.

13 Now rise up, H6965 said I, and get you over H5674 the brook H5158 Zered. H2218 And we went over H5674 the brook H5158 Zered. H2218

14 And the space H3117 in which we came H1980 from Kadeshbarnea, H6947 until we were come over H5674 the brook H5158 Zered, H2218 was thirty H7970 and eight H8083 years; H8141 until all the generation H1755 of the men H582 of war H4421 were wasted out H8552 from among H7130 the host, H4264 as the LORD H3068 sware H7650 unto them.

15 For indeed the hand H3027 of the LORD H3068 was against them, to destroy H2000 them from among H7130 the host, H4264 until they were consumed. H8552

16 So it came to pass, when all the men H582 of war H4421 were consumed H8552 and dead H4191 from among H7130 the people, H5971

17 That the LORD H3068 spake H1696 unto me, saying, H559

18 Thou art to pass over H5674 through Ar, H6144 the coast H1366 of Moab, H4124 this day: H3117

19 And when thou comest nigh H7126 over against H4136 the children H1121 of Ammon, H5983 distress H6696 them not, nor meddle H1624 with them: for I will not give H5414 thee of the land H776 of the children H1121 of Ammon H5983 any possession; H3425 because I have given H5414 it unto the children H1121 of Lot H3876 for a possession. H3425

20 (That also was accounted H2803 a land H776 of giants: H7497 giants H7497 dwelt H3427 therein in old time; H6440 and the Ammonites H5984 call H7121 them Zamzummims; H2157

21 A people H5971 great, H1419 and many, H7227 and tall, H7311 as the Anakims; H6062 but the LORD H3068 destroyed H8045 them before H6440 them; and they succeeded H3423 them, and dwelt H3427 in their stead:

22 As he did H6213 to the children H1121 of Esau, H6215 which dwelt H3427 in Seir, H8165 when he destroyed H8045 the Horims H2752 from before H6440 them; and they succeeded H3423 them, and dwelt H3427 in their stead even unto this day: H3117

23 And the Avims H5761 which dwelt H3427 in Hazerim, H2699 even unto Azzah, H5804 the Caphtorims, H3732 which came forth H3318 out of Caphtor, H3731 destroyed H8045 them, and dwelt H3427 in their stead.)

24 Rise ye up, H6965 take your journey, H5265 and pass over H5674 the river H5158 Arnon: H769 behold, H7200 I have given H5414 into thine hand H3027 Sihon H5511 the Amorite, H567 king H4428 of Heshbon, H2809 and his land: H776 begin H2490 to possess H3423 it, and contend H1624 with him in battle. H4421

25 This day H3117 will I begin H2490 to put H5414 the dread H6343 of thee and the fear H3374 of thee upon the nations H6440 H5971 that are under the whole heaven, H8064 who shall hear H8085 report H8088 of thee, and shall tremble, H7264 and be in anguish H2342 because of thee. H6440

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Deuteronomy 2

Commentary on Deuteronomy 2 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Verses 1-23

March from Kadesh to the Frontier of the Amorites. - Deuteronomy 2:1. After a long stay in Kadesh, they commenced their return into the desert. The words, “ We departed...by the way to the Red Sea ,” point back to Numbers 14:25. This departure is expressly designated as an act of obedience to the divine command recorded there, by the expression “ as Jehovah spake to me .” Consequently Moses is not speaking here of the second departure of the congregation from Kadesh to go to Mount Hor (Numbers 20:22), but of the first departure after the condemnation of the generation that came out of Egypt. “ And we went round Mount Seir many days .” This going round Mount Seir includes the thirty-eight years' wanderings, though we are not therefore to picture it as “going backwards and forwards, and then entering the Arabah again” ( Schultz ). Just as Moses passed over the reassembling of the congregation at Kadesh (Numbers 20:1), so he also overlooked the going to and fro in the desert, and fixed his eye more closely upon the last journey from Kadesh to Mount Hor, that he might recall to the memory of the congregation how the Lord had led them to the end of all their wandering.

Deuteronomy 2:2-6

When they had gone through the Arabah to the southern extremity, the Lord commanded them to turn northwards, i.e., to go round the southern end of Mount Seir, and proceed northwards on the eastern side of it (see at Numbers 21:10), without going to war with the Edomites ( התגּרה , to stir oneself up against a person to conflict, מלחמה ), as He would not give them a foot-breadth of their land; for He had given Esau (the Edomites) Mount Seir for a possession. For this reason they were to buy victuals and water of them for money ( כּרה , to dig, to dig water, i.e., procure water, as it was often necessary to dig wells, and not merely to draw it, Genesis 26:25. The verb כּרה does not signify to buy).

Deuteronomy 2:7

And this they were able to do, because the Lord had blessed them in all the work of their hand, i.e., not merely in the rearing of flocks and herds, which they had carried on in the desert (Exodus 19:13; Exodus 34:3; Numbers 20:19; Numbers 32:1.), but in all that they did for a living; whether, for example, when stopping for a long time in the same place of encampment, they sowed in suitable spots and reaped, or whether they sold the produce of their toil and skill to the Arabs of the desert. “ He hath observed thy going through this great desert ” ( ידע , to know, then to trouble oneself, Genesis 39:6; to observe carefully, Proverbs 27:23; Psalms 1:6); and He has not suffered thee to want anything for forty years, but as often as want has occurred, He has miraculously provided for every necessity.

Deuteronomy 2:8-10

In accordance with this divine command, they went past the Edomites by the side of their mountains, “ from the way of the Arabah, from Elath (see at Genesis 14:6) and Eziongeber ” (see at Numbers 33:35), sc., into the steppes of Moab, where they were encamped at that time.

God commanded them to behave in the same manner towards the Moabites, when they approached their frontier (Deuteronomy 2:9). They were not to touch their land, because the Lord had given Ar to the descendants of Lot for a possession. In Deuteronomy 2:9 the Moabites are mentioned, and in Deuteronomy 2:19 the Amorites also. The Moabites are designated as “sons of Lot,” for the same reason for which the Edomites are called “brethren of Israel” in Deuteronomy 2:4. The Israelites were to uphold the bond of blood-relationship with these tribes in the most sacred manner. Ar , the capital of Moabitis (see at Numbers 21:15), is used here for the land itself, which was named after the capital, and governed by it.

Deuteronomy 2:11-12

To confirm the fact that the Moabites and also the Edomites had received from God the land which they inhabited as a possession, Moses interpolates into the words of Jehovah certain ethnographical notices concerning the earlier inhabitants of these lands, from which it is obvious that Edom and Moab had not destroyed them by their own power, but that Jehovah had destroyed them before them, as is expressly stated in Deuteronomy 2:21, Deuteronomy 2:22. “ The Emim dwelt formerly therein ,” sc., in Ar and its territory, in Moabitis, “ a high (i.e., strong) and numerous people, of gigantic stature, which were also reckoned among the Rephaites, like the Enakites ( Anakim ).” Emim , i.e., frightful, terrible, was the name given to them by the Moabites. Whether this earlier or original population of Moabitis was of Hamitic or Semitic descent cannot be determined, any more than the connection between the Emim and the Rephaim can be ascertained. On the Rephaim ; and on the Anakites, at Numbers 13:22.

Deuteronomy 2:12

The origin of the Horites (i.e., the dwellers in caves) of Mount Seir , who were driven out of their possessions by the descendants of Esau, and completely exterminated (see at Genesis 14:6, and Genesis 36:20), is altogether involved in obscurity. The words, “ as Israel has done to the land of his possession, which Jehovah has given them ,” do not presuppose the conquest of the land of Canaan or a post-Mosaic authorship; but “ the land of his possession ” is the land to the east of the Jordan (Gilead and Bashan), which was conquered by the Israelites under Moses, and divided among the two tribes and a half, and which is also described in Deuteronomy 3:20 as the “possession” which Jehovah had given to these tribes.

Deuteronomy 2:13-15

For this reason Israel was to remove from the desert of Moab (i.e., the desert which bounded Moabitis on the east), and to cross over the brook Zered , to advance against the country of the Amorites (see at Numbers 21:12-13). This occurred thirty-eight years after the condemnation of the people at Kadesh (Numbers 14:23, Numbers 14:29), when the generation rejected by God had entirely died out ( תּמם , to be all gone, to disappear), so that not one of them saw the promised land. They did not all die a natural death, however, but “ the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them ” ( המם , lit., to throw into confusion, then used with special reference to the terrors with which Jehovah destroyed His enemies; Exodus 14:24; Exodus 23:27, etc.), sc., by extraordinary judgments (as in Numbers 16:35; Numbers 18:1; Numbers 21:6; Numbers 25:9).

Deuteronomy 2:16-22

When this generation had quite died out, the Lord made known to Moses, and through him to the people, that they were to cross over the boundary of Moab (i.e., the Arnon, Deuteronomy 2:24; see at Numbers 21:13), the land of Ar (see at Deuteronomy 2:9), “ to come nigh over against the children of Ammon ,” i.e., to advance into the neighbourhood of the Ammonites, who lived to the east of Moab; but they were not to meddle with these descendants of Lot, because He would give them nothing of the land that was given them for a possession (Deuteronomy 2:19, as at Deuteronomy 2:5 and Deuteronomy 2:9). - To confirm this, ethnographical notices are introduced again in Deuteronomy 2:20-22 into the words of God (as in Deuteronomy 2:10, Deuteronomy 2:11), concerning the earlier population of the country of the Ammonites. Ammonitis was also regarded as a land of the Rephaites, because Rephaites dwelt therein, whom the Ammonites called Zamzummim . “ Zamzummim ,” from זמם , to hum, then to muse, equivalent to the humming or roaring people, probably the same people as the Zuzim mentioned in Genesis 14:5. This giant tribe Jehovah had destroyed before the Ammonites (Deuteronomy 2:22), just as He had done for the sons of Esau dwelling upon Mount Seir, namely, destroyed the Horites before them, so that the Edomites “dwelt in their stead, even unto this day.”

Deuteronomy 2:23

As the Horites had been exterminated by the Edomites, so were the Avvaeans ( Avvim ), who dwelt in farms (villages) at the south-west corner of Canaan, as far as Gaza, driven out of their possessions and exterminated by the Caphtorites , who sprang from Caphtor (see at Genesis 10:14), although, according to Joshua 13:3, some remnants of them were to be found among the Philistines even at that time. This notice appears to be attached to the foregoing remarks simply on account of the substantial analogy between them, without there being any intention to imply that the Israelites were to assume the same attitude towards the Caphtorites, who afterwards rose up in the persons of the Philistines, as towards the descendants of Esau and Lot.


Verses 24-37

The Help of God in the Conquest of the Kingdom of Sihon. - Deuteronomy 2:24. Whereas the Israelites were not to make war upon the kindred tribes of Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, or drive them out of the possessions given to them by God; the Lord had given the Amorites, who had forced as way into Gilead and Bashan, into their hands.

Deuteronomy 2:24-25

While they were encamped on the Arnon, the border of the Amoritish king of Sihon, He directed them to cross this frontier and take possession of the land of Sihon, and promised that He would give this king with all his territory into their hands, and that henceforward (“ this day ,” the day on which Israel crossed the Arnon) He would put fear and terror of Israel upon all nations under the whole heaven, so that as soon as they heard the report of Israel they would tremble and writhe before them. רשׁ החל , “ begin, take, ” an oratorical expression for “ begin to take” ( רשׁ in pause for רשׁ , Deuteronomy 1:21). The expression, “ all nations under the whole heaven ,” is hyperbolical; it is not to be restricted, however, to the Canaanites and other neighbouring tribes, but, according to what follows, to be understood as referring to all nations to whom the report of the great deeds of the Lord upon and on behalf of Israel should reach (cf. Deuteronomy 11:25 and Exodus 23:27). אשׁר , so that (as in Genesis 11:7; Genesis 13:16; Genesis 22:14). וחלוּ , with the accent upon the last syllable, on account of the ו consec. ( Ewald , §234, a .), from חוּל , to twist, or writhe with pain, here with anxiety.

Deuteronomy 2:26-30

If Moses, notwithstanding this, sent messengers to king Sihon with words of peace (Deuteronomy 2:26.; cf. Numbers 21:21.), this was done to show the king of the Amorites, that it was through his own fault that his kingdom and lands and life were lost. The wish to pass through his land in a peaceable manner was quite seriously expressed; although Moses foresaw, in consequence of the divine communication, that he would reject his proposal, and meet Israel with hostilities. For Sihon's kingdom did not form part of the land of Canaan, which God had promised to the patriarchs for their descendants; and the divine foreknowledge of the hardness of Sihon no more destroyed the freedom of his will to resolve, or the freedom of his actions, than the circumstance that in Deuteronomy 2:30 the unwillingness of Sihon is described as the effect of his being hardened by God Himself. The hardening was quite as much the production of human freedom and guilt, as the consequence of the divine decree; just as in the case of Pharaoh. On Kedemoth , see Numbers 21:13. בּדּרך בּדּרך , equivalent to “upon the way, and always upon the way,” i.e., upon the high road alone, as in Numbers 20:19. On the behaviour of the Edomites towards Israel, mentioned in Deuteronomy 2:29, see Numbers 21:10. In the same way the Moabites also supplied Israel with provisions for money. This statement is not at variance with the unbrotherly conduct for which the Moabites are blamed in Deuteronomy 23:4, viz., that they did not meet the Israelites with bread and water. For קדּם , to meet and anticipate, signifies a hospitable reception, and the offering of food and drink without reward, which is essentially different from selling for money. “ In Ar ” (Deuteronomy 2:29), as in Deuteronomy 2:18. The suffix in בּו (Deuteronomy 2:30) refers to the king, who is mentioned as the lord of the land, in the place of the land itself, just as in Numbers 20:18.

Deuteronomy 2:31

The refusal of Sihon was suspended over him by God as a judgment of hardening, which led to his destruction. “ As this day ,” an abbreviation of “as it has happened this day,” i.e., as experience has now shown (cf. Deuteronomy 4:20, etc.).

Deuteronomy 2:32-33

Defeat of Sihon, as already described in the main in Numbers 21:23-26. The war was a war of extermination, in which all the towns were laid under the ban (see Leviticus 27:29), i.e., the whole of the population of men, women, and children were put to death, and only the flocks and herds and material possessions were taken by the conquerors as prey.

Deuteronomy 2:34-35

מתם עיר (city of men) is the town population of men.

Deuteronomy 2:36

They proceeded this way with the whole of the kingdom of Sihon. “ From Aroër on the edge of the Arnon valley (see at Numbers 32:34), and , in fact, from the city which is in the valley ,” i.e., Ar , or Areopolis (see at Numbers 21:15), - Aroër being mentioned as the inclusive terminus a quo of the land that was taken, and the Moabitish capital Ar as the exclusive terminus , as in Joshua 13:9 and Joshua 13:16; “ and as far as Gilead ,” which rises on the north, near the Jabbok (or Zerka, see at Deuteronomy 3:4), “ there was no town too high for us ,” i.e., so strong that we could not take it.

Deuteronomy 2:37

Only along the land of the Ammonites the Israelites did not come, namely, along the whole of the side of the brook Jabbok, or the country of the Ammonites, which was situated upon the eastern side of the upper Jabbok, and the towns of the mountain, i.e., of the Ammonitish highlands, and “ to all that the Lord had commanded ,” sc., commanded them not to remove. The statement, in Joshua 13:25, that the half of the country of the Ammonites was given to the tribe of Gad, is not at variance with this; for the allusion there is to that portion of the land of the Ammonites which was between the Arnon and the Jabbok, and which had already been taken from the Ammonites by the Amorites under Sihon (cf. Judges 11:13.).