Deuteronomy 2:4 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:

Cross Reference

Numbers 20:14-21 STRONG

And Moses H4872 sent H7971 messengers H4397 from Kadesh H6946 unto the king H4428 of Edom, H123 Thus saith H559 thy brother H251 Israel, H3478 Thou knowest H3045 all the travail H8513 that hath befallen H4672 us: How our fathers H1 went down H3381 into Egypt, H4714 and we have dwelt H3427 in Egypt H4714 a long H7227 time; H3117 and the Egyptians H4714 vexed H7489 us, and our fathers: H1 And when we cried H6817 unto the LORD, H3068 he heard H8085 our voice, H6963 and sent H7971 an angel, H4397 and hath brought us forth H3318 out of Egypt: H4714 and, behold, we are in Kadesh, H6946 a city H5892 in the uttermost H7097 of thy border: H1366 Let us pass, H5674 I pray thee, through thy country: H776 we will not pass H5674 through the fields, H7704 or through the vineyards, H3754 neither will we drink H8354 of the water H4325 of the wells: H875 we will go H3212 by the king's H4428 high way, H1870 we will not turn H5186 to the right hand H3225 nor to the left, H8040 until we have passed H5674 thy borders. H1366 And Edom H123 said H559 unto him, Thou shalt not pass H5674 by me, lest I come out H3318 against H7125 thee with the sword. H2719 And the children H1121 of Israel H3478 said H559 unto him, We will go H5927 by the high way: H4546 and if I and my cattle H4735 drink H8354 of thy water, H4325 then I will pay H5414 H4377 for it: I will only, without doing any thing H1697 else, go through H5674 on my feet. H7272 And he said, H559 Thou shalt not go through. H5674 And Edom H123 came out H3318 against H7125 him with much H3515 people, H5971 and with a strong H2389 hand. H3027 Thus Edom H123 refused H3985 to give H5414 Israel H3478 passage H5674 through his border: H1366 wherefore Israel H3478 turned away H5186 from him.

Numbers 22:3-4 STRONG

And Moab H4124 was sore H3966 afraid H1481 of H6440 the people, H5971 because they were many: H7227 and Moab H4124 was distressed H6973 because of H6440 the children H1121 of Israel. H3478 And Moab H4124 said H559 unto the elders H2205 of Midian, H4080 Now shall this company H6951 lick up H3897 all that are round about H5439 us, as the ox H7794 licketh up H3897 the grass H3418 of the field. H7704 And Balak H1111 the son H1121 of Zippor H6834 was king H4428 of the Moabites H4124 at that time. H6256

Numbers 24:14-18 STRONG

And now, behold, I go H1980 unto my people: H5971 come H3212 therefore, and I will advertise H3289 thee what this people H5971 shall do H6213 to thy people H5971 in the latter H319 days. H3117 And he took up H5375 his parable, H4912 and said, H559 Balaam H1109 the son H1121 of Beor H1160 hath said, H5002 and the man H1397 whose eyes H5869 are open H8365 hath said: H5002 He hath said, H5002 which heard H8085 the words H561 of God, H410 and knew H3045 the knowledge H1847 of the most High, H5945 which saw H2372 the vision H4236 of the Almighty, H7706 falling H5307 into a trance, but having his eyes H5869 open: H1540 I shall see H7200 him, but not now: I shall behold H7789 him, but not nigh: H7138 there shall come H1869 a Star H3556 out of Jacob, H3290 and a Sceptre H7626 shall rise H6965 out of Israel, H3478 and shall smite H4272 the corners H6285 of Moab, H4124 and destroy H6979 all the children H1121 of Sheth. H8352 H8351 And Edom H123 shall be a possession, H3424 Seir H8165 also shall be a possession H3424 for his enemies; H341 and Israel H3478 shall do H6213 valiantly. H2428

Obadiah 1:10-13 STRONG

For thy violence H2555 against thy brother H251 Jacob H3290 shame H955 shall cover H3680 thee, and thou shalt be cut off H3772 for ever. H5769 In the day H3117 that thou stoodest H5975 on the other side, in the day H3117 that the strangers H2114 carried away captive H7617 his forces, H2428 and foreigners H5237 entered H935 into his gates, H8179 and cast H3032 lots H1486 upon Jerusalem, H3389 even thou wast as one H259 of them. But thou shouldest not have looked H7200 on the day H3117 of thy brother H251 in the day H3117 that he became a stranger; H5235 neither shouldest thou have rejoiced H8055 over the children H1121 of Judah H3063 in the day H3117 of their destruction; H6 neither shouldest thou have spoken H6310 proudly H1431 in the day H3117 of distress. H6869 Thou shouldest not have entered H935 into the gate H8179 of my people H5971 in the day H3117 of their calamity; H343 yea, thou shouldest not have looked H7200 on their affliction H7451 in the day H3117 of their calamity, H343 nor have laid H7971 hands on their substance H2428 in the day H3117 of their calamity; H343

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.).