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The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:44
Oboth … Ije-abarim. See on Numbers 21:11.
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:45
Dibon-gad. This encampment may have been the same as that previously called by the name of Nabaliel or Bamoth (Numbers 21:19, and see on Numbers 33:34). Several stages are here passed over in the Itinerary. At a time wh…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:46
Almon-diblathaim. Probably the same as the Beth-diblathaim mentioned in Jeremiah 48:22 as a Moabitish town contignous to Dibon, Nebo, and Kiriathaim. The name, which signifies "hiding-place of the two circles" or "cakes…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:47
The mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. The same locality is called "the top of Pisgah, which looketh toward the waste," in Numbers 21:20 (see note there, and at Numbers 27:12). Nebo is the name of a town here, as in Numb…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:48
In the plains of Moab. See on Numbers 22:1.
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:49
From Beth-jesimoth even unto Abel-shittim. Beth-jesimoth, "house of the wastes," must have been very near the point where Jordan empties itself into the Dead Sea, on the verge of the salt desert which bounds that sea on…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:50-56
HOW TO DEAL WITH THE CANAANITES: AN URGENT WARNING It is assumed here that Israel will conquer the Canaanites; probably by this time the people had grown to somewhat of confidence, by reason of their recent successes ov…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:50
And the Lord spake. It is quite obvious that a new section begins here, closely connected, not with the Itinerary which precedes it, but with the delimitation which follows. The formula which introduces the present comm…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:50-56
NO COMPROMISE WITH IDOLATRY I. THE COMMAND GIVEN. The Israelites were to he delivered from complicity with the immoral idolatry of Canaan by such extreme measures as these. 1. The idolaters were to be utterly driven out…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:51
When ye are passed over Jordan. Previous legislation had anticipated the time when they should have come into their own land (cf. Numbers 15:2; Le Numbers 23:10), but now the crossing of the river is spoken of as the la…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:52
Ye shall drive out. The Hebrew word (from יָרַשׁ) is the same which is translated "dispossess" in the next verse. The Septuagint has in both eases ἀπολεῖτε, supplying (like the A.V.) the word "inhabitants" in Numbers…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:53
I have given you the land. "The earth is the Lord's," and no one, therefore, can dispute his right in the abstract to evict any of his tenants and to put others in possession. But while the whole earth was the Lord's, i…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:54
Ye shall divide the land by lot. These directions are repeated in substance from Numbers 26:53-56. Every man's inheritance. Not only the tribe, but the family and the household, was to receive its special inheritance by…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:55
If ye will not drive out the inhabitants. As was in fact the case ( 1:1-36). The warning is here given for the first time, because the danger was now near at hand, and had indeed already shown itself in the matter of th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:56
I shaft do unto you as I thought to do unto them, i.e; I shall execute by other hands upon you the sentence of dispossession which ye shall have refused to execute upon the Canaanites. The threat (although in fact fulfi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 36:1-13
EXPOSITION THE MARRIAGE OF HEIRESSES (Numbers 36:1-13).
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 36:1
The chief fathers. The same phrase is more correctly translated in Exodus 6:25 "heads of the fathers." It is, however, probable that הָאָבור (fathers) is a contraction for בֵּית־הַאָבוֹת (fathers' houses). The fathers'…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 36:1-13
THE SURE INHERITANCE The decision here recorded, and expanded into a general law, was wholly intended to preserve to each tribe and each family its own inheritance in the land of promise inviolate and undisturbed. Spiri…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 36:2
My lord. אֲדֹנִי. The singular form is constantly used in Hebrew, as in other languages, together with the plural personal pronoun (see at Genesis 23:6). The deference now paid to Moses (cf. Numbers 32:25, Numbers 32:27…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 36:3
Whereunto they are received. Literally, as in the margin, "unto whom ( לָהֶם referring to the men of the tribe) they shall be."
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 36:4
When the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be. It is remarkable that this is the only reference by name to the Jubilee ( יוֹבֵל, jubeel; not jubilee, which is the vulgar form of the same word derived from the Lati…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 36:5
The tribe of the sons of Joseph. "The tribe (matteh) of the Beni-Joseph." There were two, or rather in effect three, tribes of the Beni-Joseph; Moses referred, of course, to the one which had come before him.
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 36:6
Only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry. The direction is not altogether plain, since the tribe (matteh) contained several families (mishpachoth), and in this case one or more of the families we…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 36:7
Every one … shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. This was to be the general rule which governed all such questions. Every Israelite had his own share in the inheritance of his tribe, and wi…