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The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:40
And king Arad … heard of the coming. See on Numbers 21:1. The introduction of this notice, for which there seems no motive, and which has no assignable connection with the context, is extremely perplexing. It is not sim…
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:41
Zalmonah. This place is not elsewhere mentioned, and cannot be identified. Either this or Punon may be the encampment where the brazen serpent was set up; according to the Targum of Palestine it was the latter.
The Pulpit Commentary on Numbers 33:42
Punon. Perhaps connected with the Pinon of Genesis 36:41. The Septuagint has φινώ, and it is identified by Eusebius and Jerome with Phaeno, a place between Petra and Zoar where convicts were sent to labour in the mines…
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…
Matthew Henry on Numbers 33:50-56
Now that they were to pass over Jordan, they were entering again into temptation to follow idols; and they are threatened that, if they spared either the idols or the idolaters, their sin would certainly be their punish…
The Canaanites Doomed. (b. c. 1452.)
THE CANAANITES DOOMED. (B. C. 1452.) While the children of Israel were in the wilderness their total separation from all other people kept them out of the way of temptation to idolatry, and perhaps this was one thing in…
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
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 33:50-56
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…
Matthew Henry on Numbers 34:1-15
Canaan was of small extent; as it is here bounded, it is but about 160 miles in length, and about 50 in breadth; yet this was the country promised to the father of the faithful, and the possession of the seed of Israel.…
The Boundaries of Canaan. (b. c. 1452.)
THE BOUNDARIES OF CANAAN. (B. C. 1452.) We have here a particular draught of the line by which the land of Canaan was meted, and bounded, on all sides. God directs Moses to settle it here, not as a geographer in his map…
Matthew Henry on Numbers 34:16-29
God here appoints men to divide the land to them. So sure must they feel of victory and success while God fought for them, that the persons are named who should be intrusted with the dividing of the land.
Matthew Henry on Numbers 34:16-29
God here appoints commissioners for the dividing of the land to them. The conquest of it is taken for granted, though as yet there was never a stroke struck towards it. Here is no nomination of the generals and commande…