The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 298

but in ]ater times it we.s Rabbah, a town looketh toward J'eshimon. Jeshimon, or many miles further sonth in the heart of "the wute," seems to mean here that desert Moab which bore thisnamo. Ar WR!! at this plain on the north-east side of the Salt Sea period the boundary town of Moab, and e.s now called the Ghor el Belka, which included such was respected by the Israelites (Dent. ii. in its barren desolation the southernmost 9, 29). portion of the Jordan valley. Ver.16.-Andfrom thence. , . to Beer. A Ver. 21. -And Israel sent meHengers well; so named, no doubt, from the circum• 'llllto Sihon. The narrative here returns to stance here recorded. That the7 were told the point of time when the Israelites first to dig for water instead of receivmg it from reached the Upper Amon, the boundary the rock showed the end to be at hand, and stream of the kingdom or Sihon (see on ver. the transition shortly to be made from 13, and cf. Deut. ii. 24-37). The list of miraculous to natru:a.1 supplies. stations in the preceding verses may probably Ver. 17.-Then Israel sang this song. have been copied out of some official record ; This song of the well may be ta.ken from the it may be considered as marking the move· same collection of odes, but more probably ments of the tabernacle with Eleazar and the is quoted from memory, It is remarkable for Levites and the ma.as of the non-combatant the spirit of joyousness which breathes in it, population. In the mean time the armies of so different from the complaimng, despClnd• Israel were engaged in victorious enterprises ing tone of the past. which took them far afield. Xing of the Ver. 18.-By the direction of the law- Amoritea. The Amorites were not akin to giver. PP.!'1~J. Literally, "by the law. the Hebrews, as the Edomites, Moa.bites, and Ammonites were, who all claimed descent giver," or, e.ssomeprefer, "with the sceptre." from Terah. They were of the Canaa.nitish The meaning of mWUJkek is disputed (see stock (Gen. x. 16), and indeed the name on Gen. :tliJc. 10), but in either case the Amorite often appears as synonymous with meaning must be practically as in the A. V. Canaanite in its larger sense (Deut. i. 7, 19, It speo.ks of the alacrity with which th11 27, &c.). If at one time they are mentioned leaders of Israel, Moses himself amongst them, side by side with five or six other tribes of began the work even with the insignia of the same stock (Exod. :r:xxiv. 11), yet at their office. And from the wildemeaa ... to another they seem to be so much the repre- llrtatta1111.h. Beer was still in the desert sentative race that "the .Amorite" stands country eastward of the cultivated belt : for the inhabitants of Canaan in gener:i.l from thence they crossed, still on the north whom Israel wa.s commissioned to onst on of Arnon, and probably leaving it somewhat a.rcount of his iniquity (Gen. xv.16). It is to the south, into a more settled country. not, therefore, possible to dmw any certain Ver. 19.-And from mattanah to Naha- distinction between the Amorites of Sihon's lieL The latter name, which means " the kingdom and the mass of the Cannanites on brook of God," seems to be still retained by the other side Jordan. Both Sihon and his the Encheileh, one of the northern affluents people appear as intruders in this region or the Wady M8jeb. Jl'rom Nahaliel to having come do\V'Il perhaps from the northern llamoth. Be.moth simply means " heights 11 parts of Palestine, and having but recently or " high places," and wns therefore a fre. (it would seem) wrested from the king of quent name. This Bamoth may be the ea.me Moab all his territory north of Amon. It as the Ba.moth-Bo.al of eh. xxii. 41; Josh. was the fact of the Amorites being found here :rlil.17, but it is uncertain. A Beth-Bamoth which led to the conquest nnd settlement of is mentioned on the Moe.bite stone. the tro.ns-J ortlanic territory. That territory Ver. 20.-J.nd from llamoth in the valley, was not apparently included in the original that is in the oo'lllltry of Moe.b, to the top gift (compare eh. xxxiv. 2-12 with Gen. :x:. of Pisgah. The original nms simply thus : 19 and xv. 19-21), but since the Amorite "And from Bamoth-the valley which in had possessed himself of it, it must pass with the field-Moab-the top-Pis,,aah." ltmny all the rest of his habitation to the chosen therefore be read, "And from the heights people. to the valley that is in the field of Moab, Ver. 22.-Let me pass through thy land. viz., the top of Pisga.h." The "field" of Cf. eh. :u. 17. Israel was not commanded Moab (Septuagint, iv rip '11'10,.,,) wa..s no to spare the .Amorites, indeed he was under doubt the open1 treeless expanse north of orders to smite them (Deut. ii. 24), but tho.t Amon, drained tJy the Wady Waleh, which did not prevent his approaching them in the had formerly belonged to Moab. Pisgah first instance with words of pence. If Sihon (" the ridge") was a part of the Abarim had hearkened, no doubt Ismel would ho.ve ranges west of Heshbon, f1·om the summit of passed directly on to Jordan, and he would which the first view is gained of the valley at least hnve been spared for the present. of Jordan and the hilla of Palestine (cf. eh. Ver. 23. -And he came to .Jahaz, or :a::uiii. 47 ; Deut. iii. 27 ; J:xxiv. 1). Which J ahze.h, a place of w:1ich we know nothing. 282 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oH. XXI. 10-xxn. 1,