The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 27

out or Egypt (d. Exod. xix. 1 and Numb. what God promieed to Abraham and his seed x. II). (Gen. xv. 18; Exod. xxiii. 31; Deut. xi. 24). Ver. 7.-0o to the mount of the Amorite1, Ver. 8.-Behold, I have set the land before and unto all that dwell thereon; literally, its you: literally, have giuen the land be/or• dwellers or inhabifonl8 (1•p~). The mountain you, i.e. have made it over to you, that you range of the Aruoritee, 11fterwarde called tho muy go nod take possession of it. The Lord hill country of Judah and Ephraim, was had placed this land in the power of the the object which would first strike the view Israelites, had given it up to them to possess of ono advancing from the south; and eo, and uso it, according as he had sworn to it elands here for the whole land of Canaan, their fathers, the patriarchs, to give it to with which it is in this context identified. them and their seed (comp. Gen. xii. 7 · Those "that dwell thereon" aro the in- xiii. 15; xv. 18, etc.; xxii. 16). At Horeh• habitants of tho whole of Cnnaan. The therefore, they received the charter of thei; Amorites (Hebrew Emori, so called from inheritance, and might have gone on at once Amor, or Emor) oftener th.n once nppcnr to take possession of the land. The delay ns stnnding for the Cnnnanites generally that ha.d occurred had arisen solely from their (cf. Gen. xv. 16; Deut. i. 20, 21, etc.). That own waywarduess and perversity, not from o.ll the inhabitants of Canaan are intended anything on the part of God. here is evident from the specification of the Vers. 9-18.-Moses reminds them that different districts of the land of Canaan he had done all that was required on his which immediately follows. In the plain : pa.rt to conduct the people to the enjoy- the• Arabuh (see ver. l). In the hills: the hill country of Judah (Numb. xiii. 17). In the ment of what God had freely given to them. vale: the shephelah, or lowland, the country The people had so increased in number lying between the mountain range of Judah tho.t Moses found himself unable to attend and the l\lediterranann Sea, and stretching to all the matters that concerned them, or north wnrds from the parallel of Gaza to that to o.djudica.te in o.ll the differences that of Cn, me!. In the south: the negeb, or southland (literally, dryne88), the district arose o.mong them. God had bronght to which formed the transition from the desert po.as that which he had promised to Abra- to the cultivated land, extending from the ham (Gen. xv. 5), that bis seed should be south of the Dead Sea westwards to Gaza, as the stars of heaven for multitude; in a vo.st steppe or prairie, for the most part this l'tioses rejoiced, nay, he would even pasture-land. The seashore: the narrow that their numbers were, with the Di.vine strip of land on the coast of the Mediter- ranean from Joppa to Tyr4,1 (in the New blessing, increased a. thousandfold beyond Testo.mont, "the coast of Tyre o.nd Sidon," what they were. But he found the bnrden, Luke vi. 17). The land of the Canaanites: the weight of cnre o.nd trouble, espe- the whole country of which these were the cially in connection with their strifes and ~eparate parts. And unto Lebanon: the suits thereby bronght on him, too mnch for White Mountain, so called, probably, from him; o.nd, therefore, whilst they were still the snow which rests on its summit. The great river, the river Euphrates. The Phrnth, o.t Horeb, he had, following the advice of or Euphrates, which ho.s its sources in the Jethro, his father-in-law, connselled them Illuunfains of Armenia, and in its course to select competent men from among then1• divides Armenia from Cappadocia, formed selves, who shonld relieYe him by attending the eastern limit of the territory promised to those duties which he found it too bur- by God to Abraham. The epithet "great" seems to ho. ve been commonly applied to it. densome for him to haYe to attend to (cf. Cullimachus culls it 'Acrcrvpwii 1ro-raµoio Exod. xviii. 13, etc.). This appointment µl-yas p&os('ln Apoll.,' 107),nnd Lucanho.s- of captains was quite distinct from that of " Quaque cuput rapido tollit cum Tigride the elders whom God directed Moses to mognus select that they might assist him in beo.r- Euphrates." ing the burden of the people (Numb. xi. JO, (' Phars.,' iil. 256.) otc.). The occasion of the 11ppointment was As by much the most considerable river the s11me iu both cases, viz. thti complaint of western Asiu, the Euphrates was known of Moses that the task was too onerous for as" the rivei· "par excellence (cf. Exod. xxiii. him, but the time, the place, and the m1m- 81 ; Isu. viii. 7; Jer. ii. 18 ; Ps. lxxii. 8). The mention of Lebanon und the Euphrates ner of the two transactions were different. is not, ns Keil suggests, "to be attributed to Ver. 9.-I spake unto you at that time. the rhetorical fulness of the style;" but is The somewhat indefinite phrnse, "at that due to the fact that these were included in time" (comp. Gen. :uxviii. 1), does not refer  THE BOOK OF DEU'l'ERONOMY. (en. r. 1-18.