The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 51

E/<1lh or E/ollt (n?•~, ni,•~, pnlmgrove)--,tbe h11ving been cll8t out hy him that they Aillil.O of Josephus, 'Antlq.,' ix. 12; tho might tClko their lands (see vers. 21-23). 'Ellava of l'tolemy (v. 17)-wns a city of Idu- Thero is no need, therefore, for the insertion rnco, situnted on tho cnslorn gulf of the Red "I said," in ver. 13; the words are those of Seo. Its ruins nre still trnccnLle near the Jehovah, not of Moses. modern fortress of Aldi.bah, on the north- west (Dnrckl..1ELrdt, p. 500; Robinson, i. 2-11). Ver. 13.-The brook Zered; either tl,e Ezion-gobor (i~J Ji'¥)',, backbone of EL man, stream of the Wa.dy el Ahsy (Robinsou ii. 157; Ritte_r, iii. 78), or that of the W;dy 80 cnllod probnbly from the rugged nnd Kerab (I<e1l, Kurz, etc.); see Numb. xxi. 11, ja"p;ed rocks in ils vicinity), EL seaport near and Smilh's 'Dictionary,' iii. 18-!2. This to''-itlath (cf.1 Kings ix:. 26; 2 Cbron. xx. 3G). brook formed the boundary line between Vor. 0.-'l'ho Moo.bites, being the descend- Edom o.nd l\foab, and was the limit of ants of Lot, o.nd so o.lliecl by race to the Israel's wanderings in the wilderness. 'l'hey Isrnolites, the lntter were commanded to crossed it thirty-eight years after the doom pass through their country without offering boo. beeu pronounced upon them at Kii.<lcsh them o.ny injury or assault. Ar, .n border- and during that period the entire genera: town of Moab (Numb. xxi. 15), here put for tion of those who had rebelled ha.u died the country itself. It is the Areopolis of the out. Greeks, and was, as Jerome tells us, de- Ve~. H:.-Men of war; tho3e of age stroyed in a single night by an earthquake. sufficient to go forth to war, viz. twenty A hill, with nine o short distance south- years old and upwards (Numb. i. 3; xiv. 29). west from Ara'ir, is supposed to be ils site. 'fh~se, as the responsible transgressors, all Vcrs. 10-12.-The mention of ·the pen~hed; the whole generation passed away, Moabites gives ooco.sion to the author to and was consumed (eh; cf. eh. v. 15; Ps. lxxiii. introduco some uotices of the ancient in- 10), a.s God had sworn (Numb. xiv. 28, 20). habitants of Etlom antl Moab. In l\luab dwelt, in the earlier times, the Emim, a Ver. 15.-For indeed; rather, And also; giant mce, potent antl numerous, like the not by natural causes alone, but by the hantl 'Anakim. 'l'hey were also, like the 'Anakim of God, i.e. by special penal judgments reckoned among the Rephaim, but were by also, were t~~y troubled__ and destroyed tho l\foabites called Emim. The wor,1 (cf. Numb. xv1._31, etc.:. xvlL 12, 13; ::ui 6; Entlm means frightful, ond was given to xxv.1-9). them men probably becaUEe of their huge Vers. 16-19.-The generation that stature and fierce aspect. Anakims (see eh. sinned having quite died out,. the people i. 28). Repluiim seems to have been a were now to cross the border of Moab antl generic Mme of these gigantic Canaanitish advance to the conquest of the promised tribes (see Gen. :xiv. 5; xv. 20). The Xorim appear from the name (from iin, a cave) to laud. To the east of Moab was the country have been o. Troglodyte re.ce, inhabitincr tpe of the Ammonites; these, also, the Israelites caves which abound in the Edomite r:no-e were to leave unassailed, for the Lortl had and with whom, perhaps, originated th~ given to them their land for a possession con~cption '_Vhich was at a foter period ( cf. ver. 9). camed out rn the marvellous rock city of Ver. 18.-Coast of Moab; the boundary Petra. Of their own origin nothing ,is of ~oo.b, which was the river Arnon, hod. known. As Israel did [ or has doMJnnto the MuJeb (Numb. x.x.i. 13-15; xxii. 36). land of hill posseBBion. 'l'his c11unot be re- g~rtled as uttered· proleptically; it must Ver. 10.-0ver against the children of either be the insertion of a later nge, or it Ammon. As the Israelites were passino- must refer to the conquest which had eastwartl of Moab; wheu they crossed th~ nctiml_ly been made before this by the Amon, the Ammonites, whose dwellino- was Isrnehtes of the land to the east of the in the wilderuess east of the Jordan ~ould Jordan, nntl which is, iu eh. iii. 20, described be almost in front of them. The ~elites us the possession whic!J"the Lord hncl given came over against them o.fter they conq ueretl to tho two tribes and 11 half to whom it hacl Sihon (cf. Numb. xxi. 2-l:). been ussigued. 'fhe latter is the preferable Vers. 20-23.-Another parenthetical in- supposition. sertion, containing some ethnographical Vere. 13-JS.-Ver. 13 connects with notices, intended, probably, to confum the vcr. O, tho interme,1iC1te verses beino- a. assertion tha.t to the children of Ammon 11aren thesis, in trod ucetl for the purpos: of God hnd gi veu their fand for a possession. reminding the Isrnclitcs that tho Edomites There is no sufficient reuson for supposiug tmtl ~011bite& hutl reccivetl their territory that this pamgraph is an interpolation, or Ly gift from God, tho eC1rlier inh11bitnnts glo,~, iuserted by some later writer. It lay 32 THE DOOK OP DEUTERONOMY. [en. u. 1-37.