The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 52

M m"c,h in the WRY of Moses to introduce wrilho 1\8 in p:iin (1~m, comp. Is11. xiii. 8). ,mob cthnogrnphical notices as in thnt of l\Ioscs, howornr, in th; first instl\noo, sent 11 any writer of n lntor ngo. message of pcnco to Sihon, proposing to pnss Ver. 20.-Bcfore tho Ammonites, tho Jnnd through his territory on tho snme torms WI WllS occupied b)· n gignntic rncc, called by he had mnde with tho llfonbites ancl Edom- them, Zamznmmim (probably noisy ones, from 0:,1 to hum, mutter; or, ns the 'l'erb nlso ites, traYclling by the highwa,y, o.nd signific~. to mmo or meditntc, perhnps paying for such provisions as his followers ,11ood11 011ef; whether t.hc snmo ns the Zu- required. Dut this Sihon refused, and zim oi' Gen. xh·. 5-LXX., l6v71 icrxupcf, as if came out against Israel, with a.ll his people, from rn. to m·cdlow, to abound--is unccrtnin). to ba,ttJc. The issue wns that ho was utterly The <"nlosml stone monuments, resembling discomfited; nil his towns were captured, whnt in Enrope a,re known by the Celtic names o[ <lo/men, mcnhir, o.nd cromlech, he and all his people utterly destroyed, o.nd still to be found in the land of lllonh, are the cattle and spoil of the whole country supposed to be the work of these aboriginal taken for booty. Israel tlrns became pos- inhabitants of tl:o country, the gigantic sessed of that entire territory, though it did Emim and Zamzummim. This giant tribo not lie within the bounds of the land 1he Lord hnd destroyed before the Ammon- promised by God to Abmho.m, which was ites, just as he had destroyed the Horim be[nrc the children of Esau in Scir. the reason, probably, why Moses made over- Ver. 23.-So also the Caphtorim, who tures of peace to Sihon, and 'l"\"ould have <',~me from Caphtor (Gen. x. 14), probnbly passed through his country amicably, had he the island of Crete (Ritter, iii. 262), drove been permitted; but comp. eh. xx. 10. out the A,im, a Ca.naanitish race, who Ver. 26.-The wilderness of Kedemoth dwelt in ,illages (Hazerim, o•-:,;::-,) as far o.s ( comp. Numb. xxi. 13); so named from the Gaza (Azzo.h), and took possession of their town of Kedcmoth, an old Amorite town, on land; though it would appear some of them the right bank of the Upper Arnon; at a still remained among the Philistines (who later period, a Levitical city in the tribe of were Caphtorites, Amos ix. 7; Jer. xh·ii. Reuben (Josh. xiii. 18; xxi. 37; I Chl'On. 4), aud were among the tribes not subdu_~~ vi. 79). The name (from C':JP,, tho east), by the Israelites under Joshua (Josh. xm. signifying eastern parts, indicates that it 3). These Caphtori.m were, like tho was situated on the eastern boundary of the Is~aclitcs, immigrants, who drove out the Amorite region, so that the desert named origiuo.l occnpants of the country; and on from it must ho.ve bordered on the great this account, probably, are referred to by Arabian desert; it may have been on what Moses here. " This is so often repeated, to is now the Derb cl Haj, or Pilgrims' Road, possess the minds of the Israelites with a probably, at Kal'at Do.JO.a. sense of God's providence, which rules 'Ver. 27.-Alongbythehighway; literally, everywhere; displacing one people, and by the ~oay, by the way, i.e. always, con- sel!lin"' another in their etcad, aucl fixing tinuously by the way, the public road, called their bounds, also, which they shall not in Nnmb. xx. 17 and xxi. 22, "the king's pass without leave" (Patrick). way," probably because made and kept up Vers. 24--37.-CONQUEST 01!' THE HING• by the king. DOM OF SmoN. Sihon and his people were Ver. 29.-As the . . . did unto me. This re- Amoritcs, who had settled on the east of the fers expressly to the fact that the Edomites Jordan in Gile~ Bat though not included and Moabites did not hinder the Israelites from passing through their country, though in the original promise to Abraham, God they were far from friendly, and dealt in an had assigned this territory to the Israelites ; unbrotbcl'ly way with them, for which the o.nd, therefore, he commo.nded the people Moabites were o.fterwardH placed under o, under Moses to cross the Arnon, and take ban (Dent. xxiii. 3). the first step towards possessing tho promised Ver. 30.-Heshbon, the chief city of the Amorite king, Sihon. Some ruins on a hill land, by assailing Sihon, King of Heshbon, east of the upper end of the Deo.d Sea, and assuring them that from that day he would bearing the name Chesban, ma1·k the site of "put the dread and fear of them upon all this once large and important city. Sihon nations under the whole heaven," that is, rejected Moses' overtures of pence, because all nations, wherever placed, to whom the God had hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate; literally, had sharpened his fame of the Israelites should come (comp. heart, had made his determination keen. Eud. xxii.i. 27 ; eh. xi. 16), so that on It is not to be supposed that any inftuence hearing thereof, they should tremble and was directly exerted on him, to make him ()II, JI. l-37.J THE DOOK OF DEUTERONOMY, 33