Deuteronomy 2:17

2:8-23 We have the origin of the Moabites, Edomites, and Ammonites. Moses also gives an instance older than any of these; the Caphtorims drove the Avims out of their country. These revolutions show what uncertain things wordly possessions are. It was so of old, and ever will be so. Families decline, and from them estates are transferred to families that increase; so little continuance is there in these things. This is recorded to encourage the children of Israel. If the providence of God has done this for Moabites and Ammonites, much more would his promise do it for Israel, his peculiar people. Cautions are given not to meddle with Moabites and Ammonites. Even wicked men must not be wronged. God gives and preserves outward blessings to wicked men; these are not the best things, he has better in store for his own children.

16. all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people—The outbreak at Kadesh on the false report of the spies had been the occasion of the fatal decree by which God doomed the whole grown-up population to die in the wilderness [Nu 14:29]; but that outbreak only filled up the measure of their iniquities. For that generation, though not universally abandoned to heathenish and idolatrous practices, yet had all along displayed a fearful amount of ungodliness in the desert, which this history only hints at obscurely, but which is expressly asserted elsewhere (Eze 20:25, 26; Am 5:25, 27; Ac 7:42, 43).

When this generation had quite died out, the Lord made known to Moses, and through him to the people, that they were to cross over the boundary of Moab (i.e., the Arnon, Deuteronomy 2:24 ; see at Numbers 21:13 ), the land of Ar (see at Deuteronomy 2:9 ), "to come nigh over against the children of Ammon," i.e., to advance into the neighbourhood of the Ammonites, who lived to the east of Moab; but they were not to meddle with these descendants of Lot, because He would give them nothing of the land that was given them for a possession ( Deuteronomy 2:19 , as at Deuteronomy 2:5 and Deuteronomy 2:9 ). - To confirm this, ethnographical notices are introduced again in Deuteronomy 2:20-22 into the words of God (as in Deuteronomy 2:10 , Deuteronomy 2:11 ), concerning the earlier population of the country of the Ammonites. Ammonitis was also regarded as a land of the Rephaites, because Rephaites dwelt therein, whom the Ammonites called Zamzummim. "Zamzummim," from זמם, to hum, then to muse, equivalent to the humming or roaring people, probably the same people as the Zuzim mentioned in Genesis 14:5 . This giant tribe Jehovah had destroyed before the Ammonites ( Deuteronomy 2:22 ), just as He had done for the sons of Esau dwelling upon Mount Seir, namely, destroyed the Horites before them, so that the Edomites "dwelt in their stead, even unto this day."

Their worship is an amalgamation of the Jehovah image-worship and of heathen idolatry (cf. 2 Kings 17:41 ). - To indicate the character of this worship still more clearly, and hold it up as a complete breach of the covenant and as utter apostasy from Jehovah, the historian describes still more fully, in 2 Kings 17:35-39 , how earnestly and emphatically the people of Israel had been prohibited from worshipping other gods, and urged to worship Jehovah alone, who had redeemed Israel out of Egypt and exalted it into His own nation. For 2 Kings 17:35 compare Exodus 20:5 ; for 2 Kings 17:36 , the exposition of 2 Kings 17:7 , also Exodus 32:11 ; Exodus 6:6 ; Exodus 20:23 ; Deuteronomy 4:34 ; Deuteronomy 5:15 , etc. In 2 Kings 17:37 the committal of the thorah to writing is presupposed. For 2 Kings 17:39 , see Deuteronomy 13:5 ; Deuteronomy 23:15 , etc.

Their worship is an amalgamation of the Jehovah image-worship and of heathen idolatry (cf. 2 Kings 17:41 ). - To indicate the character of this worship still more clearly, and hold it up as a complete breach of the covenant and as utter apostasy from Jehovah, the historian describes still more fully, in 2 Kings 17:35-39 , how earnestly and emphatically the people of Israel had been prohibited from worshipping other gods, and urged to worship Jehovah alone, who had redeemed Israel out of Egypt and exalted it into His own nation. For 2 Kings 17:35 compare Exodus 20:5 ; for 2 Kings 17:36 , the exposition of 2 Kings 17:7 , also Exodus 32:11 ; Exodus 6:6 ; Exodus 20:23 ; Deuteronomy 4:34 ; Deuteronomy 5:15 , etc. In 2 Kings 17:37 the committal of the thorah to writing is presupposed. For 2 Kings 17:39 , see Deuteronomy 13:5 ; Deuteronomy 23:15 , etc.

Because of this and because he regards Deuteronomy 17:8 b and Deuteronomy 17:9 a as doublets and Deuteronomy 17:10 and Deuteronomy 17:11 as another pair of doublets, Steuern. analyses the passage into two originally distinct laws (with editorial additions), one constituting the Priests of the Altar a court of appeal, the other recognising the Judge (i.e. the King) as the final authority. But Deuteronomy 17:8 b and Deuteronomy 17:9 a are not doublets, and although Deuteronomy 17:10 and Deuteronomy 17:11 are redundant it is impossible to discriminate in them two distinct sources. More probably the passage is intended to sanction the double practice prevailing in Israel from the earliest times, and during the monarchy, of the discharge of justice by both the priestly and the civil heads of the people. How the authority was divided is nowhere stated except in 2 Chronicles 19:8-11 , which attributes to King Jehoshaphat (873–849) the institution of a double court consisting of Levites, priests, and heads of families. Over this the chief priest was set in all the matters of Jehovah , and a prince was set over it in all the King’s matters . But it is uncertain whether the passage merely reflects the procedure of justice in the Chronicler’s own day or is a genuine memory of that which prevailed under the monarchy. See the present writer’s Jerusalem , i. 379 n., 387 f.

Deuteronomy 17:2 . In transgressing his covenant — That is, in idolatry, as it is explained Deuteronomy 17:3 , which is called a transgression of God’s covenant made with Israel, both because it was a breach of their faith given to God, and of that law which they covenanted to keep; and because it was a dissolution of that matrimonial covenant with God, a renouncing of God and his worship, and a choosing other gods.