Deuteronomy 2:32

2:24-37 God tried his people, by forbidding them to meddle with the rich countries of Moab and Ammon. He gives them possession of the country of the Amorites. If we keep from what God forbids, we shall not lose by our obedience. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; and he gives it to whom he pleases; but when there is no express direction, none can plead his grant for such proceedings. Though God assured the Israelites that the land should be their own, yet they must contend with the enemy. What God gives we must endeavour to get. What a new world did Israel now come into! Much more joyful will the change be, which holy souls will experience, when they remove out of the wilderness of this world to the better country, that is, the heavenly, to the city that has foundations. Let us, by reflecting upon God's dealings with his people Israel, be led to meditate upon our years spent in vanity, through our transgressions. But happy are those whom Jesus has delivered from the wrath to come. To whom he hath given the earnest of his Spirit in their hearts. Their inheritance cannot be affected by revolutions of kingdoms, or changes in earthly possessions.

Then Sihon came out against us,.... Perceiving they were upon their march towards his land or into it, he gathered all his people and went out of Heshbon their capital city, where he resided: he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz; a city which he had taken from the king of Moab, and which in later times, after the captivity of the ten tribes, came into their hands again, Isaiah 15:4; see Gill on Numbers 21:21.

Verse 32 (cf. Numbers 21:23 ). - Jahaz ( יַהַז , downtrodden), elsewhere Jahazah ( יַהְצָה ), a city of Moab, afterwards assigned to the tribe of Reuben, and allotted to the priests ( Joshua 13:18 ; Joshua 21:36 ; 1 Chronicles 6:63 ; Isaiah 15:4 ; Jeremiah 48:34 ). Deuteronomy 2:32

24-36. Rise ye up … and pass over the river Arnon—At its mouth, this stream is eighty-two feet wide and four deep. It flows in a channel banked by perpendicular cliffs of sandstone. At the date of the Israelitish migration to the east of the Jordan, the whole of the fine country lying between the Arnon and the Jabbok including the mountainous tract of Gilead, had been seized by the Amorites, who, being one of the nations doomed to destruction (see De 7:2; 20:16), were utterly exterminated. Their country fell by right of conquest into the hands of the Israelites. Moses, however, considering this doom as referring solely to the Amorite possessions west of Jordan, sent a pacific message to Sihon, requesting permission to go through his territories, which lay on the east of that river. It is always customary to send messengers before to prepare the way; but the rejection of Moses' request by Sihon and his opposition to the advance of the Israelites (Nu 21:23; Jud 11:26) drew down on himself and his Amorite subjects the predicted doom on the first pitched battlefield with the Canaanites. It secured to Israel not only the possession of a fine and pastoral country, but, what was of more importance to them, a free access to the Jordan on the east.

32 . unto battle at Jahaz ] E, Numbers 21:23 ; went out to meet I. towards the wilderness, came to Yahaṣ and fought Israel . See on Ḳedemoth, Deuteronomy 2:26 . The Moabite stone ( Deuteronomy 2:18-21 ) implies that Yahaṣ was near Dîbôn; Jeremiah 48:21 places it on the Mishôr or Moab plateau (see Deuteronomy 3:10 ); and Isaiah 15:4 some distance S. of Ḥeshbon. In Eusebius’ day it was pointed out between Madaba1[112] and Dibon ( On. Sacr. Ιασσα ). Musil ( Moab , 107, 122) suggests Umm-el-Walîd, ruins on a strong site S.E. of Mâdabâ on the right bank of the W. el-Heri, undoubtedly a suitable place for Sîḥôn to meet Israel. But there are other ruined sites equally suitable on the probable line of Israel’s march and on the E. of the plateau. [112] The various forms of this name are:—Heb. Mêdebâ; Moabite Mehçdebâ; Arab. Mâdabâ; Greek Μαἱδαβα , Μεδαβα , Μηδαβα !; Lat. Medaba.

16 . moved him to jealousy ] This form of the vb. is found only here, and in Deuteronomy 32:21 b , Psalm 78:58 ; another form in Deuteronomy 32:21 a . On God’s jealousy see Deuteronomy 4:24 . strange ] Jeremiah 2:25 ; Jeremiah 3:13 . See above on Deuteronomy 32:12 . abominations ] See Deuteronomy 7:25 , and cp. Isaiah 44:19 . provoked ] Deuteronomy 4:25 .

Defeat of Sihon, as already described in the main in Numbers 21:23-26 . The war was a war of extermination, in which all the towns were laid under the ban (see Leviticus 27:29 ), i.e., the whole of the population of men, women, and children were put to death, and only the flocks and herds and material possessions were taken by the conquerors as prey.

(2) Neither is there any rock. —This was a favourite simile among the inspired song-writers of Israel. The image, doubtless, is a memory of the long desert wandering. The steep precipices and the strange fantastic rocks of Sinai, standing up in the midst of the shifting desert sands, supplied an ever present picture of unchangeableness, of majesty, and of security. The term rock, as applied to God, is first found in the Song of Moses ( Deuteronomy 32:4 ; Deuteronomy 32:15 ; Deuteronomy 32:18 ; Deuteronomy 32:30-31 ; Deuteronomy 32:37 ), where the juxtaposition of rock and salvation in 1Samuel 2:15 — he lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation —seems to indicate that Hannah was acquainted with this song or national hymn of Moses. The same phrase is frequent in the Psalms. That the term was commonly applied to God so early as the time of Moses we may conclude from the name Zurishaddai: “My rock is the Almighty” (Numbers 1:6); and Zuriel: “My rock is God” (Numbers 3:35).—Speaker’s Commentary.