Numbers 21:32

21:21-35 Sihon went with his forces against Israel, out of his own borders, without provocation, and so ran upon his own ruin. The enemies of God's church often perish by the counsels they think most wisely taken. Og, king of Bashan, instead of being warned by the fate of his neighbours, to make peace with Israel, makes war with them, which proves in like manner his destruction. Wicked men do their utmost to secure themselves and their possessions against the judgments of God; but all in vain, when the day comes on which they must fall. God gave Israel success, while Moses was with them, that he might see the beginning of the glorious work, though he must not live to see it finished. This was, in comparison, but as the day of small things, yet it was an earnest of great things. We must prepare for fresh conflicts and enemies. We must make no peace or truce with the powers of darkness, nor even treat with them; nor should we expect any pause in our contest. But, trusting in God, and obeying his commands, we shall be more than conquerors over every enemy.

And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer,.... Or Jazer, as it is called in Isaiah 16:9 , another city that belonged to the Amorites, and which they had taken from the Moabites; and which came into the hands of the latter again, after the captivity of the ten tribes, as appears from the above places; according to Jerom (s), it was fifteen miles distant from Heshbon: and they took the villages thereof; not the spies, as Jarchi, but the Israelites under Moses; who upon the return of the spies, and the report they made, marched towards it, and took it, and all the towns and villages round about it; for it seems to have been a principal city: and drove out the Amorites that were there; that dwelt there, and were in possession of it; otherwise they would not have attacked it, had it, and its villages, been in the hands of the Moabites. (s) De locis Heb. fol. 92. G.

32 . The capture of Jazer stands in a curiously isolated position, after the general statement in Numbers 21:31 . It is probably taken from another source which described the capture of several individual towns. It is not mentioned either in Deuteronomy 2 or Judges 11. Jazer ] The site is unknown, and more than one suggestion has been made for its identification. Isaiah 16:8 suggests that it was some distance from Heshbon. It appears to have lain to the east, near the Ammonite border ( Numbers 32:35 , Joshua 13:25 ). 33–35 (D ). The defeat of Og the king of Bashan . This defeat is mentioned in the following passages of the Hexateuch: Numbers 32:33 , Deuteronomy 1:4 ; Deuteronomy 3:1-13 ; Deuteronomy 4:47 ; Deuteronomy 29:7 ; Joshua 9:10 ; Joshua 12:4 ; Joshua 13:30 . Of these the first and last are assigned to P , and all the others are Deuteronomic. If the present passage is compared with Deuteronomy 3:1-3 it will be seen that it agrees almost verbatim with the latter, except for the substitution of the third person for the first. In the Pesh. version there are several insertions in Numbers of passages from Deut., and this is probably an earlier instance in the Heb. text. It is to be noticed also that there is no reference to Og in Numbers 22:2 . The account of the conquest of Bashan, therefore, is not preserved in any tradition earlier than Deut., and many writers on that account doubt if it is historical.

The question cannot be decided with certainty; but there is nothing in the nature of the case to render such a conquest improbable. Bashan was a fertile and attractive district; and there is no evidence that Israel stayed east of the Jordan such a short time as to make an advance to the north improbable. See G. A. Smith, H. G. [Note: . G. Historical Geography of the Holy Land.] 575 f. and Appendix III.

Jaazer - To he identified probably with the ruins Sir or es-Sir 10 miles north of Heshbon. The occupation of it by the Israelites virtually completed their conquest of the Amorite kingdom; and prepared the way for the pastoral settlements in it which they not long after established Numbers 32:35 .

When Israel was sitting, i.e., encamped, in the land of the Amorites, Moses reconnoitred Jaezer, after which the Israelites took "its daughters," i.e., the smaller places dependent upon Jaezer, and destroyed the Amorites who dwelt in them. It is evident from Numbers 32:35 , that Jaezer was not only conquered, but destroyed. This city, which was situated, according to the Onom. (s. v. Jazer), ten Roman miles to the west of Philadelphia (Rabbath-Ammon), and fifteen Roman miles to the north of Heshbon, is most probably to be sought for (as Seetzen supposes, i. pp. 397, 406, iv. p. 216) in the ruins of es Szr, at the source of the Nahr Szr, in the neighbourhood of which Seetzen found some pools, which are probably the remains of "the sea of Jazer," mentioned in Jeremiah 48:32 . There is less probability in Burckhardt's conjecture, that it is to be found in the ruins of Ain Hazir, near Kherbet el Suk, to the south-west of es Salt; though v. Raumer (Pal. p. 262) decides in its favour (see my Commentary on Joshua 13:25 ).

[Reformed Biblical] Sincerely and heartily, as in God’s presence. Or rather, 2. Before the ark, which was the token of God’s presence. He alludes either to the order of the tribes in their march, whereby Reuben and Gad marched next and immediately before the ark, as ## appears from Num_2:10 ,14,16,17 ; or to the manner of their passage over Jordan, wherein the ark went first into Jordan, and stood there whilst all the tribes marched over Jordan by and before it, Jos 3 Jos 5 , and these amongst the rest, as is expressly noted in these very words, that they passed over before the Lord , Jos_4:13. Numbers 32:21 Numbers 32:22 ## Before the Lord, i.e. by his presence, and gracious and powerful assistance. Numbers 32:23 i.e. The punishment of your sin; as that word is very oft used. Numbers 32:24 Which you have uttered and promised to do. See this or the like phrase Num_20:2 Mat_15:8. Numbers 32:25 Numbers 32:26 ## Largely so called, as that word is oft used, for that whole country beyond Jordan, as in other places it is taken more strictly for a part of it, as here below, Num_32:39 ,40 , and elsewhere. Numbers 32:27 Numbers 32:28 Numbers 32:29 Numbers 32:30 They shall forfeit and lose their possessions in Gilead, and shall be constrained to go over Jordan, and to seek possessions there among their brethren. Numbers 32:31 ## As the Lord hath said; either at this time by thy mouth; or formerly, where he commandeth us as well as our brethren to go into Canaan and possess it. Numbers 32:32 Numbers 32:33 ## Ha