The cities of Aroer are forsaken “What has Aroer,” says Bishop Lowth, “on the river Arnon, (see Deuteronomy 2:36,) to do with Damascus?” He therefore follows the LXX., (who, he supposes, for
ערער, Aroer, read עדי עד, εις τον αιωνα,) and renders the clause, The cities are deserted for ever. Grotius, however, thinks the present reading of the Hebrew text is right, and that this Aroer was a tract of ground in Syria, (a valley, say some, which lay between the mountains of Libanus and Anti-Libanus,) and not that Aroer which was on the confines of Moab and Ammon, and part of the possession of the Reubenites and Gadites. But as Tiglath-pileser carried the Reubenites and Gadites into captivity, (see 1 Chronicles 5:26,) and made the country, which they had possessed, desolate, why may not the very Aroer, which was on the confines of Moab, be meant, and mentioned here, as Ephraim is in the next verse, as being confederate with Syria against Judah? And none shall make them afraid Because the land shall be desolate, and destitute of men who might disturb them.