I am come down. — By condescension to human infirmity, which conceives of all things under the limitations of time and space, God is spoken of as dwelling ordinarily in heaven, or “the heaven of heavens,” whence sometimes He “comes down” to manifest Himself to men. That this was not understood literally, even by the Jews, appears from such passages as 1 Kings 8:27; Psalms 137:7-9; Proverbs 15:3, &c.
A good land and a large. — The land promised to Abraham (Genesis 15:18) well deserves this description. Besides Philistia, and Palestine on both sides of the Jordan, it included almost the whole of Syria from Galilee on the south, to Amanus, Taurus, and the Euphrates on the north and north-east. This tract of country is 450 miles long, and from sixty to a hundred and twenty miles broad. Its area is not much less than 50,000 square miles. Although some parts are unproductive, it is, on the whole, a region of great fertility, quite capable of forming the seat of a powerful empire.
A land flowing with milk and honey. — This expression, here used for the first time, was already, it is probable, a proverbial one, denoting generally, richness and fertility. (See Numbers 13:27.)
The Canaanites.... — See the comment on Gen. (Exodus 10:15-17; Exodus 13:7).