Deuteronomy 3:8-17 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Deuteronomy 3:8-17 gives an account of the distribution, between Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh, of the territories taken from the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og.

Deuteronomy 3:8. beyond Jordan: see Deuteronomy 1:1.

Deuteronomy 3:9. The same mountain bore the names (a) Hermon, i.e. sacred mount, perhaps the root is that of the verb to devote (Deuteronomy 2:34 *), cf. harem (Arabic), temple, women's enclosure; (b) Sirion, the Sidonian name; (c) Senir (so read in Deuteronomy 4:48 for Sion), the Amorite name. Yet in 1 Chronicles 5:23 and Ca. Deuteronomy 4:8 Senir and Hermon are differentiated.

Deuteronomy 3:10 continues Deuteronomy 3:8; Deuteronomy 3:9 being an editorial insertion. plain: the elevated plateau N. of the Arnon on which Moab lay (Deuteronomy 4:43; Joshua 13:9). Gilead here includes the two halves (so Numbers 32:29). In Deuteronomy 2:36 * the southern, in Joshua 13:31 the northern half is alone meant.

Deuteronomy 3:11. his. iron: render, his sarcophagus was a sarcophagus of black-basalt. The Heb. barzel is used not only for iron, but also for black-basalt, one-fifth of which is usually iron (Deuteronomy 8:9). Huge black-basalt sarcophagi have been discovered in the region here spoken of. There is a later and fuller version of the narrative of Deuteronomy 3:12-20 (settlement of the E. Jordan tribes) in Numbers 3:21-38 *. The two accounts differ in many respects.

Deuteronomy 3:14-17 (supplementary notices of the territory of the E. Jordan tribes) is evidently a late and clumsy compilation, repeating, and in part contradicting Deuteronomy 3:12 f., designed probably to reconcile Deuteronomy 3:12 f. with * Numbers 32:39; Numbers 32:41 *, from which Deuteronomy 3:14 f. is in part taken.

Deuteronomy 3:14. Jair, i.e. Havvothjair: Numbers 32:41 * (P). unto this day: Deuteronomy 2:22 *.

Deuteronomy 3:16. Omit (with LXX) the words, The middle. thereof, or render, the middle of the Wady being the border (or boundary).

Deuteronomy 3:17. slopes: the same Heb. word occurs in Numbers 21:15.

Related Commentaries of Deuteronomy 3:8

Deuteronomy 3:8-17

8 And we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto mount Hermon;

9 (Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion; and the Amorites call it Shenir;)

10 All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, unto Salchah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

11 For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.

12 And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites.

13 And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.

14 Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashanhavothjair, unto this day.

15 And I gave Gilead unto Machir.

16 And unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites I gave from Gilead even unto the river Arnon half the valley, and the border even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;

17 The plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashdothpisgaha eastward.