This Lebanon; this emphatically, as being the most eminent mountain in Syria, and the northern border of the land: or this which is within my view; as if the Lord appeared to him in the form of a man, and pointed to it. Of the Hittites, i.e. of the Canaanites, who elsewhere are all called Amorites, as Genesis 15:16, and here Hittites, by a synecdoche; the Hittites being the most considerable and formidable of all, as may appear from Numbers 13:33, Numbers 14:1 2 Kings 7:6; and many of them being of the race of the giants, dwelling about Hebron. See Genesis 25:9,10 Genesis 26:34 Genesis 27:46. The great sea; the midland sea, great in itself, and especially compared with those lesser collections of waters, which the Jews called seas. Object. The Israelites never possessed all this land. Answ.
1. That was from their own sloth and cowardice, and disobedience to God, and breach of those conditions upon which this promise was suspended. See Judges 2:20.
2. This land was not all to be possessed by them at once, but by degrees, as their numbers and necessities increased; but Canaan being fully sufficient for them, and many of the Israelites being from time to time either cut off or carried captive for their sins, there was never any need of enlarging their possessions.
3. Though their possessions extended not to Euphrates, yet their dominion did, and all those lands were tributary to them in David's and Solomon's time.