Deuteronomy 3 - Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

First Discourse (Deuteronomy 1:14 to Deuteronomy 4:43)

The long sojourn in the wilderness is now drawing to a close. The Israelites are encamped in the Plains of Moab within sight of the Promised Land. Moses, feeling that his death is approaching, delivers his final charges to the people. In the first, he reviews briefly the history of Israel from Mt. Sinai to the Jordan, dwelling on the goodness of God, and making it the basis of an earnest appeal to the people to remember all that He has done for them, and to keep His commandments.

Review Of The Journey (concluded)

1-11. The conquest of Og, king of Bashan. See Numbers 21:33 to Numbers 35:5. The ruins of these cities remain to this day: see on Numbers 21:33.

Sirion] means 'glittering like a polished shield,' and corresponds, therefore, to the name Mt. Blanc. The Hermon range is mostly covered with a cap of snow. In Deuteronomy 4:48; Hermon is also called 'Sion,' which means the same as Sirion, if indeed it is not a clerical error for that word.

Salchah] still existing under the name of Salkhad, a large town on the E. border of Bashan, lying on the great road from Galilee to the Persian Gulf.

The bedstead of iron of the giant king was in all probability his sarcophagus of black basalt which the Arabs still call 'iron.' Several such sarcophagi have been discovered E. of the Jordan. Conder believed that he discovered Og's 'bedstead' in the form of a huge stone throne at Rabbath. The word rendered 'bedstead' properly means a couch or divan: see e.g. Amos 3:12; Amos 6:4.

This took place later (see Judges 10:3-4, and cp. Intro, to Numbers, § 2), and its insertion here indicates the work of a later hand, like the expression unto this day: cp. Deuteronomy 3:12. See on Numbers 32:41.

Chinnereth] the Lake of Gennesaret, or Sea of Galilee. The plain is again the Arabah: see on Numbers 1:1. Ashdod-pisgah] RV 'the slopes of Pisgah': cp. Deuteronomy 4:49.

18-20. See on Numbers 32.

23-28. See on Numbers 27:12-23.