Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on Deuteronomy 2:24
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
The Help of God in the Conquest of the Kingdom of Sihon. - Deu 2:24. Whereas the Israelites were not to make war upon the kindred tribes of Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, or drive them out of the possessions given to them by God; the Lord had given the Amorites, who had forced as way into Gilead and Bashan, into their hands. Deu 2:24-25 While they were encamped on the Arnon, the border of the Amoritish king of Sihon, He directed them to cross this frontier and take possession of the land of Sihon, and promised that He would give this king with all his territory into their hands, and that henceforward ("this day," the day on which Israel crossed the Arnon) He would put fear and terror of Israel upon all nations under the whole heaven, so that as soon as they heard the report of Israel they would tremble and writhe before them. רשׁ החל, "begin, take," an oratorical expression for "begin to take" (רשׁ in pause for רשׁ, Deu 1:21). The expression, "all nations under the whole heaven," is hyperbolical; it is not to be restricted, however, to the Canaanites and other neighbouring tribes, but, according to what follows, to be understood as referring to all nations to whom the report of the great deeds of the Lord upon and on behalf of Israel should reach (cf. Deu 11:25 and Exo 23:27). אשׁר, so that (as in Gen 11:7; Gen 13:16; Gen 22:14). וחלוּ, with the accent upon the last syllable, on account of the ו consec. (Ewald, 234, a.), from חוּל, to twist, or writhe with pain, here with anxiety. Deu 2:26-30 If Moses, notwithstanding this, sent messengers to king Sihon with words of peace ( Deu 2:26.; cf. Num 21:21.), this was done to show the king of the Amorites, that it was through his own fault that his kingdom and lands and life were lost. The wish to pass through his land in a peaceable manner was quite seriously expressed; although Moses foresaw, in consequence of the divine communication, that he would reject his proposal, and meet Israel with hostilities. For Sihon's kingdom did not form part of the land of Canaan, which God had promised to the patriarchs for their descendants; and the divine foreknowledge of the hardness of Sihon no more destroyed the freedom of his will to resolve, or the freedom of his actions, than the circumstance that in Deu 2:30 the unwillingness of Sihon is described as the effect of his being hardened by God Himself. The hardening was quite as much the production of human freedom and guilt, as the consequence of the divine decree; just as in the case of Pharaoh. On Kedemoth, see Num 21:13. בּדּרך בּדּרך, equivalent to "upon the way, and always upon the way," i.e., upon the high road alone, as in Num 20:19. On the behaviour of the Edomites towards Israel, mentioned in Deu 2:29, see Num 21:10. In the same way the Moabites also supplied Israel with provisions for money. This statement is not at variance with the unbrotherly conduct for which the Moabites are blamed in Deu 23:4, viz., that they did not meet the Israelites with bread and water. For קדּם, to meet and anticipate, signifies a hospitable reception, and the offering of food and drink without reward, which is essentially different from selling for money. "In Ar" ( Deu 2:29), as in Deu 2:18. The suffix in בּו ( Deu 2:30) refers to the king, who is mentioned as the lord of the land, in the place of the land itself, just as in Num 20:18. Deu 2:31 The refusal of Sihon was suspended over him by God as a judgment of hardening, which led to his destruction. "As…
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