Numbers 33:50 Komentář

In this chapter God directs Moses, and he is to direct Israel, I. Concerning the bounds and borders of the land of Canaan (Num 34:1-15). II. Concerning the division and distribution of it to the tribes of Israel (Num 34:16, etc.).

While the children of Israel were in the wilderness their total separation from all other people kept them out of the way of temptation to idolatry, and perhaps this was one thing intended by their long confinement in the wilderness, that thereby the idols of Egypt might be forgotten, and the people aired (as it were) and purified from that infection, and the generation that entered Canaan might be such as never knew those depths of Satan. But now that they were to pass over Jordan they were entering again into that temptation, and therefore, 1. They are here strictly charged utterly to destroy all remnants of idolatry. They must not only drive out the inhabitants of the land, that they may possess their country, but they must deface all their idolatrous pictures and images, and pull down all their high places, Num 33:52. They must not preserve any of them, no, not as monuments of antiquity to gratify the curious, nor as ornaments of their houses, nor toys for their children to play with, but they must destroy all, both in token of their abhorrence and detestation of idolatry and to prevent their being tempted to worship those images, and the false gods represented by them, or to worship the God of Israel by such images or representations. 2. They were assured that, if they did so, God would by degrees put them in full possession of the land of promise, Num 33:53, Num 33:54. If they would keep themselves pure from the idols of Canaan, God would enrich them with the wealth of Canaan. Learn not their way, and then fear not their power. 3. They were threatened that, if they spared either the idols or the idolaters, they should be beaten with their own rod and their sin would certainly be their punishment. (1.) They would foster snakes in their own bosoms, Num 33:55. The remnant of the Canaanites, if they made any league with them, though it were but a cessation of arms, would be pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides, that is, they would be upon all occasions vexatious to them, insulting them, robbing them, and, to the utmost of their power, making mischief among them. We must expect trouble and affliction from that, whatever it is, which we sinfully indulge; that which we are willing should tempt us we shall find will vex us. (2.) The righteous God would turn that wheel upon the Israelites which was to have crushed the Canaanites: I shall do to you as I thought to do unto them, Num 33:56. It was intended that the Canaanites should be dispossessed; but if the Israelites fell in with them, and learned their way, they should be dispossessed, for God's displeasure would justly be greater against them than against the Canaanites themselves. Let us hear this, and fear. If we do not drive sin out, sin will drive us out; if we be not the death of our lusts, our lusts will be the death of our souls.

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 33 This chapter gives an account of the journeys of the people of Israel, from their first coming out of Egypt, to their arrival in the plains of Moab by Jordan, and the names of the various stations where they rested are given, Num 33:1 and they are ordered, when they passed over Jordan, to drive out the Canaanites, destroy their idols, and divide the land among their families in their several tribes, Num 33:50 or otherwise it is threatened the Canaanites should be troublesome and vexatious to them, even those that remained; and it might be expected God would do to the Israelites as he thought to do to those nations, Num 33:55.

Moses delivers a prophetical blessing to the children of Israel, Deu 33:1. The introduction, Deu 33:2-5. Prophetic declarations concerning Reuben, Deu 33:6; concerning Judah, Deu 33:7; concerning Levi, Deu 33:8-11; concerning Benjamin, Deu 33:12; concerning Joseph, Deu 33:13-17; concerning Zebulun, Deu 33:18, Deu 33:19; concerning Gad, Deu 33:20, Deu 33:21; concerning Dan, Deu 33:22; concerning Naphtali, Deu 33:23; concerning Asher, Deu 33:24, Deu 33:25. The glory of the God of Jeshurun, and the glorious privileges of his true followers, Deu 33:26-29.

TWO AND FORTY JOURNEYS OF THE ISRAELITES--FROM EGYPT TO SINAI. (Num 33:1-15) These are the journeys of the children of Israel--This chapter may be said to form the winding up of the history of the travels of the Israelites through the wilderness; for the three following chapters relate to matters connected with the occupation and division of the promised land. As several apparent discrepancies will be discovered on comparing the records here given of the journeyings from Sinai with the detailed accounts of the events narrated in the Book of Exodus and the occasional notices of places that are found in that of Deuteronomy, it is probable that this itinerary comprises a list of only the most important stations in their journeys--those where they formed prolonged encampments, and whence they dispersed their flocks and herds to pasture on the adjacent plains till the surrounding herbage was exhausted. The catalogue extends from their departure out of Egypt to their arrival on the plains of Moab. went forth . . . with their armies--that is, a vast multitude marshalled in separate companies, but regular order.

ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you--not, however, by expulsion, but extermination (Deu 7:1). and destroy all their pictures--obelisks for idolatrous worship (see on Lev 26:1). and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places--by metonymy for all their groves and altars, and materials of worship on the tops of hills.

These instructions, with which the eyes of the Israelites were directed to the end of all their wandering, viz., the possession of the promised land, are arranged in two sections by longer introductory formulas (Num 33:50 and Num 35:1). The former contains the divine commands (a) with regard to the extermination of the Canaanites and their idolatry, and the division of the land among the tribes of Israel (Num 33:50-56); (b) concerning the boundaries of Canaan (Num 34:1-15); (c) concerning the men who were to divide the land (Num 34:16-29). The second contains commands (a) respecting the towns to be given up to the Levites (Num 35:1-8); (b) as to the setting apart of cities of refuge for unintentional manslayers, and the course to be adopted in relation to such manslayers (Num 35:9-34); and (c) a law concerning the marrying of heiresses within their own tribes (Num 36:1-13). - The careful dovetailing of all these legal regulations by separate introductory formulas, is a distinct proof that the section Num 33:50-56 is not to be regarded, as Baumgarten, Knobel, and others suppose, in accordance with the traditional division of the chapters, as an appendix or admonitory conclusion to the list of stations, but as the general legal foundation for the more minute instructions in Num 34-36. Num 33:50-56 Command to Exterminate the Canaanites, and Divide their Land among the Families of Israel. Num 33:51-53 When the Israelites passed through the Jordan into the land of Canaan, they were to exterminate all the inhabitants of the land, and to destroy all the memorials of their idolatry; to take possession of the land and well therein, for Jehovah had given it to them for a possession. הורישׁ, to take possession of (Num 33:53, etc.), then to drive out of their possession, to exterminate (Num 33:52; cf. Num 14:12, etc.). On Num 33:52, see Exo 34:13. משׂכּית, an idol of stone (cf. Lev 26:1). מסּכת צלמי, idols cast from brass. Massecah, see at Exo 32:4. Bamoth, altars of the Canaanites upon high places (see Lev 26:30). Num 33:54-56 The command to divide the land by lot among the families is partly a verbal repetition of Num 26:53-56. וגו לו יצא אל־אשׁר: literally, "into that, whither the lot comes out to him, shall be to him" (i.e., to each family); in other words, it is to receive that portion of land to which the lot that comes out of the urn shall point it. "According to the tribes of your fathers:" see at Num 26:55. - The command closes in Num 33:55, Num 33:56, with the threat, that if they did not exterminate the Canaanites, not only would such as were left become "thorns in their eyes and stings in their sides," i.e., inflict the most painful injuries upon them, and make war upon them in the land; but Jehovah would also do the very same things to the Israelites that He had intended to do to the Canaanites, i.e., drive them out of the land and destroy them. This threat is repeated by Joshua in his last address to the assembled congregation (Jos 23:13).