Deuteronomychapter 3
29 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
(Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion; and the Amorites call it Shenir;)
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
This chapter finishes Moses' account of the wars east of the Jordan and turns to his own disappointment. The hearers are the soldiers who took these lands, and their families are settling on them. Moses tells them how the ground was won and on what terms it was divided. Then he speaks of a prayer of his own that God refused. Listen for the conditions laid on the eastern tribes and for the charge passed to Joshua. Read it as a leader handing over a work he will not be allowed to finish.
Context
- Who
- Two and a half tribes who already had their land, and nine and a half who did not
- What
- The close of Moses' opening history, recalling the defeat of Og king of Bashan, the division of the east bank and God's refusal to let Moses cross.
- Where
- Bashan and Gilead east of the Jordan, from the Arnon north to Mount Hermon, and the valley opposite Beth-peor where Israel camped.
- When
- The fortieth year after the exodus, about 1406 BC on the traditional dating, or late in the thirteenth century BC on the later dating, in the months after the campaigns against Sihon and Og.
- Why
- To assure Israel that God would do to the kings west of the Jordan what He did to Sihon and Og, and to prepare them for Joshua's leadership.
Historical context
Moses speaks as the commander who fought the battle and as the man who divided the ground afterward. The chapter is his record of both, given to the people who received the allotment.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
Bashan was known country. Its soil grew heavy wheat and fattened cattle, and later prophets used its bulls and its oaks as bywords for anything large and well fed. John Gill records that Gilead and Bashan were famous for pasturage, which is why the tribes with much cattle asked for them.
The sixty cities of the Argob region are described with high walls, gates and bars. Albert Barnes records that the stone doors of Bashan survive and that their height points to a people of great stature, and that the deserted cities of that country still stand.
Og's bed is given as nine cubits by four, which John Wesley converts to four and a half yards by two. Albert Barnes reads the iron of it as the black basalt of that country, which carries about twenty percent iron and was itself called iron. The notice works as a museum label, since the thing was still at Rabbah and anyone who doubted could go and look.
Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh asked to stay east of the river because the land suited livestock. The terms Moses set were that their fighting men cross armed ahead of their brothers and stay until the west bank had rest, while the families and herds remained in the towns already taken.
Hermon closes the northern border. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown identify it as Jebel-es-Sheikh, a cluster of peaks almost always under snow, and Albert Barnes records that its Baal sanctuaries made it the religious centre of early Syria and gave it a name before the exodus.
Significance
For the eastern tribes this chapter was their deed and their obligation in one breath. They had their inheritance early, and for that reason they owed the campaign across the river.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For everyone else it was the proof. Two Amorite kings with walled cities had already fallen to them, which is the evidence Joshua is charged on at verse 21.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The commentators read the defeat of Og and the prayer of Moses as the two halves of this chapter. Rashi on Deuteronomy 3:2:1 asks why Moses was told to have no fear of Og when no such word was given about Sihon. He answers that Moses feared the merit Og had earned by serving Abraham, reading Og as the fugitive of Genesis 14:13 and citing Genesis Rabbah 42:8. Sforno on Deuteronomy 3:10:1 accounts for Og's rule by his survival. He holds that the Rephaim were broken in the war of Amrafel and his allies at Ashterot Karnayim. The remnant fell against Ammon. Og alone came through, a hero equal to the rest combined. Rashi on Deuteronomy 3:11:1 gives the same survival from the same battle. Rashi on Deuteronomy 3:9:1 takes up the four names of Hermon. He holds that Scripture records them all to tell the praise of the land, citing Sifrei Devarim 37:10 and Chullin 60b. The prayer of Moses is read as a model of how the righteous ask. Rashi on Deuteronomy 3:23:1 holds that the verb behind the plea signifies a gift given freely, and that the righteous, who might claim reward on their deeds, ask instead for the gift. He gives a second reading in the same comment, that the word is one of the ten terms for prayer set out in Sifrei Devarim 26:7. Rashi on Deuteronomy 3:24:1 reads the two divine names together as mercy in judgment, from Sifrei Devarim 26:10. Rashi on Deuteronomy 3:27:1 holds that Moses asked to see the good land and was shown the whole of it. Every quotation above is from a corpus entry marked kept, the Rashi of Rosenbaum and Silbermann, public domain, and the Sforno of Eliyahu Munk's HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY. Ibn Ezra and Malbim stand on this chapter as linked entries, at Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 3:3:1, 3:14:1 and 3:15:1 and Malbim on Deuteronomy 3:21:1 and 3:22:1, and are cited by ref alone.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis teach that the fugitive who brought Abraham word in Genesis 14:13 was Og himself, so that the king Israel met at Edrei had once done Abraham a service. Rashi carries the teaching on Deuteronomy 3:2:1 and 3:11:1 from Genesis Rabbah 42:8. They teach that four kingdoms each wanted Mount Hermon named after itself, one saying after me shall it be named and another the same. Scripture kept all four names to the praise of the land. Rashi carries it on Deuteronomy 3:9:1 from Sifrei Devarim 37:10 and Chullin 60b. They teach that prayer is described by ten terms, which Rashi gives on Deuteronomy 3:23:1 from Sifrei Devarim 26:7. The corpus also holds the Midrash and the Talmud on this chapter as locators without their text. Among them are Bamidbar Rabbah 19:29 at verse 2, Devarim Rabbah 5:14 at verse 3 and Arakhin 32b:6 at verse 4. Others are Arakhin 33b:22 at verse 5, Midrash Tehillim 17:10 at verse 6, Chullin 60b:14 at verse 9 and Bereshit Rabbah 42:8 at verse 12.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 3:2:1, 3:9:1, 3:11:1, 3:23:1, 3:24:1 and 3:27:1, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929 to 1934; Sforno, Sforno on Deuteronomy 3:10:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 3:3:1, 3:14:1 and 3:15:1, cited by ref alone, CC-BY-NC; Malbim, Malbim on Deuteronomy 3:21:1 and 3:22:1, cited by ref alone, no English version; Midrash and Talmud, Bamidbar Rabbah 19:29, Devarim Rabbah 5:14, Arakhin 32b:6, Arakhin 33b:22, Midrash Tehillim 17:10, Chullin 60b:14 and Bereshit Rabbah 42:8, cited by ref alone; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/3.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Og of Bashan and his iron bedstead
Deuteronomy 3:1-3
The account runs close to Numbers 21:33-35, down to the words "Do not fear him" and the charge to treat Og as Sihon. Here Moses tells it in the second person to the children of the men who died in the wilderness, handing the battle over as evidence. Edrei sat at the southern edge of Bashan, and Og left his walls to meet Israel there.
Deuteronomy 3:1
“It was wonderful that he did not take warning by the ruin of Sihon, and send to desire conditions of peace; but he trusted to his own strength, and so was hardened to his destruction. Note, Those that are not awakened by the judgments of God upon others, but persist in their defiance of heaven, are ripening apace for the like judgments upon themselves, Jer. iii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John Gill places this word while Og was marching out with all his forces. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain that Og's great size and his army were a real cause for fear, and that the LORD answered it by naming Sihon's fall as the pattern. The past tense, I have delivered him, treats the outcome as settled before the fighting began.
Deuteronomy 3:2
“The Lord said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand--Og's gigantic appearance and the formidable array of forces he will bring to the field, need not discourage you; for, belonging to a doomed race, he is destined to share the fate of Sihon [Nu 21:25].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The verse reports the outcome in the words used of Sihon, the LORD delivered and Israel struck. Matthew Henry notes that when God takes up his people's cause he deals with giants as with grasshoppers, a phrase that answers the spies' report at Numbers 13:33. He measures Og's strength by the sixty fortified cities under his command, besides the unwalled towns.
Deuteronomy 3:3
“So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also the king of Bashan, and all his people,.... As well as Sihon king of Heshbon: and we smote him, till none was left to him remaining; or left alive, all were slain with the sword; See Gill on Num 21:35.”
Deuteronomy 3:4-7
All sixty cities fall, "fortified with high walls and gates and bars". The generation that refused the land had reported cities "large and fortified" at Numbers 13:28, and their children take sixty such cities before they reach the Jordan. Verse 6 gives the extent, "the men, women, and children of every city", on the pattern set at Heshbon in 2:34, while the livestock and plunder were kept.
Deuteronomy 3:4
“Argob was the capital of a district in Bashan of the same name, which, together with other fifty-nine cities in the same province, were conspicuous for their lofty and fortified walls. It was a war of extermination.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:4
“All the region of Argob - כל חבל ארגב col chebel Argob, all the cable or cord of Argob; this expression, which is used in various other parts of Scripture, (see, in the original, Amo 7:17; Mic 2:5; Deu 32:9; Psa 16:6), shows that anciently land was measured by lines or cords of a certain length, in a similar way to that by the chain among us, and the schoenus or cord among the Egyptians. Some think that it was the region of Argob that was afterwards called the region of Trachonites.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Besides the walled cities there were many unwalled villages, so the region was thickly settled, and John Gill takes these as small towns clustered around the cities. Albert Barnes renders gates and bars as double gates and a bar. He points to the stone doors and deserted towns of Bashan still standing in his day as illustration of these verses.
Deuteronomy 3:5
“All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars,.... That is, all the cities in the kingdom of Bashan; and though they were, it hindered not their falling into the hands of the Israelites; and this might serve to encourage them against those fears they were possessed of by the spies, with respect to the cities in the land of Canaan; see Num 13:28. besides unwalled towns a great many; small towns and villages adjacent to the several cities, as is common.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:5
“Gates, and bars - literally, “Double gates and a bar.” The stone doors of Bashan, their height pointing to a race of great stature, and the numerous cities (deserted) exist to illustrate the statements of these verses.”
John Gill clarifies what was destroyed: the inhabitants, while the cities themselves were kept and later lived in by Israel. Numbers 32:33-42 records the eastern tribes and the clans of Manasseh taking, rebuilding and renaming these towns. Deuteronomy 20:16-17 later sets out the same rule for the cities of the Amorites and the other nations of the land.
Deuteronomy 3:6
“And we utterly destroyed them,.... Not the cities, but the inhabitants of them: as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon; they did not destroy his cities, for they took them and dwelt in them; but the people that lived there, as follows here: utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city; see Deu 2:34.”
As with Sihon's cities in 2:35, the livestock and goods were kept as Israel's own. John Gill lists oxen, sheep, camels and donkeys, gold and silver, household furnishings and stores of grain, and says Israel was greatly enriched by them. The herds taken here help explain verse 19, where Moses says the eastern tribes have much livestock.
Deuteronomy 3:7
“But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities,.... The oxen and sheep, camels and asses; their gold and silver, and the furniture of their houses; their stores of corn, and of other fruits of the earth, even all their substance of whatsoever kind: we took for a prey to ourselves; made them their own property, and used them for their own profit and service, whereby they became greatly enriched.”
Deuteronomy 3:8-10
The territory is measured by its edges, "from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon", the whole east side of the Jordan. Verse 9 gives the mountain's other names, Sirion among the Sidonians and Senir among the Amorites, and Psalm 29:6 uses Sirion. Albert Barnes points out that Hermon carried Baal sanctuaries and was a religious centre of old Syria, known to several nations by their own names.
Deuteronomy 3:8
“Since he must not live to see the completing of their victory and settlement, God thus gives him a specimen of it. Thus the Spirit is given to those that believe as the earnest of their inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the Sidonians call Sirion: Readers differ over the origin of this aside. Adam Clarke supposes it was a marginal remark later taken into the text, while Albert Barnes suggests Moses could have known the Sidonian name through the old trade between Sidon and Egypt. John Wesley holds that the several names belong partly to different peoples and partly to different peaks of the one mountain.
Deuteronomy 3:9
“Hermon, the southern and culminating point of the range of Lebanon, was also the religious center of primaeval Syria. Its Baal sanctuaries not only existed but gave it a name before the Exodus. Hence, the careful specification of the various names by which the mountain was known. The Sidonian name of it might easily have become known to Moses through the constant traffic which had gone on from the most ancient times between Sidon and Egypt.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:9
“Hermon--now Jebel-Es-Sheick--the majestic hill on which the long and elevated range of Anti-Lebanon terminates. Its summit and the ridges on its sides are almost constantly covered with snow. It is not so much one high mountain as a whole cluster of mountain peaks, the highest in Palestine.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The conquest is summed up in three regions from south to north: the plateau, Gilead and Bashan. John Wesley explains that Gilead here means the district around Mount Gilead, distinct from Bashan, though elsewhere the name covers everything Israel held beyond the Jordan. Albert Barnes places Salecah on the eastern border of Og's kingdom, a city likely fortified for that reason.
Deuteronomy 3:10
“Salchah - Compare Jos 12:5; 1Ch 5:11, where it is named as belonging to the tribe of Gad. It lies seven hours’ journey to the southeast of Bostra or Bozrah of Moab. As the eastern border city of the kingdom of Bashan it was no doubt strongly fortified. Edrei - Compare Num 21:33 note.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:10
“All Gilead - Gilead is sometimes taken for all the Israelites possessions beyond Jordan, and so it comprehends Bashan; but here for that part of it which lies in and near mount Gilead, and so it is distinguished from Bashan and Argob.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Og is the last of "the remnant of the Rephaim", and his "bed of iron", about thirteen feet by six, stood in Rabbah for readers then to check. Barnes reads the iron as black basalt, which carries iron and is still called iron there. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report that Dathe and Roos read coffin for bed, and readers divide over whether it measures the man or his furniture.
Deuteronomy 3:11
“To avoid this, some eminent critics take the Hebrew word rendered "bedstead" to mean "coffin." They think that the king of Bashan having been wounded in battle, fled to Rabbath, where he died and was buried; hence the dimensions of his "coffin" are given [DATHE, ROOS].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:11
“In Rabbath - Where it might now be, either because the Ammonites in some former battle with Og, had taken it as a spoil: or because after Og's death, the Ammonites desired to have this monument of his greatness, and the Israelites permitted them to carry it away to their chief city. Nine cubits - So his bed was four yards and an half long, and two yards broad.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 3:11
“Giants - Or Rephaim: see the marginal reference note. A bedstead of iron - The “iron” was probably the black basalt of the country, which not only contains a large proportion, about 20 percent, of iron, but was actually called “iron,” and is still so regarded by the Arabians. Iron was indeed both known and used, principally for tools (see e. g. Deu 19:5 and compare Gen 4:22 note), at the date in question by the Semitic people of Palestine and the adjoining countries; but bronze was the ordinary metal of which weapons, articles of furniture, etc., were made.”
Dividing Gilead and Bashan
Deuteronomy 3:12-13
The land east of the Jordan is shared out before the west is entered, and Numbers 32 records the bargaining. Reuben and Gad take from Aroer along the Arnon with half of Gilead, and the half-tribe of Manasseh the rest of Gilead and all Bashan. Verse 13 adds that Bashan "used to be called the land of the Rephaim", so the tribe settles on ground known by that name.
Deuteronomy 3:12
“And this land, which we possessed at that time,.... Or took possession of, having conquered it; for it still remained in their possession: from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon: on the borders of Moab, from thence as far as Gilead was the land which was taken from Sihon king of Heshbon, Deu 2:36. and half Mount Gilead, and the cities thereof: which were taken from Og king of Bashan, Deu 3:10. gave I unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites; at their request, on certain conditions to be performed by them, afterwards repeated.”
The gift to the half-tribe of Manasseh covers the whole kingdom of Og, including Argob, which verse 4 counts at sixty cities. John Gill identifies Argob with the region later called Trachonitis. He also reports Jarchi's reading that this land of the Rephaim is the country of the Rephaim promised to Abraham at Genesis 15:20.
Deuteronomy 3:13
“And the rest of Gilead,.... The other half of the mount, with the cities belonging to it: and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; see Num 32:33. all the region of Argob, with all Bashan; the region of Trachonitis, in Bashan; see Deu 3:4, which was called the land of giants; or of Rephaim; this Jarchi says is the country of the Rephaim given to Abraham, Gen 15:20.”
Deuteronomy 3:14-15
Jair takes Argob out to the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites and names it after himself, Havvoth-jair, "by which it is called to this day". Albert Barnes observes that "to this day" can cover any length of time and by itself cannot date the sentence. Machir receives Gilead through his descendants at Numbers 32:40, and Judges 10:3-4 has a later Jair with thirty sons and thirty cities.
Deuteronomy 3:14
“Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob,.... Or Trachonitis; the small towns belonging to Gilead, as in Num 32:41. unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; these were little kingdoms in Syria, on which the country of Argob bordered, and had kings over them in the time of David, and came not into the possession of the Israelites; see Jos 13:13. and called them after his own name, Bashanhavothjair, unto this day; see Num 32:41.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:14
“These Geshurites held territory adjoining, if not included within, Bashan. They are not to be confounded with those mentioned in Jos 13:2, who were neighbors of the Philistines 1Sa 17:8. The exact position of Maachah like that of Geshur cannot be ascertained; but it was no doubt among the fastnesses which lay between Bashan and the kingdom of Damascus, and on the skirts of Mount Hermon. Unto this day - This expression, like our “until now,” does not, as used in the Bible, necessarily imply that the time spoken of as elapsed is long.”
The Gilead given here is the northern half, since verse 12 has already given the southern half to Reuben and Gad, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown point out. Machir was the son of Manasseh and the father of Gilead, so the region and the clan share a name at Numbers 26:29. John Wesley says Machir himself was dead by this time.
Deuteronomy 3:15
“I gave Gilead unto Machir--It was only the half of Gilead (De 3:12, 13) which was given to the descendants of Machir, who was now dead.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 3:16-17
The borders are drawn by water, the Arnon on the south, the Jabbok on the line of Ammon, and Jordan running between Chinnereth and the salt sea. Chinnereth is the lake the Gospels call the sea of Galilee, and the salt sea is the Dead Sea, so both ends of this eastern strip are places a modern map still carries. Ashdoth-pisgah closes the list and names the slope Moses is sent up in verse 27.
Deuteronomy 3:16
“The sense is that the Reubenites and Gadites were to possess the district from the Jabbok on the north to the Arnon on the south, including the middle part of the valley of the Arnon, and the territory (“coast” or “border”) thereto pertaining.”
The Jordan valley forms the western edge of the eastern tribes' land, so their border is the river itself. John Wesley remarks that the Salt Sea covers ground that was a fertile plain before the destruction of Sodom, a reading that recalls Genesis 13:10. Numbers 34:11-12 uses the same two lakes to mark the eastern border of Canaan, as Adam Clarke's cross-reference shows.
Deuteronomy 3:17
“The plain - The low country towards Jordan. The sea of the plain - That is, that salt sea, which before that dreadful conflagration was a goodly plain.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Your families stay; your fighting men cross
Deuteronomy 3:18-20
The eastern tribes hold their land on terms: their fighting men cross armed ahead of their brothers, while wives, children, and livestock stay in the cities given them. Numbers 32:20-22 sets those terms, and Joshua 22:1-4 sends the men home. The governing word is rest, "until the LORD gives rest to your brothers as He has to you", so one tribe's settlement waits on the nation's.
Deuteronomy 3:18
“You - Namely, the Reubenites and Gadites. All that are meet - In such number as your our brethren shall judge necessary. They were in all above an hundred thousand.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Moses breaks off in the middle of the list to acknowledge the herds, which were the reason these tribes asked for the land at Numbers 32:1. John Gill notes that Gilead and Bashan were famous for pasture, and that the families and herds stayed behind under the care of servants. The cities they stayed in were ones the tribes rebuilt, as Numbers 32:34-36 records.
Deuteronomy 3:19
“But your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle,.... These were to be left behind: for I know that ye have much cattle; which made the countries of Gilead and Bashan, so famous for pasturage, agreeable to them; see Num 32:1 these, under the care of servants, and also their wives and children: shall abide in your cities which I have given you; and which they rebuilt and repaired, Num 32:34.”
The release comes in the last sentence, and each man may return to the possession given him once the western tribes hold theirs. Joshua repeats these terms to the eastern tribes at Joshua 1:13-15, before the crossing. Matthew Henry draws the lesson that those already at rest should work for their brothers' rest, since members of one people are members one of another.
Deuteronomy 3:21-22
Joshua is charged on the evidence of his own eyes, "all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings". Sihon and Og are the sample of what awaits the kingdoms ahead, so victories on the east bank ground the campaign on the west. Verse 22's promise that the LORD "will fight for you" repeats Exodus 14:14, and God charges Joshua the same way at Joshua 1:5-9.
Deuteronomy 3:21
“We reproach our leader if we follow him trembling. The prayer which Moses made for himself, and the answer which God gave to that prayer. His prayer was that, if it were God's will, he might go before Israel over Jordan into Canaan.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The charge to Joshua ends with its reason, the same reason Moses gave the people at 1:30. John Gill names the fears it answers, the numbers, strength and stature of the enemy and their fortified cities. He then points ahead to the fall of Jericho's walls and the hailstones at Gibeon as the promise kept.
Deuteronomy 3:22
“Ye shall not fear them,.... On account of the numbers, strength, courage, and gigantic stature of the inhabitants, at least some of them; nor on account of their walled towns, and fortified cities: for the Lord your God he shall fight for you; as he did, particularly at Jericho, the walls of which city fell at the sound of rams' horns; and at Gibeon, when he cast down hailstones on their enemies, and more were slain by them than with the sword; and in all their battles it was he that gave them success and victory.”
Let me go over: speak no more of this
Deuteronomy 3:23-25
Moses asks once, resting the prayer on what he has been shown: "You have begun to show Your greatness". The question "what god in heaven or on earth" is the ground of the request. He asks to "see the good land", and Adam Clarke reads the plea as the wish of a man who carried the people forty years to a border he must stop at.
Deuteronomy 3:23
“And I besought the Lord at that time,.... When he was told he should die, and Joshua should succeed him; or when the two kings were slain, and their kingdoms conquered; this being the beginning, pledge, and earnest of what God had promised to do for the people of Israel; Moses was very desirous of living to see the work completed, and therefore sought the Lord by prayer and supplication: saying; as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:23
“I besought the Lord - We should allow no desire in our hearts, which we cannot in faith offer unto God by prayer.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Moses addresses God as Lord GOD, joining the title of a master to the covenant name, and calls himself Your servant. John Wesley reads the plea as asking God to finish what he had begun. He adds that the more of God's glory a person sees in his works, the more he desires to see, and the better prepared he is for more.
Deuteronomy 3:24
“O Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand,.... To give a specimen of the greatness of his power in subduing the two kings and their kingdoms, and delivering them up into the hands of the Israelites.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:24
“The prayer of Moses recorded in these two verses, and his own reflections on it, Deu 3:26, are very affecting. He had suffered much both in body and mind in bringing the people to the borders of the promised land; and it was natural enough for him to wish to see them established in it, and to enjoy a portion of that inheritance himself, which he knew was a type of the heavenly country. But notwithstanding his very earnest prayer, and God’s especial favor towards him, he was not permitted to go over Jordan!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 3:24
“Thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness - Lord, perfect what thou hast begun. The more we see of God's glory in his works, the more we desire to see. And the more we are affected with what we have seen of God, the better we are prepared for farther discoveries.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Readers have divided over the pleasant hill country. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report that Jewish writers took it as the hill where the temple would stand, and John Wesley thinks that reading likely, while the scholars of their day read it with Lebanon as a picture of the land's beauty. Albert Barnes takes it as the whole hill district, cooler and better watered than the scorched plains.
Deuteronomy 3:25
“That goodly mountain - i. e., that mountainous district. The fiat districts of the East are generally scorched, destitute of water, and therefore sterile: the hilly ones, on the contrary, are of more tempered climate, and fertilized by the streams from the high grounds. Compare Deu 11:11. The whole of this prayer of Moses is very characteristic.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:25
“Let me go over - For he supposed God's threatening might be conditional and reversible, as many others were. That goodly mountain -Which the Jews not improbably understood of that mountain on which the temple was to be built. This he seems to call that mountain, emphatically and eminently, that which was much in Moses's thoughts, though not in his eye.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 3:26-27
Moses gives the reason he cannot enter three times, at 1:37, here, and at 4:21, each time laying the LORD's anger to the people's account. Numbers 20:12 gives it in other words, "Because you did not trust Me", and both accounts stand. "That is enough" ends the asking, and the sight he wanted is granted from "the top of Pisgah", where Deuteronomy 34:1-4 finds him at the last.
Deuteronomy 3:26
“Let it suffice thee - רב לך rab lach, there is an abundance to thee - thou hast had honor enough already, and may well dispense with going over Jordan. He surely has no reason to complain who is taken from earthly felicity to heavenly glory. In this act God showed to Moses both his goodness and severity.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 3:26
“But how was he wroth with Moses for the sake of Israel? Either, [1.] For that sin which they provoked him to; see Ps. cvi. Or, [2.] The removal of Moses at that time, when he could so ill be spared, was a rebuke to all Israel, and a punishment of their sin.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The four directions are listed with west first, the direction of the land across the river. John Gill calls Pisgah the highest point of Mount Nebo, citing 32:49, and notes that the view north would take in Lebanon, the place Moses had asked to see. Matthew Henry comments that even great believers see heaven only at a distance in this present state.
Deuteronomy 3:27
“Get thee up into the top of Pisgah,.... Which was the highest eminence of Mount Nebo, and so a very proper place to take a prospect from; see Deu 32:49. and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward; to all the four points of the heaven, and to all the four quarters and borders of the land of Canaan: and behold it with thine eyes; even the land of Canaan, and particularly Lebanon, though it lay to the north of it, that mountain he had such a desire to see.”
Deuteronomy 3:28-29
Moses is to commission, encourage, and strengthen his successor, because Joshua will bring the people into the land Moses will only see. The chapter closes "in the valley opposite Beth-peor", where Israel "joined in worshiping Baal of Peor" in Numbers 25 and lost twenty-four thousand. Deuteronomy 34:6 buries Moses in a valley "facing Beth-peor", so he speaks from the ground where he will be buried.
Deuteronomy 3:28
“But charge Joshua, etc. - Give him authority in the sight of the people, let them see that he has the same commission which I gave to thee. Encourage him; for he will meet with many difficulties in the work to which he is called. And strengthen him - show him my unfailing promises, and exhort him to put his trust in me alone; for he shall go over before this people, and shall cause them to inherit the land; of this let him rest perfectly assured.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The name Beth-peor means house of Peor, and Albert Barnes takes it from a temple of the Moabite god Peor standing there, near the Mount Peor of Numbers 23:28. Adam Clarke places the town in Sihon's former kingdom. Clarke also reads what this chapter says of Moses and Joshua as a type of justice and grace in salvation, with Canaan standing for the kingdom of heaven.
Deuteronomy 3:29
“So we abode in the valley over against Bethpeor. In the plains of Moab, over against a temple built for Baalpeor upon a mountain, so called from that idol, or that idol from the mountain; this is the valley where Moses was buried, Deu 34:6.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Historical recital closing the prologue, with the allotment record and the petition inside it, as Deuteronomy classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| At that time | The phrase opens each unit of the chapter after the battle, at the taking of the cities in verse 4, the measuring of the territory in verse 8, the allotment in verse 12, the charge to the eastern tribes in verse 18, the charge to Joshua in verse 21 and the prayer in verse 23. The site's published exposition takes it as the catchword of three of its own notes.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 3:18 to 20, 3:21 to 22 and 3:23 to 25, The exposition_notes rows on Deuteronomy 3:18 to 20, 3:21 to 22 and 3:23 to 25, whose catchwords carry the phrase. | Deuteronomy 3:4, Deuteronomy 3:8, Deuteronomy 3:12, Deuteronomy 3:18, Deuteronomy 3:21, Deuteronomy 3:23 |
| Do to Og as you did to Sihon | Verse 2 sets the order in those terms and verse 6 reports it carried out on the pattern already set at Heshbon in 2:34. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the promise at verse 2 as telling Israel that Og's size and his forces need not discourage them, since he belongs to a doomed people and will share Sihon's fate.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Deuteronomy 3:2. | Deuteronomy 3:2, Deuteronomy 3:6 |
| The land measured by its waters | Verses 8 to 17 draw the whole east bank by its edges, the Arnon on the south, Mount Hermon on the north, the Jabbok on the line of Ammon, and the Jordan running between Chinnereth and the salt sea. The site's published exposition records that Chinnereth is the lake the Gospels call the sea of Galilee and that the slope named at the end of the list is the one Moses is sent up in verse 27.Albert Barnes, with Keil and Delitzsch, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, and Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1866, on Deuteronomy 3:16 to 17. | Deuteronomy 3:8, Deuteronomy 3:16, Deuteronomy 3:17 |
| Three charges and one petition, quoted | The chapter reports four speeches in the words they were spoken in, the terms laid on the eastern tribes at verses 18 to 20, the charge to Joshua at verses 21 and 22, the prayer at verses 24 and 25, and the answer at verses 26 to 28. Adam Clarke reads the prayer as the wish of a man who had carried the people forty years to a border he was to stop at.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Deuteronomy 3:23 to 25. | Deuteronomy 3:18, Deuteronomy 3:21, Deuteronomy 3:24, Deuteronomy 3:26 |
| The cord of Argob | Adam Clarke records that the Hebrew behind the region of Argob is chebel, a cable or a cord, and that the same term stands at Amos 7:17, Micah 2:5, Deuteronomy 32:9 and Psalm 16:6, so land was anciently measured by lines of a set length. He adds that some take Argob for the district later called Trachonitis.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Deuteronomy 3:4. | Deuteronomy 3:4, Deuteronomy 3:13, Deuteronomy 3:14 |
The bed of iron, and what can be checked
14 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 11 gives Og's bed as nine cubits by four after the cubit of a man, and sends the reader to Rabbah of the Ammonites to look at it. John Wesley reckons that at four and a half yards by two. The site's published exposition observes that this is a claim a reader of the time could go and test.
Albert Barnes reads the iron as the black basalt of that country, which carries about twenty percent iron, was actually called iron, and is still so regarded by the Arabians. He adds that iron was known and used at that date, mainly for tools, while bronze was the ordinary metal for weapons and furniture.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report that Dathe and Roos took the Hebrew word rendered bedstead to mean coffin, and read the dimensions as those of the burial of a king who was wounded in battle, fled to Rabbath and died there. Wesley offers two accounts of how the piece came to be in an Ammonite city, capture in an earlier war or a later request granted by Israel. Whether the figure gives the man's stature or the size of a royal piece is where readers divide, and the verse supplies the dimensions and the address and stops.
The historical value
The places are identified and measured. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record that Hermon is Jebel-es-Sheikh, the point where the range of Anti-Lebanon ends, a cluster of peaks whose summit and ridges are nearly always under snow. Albert Barnes records that Hermon was the religious centre of early Syria, that its Baal sanctuaries gave it a name before the exodus, and that the Sidonian name could reach Moses through the old traffic between Sidon and Egypt. Psalm 29:6 uses the Sidonian name.
Albert Barnes reads the doors of verse 5 as the stone doors of Bashan, whose height points to a people of great stature, and records that the deserted cities of that country still stand as illustration. He places Salecah seven hours to the south east of Bozrah and reads it as the fortified eastern border city of the kingdom.
The debated readings in this chapter
Unto this day. Verse 14 says that Jair named the region after himself and that it carries the name to this day. Albert Barnes states that the expression fixes no particular length of time and by itself settles nothing about when the sentence was written. The dossier carries the two positions on the date of the book, and this verse is one of the places the argument is made.
Why Moses was refused. The book gives the reason three times, at 1:37, here at verse 26 and at 4:21, and each time it is the LORD's anger on the people's account. Numbers 20:12 gives it as unbelief at the waters of Meribah. Matthew Henry offers two readings of the wording, that the sin was the one Israel provoked him to, as Psalm 106 has it, or that the removal of Moses at that hour was itself a rebuke to Israel. Adam Clarke reads the answer at verse 26 as showing both God's goodness and His severity.
The New Testament's use
The rest of verse 20 is the word the letter to the Hebrews works on. Hebrews 4:8 argues that if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day, so the arrangement made here is read as a partial thing pointing past itself.
Acts 13:19 sums up the conquest in one line, that God vanquished seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to His people as an inheritance. The two kings of this chapter stayed in Israel's public memory: Psalm 135:11 and Psalm 136:19 to 20 name Sihon and Og by name in songs of praise.
What the chapter hands forward
The three-part charge of verse 28, commission him, encourage him, strengthen him, is taken up at 31:7 and 31:23, and God lays the same charge on Joshua Himself at Joshua 1:5 to 9. The sight granted at verse 27 from the top of Pisgah is where 34:1 to 4 finds Moses at the last.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy, 1963; This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 3:1 to 3, The exposition_notes row on Deuteronomy 3:1 to 3, citing Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1866, and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763 and This site's published guide to Deuteronomy, src/components/book/guides/deuteronomy/DeuteronomyGuide.tsx, the section Title, Setting and the Historical Recital at 1:1 to 4:43, marked preamble and historical prologue.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.