Numbers 33:50-55

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 33:50-56

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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 33:50

And the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan, near Jericho ,.... See Gill on Numbers 33:48 ; see Gill on Numbers 22:1 , saying ; as follows. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 33:51

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them ,.... What was to be said, being what concerned the whole body of the people: when ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan ; near to which they now were, and Moses was about to leave them; and therefore it was the more necessary to give them some instructions and directions what they should do, when they were come into it. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 33:52

Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you ,.... Not at once, but gradually; and the sense is, that they should use their utmost endeavours wholly to extirpate them: and destroy all their pictures ; their idolatrous ones; the pictures of their gods, or the statues and figured stones of them: the Targum of Jonathan interprets it,"all the temples of their worship;'and the Jerusalem Targum,"all their idols;'so called, as Jarchi notes, because they covered the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 33:53

And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein ,.... Turn them out of their cities, towns, and houses, and inhabit them: for I have given you the land to possess it ; who had a right to dispose of it, and a better title they needed not desire than the Lord could and did make them. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 33:54

And ye shall divide the land by lot ,.... What is said in this verse is the same with Numbers 26:53 , where it has been explained; See Gill on Numbers 26:53 ; see Gill on Numbers 26:54 ; see Gill on Numbers 26:55 ; see Gill on Numbers 26:56 . read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 33:55

But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you ,.... Should be remiss and careless about it, and indifferent to it, and not make use of the proper means to get rid of them, but, on the contrary, make covenants with them, and intermarry among them; or, however, become friendly to them, and suffer them to dwell among them: then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them ; sparing their lives, and permitting them to dwell among them: shall be... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Numbers 33:52

Ye shall - destroy all their pictures - משכיתם maskiyotham , from שחה sachah , to be like, or resemble, either pictures, carved work, or embroidery, as far as these things were employed to exhibit the abominations of idolatry. Molten images מסכתם צלמי tsalmey massechotham , metallic talismanical figures, made under certain constellations, and supposed in consequence to be possessed of some extraordinary influences and virtues. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Numbers 33:55

Shall be pricks in your eyes - Under these metaphors, the continual mischief that should be done to them, both in soul and body, by these idolaters, is set forth in a very expressive manner. What can be more vexatious than a continual goading of each side, so that the attempt to avoid the one throws the body more forcibly on the other? And what can be more distressing than a continual pricking in the eye, harassing the mind, tormenting the body, and extinguishing the sight? It has been... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Numbers 33:50

Verse 50 50.And the Lord spake unto Moses. The end and design of God in willing that these nations should be expelled, I have elsewhere explained, (226) viz, lest they should adulterate the pure worship of God by their admixtures, should corrupt the people by their bad examples, and thus be pollutions to the Holy Land. But Moses now refers to another point, for, when about to speak of the division of the land, he begins by saying that it must be emptied of its inhabitants, that its free and... read more

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