Numbers 33:55

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 33:55

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 33:55

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 33:55

Verse 55 55But if ye will not drive out. We have elsewhere seen why God’s wrath was so greatly aroused against those nations, that He desired them to be exterminated. Even in Abraham’s time gross indulgence of sin had begun to prevail there, as we gather from God’s word, when He said that “their iniquity was not yet full.” After they had abused the forbearance of God Himself for 400 years, who will deny that their destruction was the just and reasonable reward of their long obstinacy? Still, in... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Numbers 33:55

If ye will not drive out the inhabitants. As was in fact the case ( 1:1-36 ). The warning is here given for the first time, because the danger was now near at hand, and had indeed already shown itself in the matter of the Midianitish women and children. Pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides. Natural symbols of dangerous annoyances. Possibly the thickets which fringe the Jordan supplied them with present examples. In Joshua 23:13 we have "scourges in your sides, and thorns in... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Numbers 33:50-56

The expulsion of the Canaanites and the destruction of their monuments of idolatry had been already enjoined (see the marginal references); and Numbers 33:54 is substantially a repetition from Exo. 26:53-55. But the solemn warning of Numbers 33:55-56 is new. A call for it had been furnished by their past transgressions in the matter of Baal-peor, and by their imperfect fulfillment, at the first, of Moses’ orders in the Midianite war. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Numbers 33:55

Numbers 33:55. If ye will not drive out the inhabitants Those of them whom ye suffer to remain in the land through your cowardice, slothfulness, or friendship toward them, shall be a great plague to you, and bring sore calamities upon you; see Ezekiel 28:24. Joshua intimates the same to them before he died, Numbers 23:13. Of this also an angel puts them in mind, Judges 2:3. And so it came to pass, as we read there, (Numbers 33:14,) and throughout that whole book. Shall be pricks in your... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Numbers 33:50-56

Plans for the division of Canaan (33:50-34:29)As Canaan was to become the land of Yahweh’s people, all the former inhabitants and all trace of their religion had to be removed. Failure to do this would bring trouble for Israel (50-56).Moses then gave the boundaries of the land that Israel was to occupy. The southern boundary went from the Dead Sea through Kadesh-barnea to the Brook of Egypt, which it followed to the coast. The western boundary followed the coast along the Mediterranean Sea. The... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Numbers 33:55

not drive out. Alas! they did not. Compare Joshua 13:13 ; Joshua 15:63 ; Joshua 16:10 . Judges 1:19 , Judges 1:21 , Judges 1:28 , Judges 1:29 , Judges 1:30-36 ; Judges 2:1-5 . See App-25 . pricks. Compare Joshua 23:13 . = for pricks. Compare Ezekiel 28:24 .Judges 2:3 . read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Numbers 33:55

Numbers 33:55. Pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides— God here declares to the Israelites, that if they mix themselves with the Canaanites, whom they suffered to remain in the land, those Canaanites should be the instruments, in his hand, to chastise them, and should cause them evils as dolorous in their kind as those which arise from a thorn in the eye, or poignard in the side. See Ezekiel 28:24. Joshua intimated the same threatening to them before he died, Jos 23:13 of which an angel... read more

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