Moreover, it shall come to pass ,.... This being the case, they suffering the Canaanites to dwell among them, and they mingling with them, learning their works, and serving their gods: that I shall do unto you as I thought I should do unto them ; deliver them up into the hands of their enemies, who should carry them captive into other lands. read more
I shaft do unto you as I thought to do unto them, i.e; I shall execute by other hands upon you the sentence of dispossession which ye shall have refused to execute upon the Canaanites. The threat (although in fact fulfilled) does not necessarily involve any prophecy, since to settle down among the remnants of the heathen was a course of action which would obviously and for many reasons commend itself to the Israelites. Indolence and cowardice were consulted by such a policy as much as... read more
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
Numbers 33:56. I shall do unto you as I thought to do unto them Make you their slaves; or rather, you shall flee before them, and be expelled the land, as they should have been. read more
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
Numbers 33:56. I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them— That is to say, I will make you the slaves of those who have been slaves to you, and who shall drive you from your country as you have before driven them. See Judges 8:14; Judges 6:2. REFLECTIONS.—Strict injunctions are given for the entire destruction of every monument of idolatry, and the utter extirpation of the people. It would be highly dangerous to maintain any friendship with them, or preserve the least relics of their... read more
B. Warning and encouragement of the younger generation chs. 33-36God gave the final laws governing Israel’s entrance into the Promised Land (Numbers 33:50 to Numbers 36:13). However, first, Moses recorded at God’s command this list of places from which the Israelites had set out on their journey from Egypt to Canaan. This is the only statement in Numbers that directly claims Mosaic authorship, though the whole book assumes it (cf. Exodus 17:14; Exodus 24:4; Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 31:9;... read more
Instructions to drive out the Canaanites 33:50-56This brief section of instructions introduces specific directions concerning the division of the land and its towns that follow in chapters 34-36.The repetition of "all" (Numbers 33:52) stresses the importance of completely clearing the land of its inhabitants and their religious paraphernalia. God wanted to clean up the land spiritually and to make it a "holy land." The land was a gift from God to His first-born son, Israel (Numbers 33:53). God... read more
The Journeyings of the Israelites from Egypt to the Plains of MoabThe greater part of this chapter is occupied with a list, drawn up by Moses himself (Numbers 33:2), of the Encampments of the Israelites in their journey from Egypt to Canaan. In all, forty stages are enumerated. Many of the names are otherwise unknown, and in places the stages do not coincide with those mentioned in the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These differences are, no doubt, due in part to the fact that... read more
Get Bible verse every day in your inbox
Read on Mobile
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