Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 2:24–end
God having tried the self-denial of his people in forbidding them to meddle with the Moabites and Ammonites, and they having quietly passed by those rich countries, and, though superior in number, not made any attack upon them, here he recompenses them for their obedience by giving them possession of the country of Sihon king of the Amorites. If we forbear what God forbids, we shall receive what he promises, and shall be no losers at last by our obedience, though it may seem for the present to be to our loss. Wrong not others, and God shall right thee.
I. God gives them commission to seize upon the country of Sihon king of Heshbon, Deu 2:24, Deu 2:25. This was then God's way of disposing of…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Deuteronomy 2:24
Rise ye up . . . and pass over the river Arnon--At its mouth, this stream is eighty-two feet wide and four deep. It flows in a channel banked by perpendicular cliffs of sandstone. At the date of the Israelitish migration to the east of the Jordan, the whole of the fine country lying between the Arnon and the Jabbok including the mountainous tract of Gilead, had been seized by the Amorites, who, being one of the nations doomed to destruction (see Deu 7:2; Deu 20:16), were utterly exterminated. Their country fell by right of conquest into the hands of the Israelites. Moses, however, considering this doom as referring solely to the Amorite possessions west of Jordan, sent a pacific message to S…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Deuteronomy 2:36
From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river Arnon.... Upon the border of Moab, and the principal city of it; see Jeremiah 48:19.
and from the city that is by the river; or even the city that is in the midst of the river, the city Aroer, which seems to be meant; see Joshua 12:2. This river is afterwards called the river of Gad, 2 Samuel 24:5 in the midst of it Aroer was, perhaps because it was possessed by the tribe of Gad:
even unto Gilead; Mount Gilead and the country adjacent to it, which belonged to Og king of Bashan:
there was not one city too strong for us; that could hold out against them, when attacked and besieged by them, but presently surrendered:
the Lord our God delivered…
