For the LORD hath made Jordan a border between us and you, ye children of Reuben and children of Gad; ye have no part in the LORD: so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the LORD.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| LORD | יְ֠הוָה Yah.weh | H3068 | Jehovah · proper noun, a title |
| made | נָֽתַן na.tan- | H5414 | to give · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular |
| Jordan | הַיַּרְדֵּ֔ן hai.yar.Den | H3383 | Jarden · definite article + proper noun, a place name |
| border | וּגְב֣וּל u.ge.Vul | H1366 | properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| children | בְּנֵי be.nei- | H1121 | a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct |
| Reuben | רְאוּבֵ֤ן re.'u.Ven | H7205 | Reuben · proper noun, a man's name |
| children | וּבְנֵי u.ve.nei- | H1121 | a son (as a builder of the family name) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct |
| Gad | גָד֙ gad | H1410 | Gad · proper noun, a man's name |
| part | חֵ֖לֶק Che.lek | H2506 | properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| LORD | בַּֽיהוָ֑ה ba.Yah.weh | H3068 | Jehovah · preposition + proper noun, a title |
| children | בְנֵיכֶם֙ ve.nei.Khem | H1121 | a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural |
| make | וְהִשְׁבִּ֤יתוּ ve.hish.Bi.tu | H7673 | to repose · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural |
| children | בָּנֵ֔ינוּ ba.Nei.nu | H1121 | a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix |
| cease | שָׁבַת shâbath | H7673 | to repose |
| from | לְבִלְתִּ֖י le.vil.Ti | H1115 | properly · preposition + noun, common both genders singular absolute |
| fearing | יְרֹ֥א ye.Ro' | H3372 | to fear · verb, qal infinitive construct |
| LORD | יְהוָֽה Yah.weh | H3068 | Jehovah · proper noun, a title |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Then the children of Reuben . . . answered--repudiating, in the strongest terms, the alleged crime, and deponing that so far from entertaining the intention imputed to them, their only object was to perpetuate the memory of their alliance with Israel [Jos 22:24-25], and their adherence to the worship of Israel's God [Jos 22:26-27].
For fear of this thing - The motive that actuated us was directly the reverse of that of which we have been suspected.
For the Lord hath made Jordan a border between us and you,.... And by it separated them from them, as if they were a distinct people; not that this was really the case, but so they feared it would be represented in time to come; for though Jordan was the border of the land of Canaan, strictly so called, eastward, Numbers 34:12; yet it did not exclude the land of the two tribes and a half from being part of the land of promise; for the Amorites, which before inhabited it, and were driven out of it, were Canaanites, and were one part of the people, whose land the Lord promised to Abraham, Genesis 15:18, ye children of Reuben, and children of Gad, have no part in the Lord; in his covenant and…
Read the whole note in the consoleJoshua 22:21-34 21. Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered, and said unto the heads of the thousands of Israel, 21. Responderunt autem filii Ruben, et filii Gad, et dimidia tribus Manasse, loquutique sunt cum principibus millium Israel. 22. The LORD God of gods, the LORD God of gods, he knoweth, and Israel he shall know; if it be in rebellion, or if in transgression against the LORD, (save us not this day,) 22. Deus deorum Jehova, Deus deorum Jehova ipse novit, et Israel cognoscet, si per rebellionem, et si per prevaricationem in Jehovam, ne serves nos die hac. 23. That we have built us an altar to turn from following the LORD, or if…
Read the whole note in the consoleIn utter amazement at the suspicion expressed by the delegates of the congregation, the two tribes and a half affirm with a solemn oath, that it never entered into their minds to build an altar as a place of sacrifice, to fall away from Jehovah. The combination of the three names of God-El, the strong one; Elohim, the Supreme Being to be feared; and Jehovah, the truly existing One, the covenant God (Jos 22:22), - serves to strengthen the invocation of God, as in Psa 50:1; and this is strengthened still further by the repetition of these three names. God knows, and let Israel also know, sc., what they intended, and what they have done. The אם which follows is the usual particle used in an oat…
Read the whole note in the consoleThe eastern tribes feared exclusion from Israel at a later time because the Jordan River divided them from the western tribes.
Our anxiety of this. Because of anxiety, and the fear of insulting words, have we done this, as is further explained in the Scripture: ‘Lest tomorrow your children will say,’ Lest they insult our children— when they go to bring sacrifices in the Mishkan at Shiloh— lest they say to them, ‘What have you to do with Adonoy?’ Did he not set a boundary between us and you, namely, the Jordan. This was our fear and thus we made it. Every word, דְּאָגָה, found in Scripture expresses fear, similar to, “I am concerned [fear] that the Jews etc.” [These were the words] of Tzidkiahu.3See Yirmiahu 38:19. King Tzidkiahu was concerned that the Jews that had been captured by the Kasdim would betray him and he…
Read the whole note in the consoleHenry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
