Bible Commentaries

Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days.

Then we turned, — viz., When we had bought our wit, and had paid for our learning, by our late discomfiture.

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Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.

Turn you northward. — Thus God’s word was their director unto all places, and in all actions. In which respect these histories of holy Scripture excel all human histories in the world, as is well observed. That which they tell us of their Dea vibilia, guiding passengers, …, is a mere fiction.

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And command thou the people, saying, Ye [are] to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore:

Which dwell in Seir. — To distinguish them from the Amalekites, Esau’s seed too, but devoted to destruction.

And they shall be afraid of you. — Though worse afraid than hurt.

“ Hic rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori? ”

We read of some Jews, that at the sack of Jerusalem killed themselves lest they should be taken by the enemy.

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Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau [for] a possession.

Because I have given mount Seir. — Thus the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance. Deuteronomy 32:8 And a man must needs have some right to his inheritance, to his portion. Psalms 17:14 What Ananias had was his own whilst he had it, as Peter tells him; Acts 5:4 yet Satan had filled his heart. It is therefore a rigour to say, the wicked are usurpers of what they have, and shall be called to account for it. When the king gives a traitor his life, he gives him meat and drink that may maintain his life. That Duke of Alva is worthily taxed for a tyrant, that starved his prisoners, even after quarter; saying, though he promised to give them their lives, he did not promise to find them meat. Grimston’s Hist. of Netherlands. Wicked men have both a civil title to that they have, and a title before God, who will call them to account indeed at the last day, not for possessing what they had, but for abusing that possession.

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Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink.

Buy meat of them for money. — "Money answereth all things," saith Solomon. Ecclesiastes 10:19 Money is the monarch of the world, saith another, and bears most mastery. But that covetous Caliph of Babylon, taken by Haalon, brother to Mango the great Cham of Tartary, and commanded to eat his fill of that great wealth that he had heaped up together, found ere he died, that one mouthful of meat was more worth than a whole houseful of money. Turk. Hist., fol. 113.

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For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God [hath been] with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.

For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, — viz., With money, to fetch thee in other commodities. It is the blessing of God, when all is done, that maketh rich; without this men do but labour in the fire, labour all night and take nothing, trouble themselves to no purpose; all their endeavours are but Arena sine calce, sand without lime, they will not hold together, but, like untempered mortar, fall asunder; there being a curse upon unlawful practices, though men be never so industrious: as you may see in Jehoiachim. Jeremiah 22:18-19

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And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land [for] a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot [for] a possession.

Because I have given Ar. — The royal city, set upon a hill. Numbers 21:15 ; Numbers 21:28 God, as a liberal Lord, gives not some small cottage or annuity, for life, to his elder servants, as great men use to do, but bountifully provides for them and theirs to many generations. Who would not serve thee then, O king of nations!

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The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;

Many and tall are the Anakims. — And if God cast out those Emims, or terrible ones, before the Moabites, will he not much more cast out these Anakims before the Israelites? Nihil unquam ei negasse credendum est, quem ad vituli hortatur esum. Jerome.

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