Deuteronomy 2:24

Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon,.... Which was on the border of Moab, and divided between Moab and the Amorites, Numbers 21:13 behold, I have given into thy hand Sihon,

Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.

(24) Pass over . . . Arnon.—The territory from Arnon northward to Jabbok had been taken from Moab by the Amorites, and was to be possessed by Israel. (See on Numbers 21:24.)

24. Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over] In this section the one clause in the Pl. address. Steuernagel connects it immediately with 16 f. On these formulas cp. Deuteronomy 1:7; Deuteronomy 1:19. the valley of Arnon] No one doubts that the Naḥ ?al Arnτn and the modern W. el-Mτjeb are the same stream and valley. It is more than a coincidence that Arnon = sounding, and that some forms of the root of Mτjeb, wajaba, mean to ‘fall with a noise or rush.’ The greatest of all the caρons that cut the plateau of Mo’ab, one understands how it has so often been a political frontier. A little W. of the Hajj road a valley is formed some 250 ft below the plateau by the conjunction of several wβdies, which have risen among the desert hills to the E. of the road. Under the successive names of W. Sa‘ideh, Seil eṣ ?-Ṣ ?efei, and W. el-Mτjeb, it runs with a mainly W. direction, and a rapidly increasing depth (at ‘Aro‘er 1800 or 2000 feet below the plateau) between almost precipitous walls to the Dead Sea, about 3500 ft below the plateau. The valley is entered from N. and S. by other caρons, of which two are almost as long as itself. About 15 miles from its mouth it receives from the S. its chief tributary, a stream which with its valley has already for some stretch above the confluence borne the name el Mτjeb, but higher up is known as W. es-Sulṭ ?βni; probably (see Deuteronomy 2:13) the Zered of Israel’s march. About 2 miles from its mouth enters from the N. the W. el-Wβleh, which draining all N.E. Mo’ab has cut the plateau in a S.W. direction. All these three caρons, with their tributaries, appear to be included in the (plural) valleys of Arnon, Numbers 21:14. But the valley of Arnon in the present verse is probably the direct E. and W. caρon on its upper stretch, W. Sa‘ideh, on which ‘Ar stood (see on Deuteronomy 2:9); this is certain if the identification of Ḳ ?edemoth, stated below, Deuteronomy 2:26, is correct. Musil, Moab, 9 ff.; the present writer in PEFQ, 1904, 373–377. behold, I have given into thine hand, etc.] Sg. address resumed: so too Sam., LXX. Cp. Deuteronomy 1:27. Sihon the Amorite] For Sξḥ ?τn, see below on Deuteronomy 2:26; for Amorite, see on Deuteronomy 1:7. contend with him in battle] This does not agree with, or at least it should not come before, Deuteronomy 2:26 ff., the efforts of Moses to obtain a peaceable passage through Amorite territory; its originality is questionable if we are to assign to the discourse a reasonable measure of consistency.

OF THE , Deuteronomy 2:24-37.The Israelites were not to make war upon the Edomites, nor Moabites, nor Ammonites, but they are told that Jehovah has given Sihon the Amorite and his land to them.