Deuteronomy 3:17

The plain also, and Jordan,.... The plain by Jordan, the plains of Moab on the side of it, together with the river: and the coast thereof; the country adjoining to it: from Chinnereth even unto the

The plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashdothpisgah eastward. The plain also - i:e., the Arabah, including the Ghor.

The plain; the low country towards Jordan. Chinnereth; of which see on . The sea of the plain, i.e. that salt sea, as it here follows, which before that dreadful conflagration was a goodly plain, called the plain of Jordan, . Ashdoth-pisgah; the proper name of a city, of which .

(13-17) Comp. Numbers 32:33-42, and Notes thereon,

Verse 17. From Chinnereth] See Clarke on Numbers 34:11.

17. the Arabah also, and Jordan for a border] The territory included the E. strip of the ‘Arabah—hence eastwards at the end of the verse—with the Jordan as its W. limit, and this between Chinnereth on the N. and the Sea of the ‘Arabah on the S. On the ‘Arabah see Deuteronomy 1:1. Kinnιreth was a town (Joshua 11:2; Joshua 19:35; the plur. Kinneroth a district, 1 Kings 15:20) either giving its name to, or taking its name from, the Sea of Kinnιreth (Numbers 34:11, P); probably the latter, if K. be from kinnτr, harp, as this suits the shape of the Lake; in later times called the L. of Gennesaret, a name frequently but not plausibly derived from Kinnereth (HGHL, 443). The Sea of the ‘Arabah (so Deuteronomy 4:49; 2 Kings 14:25), the Salt Sea (so Genesis 14:3; Numbers 34:3; Numbers 34:12; Joshua 15:2; Joshua 15:5; Joshua 18:19); both names as here in Joshua 3:16; Joshua 12:23; called also front or E. Sea (Ezekiel 47:18; Joe 2:20; Zechariah 14:8) in contrast to the Mediterranean the back or W. Sea, Deuteronomy 11:24. The Greeks gave the name Asphaltitis. ‘The Dead Sea’ first occurs under Augustus. Ar. Baḥ ?r Lϋt, ‘Lot’s Sea.’ the slopes of Pisgah] So Deuteronomy 4:49; Joshua 12:3; Joshua 13:20. The Heb. ’ashedτth is slopes rather than springs (A.V.) as appears from the masc. form of the word, Numbers 21:15 (the eshed of the wβdies, which stretches to ‘Ar’s site and leans on the border of Moab); slopes, too, is most suitable in Joshua 10:40; Joshua 12:8, and with the use of the prepos. under in this verse. The Pisgah (always so) is the name attached by E (Numbers 21:20; Numbers 23:14) and by deuteronomic writers to ‘the western edge’ (G. B. Gray), or the headlands, of the Moabite Plateau at the N.E. corner of the Dead Sea. The headland of the Pisgah, which Moses ascended, Deuteronomy 3:27, is in Deuteronomy 32:49 (P) Mt Nebo (cp. their identification in Deuteronomy 34:1), that headland S. of the W. ‘Uyϋn Musa which bears the names en-Neba’ and Rβs en-Neba’, just opposite the N. end of the sea (HGHL, 562 ff.). One of its lower steps, called Wat en-Na‘am, is identified by Musil (Moab, 272, 274) with the slopes of the Pisgah. The deep W. es-Seyβle which cleaves this he takes as Abel Shittim (Numbers 33:49); but the latter is probably part of the Jordan valley. See further on Beth-Pe‘or, Deuteronomy 3:29. The name Pisgah has disappeared, unless we are to recognise it in the almost equivalent Rβs Feshkhah, a headland on the opposite coast of the sea.

OF THE LAND THAT WAS , Deuteronomy 3:12-20.The territory taken on the east of the Jordan was given to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half tribe of Manasseh.