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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Numbers 32:16 - 32:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The persons thus reproved came near to Moses, and replied, “We will build sheep-folds here for our flocks, and towns for our children; but we will equip ourselves hastily (חֻשִׁים, part. pass. hasting) before the children of Israel, till we bring them to their place” (i.e., to Canaan). צֹאן גִּדְרֹת, folds or pens for flocks, that were built of stones piled up one upon another (1Sa 24:4).
(Note: According to Wetstein (Reiseber. p. 29), it is a regular custom with the nomads in Leja, to surround every place, where they pitch their tents, with a Sira, i.e., with an enclosure of stones about the height of a man, that the flocks may not be scattered in the night, and that they may know at once, from the noise made by the falling of the smaller stones which are laid at the top, if a wolf attempts to enter the enclosure during the night.)
By the building of towns, we are to understand the rebuilding and fortification of them. טַף, the children, including the women, and such other defenceless members of the family as were in need of protection (see at Exo 12:37). When their families were secured in fortified towns against the inhabitants of the land, the men who could bear arms would not return to their houses till the children of Israel, i.e., the rest of the tribes, had all received their inheritance: for they did not wish for an inheritance on the other side of Jordan and farther on, if (כִּי) their inheritance was assigned them on this side Jordan towards the east. The application of the expression הַיַּרְדֵּן מֵעֵבֶר to the land on the east of the Jordan, as well as to that on the west, points to a time when the Israelites had not yet obtained a firm footing in Canaan. At that time the land to the west of the river could very naturally be spoken of as “beyond the Jordan,” from the subjective stand-point of the historian, who was then on the east of the river; whereas, according to the objective and geographical usage, the land “beyond Jordan” signifies the country to the east of the river. But in order to prevent misunderstanding, in this particular instance the expression הַיַּרְדֵּן עֵבֶר is defined more precisely as מִזְרָחָה, “towards the east,” when it is intended to apply to the land on the east of the Jordan.