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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Numbers 33:50 - 33:56
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The Command to Exterminate the Inhabitants of Canaan
v. 50. And the Lord spake unto Moses in the Plains of Moab by Jordan, near Jericho, saying,
v. 51. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, an event whose happening is here assumed as most certain to take place,
v. 52. then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, idols hewn out of stone, and destroy all their molten images, idols cast from metals, and quite pluck down all their high places, the altars and places of worship on hills. Lev_26:30;
v. 53. and ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, namely, by exterminating them, and dwell therein; for I have given you the land to possess it.
v. 54. And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families, every generation receiving that part of the country for a home to which the lot drawn from the urn directed its members; and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance; every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit. Cf Num_26:53-55.
v. 55. But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, namely, by uprooting them entirely, then it shall come to pass that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides, causing them just as sharp pains as the sharpest thorns would to the most delicate parts of the human body, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell, cause them oppression and tribulation.
v. 56. Moreover, it shall come to pass that I shall do unto you as I thought to do unto them, namely, drive them out of the land and destroy them. This warning was repeated by Joshua, Jos_23:13, and was fulfilled in the history of both Israel and Judah. It is the will of God to this day that Christians, although living in the midst of the godless children of the world, should keep themselves altogether uncontaminated of the world.