---
title: "Clarke"
description: "part of the territories of the Ammonites, 37. NOTES ON CHAP. II Verse Deuteronomy 2:3. Turn you northward. — From Mount Seir, in order to get to Canaan. T"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/deuteronomy/2"
---

*part of the territories of the* Ammonites, 37.
NOTES ON CHAP. II

Verse [Deuteronomy 2:3](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/3). ***Turn you northward.*** — From Mount Seir, in order to get to Canaan. This was not the way they went before, viz., by Kadesh-barnea, but they were to proceed between Edom on the one hand, and Moab and Ammon on the other, so as to enter into Canaan through the land of the Amorites.

Verse [Deuteronomy 2:5](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/5). ***Meddle not with them*** — That is, the Edomites. See on [Numbers 20:14-21](../../../kjv/numbers/20/14-21).

Verse [Deuteronomy 2:7](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/7). ***The Lord - hath blessed thee, c.*** — God had given them much property, and therefore they had no need of plunder they had gold and silver to buy the provender they needed, and therefore God would not permit them to take any thing by violence.

Verse [Deuteronomy 2:10](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/10). ***The Emims dwelt therein*** — Calmet supposes that these people were destroyed in the war made against them by Chedorlaomer and his allies, [Genesis 14:5](../../../kjv/genesis/14/5). Lot possessed their country after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha. They are generally esteemed as *giants*; probably they were a hardy, fierce, and terrible people, who lived, like the wandering Arabs, on the plunder of others. This was sufficient to gain them the appellation of giants, or men of prodigious stature. See [Deuteronomy 2:11](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/11).

Verse [Deuteronomy 2:11](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/11). ***Which also were accounted giants*** — This is not a fortunate version. The word is not *giants*, but רפאים *Rephaim*, the name of a *people*. It appears that the *Emim*, the *Anakim*, and the *Rephaim*, were probably the same people, called by different names in the different countries where they dwelt; for they appear originally to have been a kind of wandering free-booters, who lived by plunder. (See on the preceding verse.) It must be granted, however, that there were several men of this race of extraordinary stature. And hence all gigantic men have been called *Rephaim*. (See on [Genesis 6:4](../../../kjv/genesis/6/4), and [Genesis 14:5](../../../kjv/genesis/14/5).) But we well know that *fear* and *public report* have often added whole cubits to men's height. It was under this influence that the spies acted, when they brought the disheartening report mentioned [Numbers 13:33](../../../kjv/numbers/13/33).

Verse [Deuteronomy 2:12](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/12). ***The Horims also dwelt in Seir*** — The whole of this verse was probably added by Joshua or Ezra.

Verse [Deuteronomy 2:20](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/20). ***That also was accounted a land of giants*** — That was accounted the land or territory of the *Rephaim*.
***Zamzummims*** — Supposed to be the same as the *Zuzim*, [Genesis 14:5](../../../kjv/genesis/14/5). Of these ancient people we know very little; they were probably inconsiderable tribes or clans, "pursuing and pursued, each other's prey," till at length a *stronger* totally destroyed or subdued them, and their name became either extinct or absorbed in that of their conquerors. From the [Deuteronomy 2:10-12](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/10-12); [Deuteronomy 2:10-12](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/10-12)[Deuteronomy 2:10-12](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/10-12); [Deuteronomy 2:10-12](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/10-12), and from the [Deuteronomy 2:20-23](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/20-23); [Deuteronomy 2:20-23](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/20-23)[Deuteronomy 2:20-23](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/20-23); [Deuteronomy 2:20-23](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/20-23) verse inclusive, we have certain historical remarks introduced which do not seem to have been made by Moses, but rather by Joshua or Ezra. By the introduction of these verses the thread of the narrative suffers considerable interruption. Dr. Kennicott considers both these passages to be interpolations. That they could not have made a part of the speech of Moses originally, needs little proof.

Verse [Deuteronomy 2:29](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/29). ***As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir*** — [Numbers 20:21](../../../kjv/numbers/20/21).

Verse [Deuteronomy 2:30](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/30). ***The Lord - hardened his spirit*** — [Exodus 4:21](../../../kjv/exodus/4/21), and *"*[Exodus 9:15](../../../kjv/exodus/9/15)*"*, &c.

Verse [Deuteronomy 2:36](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/36). ***From Aroer - by the brink of the river of Arnon*** — [Numbers 21:13](../../../kjv/numbers/21/13), &c.

Verse [Deuteronomy 2:37](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/37). ***Only unto the land of the children of Ammon thou**********camest not*** — God gave them their commission; and those only were to be cut off, the cup of whose iniquity was full. Though the Moabites and Ammonites were thus spared, they requited good with evil, for they fought against the Israelites, and cast them out of their possessions, [Judges 11:4-5](../../../kjv/judges/11/4-5); [2 Chronicles 20:1](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/20/1), c., and committed the most shocking cruelties see [Amos 1:13](../../../kjv/amos/1/13). Hence God enacted a law, that none of these people should enter into the congregation of the Lord even to their tenth generation: see [Deuteronomy 23:3-6](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/23/3-6).

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