---
title: "Clarke"
description: "land, 23-25; and God"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/deuteronomy/3"
---

*land*, 23-25;
*and God's refusal*, 26.
*He is commanded to go up to Mount* Pisgah *to see it*, 27;
*and to encourage Joshua*, 28.
*They continue in the valley opposite to* Beth-peor, 29.
NOTES ON CHAP. III

Verse [Deuteronomy 3:4](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/4). ***All the region of Argob*** — כל חבל ארגב *col chebel Argob,* all the *cable* or cord of Argob; this expression, which is used in various other parts of Scripture, (see, in the original, [Amos 7:17](../../../kjv/amos/7/17); [Micah 2:5](../../../kjv/micah/2/5); [Deuteronomy 32:9](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/32/9); [Psalms 16:6](../../../kjv/psalms/16/6)), shows that anciently land was measured by lines or cords of a certain length, in a similar way to that by the *chain* among us, and the *schoenus* or cord among the Egyptians. Some think that it was the region of Argob that was afterwards called the region of *Trachonites*.

Verse [Deuteronomy 3:9](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/9). ***Hermon the Sidonians call - Shenir*** — I suppose this verse to have been a marginal remark, which afterwards got incorporated with the text, or an addition by Joshua or Ezra.

Verse [Deuteronomy 3:11](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/11). ***Og king of Bashan remained*** — Og was the last king of the Amorites; his kingdom appears to have taken its name from the hill of *Bashan*; the country has been since called *Batanaea*.
***Remnant of giants*** — Of the *Rephaim*. See on [Deuteronomy 2:10-11](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/2/10-11).
***His bedstead*****was -*****of iron*** — Iron was probably used partly for its strength and durability, and partly to prevent noxious vermin from harbouring in it.
**Is*****it not in Rabbath, of the children of Ammon?*** — The bedstead was probably taken in some battle between the Ammonites and Amorites, in which the former had gained the victory. The bedstead was carried a trophy and placed in Rabbath, which appears, from [2 Samuel 12:26](../../../kjv/2-samuel/12/26), to have been the *royal city* of the children of Ammon.
***Nine cubits*****was*****the length - four cubits the breadth*** — Allowing the bedstead to have been one cubit longer than Og, which is certainly sufficient, and allowing the cubit to be about *eighteen* inches long, for this is perhaps the average of *the cubit of a* *man*, then Og was *twelve feet high*. This may be deemed extraordinary, and perhaps almost incredible, and therefore many commentators have, according to their fancy, *lengthened* the *bedstead* and *shortened* the *man*, making the former one-third longer than the person who lay on it, that they might reduce Og to *six* cubits; but even in this way they make him at least *nine* *feet high*.
On this subject the rabbins have trifled most sinfully. I shall give one specimen. In the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel on [Numbers 21:33-35](../../../kjv/numbers/21/33-35), it is said that "Og having observed that the camp of the Israelites extended six miles, he went and tore up a mountain six miles in its base, and put it on his head, and carried it towards the camp, that he might throw it on the Israelites and destroy them; but the *word of the Lord* prepared a *worm*, which bored a hole in the mountain over his head, so that it fell down upon his shoulders: at the same time his teeth growing out in all directions, stuck into the mountain, so that he could not cast it off his head. Moses, (who was himself *ten* cubits high,) seeing Og thus entangled, took an axe *ten* cubits long, and having leaped *ten* cubits in height, struck Og on the ankle bone, so that he fell and was slain."
From this account the distance from the *sole* of Og's foot to his *ankle* was thirty cubits in length! I give this as a very slight specimen of rabbinical comment. I could quote places in the Talmud in which Og is stated to be several *miles* high! This relation about Og I suppose to be also an historical note added by a subsequent hand.

Verse [Deuteronomy 3:14](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/14). ***Bashan-havoth-jair*** — Bashan of the *cities of Jair*; see [Numbers 32:41](../../../kjv/numbers/32/41).

Verse [Deuteronomy 3:17](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/17). ***From Chinnereth*** — [Numbers 34:11](../../../kjv/numbers/34/11); [Numbers 34:11](../../../kjv/numbers/34/11).

Verses [Deuteronomy 3:24-25](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/24-25). The prayer of Moses recorded in these two verses, and his own reflections on it, [Deuteronomy 3:26](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/26), are very affecting. He had suffered much both in body and mind in bringing the people to the borders of the promised land; and it was natural enough for him to wish to see them established in it, and to enjoy a portion of that inheritance himself, which he knew was a type of the heavenly country. But notwithstanding his very earnest prayer, and God's especial favour towards him, he was not permitted to go over Jordan! He had grieved the Spirit of God, and he passed a sentence against him of exclusion from the promised land. Yet he permitted him to see it, and gave him the fullest assurances that the people whom he had brought out of Egypt should possess it. Thus God may choose to deprive those of earthly possessions to whom he is nevertheless determined to give a heavenly inheritance.

Verse [Deuteronomy 3:26](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/26). ***Let it suffice thee*** — רב לך *rab lach*, *there is an* *abundance to thee*- thou hast had honour enough already, and may well dispense with going over Jordan. He surely has no reason to complain who is taken from earthly felicity to heavenly glory. In this act God showed to Moses both his goodness and severity.

Verse [Deuteronomy 3:28](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/28). ***But charge Joshua, c.*** — Give him *authority* in the sight of the people, let them see that he has the same *commission* which I gave to thee. *Encourage him* for he will meet with many difficulties in the work to which he is called. *And strengthen* *him*- show him my unfailing promises, and exhort him to put his trust in me alone; *for he shall go over before this people, and* *shall cause them to inherit the land*; of this let him rest perfectly assured.

Verse [Deuteronomy 3:29](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/3/29). ***Beth-peor.*** — This was a city in the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites; and as בית *beth* signifies a *house*, the place probably had its name from a *temple* of the god Peor, who was worshipped there. *Peor* was nearly the same among the Moabites that *Priapus* was among the Romans - the obscene god of an obscene people. This we have already seen.
IT is very likely that what God speaks here, both concerning *Moses* and *Joshua*, was designed to be typical of the procedure of his justice and grace in the salvation of man.
1. The land of Canaan was a type of the kingdom of heaven.
2. The law, which shows the holiness of God and the exceeding sinfulness of sin, could not bring the people to the possession of that kingdom.
3. Moses may probably be considered here as the emblem of that law by which is the knowledge of sin, but not redemption from it.
4. Joshua, the same as *Jesus*, the name signifying a *Saviour*, is appointed to bring the people into the rest which God had provided for them; thus it is by *Jesus Christ* alone that the soul is *saved*- fitted for and brought into the possession of the heavenly inheritance, (see [John 1:17](../../../kjv/john/1/17); [Galatians 2:16](../../../kjv/galatians/2/16); [Galatians 3:12-13](../../../kjv/galatians/3/12-13); [Galatians 3:24](../../../kjv/galatians/3/24)); for he is the *end of the law*- the great *scope* and *design* of the law, for *righteousness*- for *justification*, to them that believe; [Romans 10:4](../../../kjv/romans/10/4). Such a use as this every pious reader may make of the circumstances recorded here, without the danger of pushing analogy or metaphor beyond their reasonable limits.

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