Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth even unto Medeba. k Jer. 48. 18, 22. 31 Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. 32 And Moses sent to spy which have the peculiarity of being thicker in the centre than at either extremity: a circumstance which Burckhardt, to whom Scripture geography owes the discovery of this site, never elsewhere observed in Syria. There is no spring or river near this town; but the large tank or reservoir of hewn stone still remains, which appears to have secured the inhabitants a supply of water."-Pict. Bible. V. 31. Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. Gr. "In all the cities of the Amorites." This region having been formerly wrested from the Moabites by the Amorites, and having now been taken from the latter by the Is 1 Kings 11: 36, "And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there." So also, 1 Kings 15:4, "Nevertheless, for David's sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem." As this strikes us as on the whole the most probable construction, we waive the recital of any others, which may be found in abundance in Rosenmuller.¶ Unto Dibon. This name, it appears, is still preserved in a ruined town called Diban, about three miles north of the Arnon. This, with other towns of this district, was origin-raelites, they entered at once upon the ally assigned to the tribe of Gad (ch. | occupancy of it, according to what we 32:3, 33, 34), but it is afterwards read, ch. 32:33, 34, etc., "And Moses found in the possession of Reuben. gave unto them, even to the children - Unto Medeba. "This name is of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, preserved in that of 'Madeba,' applied and unto half the tribe of Manasseh to a large ruined town about six miles the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sisouth-east from Heshbon. In Is. 15:2, hon king of the Amorites, and the kingits name is connected with Mount Nebo: dom of Og king of Bashan, the land, 'Moab shall howl over Nebo and over with the cities thereof in the coasts, Medeba.' By which we are probably even the cities of the country round to understand that this was, in the time about." of the prophet, the principal town of this rich district. 'Madeba' was built upon a round hill, and is now most completely ruined. There are many remains of the walls of private houses, constructed with blocks of silex; but not a single edifice is standing. On the west side of the town may be seen the remains of a temple, built with large stones, and apparently of great antiquity. A part of its eastern wall remains; and at the entrance to one of the courts stand two Doric columns, V. 32. And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer. This is supposed to be identical with the modern Szyr, about fifteen miles from Heshbon. The region was esteemed so excellent for pastureground that the children of Reuben and Gad, who had extensive herds of cattle, came to Moses with a special request that he would allot it to them. See ch. 32:1-5. This will account for Jaazer's being particularly specified when it had been said just before in general terms, that "Israel dwelt in out 'Jaazer; and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there. I c. 32. 1. the land of the Amorites."- - The villages thereof. Heb. "The daughters thereof." See Note on v. 25. ... 800 feet at least above the level of the Encounter with Og, King of Bashan. V. 33. And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan. We insert from Kitto an interesting sketch of the region thus denominated. "The beautiful kingdom of Og, on the east of Jordan, extended from the river Jabbok on the south to Mount Hermon on the north. It comprehended three districts, all famous in the Bible for their exuberant fertility and their general excellence. Of these Argob was in the north; Bashan, properly so called, in the middle; and Gilead in the south. Part of Gilead, however, which lay south of the Jabbok, was not included in the kingdom of Bashan. But Argob may seem to be only a district of Bashan; whence the whole of Og's kingdom may be said to consist of all Bashan,... We continued our way over this and the greater part of Gilead. Or, in- elevated tract, continuing to behold, deed, it may be that Bashan was the with surprise and admiration, a beautigeneral name for the whole, and Argob ful country on all sides of us; its plains and Gilead only of particular districts covered with a very fertile soil, its hills the former a small district in the north, clothed with forests, at every new turn and the latter a large one in the south. presenting the most magnificent landParts of this country have been well scapes that could be imagined. Among described by Mr. Buckingham. the trees the oak was frequently seen, crossed the Jordan about ten miles and we know that this territory proabove Jericho, and proceeded north- duced them of old." (Is. 2:13. Ezek. west to Jerash; consequently, till he 27: 6. Zech. 11:2.)... "Some learned came to the Jabbok (Zerka), his jour- commentators, indeed, believing that ney lay through that part of Gilead no oaks grew in this supposed desert which was south of that river, and region, have translated the word by which had belonged to the Amorites. alders, to prevent the appearance of inAfter ascending two ranges of barren accuracy in the inspired writers. The hills, 'we found ourselves on plains of expression of the fat bulls of Bashan, nearly as high a level as the summits which occurs more than once in the of the hills themselves, and certainly | Scriptures, seemed to us equally incon He and Og the king of Bashan all his people to the battle of went out against them, he and Edrei. compare it. It is certain that we were perpetually exclaiming, 'How rich!' 'How picturesque!' 'How magnificent!' 'How beautiful!' and that we both conceived the scenery around to be quite worth all the hazard and privation of a journey to the eastward of Jordan." It is true that, in prosecuting their route to the Jordan, the travellers met with much austere and barren land; but that the general char dom coincides in a great degree with this account of the southern portion, we can gather even from the brief and inanimate indications of Burckhardt, who traversed the more northern parts sistent, as applied to a country generally thought to be a desert, in common with the whole tract that is laid down in our modern maps as such, between the Jordan and the Euphrates; but we could now fully comprehend not only that the bulls of this luxuriant country might be proverbially fat, but that its possessors, too, might be a race renowned for strength and comeliness of person." ("Travels,' vol. i. p. 11314.) Continuing the journey in a north-acter of the northern part of Og's kingwesterly direction-" The general face of this region improved as we advanced farther in it, and every new direction of our path opened upon us views which charmed us by their grandeur and their beauty. Lofty mountains gave an out-of Bashan and Argob, and speaks freline of most magnificent character; flowing beds of secondary hills softened the romantic wildness of the picture; gentle slopes, clothed with wood, gave a rich variety of tints, hardly to be imitated by the pencil; deep valleys, filled with murmuring streams and verdant meadows, offered all the luxuriance of cultivation; and herds and flocks gave life and animation to scenes as grand, as beautiful, and as highly picturesque, as the taste or genius of a Claude could either invent or desire." (Vol. i. p. 117-18.) The travellers returned from Jerash to the Jordan by a more northerly route. In the first part of the journey, the beautiful wooded scenery of the south was still continued. Mr. Buckingham says: "Mr. Bankes, who had seen the whole of England, the greater part of Italy and France, and almost every province of Spain and Portugal, frequently remarked that, in all his travels, he had met with nothing equal to it, excepting only in some parts of the latter country, Entre Minho and Duoro, to which he could alone quently of desert fields covered with the richest pasturage, and than which artificial meadows could not be finer; and describes the soil, where cultivated, as affording the richest crops of wheat and barley. Upon the whole, the regions of Bashan and of Gilead, even now, after ages of neglect and desolation, bear witness to the accuracy of the frequent allusions to their fertility and beauty, which occur in the Sacred books. For the knowledge of this we are entirely indebted to modern research, as the region beyond Jordan has only ceased to be an unknown land within the present century."-Pict. Bible.¶ And Og the king of Bashan went out against them. It would naturally have been supposed that the fate of the neighboring kings of Edom and the Amorites would have operated as a warning to this proud potentate, but it seems to have been lost upon him, and he accordingly courts his own destruction by resisting the march of Israel. A more particular account is given of this passage in the history in Deut. 3: 34 And the LORD said unto | until there was none left him Moses, Fear him not: for I have alive: and they possessed his delivered him into thy hand, and land. all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon. 35 So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, n Deut. 29. 7. Josh. 13. 12. Ps. 135. 10, 11. 136. 20. 11, etc., from which it appears that Og was personally a man of gigantic dimensions, and probably for that reason prompted to rely much on his individual prowess. But it proved unavailing. V. 34. Fear him not. I have delivered him into thy hand. So strong and absolute is the assurance of conquest that they might consider it as in effect already achieved. "I have delivered," etc. V. 35. So they smote him, etc. The contest ended as it could no otherwise end with those who fight against the Lord. Had a peaceable passage been allowed to Israel, and only the kindness due to strangers shown them, these trans-Jordanic tribes would doubtless have been exempted from the slaughter and devastations to which their obstinacy subjected them. But the measure of their iniquity was full, and in the infatuation of hardened sinners they rushed headlong upon their destruction. The description given in the parallel history of Deuteronomy of this royal giant, and of the fortified places the people inhabited, magnify the conquest obtained. "Threescore cities fenced with high walls, gates, and bars, besides unwalled towns a great many." The most impregnable fortresses, whether of nature or art, give way at once to the breath of Omnipotence. The Most High makes men feel CHAPTER XXII. AND the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab, on this side Jordan by Jericho. a c. 33. 48. that all refuges fail them, and that nothing secures from his stroke, when once he goes forth to contend with his ar mies. And what are the strongholds of sin and Satan when assailed by the weapons of the Gospel? "Many high places, fortresses of spiritual wickedness, have become the conquests of truth. Many citadels in the dominion of darkness, even principalities and powers, once under the control of the god of this world, have yielded to the subduing sword of the Spirit. Gigantic forms of wickedness, like the king of Bashan, have lain breathless at the feet of our all-conquering Redeemer."Seaton. CHAPTER XXII. Encampment in the Plains of Moab. Balaam sent for by Balak to curse the chosen People. V. 1. The children of Israel set forward. Heb. yissu, broke up. The station of the Israelites prior to the present removal is thus indicated, ch. 33: 48, "And they departed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains of Moab, by Jordan near Jericho." Abarim was the name of a chain of mountains forming or belonging to the mountainous district east of the Dead Sea and the lower Jordan. It presents many distinct masses and ele- | an ample account will be found in Robvations, commanding extensive views inson and other oriental travellers. The of the country west of the river. From 'plains of Moab" are formed by a narone of the highest of these, called Mount row strip of land scarcely six miles in Nebo, Moses surveyed the Promised breadth, lying along the eastern bank Land before he died. From the man- of the Jordan, opposite to the plains of ner in which the names Abarim, Nebo, Jericho. The Dead Sea lies to the south and Pisgah are connected, Deut. 32:49. | of it, Mount Pisgah somewhere on the 34:1, it would seem that Nebo was a southeast, and the mountains on the mountain of the Abarim chain, and that east; and towards the north, losing its Pisgah was the highest and most com- specific name, this plain continues as manding peak of that mountain. The "the valley of the Jordan," even to the loftiest mountain of the neighborhood Sea of Tiberias. This side formed part is Mount Attarous, about ten miles north of the territory which had formerly of the Arnon; and travellers have been been taken by the Amorites from Moab; disposed to identify it with Mount Ne- but, as usual in such cases, it still rebo. But Prof. Robinson was unable to tained the name of the former possesfix upon any special locality answering sors. It is probable the phrase was deto the description given in the sacred signed to include more than the mere narrative. As, however, he did not cross narrow strip along the course of the the Jordan, his inability to identify the river, although how much more it is spot is not surprising. Other travellers, difficult to say. It appears that there who may succeed in getting on the pre- are several passes from the valley of cise track of the Israelites, will be likely the Jordan to the table-lands of Moab, to be more fortunate. But if the par- and that when these are attained, the ticular locality should never be deter- eye is refreshed with the view of undumined, it will be of no special conse- lating downs, clothed with rich grass quence, as it is certain that there are throughout, and in the northern parts several points in the vicinity from with magnificent forests of sycamore, whence the venerable leader of Israel beech, terebinth, ilex, and enormous might have surveyed the inspiring fig-trees. Such was the general face scenery upon which he was not per- of the country to which the Israelites mitted to enter. It would seem that had now arrived, but the central point the Israelites, in their conquests of the of their encampment was undoubtedly country of the Amorites which had for- in the valley of the Ghor, termed the merly belonged to the Moabites, had arboth Moab, or plains of Moab. Here proceeded considerably farther north they remained for several months, than the parallel of the ford of the Jor- even till the death of Moses, encampdan, and from hence returned south- ing "from Beth-jesimoth unto Abelward before bending their course east- shittim," ch. 33:49. This station beward towards the place where they came in fact the theatre of all the events were to cross that river.- - Pitched in recorded from this point of the history the plains of Moab. Heb. bearboth Moab, onwards to the end of Deuteronomy and in campestribus Moab, in the cham- the beginning of Joshua. These events paign country of Moab. This phrase embraced the deliverance from the denotes that region of the country of curse of Balaam; the mustering for the Moab which bordered upon the Jordan, inheritance of Canaan; the victory over and is now called El Ghor, of which the Midianites; the additional enact |