Deuteronomy 1:4

After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:1-8 Moses spake to the people all the Lord had given him in commandment. Horeb was but eleven days distant from Kadesh-barnea. This was to remind them that their own bad conduct had occasioned their tedious wanderings; that they might the more readily understand the advantages of obedience. They must now go forward. Though God brings his people into trouble and affliction, he knows when they have been tried long enough. When God commands us to go forward in our Christian course, he sets the heavenly Canaan before us for our encouragement.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Astaroth - On this place compare Genesis 14:5 and note.

In Edrei - These words should, to render the sense clear, come next after "slain." The battle in which Sihon and Og were defeated took place at Edrei.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. Ashtaroth—the royal residence of Og, so called from Astarte ("the moon"), the tutelary goddess of the Syrians. Og was slain at

Edrei—now Edhra, the ruins of which are fourteen miles in circumference [Burckhardt]; its general breadth is about two leagues.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

His palace or mansion-house was at

Astaroth, and he was slain at

Edrei, Numbers 21:33; of both these places, see Genesis 14:5 Joshua 13:31.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon,.... Either Moses, speaking of himself in the third person, or rather the Lord, to whom Moses ascribes the victory; of this king, and his palace, and the slaughter of him, see Numbers 21:24,

and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei; or near Edrei; for Edrei was not the name of a country, in which Ashtaroth was, but of a city at some distance from it, about six miles, as Jerom says (g); hither Og came from Ashtaroth his palace to fight with Israel, and where he was slain, see Numbers 21:33. Ashtaroth was an ancient city formerly called Ashtaroth Karnaim, and was the seat of the Rephaim, or giants, from whom Og sprung; see Gill on Genesis 14:5, see also Deuteronomy 3:11. Jerom says (h) in his time there were two castles in Batanea (or Bashan) called by this name, nine miles distant from one another, between Adara (the same with Edrei) and Abila; and in another place he says (i) Carnaim Ashtaroth is now a large village in a corner of Batanea, and is called Carnea, beyond the plains of Jordan; and it is a tradition that there was the house of Job.

(g) De loc. Heb. fol. 87. I.((h) lbid. E. (i) De loc. Heb. fol. 89. M.

Geneva Study Bible

After he had slain {d} Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei:

(d) By these examples of God's favour, their minds are prepared to receive the law.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. Sihon … and Og] See below on Deuteronomy 2:26-37, and Deuteronomy 3:1 ff.

at Edrei] LXX Syr. and Vulg. have and in Edrei, as if ‘Ôg reigned there as well as at ‘Ashteroth Ḳarnaim, but the Heb. indicating, though awkwardly, the scene of ‘Ôg’s defeat, is confirmed by the Sam.

Deuteronomy 1:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

To the description of the ground to which the following addresses refer, there is appended an allusion to the not less significant time when Moses delivered them, viz., "on the first of the eleventh month in the fortieth year," consequently towards the end of his life, after the conclusion of the divine lawgiving; so that he was able to speak "according to all that Jehovah had given him in commandment unto them" (the Israelites), namely, in the legislation of the former books, which is always referred to in this way (Deuteronomy 4:5, Deuteronomy 4:23; Deuteronomy 5:29-30; Deuteronomy 6:1). The time was also significant, from the fact that Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, had then been slain. By giving a victory over these mighty kings, the Lord had begun to fulfil His promises (see Deuteronomy 2:25), and had thereby laid Israel under the obligation to love, gratitude, and obedience (see Numbers 21:21-35). The suffix in הכּתו refers to Moses, who had smitten the Amorites at the command and by the power of Jehovah. According to Joshua 12:4; Joshua 13:12, Joshua 13:31; Edrei was the second capital of Og, and it is as such that it is mentioned, and not as the place where Og was defeated (Deuteronomy 3:1; Numbers 21:33). The omission of the copula ו before בּאדרעי is to be accounted for from the oratorical character of the introduction to the addresses which follow. Edrei is the present Dra (see at Numbers 21:33). - In Deuteronomy 1:5, the description of the locality is again resumed in the words "beyond the Jordan," and still further defined by the expression "in the land of Moab;" and the address itself is introduced by the clause, "Moses took in hand to expound this law," which explains more fully the דּבּר (spake) of Deuteronomy 1:3. "In the land of Moab" is a rhetorical and general expression for "in the Arboth Moab." הואיל does not mean to begin, but to undertake, to take in hand, with the subordinate idea sometimes of venturing, or daring (Genesis 18:27), sometimes of a bold resolution: here it denotes an undertaking prompted by internal impulse. Instead of being construed with the infinitive, it is construed rhetorically here with the finite verb without the copula (cf. Ges. 143, 3, b). בּאר probably signified to dig in the Kal; but this is not used. In the Piel it means to explain (διασαφῆσαι, explanare, lxx, Vulg.), never to engrave, or stamp, not even here nor in Deuteronomy 27:8 and Habakkuk 2:2. Here it signifies "to expound this law clearly," although the exposition was connected with an earnest admonition to preserve and obey it. "This" no doubt refers to the law expounded in what follows; but substantially it is no other than the law already given in the earlier books. "Substantially there is throughout but one law" (Schultz). That the book of Deuteronomy was not intended to furnish a new or second law, is as evident as possible from the word בּאר.