Deuteronomy 2:13

Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered. And we went over the brook Zered.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Now rise up, said I.—A continuation of the order in Deuteronomy 2:9. The words “said I” are not needed.

The brook Zered is not yet identified. (See Numbers 21:12.) Several streams run into the Dead Sea on its eastern side south of Arnon; Zered is possibly one of these. Or it may be a tributary of Arnon, which has one large tributary running from south to north.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:8-23 We have the origin of the Moabites, Edomites, and Ammonites. Moses also gives an instance older than any of these; the Caphtorims drove the Avims out of their country. These revolutions show what uncertain things wordly possessions are. It was so of old, and ever will be so. Families decline, and from them estates are transferred to families that increase; so little continuance is there in these things. This is recorded to encourage the children of Israel. If the providence of God has done this for Moabites and Ammonites, much more would his promise do it for Israel, his peculiar people. Cautions are given not to meddle with Moabites and Ammonites. Even wicked men must not be wronged. God gives and preserves outward blessings to wicked men; these are not the best things, he has better in store for his own children.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The words, "said I," are not in the Hebrew. The words "rise up, and get you over the brook Zered" (Numbers 21:12 note) connect themselves with Deuteronomy 2:9, and form the conclusion of what God said to Moses.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. Now rise up, and get you over the brook Zered—The southern border of Moab, Zered ("woody"), now Wady Ahsy, separates the modern district of Kerak from Jebal, and, indeed, forms a natural division of the country between the north and south. Ar, called in later times Rabbah, was the capital of Moab and situated twenty-five miles south of the Arnon on the banks of a small but shady stream, the Beni Hamed. It is here mentioned as representative of the country dependent on it, a rich and well-cultivated country, as appears from the numerous ruins of cities, as well as from the traces of tillage still visible on the fields.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered,.... It is called the valley of Zered, Numbers 21:12, the word used signifying both a valley and a brook; and it is very probable there were both a valley and a brook of the same name; it must be near Dibongad, since in one place it is said the Israelites came from Ijim and pitched in Zered; and in another place that they came from thence, and pitched in Dibongad, Numbers 21:11 and

Geneva Study Bible

Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered. And we went over the brook Zered.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. Now rise up] Sam., LXX, And now rise and break camp; cp. Deuteronomy 2:24.

and get you over the brook Zered] Wâdy, or torrent-valley, Zered. JE, Numbers 21:12, they marched thence, the E. desert of Mo’ab, and camped in the W. Zered. The name, LXX Zaret, does not occur again in the O.T. nor is it in Josephus. Euseb. and Jer. give it only as the name of a desert wâdy. On the Mâdabâ Mosaic map (5th century) a wâdy flowing to the Dead Sea, S. of Kerak, bears the letters -ΑΡΕΔ, according to some, but if this reading be correct it maybe no more than a conjecture. The theory that the Zered was the W. el-Ḥsa is impossible; as we have seen, Israel was already N. of that S. frontier of Mo’ab. Equally impossible is the view substituted for this by most commentaries, that it was an upper stretch of the W. Kerak; for Brünnow and Musil have shown that the W. Kerak runs up E. but a short distance from Kerak. N. of the W. el-Ḥsa the Hajj road crosses the W. es-Sulṭanî, the great S. affluent of the Môjeb or Arnon, and proper frontier between the fertile land of Mo’ab and the E. desert. The W. es-Sulṭanî forms a distinct landmark on this route, and, because of the water always to be found by digging in its bed, is a suitable camping-place. So Musil, Moab, 316, 319 n., 15. But if this be the Zered, Israel crossed it not, as Musil implies, from E. to W.—for in that case they would have had to bend E. again to his probable site for ‘Ar at Medeyyneh (see Deuteronomy 2:9), or cross the difficult lower stretches of the Arnon—but from S.W. to N.E. as the Hajj road does now.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 13-15. - Ver. 13 connects with ver. 9, the intermediate verses being a parenthesis, introduced for the purpose of reminding the Israelites that the Edomites and Moabites had received their territory by gift from God, the earlier inhabitants having been cast out by him that they might take their lands (see vers. 21-23). There is no need, therefore, for the insertion "I said," in ver. 13; the words are those of Jehovah, not of Moses. Verse 13. - The brook Zered; either the stream of the Wady cf. Ahsy (Robinson, 2:157; Ritter, 3:78), or that of the Wady Kerab (Keil, Kurz, etc.); see Numbers 21:11, and Smith's 'Dictionary.' 3:1842. This brook formed the boundary line between Edom and Moab, and was the limit of Israel's wanderings in the wilderness. They crossed it thirty-eight years after the doom had been pronounced upon them at Kadesh, and during that period the entire generation of those who had rebelled had died out. Deuteronomy 2:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

For this reason Israel was to remove from the desert of Moab (i.e., the desert which bounded Moabitis on the east), and to cross over the brook Zered, to advance against the country of the Amorites (see at Numbers 21:12-13). This occurred thirty-eight years after the condemnation of the people at Kadesh (Numbers 14:23, Numbers 14:29), when the generation rejected by God had entirely died out (תּמם, to be all gone, to disappear), so that not one of them saw the promised land. They did not all die a natural death, however, but "the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them" (המם, lit., to throw into confusion, then used with special reference to the terrors with which Jehovah destroyed His enemies; Exodus 14:24; Exodus 23:27, etc.), sc., by extraordinary judgments (as in Numbers 16:35; Numbers 18:1; Numbers 21:6; Numbers 25:9).