Deuteronomy 2:25

This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) The fear of thee.—Compare Exodus 15:15-16 : “All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away, fear and dread shall fall upon them.”

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 2:25. Upon the nations that are under the whole heaven — That is, upon as many as shall hear of these conquests, for to such the following words restrain the sentence; especially upon the Canaanites, whose courage would droop at the news of such an absolute victory gained so near them, Joshua 2:10-11.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:24-37 God tried his people, by forbidding them to meddle with the rich countries of Moab and Ammon. He gives them possession of the country of the Amorites. If we keep from what God forbids, we shall not lose by our obedience. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; and he gives it to whom he pleases; but when there is no express direction, none can plead his grant for such proceedings. Though God assured the Israelites that the land should be their own, yet they must contend with the enemy. What God gives we must endeavour to get. What a new world did Israel now come into! Much more joyful will the change be, which holy souls will experience, when they remove out of the wilderness of this world to the better country, that is, the heavenly, to the city that has foundations. Let us, by reflecting upon God's dealings with his people Israel, be led to meditate upon our years spent in vanity, through our transgressions. But happy are those whom Jesus has delivered from the wrath to come. To whom he hath given the earnest of his Spirit in their hearts. Their inheritance cannot be affected by revolutions of kingdoms, or changes in earthly possessions.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah - Read (Gaza, of which Azzah is the Hebrew form. "Hazerim" is not strictly a proper name, but means "villages," or "enclosures," probably such as are still common in the East. The Avims are no doubt identical with the Avites of Joshua 13:3, and were doubtless a scattered remnant of a people conquered by the Caphtorim (Genesis 10:14 note) and living in their "enclosures" in the neighborhood of Gerar. The word, which means "ruins," seems itself expressive of their fallen state.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24-36. Rise ye up … and pass over the river Arnon—At its mouth, this stream is eighty-two feet wide and four deep. It flows in a channel banked by perpendicular cliffs of sandstone. At the date of the Israelitish migration to the east of the Jordan, the whole of the fine country lying between the Arnon and the Jabbok including the mountainous tract of Gilead, had been seized by the Amorites, who, being one of the nations doomed to destruction (see De 7:2; 20:16), were utterly exterminated. Their country fell by right of conquest into the hands of the Israelites. Moses, however, considering this doom as referring solely to the Amorite possessions west of Jordan, sent a pacific message to Sihon, requesting permission to go through his territories, which lay on the east of that river. It is always customary to send messengers before to prepare the way; but the rejection of Moses' request by Sihon and his opposition to the advance of the Israelites (Nu 21:23; Jud 11:26) drew down on himself and his Amorite subjects the predicted doom on the first pitched battlefield with the Canaanites. It secured to Israel not only the possession of a fine and pastoral country, but, what was of more importance to them, a free access to the Jordan on the east.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Under the whole heaven; which is a synecdoche and an hyperbole, but is explained by the following words, which restrain the sentence to those nations that heard of them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

This day will I begin to put the dread of thee,.... And so fulfil the prophecies delivered by Moses in Exodus 15:14.

and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven; not only the neighbouring nations, the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, and Canaanites, but nations more remote even throughout the whole world:

who shall report of thee; of what was done for Israel in Egypt, and at the Red sea, and in the wilderness; and particularly of the delivery of Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and of their kingdoms into their hands:

and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee; lest they should proceed on, and make conquests of their lands also; see Joshua 2:9.

Geneva Study Bible

This day will I {l} begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.

(l) This declares that the hearts of men are in God's hands either to be made faint, or bold.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. This day will I begin to put the dread of thee] Nor is this verse in harmony with Deuteronomy 2:29. The trembling and anguish which it predicts on all people at the mere report of Israel is the opposite effect from that produced in Sîḥôn, Deuteronomy 2:29, by Israel’s request to cross his land, for this simply provoked him to armed resistance. Is it more reasonable to suppose that the author of the discourse inconsistently penned both verses so near to each other; or that a compiler, with different documents before him and wishing to use all his materials, put them together? Here then we have an instance in which the difference in the form of address coincides with a difference of attitude to the same event. The triumphant tone of Deuteronomy 2:25 is characteristic of the Sg. passages; note, too, the hyperbole peoples under the whole heaven.

Deuteronomy 2:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Help of God in the Conquest of the Kingdom of Sihon. - Deuteronomy 2:24. Whereas the Israelites were not to make war upon the kindred tribes of Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, or drive them out of the possessions given to them by God; the Lord had given the Amorites, who had forced as way into Gilead and Bashan, into their hands.

Deuteronomy 2:24-25

While they were encamped on the Arnon, the border of the Amoritish king of Sihon, He directed them to cross this frontier and take possession of the land of Sihon, and promised that He would give this king with all his territory into their hands, and that henceforward ("this day," the day on which Israel crossed the Arnon) He would put fear and terror of Israel upon all nations under the whole heaven, so that as soon as they heard the report of Israel they would tremble and writhe before them. רשׁ החל, "begin, take," an oratorical expression for "begin to take" (רשׁ in pause for רשׁ, Deuteronomy 1:21). The expression, "all nations under the whole heaven," is hyperbolical; it is not to be restricted, however, to the Canaanites and other neighbouring tribes, but, according to what follows, to be understood as referring to all nations to whom the report of the great deeds of the Lord upon and on behalf of Israel should reach (cf. Deuteronomy 11:25 and Exodus 23:27). אשׁר, so that (as in Genesis 11:7; Genesis 13:16; Genesis 22:14). וחלוּ, with the accent upon the last syllable, on account of the ו consec. (Ewald, 234, a.), from חוּל, to twist, or writhe with pain, here with anxiety.