Deuteronomy 3:17

The plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashdothpisgah eastward.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 3:17. The plain — The low country toward Jordan. The sea of the plain — That is, that salt sea, which before that dreadful conflagration was a goodly plain.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:12-20 This country was settled on the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh: see Nu 32. Moses repeats the condition of the grant to which they agreed. When at rest, we should desire to see our brethren at rest too, and should be ready to do what we can towards it; for we are not born for ourselves, but are members one of another.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The sense is that the Reubenites and Gadites were to possess the district from the Jabbok on the north to the Arnon on the south, including the middle part of the valley of the Arnon, and the territory ("coast" or "border") thereto pertaining.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. from Gilead—that is, not the mountainous region, but the town Ramoth-gilead,

even unto the river Arnon half the valley—The word "valley" signifies a wady, either filled with water or dry, as the Arnon is in summer, and thus the proper rendering of the passage will be—"even to the half or middle of the river Arnon" (compare Jos 12:2). This prudent arrangement of the boundaries was evidently made to prevent all disputes between the adjacent tribes about the exclusive right to the water.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The plain; the low country towards Jordan.

Chinnereth; of which see on Numbers 34:11 Joshua 12:3.

The sea of the plain, i.e. that salt sea, as it here follows, which before that dreadful conflagration was a goodly plain, called the plain of Jordan, Genesis 13:10. Ashdoth-pisgah; the proper name of a city, of which Joshua 13:20.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The plain also, and Jordan,.... The plain by Jordan, the plains of Moab on the side of it, together with the river:

and the coast thereof; the country adjoining to it:

from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea; that is, from Gennesaret, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, called the land of Gennesaret, Matthew 14:34, from thence to the sea of Sodom, the sea of the plain, where the cities of the plain stood, Sodom, Gomorrah, &c. and the salt sea, so called from the salt and nitrous waters of it, the lake Asphaltites:

under Ashdothpisgah eastward; mentioned among the cities given to the tribe of Reuben, Joshua 13:20 rendered "the springs of Pisgah", Deuteronomy 4:49, the word having the signification of effusions, pourings out; so the Targums.

Geneva Study Bible

The plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashdothpisgah eastward.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. the Arabah also, and Jordan for a border] The territory included the E. strip of the ‘Arabah—hence eastwards at the end of the verse—with the Jordan as its W. limit, and this between Chinnereth on the N. and the Sea of the ‘Arabah on the S. On the ‘Arabah see Deuteronomy 1:1. Kinnéreth was a town (Joshua 11:2; Joshua 19:35; the plur. Kinneroth a district, 1 Kings 15:20) either giving its name to, or taking its name from, the Sea of Kinnéreth (Numbers 34:11, P); probably the latter, if K. be from kinnôr, harp, as this suits the shape of the Lake; in later times called the L. of Gennesaret, a name frequently but not plausibly derived from Kinnereth (HGHL, 443). The Sea of the ‘Arabah (so Deuteronomy 4:49; 2 Kings 14:25), the Salt Sea (so Genesis 14:3; Numbers 34:3; Numbers 34:12; Joshua 15:2; Joshua 15:5; Joshua 18:19); both names as here in Joshua 3:16; Joshua 12:23; called also front or E. Sea (Ezekiel 47:18; Joel 2:20; Zechariah 14:8) in contrast to the Mediterranean the back or W. Sea, Deuteronomy 11:24. The Greeks gave the name Asphaltitis. ‘The Dead Sea’ first occurs under Augustus. Ar. Baḥr Lût, ‘Lot’s Sea.’

the slopes of Pisgah] So Deuteronomy 4:49; Joshua 12:3; Joshua 13:20. The Heb. ’ashedôth is slopes rather than springs (A.V.) as appears from the masc. form of the word, Numbers 21:15 (the eshed of the wâdies, which stretches to ‘Ar’s site and leans on the border of Moab); slopes, too, is most suitable in Joshua 10:40; Joshua 12:8, and with the use of the prepos. under in this verse. The Pisgah (always so) is the name attached by E (Numbers 21:20; Numbers 23:14) and by deuteronomic writers to ‘the western edge’ (G. B. Gray), or the headlands, of the Moabite Plateau at the N.E. corner of the Dead Sea. The headland of the Pisgah, which Moses ascended, Deuteronomy 3:27, is in Deuteronomy 32:49 (P) Mt Nebo (cp. their identification in Deuteronomy 34:1), that headland S. of the W. ‘Uyûn Musa which bears the names en-Neba’ and Râs en-Neba’, just opposite the N. end of the sea (HGHL, 562 ff.). One of its lower steps, called Wat en-Na‘am, is identified by Musil (Moab, 272, 274) with the slopes of the Pisgah. The deep W. es-Seyâle which cleaves this he takes as Abel Shittim (Numbers 33:49); but the latter is probably part of the Jordan valley. See further on Beth-Pe‘or, Deuteronomy 3:29. The name Pisgah has disappeared, unless we are to recognise it in the almost equivalent Râs Feshkhah, a headland on the opposite coast of the sea.

Deuteronomy 3:17

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Machir received Gilead (see Numbers 32:40). - In Deuteronomy 3:16 and Deuteronomy 3:17 the possession of the tribes of Reuben and Gad is described more fully according to its boundaries. They received the land of Gilead (to the south of the Jabbok) as far as the brook Arnon, the middle of the valley and its territory. הנּחל תּוך is a more precise definition of ארנן נחל, expressive of the fact that the territory of these tribes was not to reach merely to the northern edge of the Arnon valley, but into the middle of it, viz., to the river Arnon, which flowed through the middle of the valley; and וּגבוּל (and the border) is an explanatory apposition to what goes before, as in Numbers 34:6, signifying, "viz., the border of the Arnon valley as far as the river." On the east, "even unto Jabbok the brook, the (western) border of the Ammonites" (i.e., as far as the upper Jabbok, the Nahr Ammn: see at Numbers 21:24); and on the west "The Arabah (the Ghor: see Deuteronomy 1:1) and the Jordan with territory" (i.e., with its eastern bank), "from Chinnereth" (i.e., the town from which the Sea of Galilee received the name of Sea of Chinnereth: Numbers 34:11; see at Joshua 19:35) "to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea under the slopes of Pisgah (see at Numbers 21:15 and Numbers 27:12) eastward" (i.e., merely the eastern side of the Arabah and Jordan). - In Deuteronomy 3:18-20 Moses reminds them of the conditions upon which he had given the two tribes and a half the land referred to for their inheritance (cf. Numbers 32:20-32).