Chemosh thy god … the Lord our God What Jehovah was to Israel Chemosh was to Moab; Numbers 21:29, Moab. St. passim. Obviously Moabites are in the speaker's mind, not Ammonites, whose national god was Milcom. According to ancient ideas each nation had its own god, whose influence extended over the country where he was worshipped and no further; Micah 4:5, cf. 1 Samuel 26:19; Deuteronomy 4:19 etc.; an Israelite worshipper of Jehovah would not, therefore, deny the divinity of the gods of his neighbours. A belief in the sole Godhead of Jehovah had not yet been reached.

Will not thou … giveth thee to possess Read Wilt not thou possess(the territory of) those whom Chemosh thy god dispossesseth? omitting thee, and thus making the two halves of the verse correspond.

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