_MOSES, FROM MOUNT NEBO, TAKES A VIEW OF THE LAND OF CANAAN: HE DIES THERE, AGED ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS. THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL MOURN FOR HIM THIRTY DAYS: HIS EULOGIUM._ _Before Christ 1451._... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 1-3. _AND MOSES WENT UP FROM THE PLAINS OF MOAB,_ &C.— As soon as he had taken this solemn leave of his nation, Moses, according to the divine appointment, ch. Deuteronomy 32:49 retired privately to the top of mount _Nebo_ called _Pisgah,_ from whence God enabled him to take a distinct and pa... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 4. _AND THE LORD SAID—THIS IS THE LAND,_ &C.— As much as to say, "Let the view I have now given you, fill you with a comfortable sense and assurance how faithful I will be to my promise, in bestowing upon the descendants of Abraham, the people that you have so long had under your care and adm... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 5. _SO MOSES, THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, DIED THERE_— This is the highest character which can be given to any man, _the servant of Jehovah;_ and it is given by God himself to Moses after his death, Joshua 2:7. It is a remark which naturally offers from these words, that since the most approved... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 6. _AND HE BURIED HIM,_ &C.— {_And one buried him. / And he was buried._} Houb. All the frivolous conceits of the rabbis and others are entirely overthrown by the translation here given; in which it is barely asserted, that Moses, being dead, was buried in a certain valley, but that _no man k... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 7. _MOSES WAS AN HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS OLD WHEN HE DIED,_ &C.— The sum of the verse is this: that though Moses lived the full length of human life, and to an age which, in others who attain it, is accompanied with many infirmities, no alteration was made in him; whom, for the support of th... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 9. _FOR MOSES HAD LAID HIS HANDS UPON HIM_— This is given as a reason why Joshua _was full of the spirit of wisdom._ The imposition of Moses's hands was not the cause, but the sign, of the gift of the Spirit granted to this illustrious successor of the law-giver of Israel. The laying on of ha... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 10. _AND THERE AROSE NOT A PROPHET SINCE IN ISRAEL_— It is here said, that none other prophet had ever resembled Moses: and which, indeed, of the prophets ever conversed so frequently and familiarly with God, _face to face?_ Which of them ever wrought so many or so great miracles? Nobody was... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 12. _IN ALL THE GREAT TERROR_— _In all the great miracles,_ Houbigant very properly translates it, after the Samaritan; for _terror,_ as he well observes, does not suit with the miracles in the wilderness. We have here the praise of the living governor, and a just encomium on the deceased. 1.... [ Continue Reading ]