Deuteronomy 1:28

_AND YE CAME NEAR UNTO ME EVERY ONE OF YOU, AND SAID, WE WILL SEND MEN BEFORE US, AND THEY SHALL SEARCH US OUT THE LAND, AND BRING US WORD AGAIN BY WHAT WAY WE MUST GO UP, AND INTO WHAT CITIES WE SHALL COME._ Ye came ... and said, We will send men. The proposal to despatch spies emanated from the people through unbelief; but Moses, believing them sincere, gave his cordial assent to this measure, and God, on being consulted, permitted them to follow the suggestion (see the notes at Numbers 13:1). The issue proved disastrous to them, only through their own sin and folly. Verse 28. CITIES ARE GREAT AND WALLED UP TO HEAVEN - an Oriental metaphor, meaning very high. The Arab marauders roam about on horseback; and hence, the walls of Catherine's monastery on Sinai are so lofty that travelers are drawn up by a pulley in a basket. ANAKIMS (see the note at...

19-46 Moses reminds the Israelites of their march from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, through that great and terrible wilderness. He shows how near they were to a happy settlement in Canaan. It will aggravate the eternal ruin of hypocrites, that they were not far from the kingdom of God. As if it were not enough that they were sure of their God before them, they would send men before them. Never any looked into the Holy Land, but they must own it to be a good land. And was there any cause to distrust this God? An unbelieving heart was at the bottom of all this. All disobedience to God's laws, and distrust of his power and goodness, flow from disbelief of his word, as all true obedience springs from faith. It is profitable for us to divide our past lives into distinct periods; to give thanks to God for the mercies we have received in each, to confess and seek the forgiveness of all the sins we...

Verse Deuteronomy 1:28. _CITIES - WALLED UP TO HEAVEN_] That is, with very high walls which could not be easily scaled. High walls around houses, c., in these parts of Arabia are still deemed a sufficient defence against the Arabs, who scarcely ever attempt any thing in the way of plunder but on _horseback_. The monastery on Mount Sinai is surrounded with very high walls without any _gate_ in the upper part of the wall there is a sort of window, or opening, from which a basket is suspended by a pulley, by which both persons and goods are received into and sent from the place. It is the same with the convent of St. Anthony, in Egypt; and this sort of wall is deemed a sufficient defence against the Arabs, who, as we have already observed, scarcely ever like to alight from their horses....

EXPOSITION DEUTERONOMY 1:19-5 Here Moses passes from the judges to the people at large; from charging officials to judge righteously, to reminding the people that they also had received from him commandments which they had to obey. The "things" referred to are either the injunctions specified in Exodus 21:1; etc; or simply the instructions mentioned in the preceding verses. God had called the Israelites out of Egypt that they should go up at once to Canaan, and he had by Moses done all that was needed for this. But they had been rebellious, and had opposed God's commands, the consequence of which was that they had been made to experience various trials, especially to wander nearly forty years in the wilderness, so that of those who came out of Egypt only two we

WHITHER SHALL WE GO UP?.... What way can we go up into the land? where is there any access for us? the mountain we are come to, and directed to go up, is possessed by the Amorites, a strong and mighty people, who keep and guard the passes, that there is no entrance: OUR BRETHREN HAVE DISCOURAGED OUR HEARTS; ten of the spies; for Joshua and Caleb encouraged them with very powerful arguments, which had they listened to, it would have been well for them: SAYING, THE PEOPLE IS GREATER AND TALLER THAN WE; more in number, larger in bulk of body, and higher in stature: THE CITIES ARE GREAT, AND WALLED UP TO HEAVEN; an hyperbolical expression; their fears exaggerated the account of the spies; they told them they were great, large, and populous, walled, and strongly fortified; which appeared in their frightened imaginations as if their walls were so high as to reach up to heaven, so that it wa...

_2. FROM HOREB TO KADESH_ _ 1. The command to go in and to possess the land (Deuteronomy 1:6)_ 2. The appointment of judges reviewed (Deuteronomy 1:9) 3. The failure to possess the land (Deuteronomy 1:19) 4. The judgment of God (Deuteronomy 1:34) In the beginning of our annotations we must guard once more against the misleading conception, that the book of Deuteronomy is nothing but a rehearsal of previous history. On account of this wrong estimate, the book has not received the close study it deserves and God's people have missed the blessing, which results from such

DEUTERONOMY 1:19. GREAT AND TERRIBLE WILDERNESS (Deuteronomy 8:15); _i.e._ the desert of et-Tih between the peninsula of Sinai and S. Palestine. AS. COMMANDED US: _cf._ Deuteronomy 1:7. Deuteronomy 1:24. valley of Eshcol: Numbers 13:23 *. Deuteronomy 1:28. sons of the Anakim: Heb. necked, _i.e._ long-necked people. The phrase means simply tall, giant-like folk. Anak is not a proper name (see...

OUR BRETHREN. our own brethren. Compare Numbers 13:28. HEART. Some codices, with one early printed edition, read "hearts" (plural) TALLER. greater. Some codices, with Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint, read "more in number". WALLED, &C. Figure of speech _Hyperbole._ App-6. ANAKIMS. First occurrence; elsewhere, Deuteronomy 2:10; Deuteronomy 2:11; Deuteronomy 2:21; Deuteronomy 9:2.Joshua 11:21

Duet Deuteronomy 1:6 to Deuteronomy 3:29. Historical Part of the First Introductory Discourse Spoken in the land of Moab (Deuteronomy 1:5) in _the gai_or _glen, over against Beth Pe-or_(Deuteronomy 3:29), a review of Israel's experiences since they left Ḥoreb. In the Plur. form of address except for the following fragments Deuteronomy 1:8; Deuteronomy 1:21;...

_VER._ 28. _WALLED UP TO HEAVEN_— A strong hyperbole, usual with the very best writers, to express the height and strength of their enemies' walls. See Genesis 11:4 and Bochart's Phaleg. lib. 1: cap. 13. The author of the _Observations_ remarks, that, "anciently if they raised up the walls of their cities so high as not to be able to be scaled, they thought them safe." The same simple contrivance is, to this day, sufficient to guard places from the Arabs, who live in that very wilderness in which Israel wandered, when the spies _discouraged the hearts_ of the people, by saying _the cities are great, and walled up to heaven;_ and who are a nation more inured to warlike enterprises than the Israelites were. To say that the height of the walls, which, by a strong Eastern way of speaking, are said to reach _up to heaven,_ must have been supposed to have given pain to