Deuteronomy 4:43

_THEN MOSES SEVERED THREE CITIES ON THIS SIDE JORDAN TOWARD THE SUNRISING;_ Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan - (see the notes at Numbers 35:6; Joshua 20:7)....

41-49 Here is the introduction to another discourse, or sermon, Moses preached to Israel, which we have in the following chapters. He sets the law before them, as the rule they were to work by, the way they were to walk in. He sets it before them, as the glass in which they were to see their natural face, that, looking into this perfect law of liberty, they might continue therein. These are the laws, given when Israel was newly come out of Egypt; and they were now repeated. Moses gave these laws in charge, while they encamped over against Beth-peor, an idol place of the Moabites. Their present triumphs were a powerful argument for obedience. And we should understand our own situation as sinners, and the nature of that gracious covenant to which we are invited. Therein greater things are shown to us than ever Israel saw from mount Sinai; greater mercies are given to us than they experien...

Verse Deuteronomy 4:43. _BEZER IN THE WILDERNESS_] As the cities of refuge are generally understood to be types of the salvation provided by Christ for sinners; so their names have been thought to express some attribute of the Redeemer of mankind. See them explained Joshua 20:7-6. I SUPPOSE the last nine verses of this chapter to have been added by either _Joshua_ or _Ezra_....

These verses are inserted between two distinct and complete discourses for the reason to which they themselves call attention (“Then Moses severed three cities,” etc.); i. e., the fact narrated took place historically after Moses spoke the one discourse and before he delivered the other. In thus severing the three cities of refuge Moses carried out a previous command of God (see the marginal references); and so followed up his exhortations to obedience by setting a punctual example of it, as far as opportunity was given him. Deuteronomy 4:43 IN THE PLAIN COUNTRY - literally, “in the land of the Mishor.” The word means a level tract of land; but when used (Deuteronomy 3:10;...

EXPOSITION DEUTERONOMY 4:25-5 Moses enforces the warning against idolatry, by predicting the evil that should come upon the nation through the apostasy of those who should in after times turn from Jehovah to strange gods. When they should have begotten children and children's children, and had been long in the land, _i_._e_._ _when in after years a generation should arise that had not known the things they had seen, or had forgotten them (Deuteronomy 4:9), and the nation should then become wanton and corrupt, and fall into idolatry (cf. Deuteronomy 6:10, etc.; D

[NAMELY], BEZER IN THE WILDERNESS,.... In Joshua 20:8, it is added "upon the plain"; this perhaps was the wilderness of Moab, in the plains of it, the same with Bozrah, see Jeremiah 48:24 and in the Apocrypha: "Hereupon Judas and his host turned suddenly by the way of the wilderness unto Bosora; and when he had won the city, he slew all the males with the edge of the sword, and took all their spoils, and burned the city with fire,'' (1 Maccabees 5:28) it was in the PLAIN COUNTRY OF THE REUBENITES, or lay in that part of the country which was allotted to them, and which they gave to the Levites, 1 Chronicles 6:78, AND RAMOTH IN GILEAD OF THE GADITES;

4. THE THREE CITIES OF REFUGE CHAPTER 4:41-43 _ 1. The cities set apart (Deuteronomy 4:41)_ 2. The cities named (Deuteronomy 4:43) The first address being ended, an action of Moses takes place. To detect here the hand of an editor, who added these verses, as critics claim, cannot be sustained. The cities of refuge were mentioned in Numbers. Here the three on this side of Jordan are given. Then there were three more on the other side of which we read in chapter 19 and in the book of Joshua. As stated in our annotations in Numbers, the cities of refuge are typical of Christ, who is our shelter from the avenger. Scattered through the land for the gracious purpose of sheltering the slayer, they also bear a prophetic testimony. They speak of Israel's hope. “Thes

Historical Note _Then_, i.e. at the time of the preceding discourse in Moab, Moses set apart three cities E. of Jordan as asylums for men, who unwittingly and without previous hatred had slain their fellows: Beṣer, on the Plateau, Ramoth in Gilead, and Golan in Bashan. The style of this fragment is deuteronomic (see notes below). But had it belonged to the previous historical discourse it would surely have appeared somewhere in Deuteronomy 3:18-29 (before the subsequent exhortations); and have been expressed in the 1st instead of the 3rd pers. sing. Nor is it alluded to, nor presupposed by, D's law on the Cities of Refuge, Deuteronomy 19:1 ff.; indeed, it cannot have been known to the author of this law which directs Israel to set apart three cities in the midst of the land which Go

APPENDIX: APPOINTMENT OF EASTERN CITIES OF REFUGE (Deuteronomy 4:41-43) 41 Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrising; 42 that the manslayer might flee thither, that slayeth his neighbor unawares, and hated him not in time past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live: 43 _namely,_ Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites. THOUGHT QUESTIONS 4:41-43 93. Read Numbers 35:9-15 and Deuteronomy 19:1-13 and Joshua 20:1-6 to help in under

4:43 plateau, (c-7) Lit. 'in the country of the plateau.'...